Monday, October 13, 2025

Louis Vierne: Silhouettes d'enfants, Op.43 ルイ・ヴィエルヌ 子どもの影

 







I asked an AI web service to suggest piano pieces from the time Debussy was alive that I had not known.  Based on the results, I read sheet music on IMSLP.  I thought I might enjoy pieces by Vierne, so I downloaded his  piano scores and played them.


This work "Silhouettes d'enfants" has the simplest notation among them.

(Note that the work was composed in 1920, after Debussy had passed away.)

I think that the work has brighter aspects than his other piano works (exerpt for "Suite bourguignonne").


I feel that the work features fading piano tones than the resonance of organ  sounds.   


I thought that I heard this music before, but I realize I hadn't truly listened to it.


As this is my first time playing his work, I found that some note patterns  and sounds were unfamiliar to me.


(I listened to some of his works for organ and piano quintet.)



I didn't feel the pieces as they were relating to childlen, rather, I thought they were something else.  

I supposed that the composed had been sensing or feeling  silhouettes of children.


I played the pieces simply by reading the sheet music and imagining things that are not real or else.


I think that the una corda pedal of my electric pedal doesn't produce good sound, so usually I refrain from using it.  However, about this work, I think one of intentions behind una corda might have been for a change in tone color, like an organ, so I used it.  



I played the pieces in this way this time.  I hope that the composer wouldn't mind too much .... .




No. 1

waltz

fade, resonance


No. 2

walk

together


No. 3

chromatic

5, 6, 7

1, 3

♭5, #5, 7th, M7th, 

root

G


left hand part - right hand part


wind

kirakira


No.4

wave, stream, whirl, light, 

fade, resonance



No.5

ancient, modern

100 years ago, present

clear, blur 

bounce, step



子どもの影、シルエットということだが、どちらかというと、立体的に弾いてみた。