[Music starts at 1:56]

This week’s Respite offering – “Clair de Lune” is by the extraordinarily talented and largely unknown Belgian composer, Joseph Jongen.

For those unfamiliar with Jongen and his works, according to Wikipedia and verified by Encyclopedia Britannica, “Joseph Jongen was born in Liège in 1873… On the strength of an amazing precocity for music, he was admitted to the Liège Conservatoire at the extraordinarily young age of seven [emphasis mine], and spent the next sixteen years there…He began composing at the age of 13”, and he continued composing and performing until his death in 1953.

Today his music is largely unknown and unplayed.

This Clair de Lune exists in two versions – one for solo piano, and the other for orchestra. Perhaps emulating Claude Debussy’s writing in the 2nd Book of Images, Jongen writes this piece on three staves, and he is extremely detailed in the dynamic and tempo markings though, of course, leaving room for individuality in interpreting the piece.
Although playing the piece requires my full attention and concentration, I find its slowly unfurling beauty calming and a welcome break from our much faster paced 21st Century life. In fact, it brings me respite, which is why I include it today on both my #respite and #unknowncomposersworth hearing playlists.

Share, if so moved. More to come as I continue virus free, hale and hearty, grateful for my two doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine. Best to you all as we ride this plague out.

And please: help support this project and my Respite work by clicking on the paypal.me link, or using the @AndrewKrausPiano id on Venmo. No contracts, no pledges, no ongoing commitments, just a request to help me keep the music coming. Thanks for listening.
paypal.me/AndrewKrausPiano
Venmo @AndrewKrausPiano

Credits:
Composer’s photograph – By Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles – Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=48701821

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