Images for Orchestra: No. 3, Springtime Rounds (Rondes de printemps)

Composer: DEBUSSY, Claude
  • Debussy’s Images for piano and Images for orchestra were commissioned by his publisher Durand in 1903. It took Debussy until 1913 to complete the orchestral set.
  • “Rondes de printemps” was completed in 1909, four years before the entire orchestral Images set was complete.
  • Debussy conducted the work’s French premiere, and Gustav Mahler conducted the first American performance.1
  • Two French folksong melodies appear in this work:
    • “Nous n’irons plus au bois” (“We Won’t Go into the Woods Anymore,” which Debussy also quoted in Jardins sous la pluie, “Gardens in the Rain”)
  • “Rondes de printemps” is dedicated to Debussy’s second wife Emma Bardac.3 This is the only movement of Images for Orchestra that bears a dedication.4

“Vive le Mai, bienvenu soit le Mai avec son gonfalon sauvage.”5
“Long live May, May be welcome with its wild banner.”

From the Italian song “La Maggiolata.” Debussy inscribed these lines on the first page of “Rondes de printemps.”6

Sources

  1. François Lesure and Roy Howat, “Debussy, (Achille-)Claude,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed August 27, 2019, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000007353.
  2. Matthew Brown, “Tonality and Form in Debussy’s ‘Prélude à ‘L’Après-Midi D’un Faune’” (Music Theory Spectrum 15 no. 2, 1993), 142, JSTOR, accessed August 27, 2019, https://www.jstor.org/stable/745811. 
  3. Claude Debussy, Rondes de Printemps: “Images” pour Orchestre no. 3 (Paris: Durand, 1910), 1, IMSLP, accessed August 27, 2019, http://ks4.imslp.info/files/imglnks/usimg/e/e4/IMSLP254568-SIBLEY1802.19249.12ce-39087009438955score.pdf.
  4. Peter Laki, program notes, Ravel + Debussy: Colors of Spain (Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, April 28 & 29, 2019), CincinnatiSymphony.org, accessed August 27, 2019, https://www.cincinnatisymphony.org/about/watch-listen/program-notes/1819-notes2/ravel-debussy/.
  5. Debussy, Rondes de Printemps: “Images” pour Orchestre no. 3.
  6. Peter Laki, program notes, Ravel + Debussy: Colors of Spain (Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, April 28 & 29, 2019), CincinnatiSymphony.org, accessed August 27, 2019, https://www.cincinnatisymphony.org/about/watch-listen/program-notes/1819-notes2/ravel-debussy/.

Cut IDs

40216