Two measures from a Passepied

Here's a two-bar excerpt from the Passepied from Debussy's Suite Bergamasque. I found the harmonic progression interesting, so I typed it up and put the analysis in for your viewing pleasure. The two-bar phrase is repeated several times, eventually leading into a modulation to E major (hence the indication of a new key in the second bar).

This passage has a haunting quality to it, helped by the German augmented sixth chord. (For more on German sixths, click here.) Here's a link to this piece, linked with a time stamp which should take you to the first appearance of these two bars.

Debussy: Suite Bergamasque

Over the summer and continuing on through this semester, I've been preparing Debussy's Suite Bergamasque. The suite is comprised of four movements: Prelude, Menuet, Clair de Lune, and Passepied.

I'll perform the Passepied for juries at the end of the semester, so my focus has fallen mostly onto that movement. "Passepied," French for "passing feet" is a type of dance—usually in a fast triple meter. Debussy's Passepied is not in triple meter, however it certainly has a lively tempo, kept alive by the constant eighth note pulse provided by the left hand.

In quickly browsing the web for more information about the suite, I found this interesting little tidbit of information (admittedly, from the extremely reputable source, Wikipedia). Check it out:

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suite_bergamasque

How neat is that?!

Here's a wonderful performance (pianist, Bruno Canino) of the suite in its entirety. Enjoy.