Welcome May, and Classical Minnesota Public Radio's Pieces of Spring.
Every day, we'll play a springtime classic. Visit our online playlist to find each day's spring piece or, in the Twin Cities, listen to 99.5 every morning at 8. Enter the correct title here, and you have another chance to win fresh flowers delivered to your door for a year! Check back here every day to see if you got it right.
Yesterday's piece was Spring Rounds (Rondes du printemps), from
Claude Debussy's Images for orchestra. Debussy set out to capture the spirit of three countries: England ("Gigues"), Spain ("Iberia"), and France ("Rondes de Printemps" or "Spring Rounds"). On the first page of "Rondes de Printemps," Debussy wrote, "Long live May! Welcome to May with its wild banner." These lines come from a 15th-century Italian poem about May-Day celebrations, but Debussy ensures that the music is unmistakably French by quoting two French tunes, including one of Debussy's favorite nursery tunes, "Nous n'irons plus au bois," a melody he incorporated into a number of compositions.
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