Name: 'FETES' from 'THREE NOCTURNES'
Duration: 5 min 56 s
Channel: Claude Debussy - 1899
Description: "'FETES' from 'THREE NOCTURNES'" is a song by Symphonic Band Performances. THE 2ND MOVEMENT "FETES" (FESTIVALS) FROM THE ORCHESTRAL SUITE 'THREE NOCTURNES', INSPIRED BY A SERIES OF IMPRESSIONIST PAINTINGS BY JAMES MCNEILL WHISTLER (WHO PAINTED THE FAMOUS 'WHISTLER'S MOTHER). WRITTEN BY FRENCH COMPOSER CLAUDE DEBUSSY (1899).

'FETES' from 'THREE NOCTURNES'

Symphonic Band Performances

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THE 2ND MOVEMENT "FETES" (FESTIVALS) FROM THE ORCHESTRAL SUITE 'THREE NOCTURNES', INSPIRED BY A SERIES OF IMPRESSIONIST PAINTINGS BY JAMES MCNEILL WHISTLER (WHO PAINTED THE FAMOUS 'WHISTLER'S MOTHER). WRITTEN BY FRENCH COMPOSER CLAUDE DEBUSSY (1899).

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Symphonic Band Performances

Contemporary band compositions, classical music arrangements, marches, jazz, symphonies, overtures. A collection from bands that I have played in throughout hi

Hello and welcome! "Symphonic Band Performances" is a compilation of recordings from several high school and college bands that I played in including the TMEA (Texas) All State Band, the TMEA Region X All Region Band, the Interlochen Arts Academy National Music Camp, the Cal Poly Tech Band, San Luis Obispo, the USAF Golden West Band, and recordings from my h.s. band, Beaumont H.S. and a few band recordings that were passed down to me. Also included are various All State groups and college and university bands. I participated and played in the large majority of these recordings. There are no professional recordings here and every recording is Public Domain. Most are available for free download. Each song has been converted from the original analog or digital source and edited with Audacity or Dak software. In the majority of these recordings, I play the tenor sax or alto sax, b flat or e flat clarinet, or directing. I was drum major for 2 years in high school, I have a BA from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, where I studied music ed, composition and theory. I had about 500 more recordings I was planning to digitize and upload, but this past Nov. 20th, my home was completely destroyed by fire, and all the contents, including all my music and instruments. So, this is it. Please feel free to post a comment here or on my member page. If you like, please become a fan by clicking "I'm a fan" below.

Song Info

Genre

Classical • Classical General

Charts

Peak #57

Peak in subgenre #19

Author

Claude Debussy - 1899

Rights

public domain

Uploaded

February 15, 2010

Track Files

MP3

MP3 9.5 MB • 224 kbps • 5:56

Story behind the song

Nocturnes is an orchestral composition in three movements by the French composer Claude Debussy. It was completed December 15, 1899.

The three movements are:

I. Nuages ("Clouds") 

II. Fetes ("Festivals") 

III. Sirenes ("Sirens") 

The three movements were inspired by a series of impressionist paintings, also entitled "Nocturnes" by James McNeill Whistler.

 

The three nocturnes comprising this suite were written in 1897-1899. They are not nocturnes in the ordinary meaning of the term, but impressions. Through they have a program, they do not describe objects, only fantasias upon objects. Perhaps they may be more accurately defined as dreams -- delicate, fleeting, elusive fancies connected in this case with the motion or rhythm of the objects. The three nocturnes are: "Clouds, and their floating across the sky; festivals, movement, rhythm dancing in the atmosphere; Sirens, the sea with its rhythm, and the song of the Sirens." It would be useless to describe this dream music in cold type. One of the best descriptions of it has been made by Bruneau, the composer :

Here with the aid of a magic orchestra, he has lent to clouds traversing the sombre sky the various forms created by his imagination; he has set to running and dancing the chimerical beings perceived by him in the silvery dust scintillating in the moonbeams; he has changed the white foam of the restless sea into tuneful Sirens.

Debussy himself explains the significance of these nocturnes as follows :

"Nuages." -- The unchanging aspect of the sky, and the slow, solemn movement of the clouds dissolving in gray tints lightly touched with white.

"Fetes." - The restless dancing rhythm of the atmosphere interpersed with sudden flashes of light. There is also an incidental procession (a dazzling imaginary vision) passing through and through and mingling with the aerial revery; but the background of uninterrupted festival is persistent with its blending of music, and luminous dust participating in the universal rhythm of all things.

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