Debussy: Passepied (Suite Bergamasque) Analysis (featuring The Punch Brothers) | The Daily Doug 

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I love Punch Brothers so much and have been fortunate enough to see them a handful of times. The song "Familiarity" off this same album (and there is a live performance from this same show) is an incredible original piece of theirs that I would love to see you break down.

Doug this is AWESOME! I'd love to see some film score analysis sometime

So admiring the admission - that Debussy is so 'natural' and yet so 'new', no matter when his work is discovered.

I remember learning this piece back when I was about 15 or 16. The last part was my favorite but it is so beautiful and then I went on to do other Debussy pieces. I gravitated to anything with a lot of syncopation. And I look 5 years of French in HS so I imagined myself inside a Monet lily painting as I played and so I did this afternoon. Thank you Doug!

Fascinating to hear Passepied live with acoustic instruments. I was always fond of the electronic studio version produced by Isao Tomita on his Snowflakes Are Dancing collections of Debussy works. Tomita enhanced Debussy's musical score, and while following it exactly, added little whimsical electronic bells and whistles that I think really worked to make it accessible to the listener.

I saw the punch brothers live last night. Highly reccomend you all to see them live. Such a fun group and put on a beautiful live show filled with jokes throughout

Thanks for introducing me to the Punch Brothers!

That was wonderful! I must admit, the theory goes right over my head, but the way you weave it together and show how elements relate to each other, it’s never boring. And there is always some payoff for me in how you paint a holistic picture of the composer’s overall intent/approach, even if the individual puzzle pieces are hard to grasp. Bravo! And those Punch Brothers! Something new to explore! Thanks, Dr. Doug!

Love Claire de Lune and Arabasque

If you love Debussy it’s a difference try Snow Flakes are Dancing by Isao Tomita a real gem especially with headphones

Brilliant! I’m going to keep pestering you about Morten Lauridsen’s Lux Aeterna !!

Brilliant episode, Doug. Hey, the other day some early electronic music pioneers came up in the chat, and among them, Tomita...who happens to have a brilliant album dedicated to the music of Debussy...including this one. Here is the rundown: Side A "Snowflakes Are Dancing" - 2:10 "Reverie" - 4:44 "Gardens in the Rain" - 3:41 "Clair de lune" - 5:48 "Arabesque No. 1" - 3:57 Side B "The Engulfed Cathedral" - 6:18 "Passepied" - 3:17 "The Girl with the Flaxen Hair" - 3:25 "Golliwog's Cakewalk" - 2:50 "Footprints in the Snow" - 4:30 Bonus track (2000 CD release) 11. "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun" - 10:18 (from the 1975 album Firebird) Bonus tracks (2012 SACD release) 2. "Whistle and Chime - The Art of Sound Creation" 8. "Deux Arabesques No. 2" 13. "Nuages - Nocturnes" Thanks again. I can sorta play the top part from Reverie, but that is the whole of my Debussy.

Never heard of The Punch Brothers before, but WOW!!! That was just SOOOOO beautiful!!! 😀

I've always loved the Passepied, nice to see some appreciation for this underrated little gem

Doug this is awesome. Been watching your channel for a while now and so happy to see you feature the Punch Brothers (my favorite band!!!) "Familiarity" is another of theirs that would be incredible to see your reaction of. Another huge feat would be their 4 movement piece "The Blind Leaving the Blind" which is a real monumental moment in bluegrass and 21st century genre blending between folk and classical composing: 40ish minutes of composition blended with bluegrass improvisation! Keep doing what you do, Doug!

I was lucky enough to see the Brothers 1st row center @ the old state theater single miked. They blew me away. Chris Thile is a virtuoso on the mandolin.

Debussy is my favorite non Beethoven or Bach composer. Your comments and analysis is much appreciated. Thank you, Doug.

For a unique take on Debussy checkout Isao Tomita Snowflakes are Dancing. It's a 1970s electronic rendering. It's way ahead of its time lush , beautiful, creative.

Easily my favourite classical composer, so emotional. They played Clair de lune at my uncles funeral (his favourite piece), I was doing fine up to then... As others have said, have a listen to Isao Tomita's Snowflakes are Dancing.

I love listening to analysis of classical music! That Punch Brothers performance was absolutely divine! Thank you, Doug! ❤️

Loved the Punch Brothers. Lovely piece.

