Debussy - Six Epigraphes Antiques Piano Duet (Softcover Book)

Debussy completed the Six Épigraphes antiques for piano four-hands only a few days before the declaration of war, at the end of July 1914. The history of this work and the feelings that motivated it are closely related to the conception of the incidental music for the Chansons de Bilitis, which Debussy had composed at the request of his friend Pierre Louÿs who was also the author of these same poems. In a letter to Jacques Durand on the 11th July 1914, to which he attached a separate page with the titles of each "epigraph", Debussy revealed that the work was originally conceived as an orchestral suite. But the illness from which he suffered is the reason why he gave up the idea of composing for an orchestra.