Sunday, June 7, 2009

The Engulfed Cathedral

Here's a mental image for church today.

One of my favorite Debussy pieces from the First Book of the Preludes, performed by the composer himself on a 1913 piano roll.



I really enjoy the whole Fin de Siecle Symbolist aesthetic, even if I don't want to paint sphinxes and femmes fatales, and I don't care for green absinthe or mauve handkerchiefs. No one did that whole evocative aesthetic better than Debussy.
Decadence used to be such fun, and now it's just decadent. I don't think Mallarme, Huysmans, or Verlaine and Rimbaud are missing much.

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