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Debussy really knew how to pay his delivery man

Posted by vinyl phanatic (A) on December 16, 2014 at 14:56:36

Some time ago I purchased a large collection of interesting piano records that I just recently had the time to belatedly go through. Among the records were all six records of Debussy recorded by Daniel Ericourt in 1961 and issued on Kapp Records. I have been listening to these wonderful recordings, and in digging around to find out more about Ericourt I came across the story of a lost Debussy piano piece that was only uncovered in 2001. He wrote the piece in payment (either partial or full) to his coal merchant during the winter of 1917, when coal was in short supply because of the war. Details of the story and the first page of the music are below, more info at the link attached. It's a charming little piece, and it's really cool to discover something like this. I had never heard of this.

Here is a performance of it by Jean-Efflam Bavouzet.

Here is the link, since embedded YT videos don't always show on mobile devices: http://youtu.be/XnnEiBb7Dyg

A year before he died in 1918, French composer Claude Debussy wrote a piece for his coal merchant, who in exchange kept him well-supplied in the freezing winter months during World War I.

Debussy wrote the merchant a grateful letter.

"You can understand I can't keep writing you piano pieces, but we desperately need this coal,"' he wrote.

The unpublished work remained undiscovered until it surfaced in 2001 in Paris, where it had been stored by the coal merchant's family in a trunk for nearly 85 years.

The piece, "Les soirs illumines par l'ardeur du charbon" ("Evenings Lit by Glowing Coal"), has made its way to a college in North Carolina, where it will make its U.S. performance debut today.

The occasion is a tribute to Daniel Ericourt, a master performer of Debussy's works who taught at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro for 13 years. Ericourt died in 1998 at the age of 94.

• http://lubbockonline.com/stories/120703/nat_120703056.shtml   (Open in New Window)

Edits: 12/16/14

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

Atma-Sphere Music Systems, Inc.

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