"La mer, trois esquisses symphoniques pour orchestre" (French for "The Sea, Three Symphonic Sketches for Orchestra"), also known as "La mer" (The Sea), L. 109, CD. 111, is an orchestral piece written by the French composer Claude Debussy.

The work was created between 1903 and 1905. It had its first performance in Paris in October 1905. At first, the piece was not received well, even by people who had previously supported Debussy’s music. However, "La mer" showed three important ideas in Debussy’s style: Impressionism, Symbolism, and Japonism. The piece was later performed in the United States in 1907 and in Britain in 1908. After a second performance in Paris in 1908, it became one of Debussy’s most admired and often performed orchestral works.

The first recording of the piece was made in 1928. Since then, orchestras and conductors from around the world have recorded it in many studio and live concert performances.

Background and composition

La mer was the second of Debussy's three large orchestral works, each divided into three parts. The other two works were Nocturnes (1892–1899) and Images pour orchestre (1905–1912). The first of these, Nocturnes, premiered in Paris in 1901. Although it did not greatly impress the public, musicians such as Paul Dukas, Alfred Bruneau, and Pierre de Bréville praised it. Debussy wanted to create a more complex orchestral piece with three sections. He began working on it in August 1903 while visiting his parents-in-law in Burgundy. By the time the piece was completed, he had separated from his wife and was living with Emma Bardac, who was pregnant with his child.

Debussy had warm childhood memories of the sea, but he rarely visited it while composing La mer. Instead, he found inspiration in art, preferring painted and written depictions of the ocean to the real sea. He decided from the start that the work would be "three symphonic sketches" titled La mer. In a letter to André Messager, he described the original planned sections as "Mère belle aux Îles Sanguinaires," "Jeu de vagues," and "Le vent fait danser la mer." The first section, inspired by a short story by Camille Mauclair, was later changed to a broader theme of the sea from dawn to midday. The final section was also removed because it resembled a ballet, and it was replaced with a more general theme of the wind and sea interacting.

Debussy completed La mer on March 5, 1905. He took the proof copies to Eastbourne on the English Channel coast for corrections during a holiday on July 23, 1905. He described Eastbourne to his publisher, Durand, as "a charming peaceful spot: the sea unfurls itself with an utterly British correctness." In 1905, he arranged the piece for piano four hands. In 1909, Durand published a second edition of La mer with Debussy's revisions.

Analysis

La mer uses the following instruments: 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, cor anglais, 2 clarinets in A, 3 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 French horns, 3 trumpets in F, 2 cornets in C (only in the third movement), 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, triangle, tam tam, glockenspiel, 2 harps, and strings.

A typical performance of the piece lasts about 23 or 24 minutes. It is divided into three movements.

The titles of the movements are usually translated as:

Debussy referred to La mer as "three symphonic sketches," choosing not to use the word "symphony." Simon Trezise, in his 1994 book Debussy: La Mer, wrote that Debussy did not create a traditional symphony but also did not want La mer to be called a symphonic poem. By calling it "three symphonic sketches," Debussy likely avoided linking it to either type of music. Sometimes, the work has been called a symphony, even by Debussy himself. It includes two strong outer movements that surround a lighter, faster section, which functions like a scherzo. Jean Barraqué described La mer as the first piece with an "open" form—a "sonorous becoming," meaning a process where musical ideas develop without following traditional patterns. Trezise noted that musical motifs in La mer often change and grow from earlier ideas.

Trezise wrote that in much of La mer, Debussy avoided common musical techniques used to represent the sea, wind, or storms, instead creating his own unique style. Caroline Potter, in The Cambridge Companion to Debussy, explained that Debussy's portrayal of the sea avoids repetition by using many musical sounds that mimic the movement of water, such as the swaying of waves and the sound of raindrops. She also noted that Debussy avoided the repetitive chord patterns used by composers like Schubert and Wagner to represent water. Mark DeVoto, in the same book, described La mer as more complex than any of Debussy's earlier works, especially the Nocturnes.

Roy Howat, a musicologist and pianist, wrote in his book Debussy in Proportion that the structure of La mer matches the mathematical ratios known as the Golden Section. Trezise found this connection surprising but pointed out that there is no evidence Debussy intentionally used these proportions.

Reception

The premiere of La mer took place on October 15, 1905, in Paris, performed by the Orchestre Lamoureux under the direction of Camille Chevillard. At first, the piece was not well received. Pierre Lalo, a critic for Le Temps who had previously admired Debussy’s work, wrote, “I do not hear, I do not see, I do not smell the sea.” Another critic, Louis Schneider, noted that the audience was disappointed, expecting something grand but instead hearing “agitated water in a saucer.” When conductor Karl Muck performed the piece in the United States in March 1907, critic Henry Krehbiel commented on the performance.