Nice one Doug . I am a Prog fan and do not have enough hours to devote to this. Nice to have an insight. Punch brothers were great.

Love, love, love this!

This was such a treat! Thank you for sharing.

Awesome stuff!!! Great infos and awesome music!! Very well done, Doug!!

Thanks Doug , That was amazing.

Excellent choice to begin what promises to be a VERY interesting series. Thanks, Doug!

Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune is my favorite piece of music from Debussy

Just wonderful Doug, than you for doing this.

It’s cool to see you so enthusiastic, very contageous! I love Clair de Lune, it always makes me cry

Thank you for this, Debussy is my favorite composer!

So beautiful….so clever….and dainty and fresh…cheers

A lovely piece music and played beautifully by some very talented guys. Lets have some more like that please Doug

just when I thought your channel couldn't get any cooler...you go and do this...can't wait for more!!!

My favorite episode so far! That's some highbrow banjo there, to say nothing of the rest. I loved the dissection of Debussy and the set up to watch the individual instruments put the piece together in a cohesive way that is sublime. Thank you so much!

Fun to hear/see you in even more of a teaching mode, than a reacting mode. You make it interesting even to someone like me, little versed in actual theory. Then to hear an innovative version was quite entertaining. Thank you.

Great piece, really great analysis, I gotta watch this again more carefully,, lots of nice detail you point out.

The score I have for this suite (piano version) is the Shcirmer version, and in the introduction they discuss how Debussy basically wrote this as a middle finger to the musical 'gatekeepers' of the time who demanded strict adherence to compositional and timing rules that were set for different types of pieces. He basically introduced a number of 'forbidden' timing and chord changes that made it almost a joke as a dance movement, all on purpose. I wish I could quote some of the details they gave, but I don't have it at hand right now. That being said, this has always been my favorite movement of the suite and I have tried (more than once) to learn it, but it is a little more treacherous than it looks for someone at my skill level. The left hand movement is quite difficult with constant and inconsistent arpeggios. The ending is absolutely sublime, though. Thanks for covering this.

Doug, I've enjoyed a great number of your review/reactions, and am a patron on Patreon. I have to say...for all your enthusiasm and occasional joy with rock/metal/prog, the difference here is palpable...your reaction to this piece is rapture...visceral compared to any other. Only goes to prove, you can take the boy out of classical...but...

Wonderful piece! It's strange how much I enjoy these deep dives in theory, eventhough I don't understand a word :D But you are evidently as touched by good music as I am, that's the connection :)

Hi! I just started learning this brilliant piece and your analysis helped me a lot. I encourage you to do more analysis of classical pieces the way you made it with Passepied. I already get subscribed because your content is so interesting! All the best 😁

Exquisite!

this is great. more like this please.

Awesome analysis Doug as always.. I was familiar with who Chris Thiele was but had not really listened to Punch Brothers before they’re really quite amazing. Another New World would be a great one to dive into more! Thanks again Doug!

You probably know this, Doug, but Chris Thile can play entire Bach violin partitas on his mandolin from memory, because he's a freak of nature (I have seen him do it live!). The whole band has also done the Allegro from the third Brandenberg Concerto and it's great, I recommend it.

Would love to see your reaction and analysis to Isao Tomita’s 1974 electronic album of Debussy pieces “Snowflakes are Dancing”. One of my all-time favourites, I believe it was groundbreaking in terms of recording complexity but Tomita also opened up classical composers to a whole new audience!

Beauty must appeal to the senses, must provide us with immediate enjoyment, must impress us or insinuate itself into us without any effort on our part. -Claude Debussy

That's why old melodies, and, of course, popular music, are the basis of any new music because with them there is musical progression and creates space for imagination. There is an obvious need for empiricism for an exploration of the past to be fruitfully used in the present moment. This imagination also extends to the emergence of new musical instruments and the improvement of existing ones. Imagination uses mimicry to be able to be. Isn't the music fabulous? It is born, grows, grows old, is transmuted, kept, appreciated and taught.

I'm not a classical musician, but I love this version and every time I hear Debussy all I can think is "ahhh Debussy."

