摘要
This Suite is the second work sent from Rome by Mr.Debussy. Preceding by a few months La damoiselle elue, it has however a completely different character: no melancholy, no pity come to trouble the smile. This smile, however, is gentle and discreet; this joy remains light and pure and reveals a delicate soul which life has not yet tested. One will notice the graceful sounds of inarticulate voices responding to the orchestra and announcing already the third Nocturne,"Sirenes". We are presenting here the orchestral reduction for piano four hands.-The work is completely original and the Revue is extremely grateful to Mr. Debussy for having ceded this first publication.20
In the same year, Durand published the two movements in a four-hand version with the voice parts condensed on a single supplementary staff. Finally, with the prompting of his publisher,Debussy, in 1908, undertook a new orchestration of the work. In a letter to Jacques Durand from September 1908, the composer asked: "Concerning Printernps, do you see any obstacle to my introducing a piano with four hands in the orchestra?"21 The following year, however, he summoned Henri Busser for assistance. The latter noted, on 5 July 1909:
Long visit to Debussy in his town house on Avenue du Bois...He asked me to orchestrate Printemps, his first [sic]work from Rome of which he had lost the manuscript!...He lent me a four-hand piano copy on which he had made precise indications. While continuing to orchestrate, I suggest to Debussy some changes to make in the second movement,which he modifies in the direction I indicate.22 Busser submitted his piano four-hand transcription of Printemps as well; Debussy indicated the modifications to make,the bars to suppress or to repeat, the new passages to insert. The composer notated all this separately, for the piano four-hand version as well as for the orchestral score, both of which completely integrate the vocal parts. Busser states on 31 March 1912: "I brought Debussy the orchestration of Printemps which he had requested. He seemed satisfied...but he told me he hardly liked the music of it, having evolved considerably since Pelleas."23 The Durand Editions published the new piano four-hand transcription in 1912, and the orchestral score appeared in 1913. The score published here is based on these last two publications.
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