Performance by Tim Adrianson from Debussy Themed Recital - 2018-06-15

• Performer: Tim Adrianson
• Location: Madison, WI
• Experience: 60+ years
• Composer: Claude Debussy
• Piece: Berceuse Heroique
• Duration: 228
• Music Link: click to play
• Video Link:
• Music Source: Sheet Music
• Instrument: Kawai 5.5' Baby Grand
• Recording Method: TASCAM DR40
• Info: Debussy wrote "Berceuse Heroique" late in 1914, several months after the start of WWI. The English novelist Hall Caine embarked upon a project he called "King Albert's Book", inviting various artists from allied countries to provide contributions as a gift to Belgium's King Albert and the Belgian soldiers, who were in direct conflict with the Germans. Debussy was thoroughly depressed and not composing at all, but he did feel to need to participate, and so mustered the energy to provide this piece late in 1914. There is a short allusion to the Belgian National Anthem "La Brabanconne", but the piece itself is otherwise very dark and ominous, evoking terror and two shotgun blasts in the narrative. IMO, a short masterpiece of emotional revulsion to the reality of on-the-ground war.