Claude Debussy Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp

Composer: AchilleClaude Debussy (22 August 1862 25 March 1918) Performers: Osian Ellis (harp), The Melos Ensemble Year of recording: 1962 Sonate en trio, for flute, viola harp, L. 137, written in 1915. 00:00 I. Pastorale 06:06 II. Interlude 11:12 III. Finale Claude Debussy s Sonata for flute, viola, and harp (1915) is the second entry in a projected series of six chamber sonatas (of which the composer completed only three). The sonata is at once evocative and emotionally ambiguous, though a great deal less harmonically adventuresome than its two companions; Debussy once remarked that he didn t know whether it should move us to laughter or to tears. Perhaps both The sonata opens with a freely constructed movement marked Pastorale: Lento, dolce rubato. Debussy subjects six essential musical cells to a free variation treatment as the music unfolds. When he reprises these melodic strands, he does so without regard for the