Claude Debussy in Paris - 6 September, 1893

from Letters of composers : an anthology, 1603-1945 / compiled and edited by Gertrude Norman and Miriam Lubell Shrifte., pages 312,313:

While he [Henri de Régnier] was speaking to me about certain words in the French language whose gold had become tarnished through too much use by the hoi polloi, I thought to myself that the same thing was true of certain chords whose sound had become commonplace in music for export; this reflection is not strikingly novel unless I add that at the same time they have lost their symbolic quality. Really, music should have been a hermetic science, protected by text so long and difficult to interpret that they surely would have discouraged the herd of people who use it as casually as they do a …   more >>
cite as

Gertrude Norman and Miriam Lubell Shrifte (ed.), Letters of composers : an anthology, 1603-1945 / compiled and edited by Gertrude Norman and Miriam Lubell Shrifte. (New York, 1979), p. 312,313. https://led.kmi.open.ac.uk/entity/lexp/1424772574666 accessed: 28 March, 2024

location of experience: Paris

Listeners

Listening to

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Music in D performed by girl

Experience Information

Date/Time 6 September, 1893
Medium live
Listening Environment indoors

Notes

Letter from Claude Debussy to Ernest Chausson, [Paris] September 6, 1893.


Originally submitted by verafonte on Tue, 24 Feb 2015 10:09:34 +0000
Approved on Thu, 12 Nov 2015 14:37:44 +0000