Oh shit, Debussy, so happy to see you cover that

Love the Punch Brothers. Some amazing musicians. Check out Chris Thile playing Paganini on the mandolin (it's on You Tube). These guys really define the term "progressive bluegrass". Check out the songs "Familiarity" or "All Ashore". Or "The Angel of Doubt" where Chris starts rapping while the band is playing in 7/4 -- nice. Sometimes it seems that Yes and Genesis were as much an influence on them as Bill Monroe.

Superbe! Thanks Doug! I skipped a lot of the analysis. Mostly because I don't understand it anyway and tonight my brain hurts to start with. Love Debussy. I don't understand how his music is always so evocative, and the Punch Bros were totally fab Will have to check them out!

Debussy has a bonified calming effect. Classical music is so therapeutic.

I would love to hear your take on Mussorgsky. He has to be the most eclectric classical composers of all, imo.

Great post. Wow, that Punch Bros version was something else. To be able to be so dexterous and gifted but also restrained and delicate is just an amazing combination, immensely talented guys. DeBussy explaining his process would be a fascinating interview. The piano piece sounds like it could be part of a soundtrack, I'd probably ask him if he had a visual in his imagination that the music was about, or if he would improvise over chords for a bit, and then write down the parts that caught his ear, and at the end put the whole thing together in a coherent way. Somehow his music always seems to have a floating, easy quality to it no matter how complicated it is. Always liked his piece "The Girl with the Flaxen Hair", as I found that one a little easier to get my mind around on playing on a guitar.

Lovely.

Thank You

Always seems like the most Bach inspired piece of Debussy.

Would love to hear your commentary on Side 1 of Todd Rundgren’s A Wizard a True Star. It was ground breaking in 1971. It would be rich for your kind of analysis.

I would LOVE an analyzation of Mozart's "Requiem"! 👏🏻🙏🏻🤞🏻💃

Holy $#!+, I thought I knew my theory. LOL. Thanks Doug!

Doug, I love all your videos. Mostly I really like the music you examine and analyse. Here you have gone up into the stratosphere as far as musical quality is concerned. I hope you do many more like this. I enjoyed the country musicians' version. They did an amazing job. I still prefer the piano version though. It's just so pure.

Great ti see this, thanks! I've been discovering Debussy's piano works in recent months and really loving it! Would love to see you look at Bartok's "Hungarian Sketches". For me it is kind of a "companion" for this suite.

I have the Debussy Complete Works boxset from DG. I know most of his music anyway that I've heard over the years. Debussy's Images pour orchestre was the closing piece of my first classical concert in 1984 (Simon Rattle, CBSO). I particularly like La Mer and the piano Études, and his opera Pelleas et Melisande.

You should watch Mark O'Connor, Bela Fleck, Jerry Douglas videos if you want to hear REAL "progressive bluegrass" The thing about performance lengths vs. length of the score is why the 2nd movement of Beethoven's 9th is 13 minutes long - everything repeats so many times!

That German chord threw me off when I heard it, thanks for the explanation

I've really been on a Debussy kick lately so great timing on this for me. Can't wait until you do some Motzart! Also, while I'm at it as far as other genre requests I'd love to hear your thoughts on pieces by Vangelis (Heaven and Hell) or even some film scores from the likes of Goldsmith, Poledouris, (Cristopher) Young and of course Williams. 😁

Gotta react to more Punch Brothers!

Do more Punch Brothers!

Awesome. For a minute I thought I was listening to a Dixie Dreggs song. Loved it.

Erik Satie ~ Petite Ouverture à Danser, please :) I’d love to hear about your analysis of the chord progression in there!

OMG PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DO "FAMILIARITY" BY PUNCH BROTHERS!! Sorry for the gauche enthusiasm of all caps. But you'll absolutely understand once you see it!

I love the Impressionist composers, would be nice to see your analysis of piano music by Maurice Ravel and Florent Schmitt.

ah Passepied is among my fav pieces from Debussy, also la plus que lente

Classic is always the deepest. People back then worked hard. at a very young age (in their twenties) they produced masterpieces of litterature and music that leaves us in awe. How did they do that?! They matured way earlier then we do nowadays and they were way more serious, no fun junkies. Life was hard from the get go. Morality and character were still written in capital letters back in the 19 century .

