French harpist Marcel Cara has released his debut solo album. Recorded on the Paraty label, Résurgence is now available as a CD and on digital platforms. According to a press release, the program hinges on Cara’s transcriptions of three Debussy pieces—“Hommage à Rameau,” “Soirée dans Grenade,” and “La Plus que Lente.” The album also demonstrates the influence of Debussy’s style on the evolution of the harp in the 20th and 21st centuries, juxtaposing his music with works by Marcel Tournier, Gabriel Fauré, André Jolivet, Jean Cras, Bruno Mantovani, and Takashi Yoshimatsu.
Cara says it was Debussy—particularly the Trio Sonata he first heard at age six—that initially inspired him to take up the harp. He considers Debussy “the master of French musical impressionism.” “It is fascinating that this artistic movement, invented almost 120 years ago, still influences art in our time,” Cara says. “Debussy is so universal that there is no composer today who has not been somewhat inspired by his musical revolution, his new conception of time and his relationship to timbre. By ‘blurring’ the tonality, he became a model for future composers in the sense of [an innovator who continued tradition at the same time].”
Cara also acknowledges the influence of Isabelle Moretti on this album, with whom he studied for five years at the Conservatoire National de Paris. With Moretti, he worked on one of the pieces on this album and had many lengthy discussions of Debussy’s output. “I think she tried to convey and develop in me what could be the ‘ears’ necessary for the interpretation of this repertoire,” he says.
Learn more about Cara’s project on the Camac blog.
