12/11/2019 Deux arabesques - Wikipedia

Deux arabesques
The Two Arabesques (Deux arabesques), L. 66, is a pair of arabesques composed for piano by Claude Debussy when
he was still in his twenties, between the years 1888 and 1891.

Although quite an early work, the arabesques contain hints of Debussy's developing musical style. The suite is one of
the very early impressionistic pieces of music, following the French visual art form. Debussy seems to wander through
modes and keys, and achieves evocative scenes through music. His view of a musical arabesque was a line curved in
accordance with nature, and with his music he mirrored the celebrations of shapes in nature made by the Art Nouveau
artists of the time.[1] Of the arabesque in baroque music, he wrote:[2]

“that was the age of the ‘wonderful arabesque' when music was subject to the laws of beauty inscribed in
the movements of Nature herself.”

Contents
The arabesques
Arabesque No. 1. Andantino con moto
Arabesque No. 2. Allegretto scherzando
In popular culture
References
External links

The arabesques
The two arabesques are given these tempo marks:[3]

1. Andantino con moto

2. Allegretto scherzando

Arabesque No. 1. Andantino con moto

This arabesque is in the key of E major. The piece begins with parallelism of triads in first inversion, a composition
technique very much used by Debussy and other Impressionists which traces back to the tradition of fauxbourdon. It
leads into a larger section which begins with a left hand arpeggio in E major and a descending right hand E major
pentatonic progression.

The second quieter B section is in A major, starting with a gesture (E-D-E-C ♯ ), briefly passing through E major,
returning to A major and ending with a bold pronouncement of the E-D-E-C♯ gesture, but transposed to the key of C
major and played forte.

In the middle of the recapitulation of the A section, the music moves to a higher register and descends, followed by a
large pentatonic scale ascending and descending, and resolving back to E major.

Arabesque No. 2. Allegretto scherzando

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deux_arabesques 1/2
12/11/2019 Deux arabesques - Wikipedia

The second arabesque in G major is noticeably quicker and more lively in tempo. It opens with left hand chords and
right hand trills. The piece makes several transpositions and explores a lower register of the piano. Again notable is a
hint of the pentatonic scale. It closes in a similar fashion to the first arabesque. The style more closely resembles some
of Debussy's later works.

In popular culture
Arabesque No. 1 is used in the Japanese movie All about Lily Chou-Chou (2001).

Arabesque No. 1 is used as background music in the video "Masterpieces Of The Met", to accompany the images and
verbal description by Philippe de Montebello of a painting by Monet.

Arabesque No. 1 is appropriated on R&B/Soul singer Alicia Keys' track "Like the Sea", from her 4th studio album The
Element of Freedom.[4] Arabesque No. 1 was also sampled by the American musician Panda Bear on the track "Lonely
Wanderer", which features on his 2015 album Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper.

A performance of Arabesque No. 1 by Isao Tomita was used from 1976 to 2011 as the theme music for the program
Jack Horkheimer: Star Hustler (later Jack Horkheimer: Star Gazer);[5]

In the video game Final Fantasy V, the final segment uses a small, adapted excerpt from the first Arabesque.[6]

References
1. Stillman, Mimi (Fall 2007). "Debussy, Painter of Sound and Image". The Flutist Quarterly. 33 (1): 41–46.
2. Lesure & Smith (eds.) Debussy on Music 1977, p84. Cited in Stillman, Mimi (Fall 2007). "Debussy, Painter of
Sound and Image". The Flutist Quarterly. 33 (1): 41–46.
3. Olson, Lynn Freeman (1985). Debussy -- Deux Arabesques for the Piano. Alfred Music Publishing.
ISBN 0739023063.
4. "Alicia Keys's Like the Sea sample of Claude Debussy's Arabesque No. 1" (http://www.whosampled.com/sample/
view/21856/Alicia%20Keys-Like%20the%20Sea_Claude%20Debussy-Arabesque%20No.%201/). Who Sampled.
WhoSampled.com Limited. Retrieved 13 October 2012.
5. "Jack Horkheimer Star Gazer FAQ" (https://web.archive.org/web/20080225110340/http://www.jackstargazer.com/
SHFAQ.html). Jack Horkheimer Star Gazer official site. Miami, Florida: WPBT. October 2007. Archived from the
original (http://www.jackstargazer.com/SHFAQ.html) on February 25, 2008. Retrieved February 21, 2019.
6. Djibriel. "Final Fantasy V Walkthrough" (http://www.cavesofnarshe.com/ff5/walkthrough.php?chapter=3-7). Caves
of Narshe FF5. Josh Alvies (Rangers51). Retrieved 13 October 2012.

External links
2 Arabesques: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)
Listen to Deux Arabesques (https://soundcloud.com/ken-hesketh/deux-arabesques-claude-debussy) arranged by
Kenneth Hesketh
HD Video of the popular Arabesque No. 1 specially arranged for Flute and Harp (https://www.jedhuang.com/music
-blog/2019/7/30/debussy-arabesque-no-1) by Singaporean Flutist Jed Huang

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This page was last edited on 28 August 2019, at 18:51 (UTC).

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