Published
Pour en tombeau sans nom Nº 2
On the eve of the outbreak of the First World War, Debussy was passing through a period of profound crisis. He felt unable to compose and accepted concert engagements only for financial reasons. He was also greatly weakened by the progression of his illness, although he himself appeared not to recognise its severity.
Debussy completed the three pieces on 11 July. Between 16 and 19 July, he travelled to London with his wife Emma to conduct a concert organised especially for him by Sir Edgar Speyer. After they returned to Paris, the threat of imminent war greatly troubled Emma, who urged that they leave the capital. Under these circumstances, the publisher Durand postponed the work’s publication until the following year. Its first performance did not take place until 17 March 1917 at the Salle Pleyel in Paris. On 24 March, the Six épigraphes antiques, together with other works by Debussy, were performed at a benefit concert for the Vêtement du prisonnier de guerre.
Pour un tombeau sans nom maintains a particularly close connection with the piece to which it refers through the same hexatonic colouring, while its minor modality intensifies the mournful character and recalls the original lines. It then shifts into melodramatic tones in a dissonant passage as a funerary stele is remembered with anguish.
Pour invoquer Pan, dieu du vent d’été
Pour un tombeau sans nom
Pour que la nuit soit propice
Pour la danseuse aux crotales
Pour l’Egyptienne
Pour remercier la pluie au matin