Guitarist Tariq Harb performs the famous "Clair de lune" by Claude Debussy (1862-1918).
This is essentially an arrangement for solo guitar by guitarist James Edwards, edited and rearranged with the original piano score as reference by Tariq Harb.
Clair de lune, (French: Moonlight) the third piece in Suite bergamasque, a four-movement composition for piano by the French composer, begun in 1890 and revised and published in 1905. One of Debussy’s early compositions, it is the most readily recognizable segment of his works.
The title of the movement refers to a folk song that was the conventional accompaniment of scenes of the love-sick Pierrot (Piedrolino) in the French pantomime. Set in the larger composition’s reference to Bergamo, Italy -- a city traditionally considered the home of Harlequin, a standard figure of the commedia dell’arte -- the piece shows Debussy’s connections with the circus spirit prevalent in early 20th-century compositions.
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Here are a few paragraph's about "Clair de lune" by E. Robert Schmitz, author of the book "The Piano Works of Claude Debussy":
"The extraordinary popularity obtained by this composition should not induce the musician to underrate its importance. After all, not all that is popular is trivial. Humanity still raves at the beauty of sunsets, or of dawn, and of the moon rising. And yet their magnificence endures, unaltered by popular appreciation. Furthermore, this "Clair de lune" is one of the most frequent "dramas" of the musical scene - its utter simplicity of texture, containing true glory of subtleties, perhaps is the reason.
Filled with delicate, romantic feeling, it conveys through its precious the silvery atmosphere of the moonlight. Its elusive before-the-beat and after-the-beat yearnings spirit us away from the matter-of-fact reality of noontide and its vertically blazing light.
The impression of the landscape in the opalescent light takes precedence in Debussy's estimation over the romance on Earth. Nothing here can better convey the atmosphere than what Debussy writes about music in a more general way, in saying: "It is inscribed in Nature. It must be in intimate accord with the scenery."
Debussy could harbor a love for the beauty of nature quite comparable in intensity to that bestowed by the greatest lovers in history upon the most entrancing women! But such love for nature is humble and religious in quality. Its reward is in its expression of beauty bequeathed to the world."
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Performance: Tariq Harb
Transcription: James Edwards
Guitar: Martin Blackwell, cedar double-top and Brazilian rosewood back and sides, 2019
Strings: Savarez, CR 540
Guitar support: Woodside
Audio and video: Drew Henderson
Location: Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Toronto.
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Tariq Harb teaches at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada: www.concordia.ca/faculty/tari...
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