"Clair de Lune -- English translation, 'Clear the Saloon'. Ladies and Gentlemen, I should warn you that this is a number during which most people... cough. You see?" -- Victor Borge

pls do more classical

I love Debussy. I wrote a research paper about him in my freshman year of college. IMO between Debussy and Mahler, you have the bones of most of the 20th century's best music. Imagine film scores if there had been no Mahler. Without him there probably isn't a 2nd Viennese School and that heavily influenced people like Stockhausen and the Beatles. Imagine how empty the harmonies of Duke Ellington or George Gershwin would sound without Debussy. Any we all know the giant shadows those two cast on 20th century popular and jazz music.

It's the wailing Duuuuck.

You should check out " three dots and a dash" by them!

I'd just like to add my voice to the chorus urging you to check out Tomita. @separateglances1 mentioned that, at the time, synths were almost entirely monophonic, and I have seen a video of Tomita carefully building the complex textures line by line. As well as Snowflakes and Holst's Planets, there are wonderful renditions of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition and Stravinsky's Firebird Suite. He was also a composer in his own right, and his music for the original Japanese version of Kimba the White Lion is extraordinary.

Love debussy. Particularly love playing "la cathédrale engloutie".

Thanks for a fascinating analysis Doug. Thought for the future are for Meditation from Thais by Massenet and maybe Vivaldi as delivered by Darryl Way of Curved Air (+ cannonc if you wisH!)

Hey Doug ,I would be very interested in your opinion of Paganini's 24 caprices.

Great New Episode Doug ☺️ since for going into the archive off the past..check out to me personally a bridge from Hard rock music to Classical..since that's all Richie Blackmore was listening to. please Turn o on the Masses To Weiss Hium by Rainbow with Richie Blackmore

Miyako from the band: LOVEBITES is into all this stuff. Check out the live performance for: "Swan Song" with Chopin etude intro. Also check out the live performance of: "Under The Red Sky".

After dinner, during the porto, before the whisky.

Doug, not sure how familiar you are with video game music, but look up "Dragon Quest unknown world" and listen to that intro. Pretty sure it was inspired by Passapied. The composer, Koichi Sugiyama, was heavily influenced by Debussy and Ravel.

I try to work Augmented Sixth chords into my "pop" songs.

Hehe finally somebody with street creds, I mean streetname

Please analyze the first movement of Mozart's String Quintet in C, K515. It's one of my favorite pieces. :)

Doug, he visto varias de tus intervenciones y se que hablas a través del sentido musical. Este sentido no tiene que estar supeditado necesariamente a los conceptos "clásicos" de la música. Incluso se quiera llevar a su forma matemática, es casi imposible poder determinar ciertos aspectos de los sonidos, ya sea el mar y las olas golpeando entre las rocas o el trinar de cientos de pájaros en el parque de la ciudad o en el bosque... Debussy es quizás el primer compositor que escapa al análisis científico de la música, ya que, las derivaciones en sus composiciones son resultado de una experimentación musical, más que validar un dogmatismo anterior. No es casualidad que los compositores de música de cine, en su gran mayoría desde que han tenido conocimiento de Debussy hayan incorporado en sus creaciones pasajes o ideas del compositor. Lo que prima en Debussy cuando escucho sus composiciones no es el "modelo de algo" es intentar ir más allá. Se aprecia tu reacción y sobre todo lo de Prunch Brothers, también quede sorprendido con ese arreglo y a la gente le gusta. Saludos!

Doug I'd be SO glad if You take a look on Penderecki's Polymorphia. Antoni Wit's & Warsaw Philpharmonic Orchestra version is in my opinion by far the best. I have the score if You'll need it - I can do the photos.

Can I put a bid in for Chopin's Nocturne, Op. 27 no.2., but in particular the 1947 performance by Dinu Lipatti ? Exquisite, despite the quite scratchy recording.

You probably know this already, but sometimes Debussy would take weeks or months to decide on a chord. He didn't write stuff fast like some others.

Since you started with Debussy, could you follow with Ravel?

So glad to see you covering the Punch Brothers. My wife and I just saw them in Chattanooga, TN last weekend. They were great as always! By the way….Chris’ last name is pronounced Tee-Lee - not Thiel. You should listen to them do Familiarity. This performance in particular is top notch! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-mjiLcp0RGV0.html

It's great to see you doing those popular classical pieces! I'd love to see an analysis of Gnossiene 1, by Erik Satie. This one: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Tl1yPnlzDA0.html

Could you please make a similar video on Saint Saens’s Aquarium. I feel like there are some germans in there as well. Or is it chromatic mediants?