Debussy’s Entire Instrumental Chamber Works /2 A Zeneakadémia saját szervezésű programja

“The French make contact with the world through their eyes, so it is no surprise that if they hear music they want their eyes to be a part of it.” Thus wrote Zoltán Kodály with regard to the titles of works by Debussy that arouse visual associations. At the same time, with Debussy the title never delineates a Romantic programme, instead feeding off some sort of sublimated sensitivity, which according to Kodály is “of a far higher order than, for instance, the palpable programmes of Richard Strauss.” However, amongst the genre frames of chamber music there is no need for any sort of inspiration, the composer can be freed of the ‘annoyance’ of coming up with a title and the composition can break away from the burdensome gravitational force of titles that have something to say. And all this is not only true of the Neo-Classical chamber works of the 1910s; Debussy was already oriented towards some sort of abstract musicality in his G minor string quartet that marked the conclusion of his first creative period. It is extremely instructive that Zoltán Kodály, while compiling the obituary of Debussy, sometimes considered Impressionistic, and at other times Symbolist, Mozart came to his mind: “We begin to understand what people praised about Mozart when his taste was mentioned with such emphasis. As if since then, the sense of the word had been lost. As if now, after so much distorted din, again the first shy rays of Latin beauty would radiate from the works of Debussy.” However, these shy rays can never fully illuminate every single nook and cranny of Debussy’s works. His pieces will always remain mysterious, or as some of Debussy’s contemporaries so willingly put it: intoxicatingly vague.