La plus que lente

{{short description|Work for solo piano by Claude Debussy}} {{italic title}} [[File:Claude Debussy ca 1908, foto av Félix Nadar.jpg|thumb|Claude Debussy ca. 1908]] '''''La plus que lente''''', L. 121 ({{IPA|fr|laplyskəˈlɑ̃t}}, "The more than slow"),<ref name="Hartmann">{{cite book|last=Hartmann|first=Arthur|author-link=Arthur Hartmann|title="Claude Debussy as I Knew Him" and Other Writings of Arthur Hartmann|author2=Hsu, Samuel |author3=Grolnic, Sidney |author4= Peters, Mark A. |publisher=Boydell & Brewer|year=2003|isbn=1-58046-104-2|page=80|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fp5pM0oiUucC}}</ref> is a waltz for solo piano written by Claude Debussy in 1910,<ref>{{cite book |last= Randel |first= Don Michael |title= The Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music |publisher= Harvard University Press |year= 1996 |isbn= 0-674-37299-9|page= 204|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IA4dOwAACAAJ}}</ref> shortly after his publication of the Préludes, Book I.<ref name="Woodstra">{{cite book |title=All Music Guide to Classical Music |last=Woodstra |first=Chris |author2=Brennan, Gerald |author3=Schrott, Allen |author-link= Chris Brennan |year=2005 |publisher=CMP Media |isbn=0-87930-865-6 |pages=353, 354 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n29DHVKhZggC }}</ref> The piece debuted at the New Carlton Hotel in Paris, where it was transcribed for strings and performed by the popular 'gipsy' violinist, Léoni, for whom Debussy wrote it (and who was given the manuscript by the composer).<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/classical/raveldebussy/recital4.shtml Andres, Robert. ''An introduction to the solo piano music of Debussy and Ravel''], BBC, retrieved 15 July 2018</ref>

Debussy arranged the piece for small orchestra (flute, clarinet, piano, cimbalom and strings) which was published in 1912. <ref>{{Cite journal|last=Gatti|first=Guido M.|author-link=Guido M. Gatti|last2=Debussy|first2=Claude|last3=Martens|first3=Frederick H.|date=1921|title=The Piano Works of Claude Debussy|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/738116|journal=The Musical Quarterly|volume=7|issue=3|pages=418–460|issn=0027-4631}}</ref>

==Style== {{Listen | type = music | filename = La_Plus_Que_Lente_(edit).ogg | title = La plus que lente (original) | description = Solo piano version, March 2009 | filename2 = Debussy La Plus que Lente.ogg | title2 = La plus que lente (arrangement for strings) | description2 = An arrangement for strings performed by the Advent Chamber Orchestra in November 2007 }}

Despite its title, ''La plus que lente'' was not meant to be played slowly; "lente," in this context, refers to the ''valse lente'' genre that Debussy attempted to emulate.<ref>{{cite book |title=Debussy Studies|last=Smith |first=Richard Langham |year=1997 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=0-521-46090-5 |page=88 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nuweNo_98hIC }}</ref> Typical of Debussy's caustic approach to naming his compositions, it represented his reaction to the vast influence of the slow waltz in France's social atmospheres. However, as Frank Howes noted, "''La plus que lente'' is, in Debussy's wryly humorous way, the ''valse lente'' [slow waltz] to outdo all others."<ref name="Woodstra" />

The work is marked "Molto rubato con morbidezza," indicating Debussy's encouragement of a flexible tempo.<ref>{{cite book |title=Musical Interpretation, Its Laws and Principles, and Their Application in Teaching and Performing |last=Matthay |first=Tobias |year=1918 |publisher=The Boston Music Co. (G. Schirmer, Inc.) |page=102 |isbn=9780836951912 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yM0TAAAAYAAJ }}</ref>

==History== It has been claimed that Debussy was supposedly inspired for ''La plus que lente'' by a small sculpture, "La Valse", that he kept on his mantelpiece.<ref name="Woodstra" /> However, others point to various sources of inspiration, some citing the resemblance between this waltz and Debussy's earlier work, ''Ballade''.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Piano Works of Claude Debussy |last=Schmitz|first=E. Robert |author2=Thomson, V. |year=1966|publisher=Courier Dover Publications |isbn=0-486-21567-9|page=63 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pkRd22YAyrUC }}</ref>

During the same year of its composition, an orchestration of the work was conceived, but Debussy opposed the score's heavy use of percussion and proposed a new one, writing to his publisher:

{{quote|Examining the brassy score of ''La plus que lente,'' it appears to me to be uselessly ornamented with trombones, kettle drums, triangles, etc., and thus it addresses itself to a sort of ''de luxe'' saloon that I am accustomed to ignore!—there are certain clumsinesses that one can easily avoid! So I permitted myself to try another kind of arrangement which seems more practical. And it is impossible to begin the same way in a saloon as in a salon. There absolutely must be a few preparatory measures. But let's not limit ourselves to beer parlors. Let's think of the numberless five-o'-clock teas where assemble the beautiful audiences I've dreamed of.|Claude Debussy, 25 August 1910<ref>{{cite book|last=Arvey|first=Verna|title=Choreographic Music for the Dance|author2=Hsu, Samuel |author3=Grolnic, Sidney |author4= Peters, Mark A. |publisher=Read Books|year=2007|isbn=978-1-4067-5847-4|page=235|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GOwFSQkpfNsC}}</ref>}}

==References== {{Reflist|2}}

==External links== *{{IMSLP2|work=La Plus Que Lente (Debussy, Claude)|cname=''La plus que lente''}} *[http://www.last.fm/music/Claude+Debussy/_/La+plus+que+lente+(Valse) Original solo-piano version at last.fm]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Plus que Lente}} Category:Solo piano compositions by Claude Debussy Category:1910 compositions