Posted on 07/23/2018 1:39:54 PM PDT by LibWhacker
This visualization attempts to capture the mood of Claude Debussy's best-known composition, Clair de Lune (moonlight in French). The piece was published in 1905 as the third of four movements in the composer's Suite Bergamasque, and unlike the other parts of this work, Clair is quiet, contemplative, and slightly melancholy, evoking the feeling of a solitary walk through a moonlit garden.
The visuals were composed like a nature documentary, with clean cuts and a mostly stationary virtual camera. The viewer follows the Sun throughout a lunar day, seeing sunrises and then sunsets over prominent features on the Moon. The sprawling ray system surrounding Copernicus crater, for example, is revealed beneath receding shadows at sunrise and later slips back into darkness as night encroaches.
The visualization was created to accompany a performance of Clair de Lune by the National Symphony Orchestra Pops, led by conductor Emil de Cou, at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC, on June 1 and 2, 2018, as part of a celebration of NASA's 60th anniversary.
The visualization uses a digital 3D model of the Moon built from Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter global elevation maps and image mosaics. The lighting is derived from actual Sun angles during lunar days in 2018.
This video is public domain and along with other supporting visualizations can be downloaded from the Scientific Visualization Studio at: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/det...
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Very beautiful and restful to watch and listen to.
Clair de Lune is such a beautiful composition.
For those so inclined, here is an electronica remix of CdL by the music group Lamb. The video (I did not post it) features shots of Manhattan:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oU5fYmfgvFM
This is cool, and I enjoy these posts and videos (animating music, or adding music to paintings). But cracks me up that the mellenials are going crazy over Debussy — used in the trailer for Godzilla now — b/c my parents, who taught me classical music, HATE Debussy, especially Clair de Lune.
Nice! I wonder if Debussy would like it, or if he would wrinkle his nose? He’s definitely one of my favorites.
I didn't realize that. I'm sure it's because I don't pay any attention to them, lol!
Thank you! I LOVE this! I studied piano seriously from age 5 through high school (I regret I ever stopped playing) and concentrated on classical music. Clair de Lune was my father’s favorite and I played it often. Brings back so many memories. Sigh...
He was forward thinking in his attention to tonal richness and rhythmic complexity, so he’d probably like it! I would think that any composer would be flattered that his compositions are loved and reimagined 120 years after he wrote them.
Thanks for the remix link...
My late wife loved DeBussy and Claire de Lune in particular...One of her favorite classical pieces...
Nice treatment of Claire de Lune in 1991 film Frankie and Johnny with Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer...
My mother, now 83 years of age, still plays a beautiful Clair de Lune.
My favorite version of Clair de Lune is done by the Korean pianist Seon-Jin Cho, who is my favorite interpreter of Debussy at the moment. Check out his recent Debussy CD, and the first track, Reflets Dan L'eau.
Many many versions of Clair out there - but you have indeed brought here the most luscious of all. Bravo.
Lovely. Thank you.
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