Votre âme est un paysage choisi⠀
Que vont charmant masques et bergamasques⠀

Written in 1890 by 28 year old impressionist master Claude Debussy. He only published it because one of his patrons convinced him that it’d be a hit. ⠀

Claude himself believed it to be inferior to the more mature style of playing he had mastered in the 15 years between Clair de Lune’s conception and release. ⠀

It was also featured it in one of the Twilight movies.

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The piece is based on the following poem from 1869. 

ORIGINAL POEM IN FRENCH:

Votre âme est un paysage choisi
Que vont charmant masques et bergamasques
Jouant du luth et dansant et quasi
Tristes sous leurs déguisements fantasques.

Tout en chantant sur le mode mineur
L'amour vainqueur et la vie opportune
Ils n'ont pas l'air de croire à leur bonheur
Et leur chanson se mêle au clair de lune,

Au calme clair de lune triste et beau,
Qui fait rêver les oiseaux dans les arbres
Et sangloter d'extase les jets d'eau,
Les grands jets d'eau sveltes parmi les marbres

ENGLISH TRANSLATION:

Your soul is a chosen landscape
Where charming masquerades and dancers are promenading,
Playing the lute and dancing, and almost
Sad beneath their fantastic disguises.

While singing in a minor key
Of victorious love, and the pleasant life
They seem not to believe in their own happiness
And their song blends with the moonlight,

With the sad and beautiful moonlight,
Which sets the birds in the trees dreaming,
And makes the fountains sob with ecstasy,
The slender water streams among the marble statues.

Clair de Lune

01/26/2020

Le Cygne

La Fille aux Cheveux de Lin

Nocturne 20

Prelude 4

Prelude In C Major

Nocturne 1

Catmandu is a digital media service and a marketing company with audiovisual production and publishing capabilities. This SoundCloud account is a collection of all the music we release through CatmanduTunes, our record label.

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