Debussy’s Engulfed Cathedral
French composer Claude Debussy (1862 – 1918), with deference to Maurice Ravel, often is identified as the premier creator of impressionist music. “The Engulfed Cathedral” is perhaps his most famous piano piece from his twelve pieces in Preludes Book I. He also wrote a second book of twelve preludes.
Each of the twenty-four preludes has a title, like “Footsteps in the Snow,” “The Interrupted Serenade,” or “The Girl with the Flaxen Hair.” “The Engulfed Cathedral” alludes to a legend that a cathedral submerged in the water off the coast of Ys on certain mornings rises up from the sea, only to sink back down again under the waves.
If you listen carefully to this piece, played by the great French pianist Alfred Cortot (1877-1962), you can hear church bells, the chanting of monks, the church organ, and even the cascading of water off of the spires.
