Suite bergamasque (L. 75) () is a piano suite by Claude Debussy. He began composing it around 1890, at the age of 28, but significantly revised it just before its 1905 publication. The popularity of the third movement, Clair de lune, has made it one of the composer's most famous works for piano, as well as one of the most famous musical pieces of all time.
Background
Debussy was initially unwilling to use these relatively early piano compositions because they were not in his mature style, but in 1905 he accepted the offer of a publisher who thought they would be successful, given the fame Debussy had gained in the intervening fifteen years.
Structure
Suite bergamasque consists of four movements:
- Prélude (Moderato tempo rubato, F major, )
- Menuet (Andante, A minor, )
- Clair de lune (Andante très expressif, D major, )
- Passepied (Allegretto ma non troppo, F minor, )
1. Prélude
The first piece in the suite is in the key of F major and marked moderato tempo rubato.
2. Menuet
The second movement is in A minor.
Clair de lune was originally intended to be included as a fully orchestrated piece in the 1940 Walt Disney animated film Fantasia. However, due to runtime issues, it was eventually not included in the final cut of the film. Instead, the footage for its intended segment (featuring herons in the Florida Everglades at night) was recycled for the "Blue Bayou" segment of the subsequent film Make Mine Music (1946). However, the "Clair de lune" segment was later restored after a workprint of it was rediscovered in 1992, complete with an original score by Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra. It is included as a bonus feature in some later releases of Fantasia.
Passepied was arranged by the Punch Brothers for bluegrass instrumentation for their album The Phosphorescent Blues.
A synthesizer version was produced by the Japanese electronic music pioneer Isao Tomita for his 1974 album Snowflakes Are Dancing, consisting of arrangements and renditions of compositions by Debussy, including Passepied. It was used at the Closing Ceremony at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo on 8 August 2021, as a nod to Paris as the next host city, while children prayed for peace and as the Olympic Flame was extinguished.
A cover version of Clair de lune with lyrics written by Rafael Jaime and titled I Am Born Again is prominently featured in the 2024 live-action Mexican independent short film Mi Hermano Lobo (My Brother Wolf). The song is performed off-screen by 8-year-old Jorge Luis Jiménez Avilés in the lead role of Rafael.
Japanese video game composer Masafumi Takada features Clair de lune in many of his works, including in Flower, Sun, and Rain, Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony, and The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy.