If you've been around this blog before, it should be obvious that I would find the challenge irresistible - but it was also just challenging. Unlike many other little mashups I've created this year, the Debussy and Beethoven don't pair very naturally, although I have paired Clair de lune with Beethoven before in an even more absurd context. Even when I had downshifted the Debussy from D-flat Major to C Major so that it would merge more gracefully with Beethoven's A Minor (the relative minor of C), it took some finagling to get the motives to play nicely and have a reasonably meaningful conversation. As so often, if this is successful, it is surely in part because both works are so iconic that the listener can enjoy both the recognition and the repurposing of these ideas.
In addition to transposing the Debussy from D-flat down a half-step to C, it also seemed logical to shift this moonlight music up an octave to make room for the more grounded and rhythmically regular Beethoven. There is a slight connection in that both works are in a compound meter (Beethoven's 3/8 vs. Debussy's 9/8), although Debussy's music is written in such a way as to make the meter seem elusive. You'll see that Elise has to wait a little longer than usual to finish a few phrases while waiting for the moonlight to settle into view.
I don't think I'd ever written anything for one piano, four hands before, and to add to the challenge, after finding my digital demos unsatisfying, I decided to record this as well - in spite of having only two hands. I didn't get access to the piano I wanted, so this one is a bit less resonant in the upper register than I'd have liked, but it was a fun process. Because two of the hands naturally inhabit a pretty tight space (one of the joys of piano duets!) and actually overlap in space since they were recorded separately, I faded the videos together which makes for an interesting effect.
Camp #2 starts tomorrow, but hopefully I'll be back soon with more show'n'tell.
And, of course, there's much more of this if you're so inclined: Classical Mashups (more than 70 videos!)