The work was first performed in Britain on February 1, 1908, by the composer himself, who was not eager to conduct. The Times praised the piece, but The Observer said it lacked “real force of elemental strength.” The Manchester Guardian noted that the work showed progress compared to Debussy’s earlier compositions, though it criticized the “vagueness of thematic outline” and found “moments of great beauty.” The Musical Times did not give a clear opinion but reported that the audience was enthusiastic. Debussy observed that his music was more popular in London than in Paris.

Some critics believed the poor reception in Paris was due to public disapproval of Debussy’s treatment of his wife, as well as the weak performance by the conductor and orchestra. Chevillard, though respected for classical works, struggled with modern music. It was not until January 19, 1908, when the composer conducted the second Paris performance, that La mer became a public success. Trezise noted that many believed this 1908 concert was the true first performance of the piece.

Some contemporaries compared La mer to French Impressionist paintings, which upset Debussy. Others noted his admiration for the English painter J. M. W. Turner. The choice of Hokusai’s woodblock print The Great Wave off Kanagawa for the score’s cover showed Debussy’s interest in Japanese art. Although Debussy disliked the term “impressionism” applied to his music, his biographer Edward Lockspeiser called La mer “the greatest example of an orchestral Impressionist work.” More recently, Nigel Simeone in The Cambridge Companion to Debussy suggested a connection between the piece and Monet’s seascapes.

Over time, La mer became a central piece in the orchestral repertoire. In 2018, the New York Philharmonic’s online archive reported that the orchestra had performed the work 135 times since 1917, under conductors such as Willem Mengelberg, Arturo Toscanini, John Barbirolli, Pierre Monteux, Leonard Bernstein, Pierre Boulez, and Valery Gergiev. In 1979, The Musical Times ranked La mer as Debussy’s most important orchestral work. Pianist Sviatoslav Richter called La mer “A piece that I rank alongside the St Matthew Passion and the Ring cycle as one of my favourite works.”

Recordings

The first recording of La mer was made by the Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire, with Piero Coppola conducting in 1928. This recording was later re-released on LP and CD. Other recordings were made by musicians who had worked with Debussy, such as Monteux and Ernest Ansermet, who each conducted the piece on multiple recordings. Famous recordings from the monaural era include those by the NBC Symphony Orchestra and Toscanini, and the Philharmonia Orchestra with conductors Herbert von Karajan and Guido Cantelli. From the stereophonic LP era, The Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music highlighted recordings by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Fritz Reiner and the Berlin Philharmonic under Karajan.

Among the many available recordings, a 2018 review by Classic FM recommended five. These included the Orchestre National de France with Jean Martinon, the Cleveland Orchestra with Boulez, the Berlin Philharmonic with Simon Rattle, the Seoul Philharmonic with Myung-Whun Chung, and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Bernard Haitink, which was the top recommendation.

Influence

The sea has inspired many composers during the 20th century. British composers Frank Merrick and Hope Squire arranged La Mer for two pianists and performed it in 1915 during a concert of new music. In 1968, Luciano Berio used parts of La Mer in the third movement of his piece called Sinfonia. John Williams used easier versions of musical ideas from La Mer in the music for the movie Jaws (1975). In 2002, the Norwegian composer Biosphere created his calm music album Shenzhou using repeated sounds from La Mer. The British composer Sally Beamish arranged La Mer for a piano trio. This arrangement was first performed in 2013.

Notes, references and sources

• Barraqué, Jean (June 1988). "La Mer de Debussy, ou la naissance des formes ouverts." Analyse Musicale (in French) (12): 15–62.

• DeVoto, Mark (2007). "The Debussy Sound: colour, texture, gesture." The Cambridge Companion to Debussy. Edited by Simon Trezise. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-65243-8.

• Greenfield, Edward; Ivan March, Robert Layton, and Paul Czajkowski (2008). The Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music. London: Penguin. ISBN 978-0-141-03335-8.

• Howat, Roy (1986). Debussy in Proportion: A Musical Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-31145-8.

• Jensen, Eric Frederick (2014). Debussy. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-973005-6.

• Leary, William G.; James Steel Smith (1955). Thought and Statement. New York: Harcourt, Brace. OCLC 937334460.

• Monsaingeon, Bruno, editor (2001). Sviatoslav Richter: Notebooks and Conversations. London: Faber & Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-20553-0.

• Orenstein, Arbie (2003) [1989]. A Ravel Reader. Mineola, US: Dover. ISBN 978-0-486-43078-2.

• Parris, Matthew (2008). Scorn. London: Little. ISBN 978-1-904435-98-3.

• Potter, Caroline (2007). "Debussy and Nature." The Cambridge Companion to Debussy. Edited by Simon Trezise. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-65243-8.

• Sackville-West, Edward; Desmond Shawe-Taylor (1955). The Record Guide. London: Collins. OCLC 500373060.

• Simeone, Nigel (2007). "Debussy and Expression." The Cambridge Companion to Debussy. Edited by Simon Trezise. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-65243-8.

• Trezise, Simon (1994). Debussy: La mer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-44656-3.

• Wood, Henry J. (1938). My Life of Music. London: Victor Gollancz. OCLC 30533927.