Claire de Ocean
I’m currently learning to play Claire de Lune, a movement from Debussy’s Suite bergamasque for piano. It’s a wonderful piece to play and listen to…Disney originally imagined docile swans swimming by moonlight to its strains for Fantasia before scrapping it. Moreover, it is immediately accessible to most people, a paragon of lyrical emotive pianism.
Occasionally it pops up in movies like Frankie and Johnny. More recently, it represented the serene moment of victory for the protagonists of Ocean’s 11 as they enjoyed the watery display in front of the Bellagio in Las Vegas. In a classy touch, the version used is the orchestral one that sounds appropriately “old world” in its swooning nature for the neo-Rat Pack…thrilling too as it follows Julia Roberts through the casino floor in heartbreak.
Even more recently, it appears in the current Ocean’s 13 in a scene that echoes the previous one. Strangely they resort to an electronic version of the piece, as if musically suggesting what one character calls being an analog person in a digital world. The moment we hear Debussy is perhaps the only one where some mechanation isn’t being hatched or carried out. Just a little reminiscing between Rusty (Brad Pitt) and Danny Ocean (George Clooney).
June 19th, 2007 at 2:58 am
That wonderful piece of music is also played a lot in ren and stimpy
October 10th, 2007 at 5:48 am
Ya. There are more robust, more formidably brilliant pieces for the piano (from all the Usual Suspects) but IMAHO, Clare de Lune is the most exquisite, elegant, and subtly rich piece composed - ever. Debussy did so much more with less. His tone-base and key balancing/shifting and tempo rubato are a miracle. And although the piece throughout is largely pianissimo, his use of bass was/still imparts suprise w/strength, yet with somehow simple/subtle supportiveness. I could go on and on and sap things up too much, but instead offer my favorite version -
Rendition by Cecile Ousset on the DENON label, from an anthology album of classics.
October 10th, 2007 at 5:55 am
Also, ha! forgot - The keboard guy from STYX
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
has an orchestral version/w piano which is pretty dam good, even though I’m a near purist on format. I wonder if anyone in Debussy’s lifetime ever transposed this for anything more than a solo performance. I certainly can’t see him doing so…..
Ya, that’s 88 keys up yonder ^ !