Claude Debussy | Autograph manuscript of the song “Flots, palmes, sables”, signed, 1882

Claude Debussy

Autograph manuscript of the song Flots, palmes, sables, signed (“Ach. Debussy”)

an essentially fair-copy manuscript, scored for voice and piano, notated in black ink on up to four three-stave systems per page, with an autograph DEDICATORY TITLE-PAGE TO HIS MUSE AND FIRST LOVE MARIE-BLANCHE VASNIER (“a Madame Vasnier. / Flots, palmes. Sables. (poésie tirée des Nuits persannes d’Armand Renaud) Musique. Ach. Debussy”), the text beginning “Loin des yeux du monde”, dated and signed in bold stylized fashion at the end (“2 Juin 1882 Ach. Debussy”), with a number of deletions, corrections, annotations and revisions by the composer, some in pencil, with an autograph three-bar draft, possibly relating to the song, contained on the otherwise blank last leaf

6 pages in all (on 4 leaves), including title-page and an otherwise blank leaf with a 3-bar draft, with two blanks, oblong 4to (c. 270 x 352 mm), stamp of the “Société des Auteurs …3 Oct 1947-621,602…Paris” to title and first blank page, unbound, modern cloth folding case, vertical folds, first and last leaf joined at spine with old transparent adhesive tape, outer pages browned and with some marginal staining, a few tiny tears to edges, very small loss of paper to three corners, not affecting text

THIS IS THE AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT OF A COMPLETE SONG BY THE NINETEEN-YEAR-OLD COMPOSER, DEDICATED TO HIS FIRST LOVE. It is currently unpublished in the modern critical edition of Debussy’s works.

It was while acting as accompanist for Madame Moreau-Sainti’s singing classes that the young composer met the soprano Marie-Blanche Vasnier, fourteen years his senior and married to the Parisian civil servant Henri Vasnier. Part lover, part muse and part mother figure, she was the inspiration behind nearly thirty of his early songs, including the present one. Also significant in shaping the composer’s early musical aesthetic was the large library at the Vasnier residence, for it was here that Debussy became acquainted with the poetry of Paul Verlaine, Théodore de Banville, and Leconte de Lisle.

Madame Vasnier’s exceptionally high and supple voice encouraged Debussy to write florid and ornate vocal lines, as in the present song Flots, palmes, sables, where Debussy’s vocal arabesques are used to great effect in invoking the “waves”, “palms” and “sands” of Armand Renaud’s Persian-inspired exotic lyric.

It would appear that Debussy began the song - for voice and piano - in late 1881 or early 1882, and then completed it with a harp part in June 1882. There are no other autograph sources for the work, with the exception of the harp part, the whereabouts of which are currently unknown.