Fêtes from "Three Nocturnes"

Claude Debussy

General Info

Year: 1899 / 1999
Duration: c. 6:00
Difficulty: VI (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Bravo Music Company
Cost: Score and Parts - $110.00 | Score Only - $15.00

Instrumentation

Full Score
Piccolo (doubles Flute IV)
Flute I-II-III
Oboe I-II
English Horn
Bassoon I-II
E-flat Soprano Clarinet
B-flat Soprano Clarinet I-II
E-flat Alto Clarinet
B-flat Bass Clarinet
B-flat Contrabass Clarinet
Soprano Saxophone
E-flat Alto Saxophone I-II
B-flat Tenor Saxophone
E-flat Baritone Saxophone
B-flat Cornet I-II (doubles flugelhorn)
B-flat Trumpet I-II-III
Horn in F I-II-III-IV
Trombone I-II-III
Euphonium
Tuba
String Bass
Harp
Timpani
Percussion I-II, including:

Cymbal (crash)
Marimba
Military Drum

Errata

None discovered thus far.

Program Notes

Fêtes, Festivals, is the brilliant second movement of the orchestral work Three Nocturnes. This movement and the first (Nuages) were premiered in Paris on December 9, 1900. The third part, titled Sirenes, was premiered with a repetition of the other two on October 27, 1901.

Debussy's imagination, according to his own written description, dwelt on "the restless dancing rhythms of the atmosphere, interspersed with abrupt scintillations." After the exciting opening section, a procession starts as if approaching from a distance. Debussy described it as "a wholly visionary pageant, passing through and blending with the revelry, the background of the uninterrupted festival persisting: luminous dust participating in the universal rhythms." The music ends with a repetition of the opening measures, fading away into the distance.

- Program note from Band Music Notes

Nocturnes, L. 91, CD. 98 (also known as Trois Nocturnes or Three Nocturnes) is an impressionist orchestral composition in three movements by the French composer Claude Debussy, who wrote it between 1892 and 1899. It is based on poems from Poèmes anciens et romanesques (Henri de Régnier, 1890).

Debussy writes: "[The second movement,] Fêtes, gives the vibrating, dancing rhythm of the atmosphere with sudden flashes of light. There is also the episode of the procession (a dazzling fantastic vision), which passes through the festive scene and becomes merged in it. But the background remains resistantly the same: the festival with its blending of music and luminous dust participating in the cosmic rhythm. "

Debussy went on to explain to Poujaud that "Festivals" had been inspired by a recollection of merry-making in the Bois de Boulogne, with noisy crowds watching the drum and bugle corps of the Garde Nationale pass in parade.

- Program Note from Wikipedia

Media

(Needed - please join the WRP if you can help.)

State Ratings

Florida: VI

Performances

To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project

Centenary College of Louisiana (Shreveport) Wind Ensemble (Thomas Hundemer, conductor) – 19 November 2019
Brooklyn (N.Y.) Wind Symphony (Jeff W. Ball, conductor) – 10 June 2017

Works for Winds by This Composer

This composer primarily wrote orchestral music. Other transcriptions of his music include:

Adaptable Music

Danse (Flex instrumentation) (arr. Kurokawa)
Golliwog's Cakewalk (Flex instrumentation) (arr. Kano) (1908)

All Wind Works

The Afternoon of a Faun (arr. Walters) (1894/1950/1999?)
Beau Soir (arr. Warner) (1880/1971)
Children's Corner Suite (arr. Winterbottom) (1908)
Clair de Lune (arr. Hautvast) (1890/1905/2011)
Clair de lune (arr. De Meij) (1890/1905/2017)
Clair de Lune (arr. Wallace) (1890/1905/1995)
Danse (arr. Boyd) (1890/1983)
Danse (Flex instrumentation) (arr. Kurokawa)
Danses Sacrée et Profane (arr. Odom) (1904/2019)
Danses Sacrée et Profane (tr. J. Lloyd) (1904)
Debussy: Girl with the Flaxen Hair (arr. Akey) (1910/1995)
The Engulfed Cathedral (tr. Longfield) (1910/1987)
The Engulfed Cathedral (arr. Miller) (1910/1986)
The Engulfed Cathedral (tr. Patterson) (1910/1993)
The Engulfed Cathedral. See also: La Cathédrale Engloutie
Fêtes (arr. Schaefer) (c. 1899/1959)
Fêtes from "Nocturnes" (arr. Patterson) (c. 1899/2007)
Fêtes from "Three Nocturnes" (tr. Tatebe) (c.1899/1999)
Four Debussy Songs (trans. Anderson) (2018)
Golliwog's Cakewalk (arr. Curnow) (1908/1985)
Golliwog's Cakewalk (Flex instrumentation) (arr. Kano) (1908)
The Girl with the Flaxen Hair (tr. Beyrent) (1910/2013)
The Girl with the Flaxen Hair (tr. Brand) (1910)
The Girl with the Flaxen Hair (tr. Bernotas) (1910)
The Girl with the Flaxen Hair (arr. Moss) (1910/2007)
The Girl with the Flaxen Hair (arr. Sparke) (1910/2007)
Hommage à Rameau (arr. Hunsberger) (1905/2009)
La Cathédrale Engloutie (arr. Mortimer) (1910/2016)
La Cathédrale Engloutie. See also: The Engulfed Cathedral
La Mer (trans. Odom) (1905/)
L’isle joyeuse (arr. Mashima) (1904/2005)
L'isle joyeuse (arr. Volans) (1904/1995)
Marche Écossaise (tr. Onodera) (1891/1908/2015(?))
Marche Écossaise (tr. Onodera) (Octet) (1891/1908/2015(?))
Marche Écossaise (tr. Schaefer) (1891/1908/1964)
Marche Écossaise (tr. Scatterday) (1891/1908)
'Menuet' from Suite Bergamasque (arr. Southard) (1890/2012)
Minstrels (tr. Scarbrough) (1910/2016)
Pagodes from "Estampes" (arr. Grainger) (1996)
Petite Suite (arr. Brakkee) (1889/1999?)
Petite Suite (tr. Winterbottom) (1889)
Petite Suite (arr. Kimura) (1889/1998)
Premiere Arabesque (1891)
Première Rhapsodie (arr. Yodo)
Première Rhapsody (tr. Baars) (1910/12016)
Première Rhapsody (arr. Walker; ed. Pappas) (1910/1963/2004)
Reverie (arr. Boo) (1890/)
Rêverie (tr. Thompson) (1890/2011)
Sarabande (tr. Bennefield) (1894/1901/2020)
Sarabande (tr. Erickson) (1894/1967)
Sarabande (arr. Howland; ed. Gregory) (1894/2018)
Suite Bergamasque Mvt 2 Menuet (arr. Thompson)
Three Debussy Pieces (arr. Singletary)
Three Pieces from "Children's Corner" (orch. Sheen) (1908/1988)

Resources

Nocturnes (Debussy), Wikipedia Accessed 17 July 2021
Smith, Norman E. (2002). Program Notes for Band. Chicago: GIA Publications. pp. 161.