Debussy: Nuit d'Étoiles

To help myself to understand the Ravel Trio better, I have been listening to more French music these days.

With a cooler temperature and gentle breezes, tonight was the perfect time to replay Nuit d'Étoiles [Starry Night], a setting by the 20-year-old Debussy on a little poem by Théodore de Banville. There is nothing deep in this chanson - no mysterious colors in his use of harmonies, nothing special in its overall structure, and nothing particularly dramatic. The accompaniment tends to be quite mechanical - the figures are repetitious, and yet not creating a special color or effect. Transition between sections (esp. that between the third stanza and the last statement of the refrain) are awkward. The alignment between the melodic lines and the lyrics is also uninspiring (e.g., how can the line "je rêve aux amours défunts" [I dream of a love long past] be paired with high notes and ascending leaps?).

And yet, despite these compositional flaws, I like this piece a lot. The melodic line itself is charming and beautiful in a simple and but romantic way -- something that perhaps only a 20-year old man could be inspired to write down. There is such a perfect Belle Époque feel to it that as I listened to it, I could not but imagine this chanson as an improvised accompaniment to some early 20th-century black-and-white silent movie. This is nostalgic music, and almost too pleasantly nostalgic. As the beautiful line was being composed, the composer of course didn't know that the Belle Époque was to be gone very soon.