Faculty to discuss composer's pioneering spirit

Composer Claude Debussy's spirit of musical pioneering was part of a discussion at Sunday's faculty recital in Auer Concert Hall, the first of a three-recital series entitled, "Debussy Festival: A celebration of the music, art, and era of Claude Debussy."\nThe festival, an extension of the Honors College H203 course "Debussy and His Era," is the brainchild of piano professor Jean-Louis Haguenauer and comparative literature professor David M. Hertz, who teaches the course. The two met a year ago through a mutual friend and discovered a shared interest in and expertise on Debussy's music. As a result of this chance meeting, and its many ensuing discussions, the concept of a course focusing specifically on Debussy, his music and his historical and cultural context became a reality.\n"The idea was to begin with the study of a single important composer in the classroom and learn about his music and his culture," Hertz said. "Many courses in both of our fields don't allow for such a detailed study of one figure, with enough time left over to look at parallel trends in the various arts."\nThe course also has given students a unique opportunity to make connections with other genres.\n"Sometimes you study art and just art; or you study literature and just literature … (the course) has a way of bringing it all together," said junior English major Thade Correa, who is Hertz's teaching assistant.\nThe natural outcome of such an interdisciplinary approach, in Hertz's and Haguenaur's view, was this series of performances that would illustrate on stage what was being taught in the classroom.\n"The festival was a key goal from the beginning, but the course was a means of getting ready and creating a link between learning and performing," Hertz said.\nThat link having been forged, the festival got under way Sunday with a recital featuring performances from half a dozen music faculty and an introductory lecture by Hertz. The lecture -- reflecting the program's title, "Debussy: Musician of 'Plaisir' and Musical Adventurer" -- focused on two facets of Debussy's style of composition: the one that loved sensual pleasure, and the other that was not afraid of forging ahead as an avant-garde composer. \nThe lecture was then followed by four "Preludes," performed by Haguenauer, and Debussy's masterpiece for solo flute, "Syrinx," performed by Kathryn Lukas.\nHertz returned to the stage to introduce the works for voice and piano as examples of Debussy's ability to write with "more luxurious" sonorities and textures in comparison to his contemporary Gabriel Faure, whose songs were also performed to demonstrate the contrast. Soprano Mary Ann Hart first sang Debussy's "Trois" melodies and followed it with both Debussy's and Faure's settings of the Verlaine poems "En sourdine" and "Clair de lune." \nHertz pointed out in his remarks that Faure's writing makes clear the boundaries between melody and accompaniment, whereas, Hart said, "with Debussy, there is no melody, only music."\nThe second half of the program began with tenor Allen Bennett's performance of Faure's song cycle La Bonne chanson, which displays Faure's mastery of traditional writing, yet also a certain originality that brings a sense of what Bennett refers to as "over-abundant joy."\nThe recital concluded with one of Debussy's latest works, the "Sonata for Violin and Piano," performed by violinist Federico Agostini and pianist Edmund Battersby.\nThe final two performances of the series will take place at 8 p.m. tonight and at 4 p.m., Dec. 6, at Auer Concert Hall in the School of Music.\n-- Contact staff writer Eric Anderson at eraander@indiana.edu.