Suite bergamasque
Suite bergamasque (L. 75) (French pronunciation: [sɥit bɛʁɡamask]) is a piano suite by Claude Debussy. He began composing it around 1890, at the age of 28, but significantly revised it just before its 1905 publication.[1] The popularity of the third movement, Clair de lune, has made it one of the composer's most famous works for piano, as well as one of the most famous musical pieces of all time.[2]
Suite bergamasque
Arrangements[edit]
Suite bergamasque has been orchestrated and arranged by many people, both for concert performance and for use in other media.
In particular, Clair de lune has been arranged for a wide variety of instrumental combinations, including notable orchestrations by André Caplet, Leopold Stokowski, and Lucien Cailliet.[6]
Clair de lune was originally intended to be included as a fully orchestrated piece in the 1940 Walt Disney animated film Fantasia. However, due to runtime issues, it was eventually not included in the final cut of the film.[7] Instead, the footage for its intended segment (featuring herons in the Florida Everglades at night) was recycled for the "Blue Bayou" segment of the subsequent film Make Mine Music.[8] However, the "Clair de lune" segment was later restored after a workprint of it was rediscovered in 1992, complete with an original score by Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra. It is included as a bonus feature in some later releases of Fantasia.[9]
Passepied was arranged by the Punch Brothers for bluegrass instrumentation for their album The Phosphorescent Blues.[10]
A synthesizer version was produced by the Japanese electronic music pioneer Isao Tomita for his 1974 album Snowflakes Are Dancing, consisting of arrangements and renditions of compositions by Debussy, including Passepied. It was used at the Closing Ceremony at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo on 8 August 2021, as a nod to Paris as the next host city, while children prayed for peace and as the Olympic Flame was extinguished.[11]
In the video game Sayonara Wild Hearts, the first level is titled Clair de Lune, and the level's music uses samples from the respective movement.
The video game Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge uses the final movement, "Passepied," as the background music in the penultimate level.
In the first-person shooter Ultrakill, the fourth and final mission of the first section is titled Clair de Lune. Throughout the level, a rendition of the titular movement plays on loop.
In the video game Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony, Clair de lune is played after the death of “The Ultimate Pianist” Kaede Akamatsu, and recurs through the game as a theme for her character.
Clair de lune appears near the denouement in Ocean's Eleven, as the team looks out over the Fountains of Bellagio.