Claude Debussy: die Klavieraufnahmen

Claude Debussy began his musical career as a pianist, but over time he made a name for himself as a composer, with the result that his artistry as a pianist was nearly forgotten. His 1913 recordings of his own compositions on piano rolls produced by the Welte company are the primary evidence of this artistry. This anthology is dedicated to those recordings.

The first part of the volume examines Debussy’s corpus of solo recordings from various perspectives. It explores the fundamental value and significance of composers’ own recordings. Debussy’s piano playing is placed within its historical context. In addition, the technical aspects of the Welte rolls are examined. The second part of the anthology is devoted to the individual recordings. It combines methods of recording analysis with analysis of the works themselves. Finally, the value of the Debussy recordings is also discussed from the perspective of piano pedagogy.

This anthology is the result of a research project conducted by the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts – Music and the product of several years of collaboration among musicologists from Germany, Austria, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Switzerland: Daniel Leech-Wilkinson, Inga Mai Groote, Roy Howat, Thomas Kabisch, Kai Köpp, Hannes Oberrauter, Gesine Schröder, Alan Dodson, Daniella Gerszt, Michael Zink, Olivier Senn, Andreas Brenner, Michael Lehner, Thomas Fesefeldt, Bernd Goetzke, Tihomir Popović, and Peter Mutter.

Open Access