La Cathèdrale Englouite

Debussy's piano piece, "La Cathèdrale Englouite" ~ "The Engulfed Cathedral" was based on an ancient French legend about a lowland kingdom whose dikes kept the sea from rushing in and drowning its subjects. The pride of this tiny kingdom was its great cathedral with its one hundred bells to call the faithful. It was said that the sound of the bells had the power to purify the heart, and indeed the subjects of this kingdom were by and large honest, good, and pious people. But one notable exception was the king's beautiful daughter, who was spoiled, vain, and would stop at nothing to get her way. When the king refused to raise taxes in order to satisfy the princess's appetite for golden gowns and precious jewelry, she decided that if she couldn't have the riches of the kingdom for herself, then nobody would. She obtained the key to the dikes by seducing the innocent and naive hunchback lad with whom the king had entrusted it. Once having the key in hand, she proceeded to the sluice gate and opened it. The sea, of course, flooded in, drowning everybody in the kingdom, including the princess, and inundating every building, covering even the highest spires of the cathedral. But it is said that those who are pure of heart who stand at the sea's edge can still today hear the one hundred bells chiming beneath the waves. Karl

La Mer ~ Keeper of Secrets

The Engulfing of the Cathedral



The Royal City
No More Than a Bubble on the Face of the Sea

























Debussy and Me
After teaching private lessons for 30 years and public school for nine and playing for every funeral and wedding coming and going and every church service for years and years, I kind of hung up the piano music. But shortly before my mother had her hip replacement, I had the burning desire to practice a piece I had never conquered: Debussy's "The Engulfed Cathedral." So I practiced and practiced to my heart's content, never questioning why I was practicing or for what purpose. I was practicing because I love music.

When I went to visit mother after her surgery, I packed my music book for some unknown reason. I remember looking at it in the suitcase when I unpacked later, wondering "Why is that there?" Maybe I brought it because I didin't want to lose the edge I had gained from my previous weeks of practice. Looking back, I believe it was a "God thing."

I stayed at the hospital for several days and took mom for several wheelchair excursions to the aviary and the chapel. One day, I took her to a meeting room on the first floor where there was a piano. I have never been sure of my mother's feelings for me or my accomplishments because she was a battered wife and very withdrawn. But I gathered my courage and asked her if she would like me to play for her. I explained that I wasn't entirely done mastering the piece, but I wanted to play it anyway. She said yes, and so I played for my mother. She even seemed to enjoy it.

Only a few months later, I went back to be with her as she died. She and her husband had moved to the nursing home in Plainview, and she had been moved to her own room after he pulled her off the toilet and whipped her with a belt. In the hospital, she couldn't communicate any more, but my daughter and I fed her ice, talked to her, and gave her rubdowns. After the final breath went out of her, she took two more shallow breaths. My daughter has nursed dying people in nursing homes and said she'd never seen anything like that. To me, it seemed like the woman who had suffered so much in life was reluctant at the end to let it go.

After the funeral, when my daughter, my two half-sisters and I went to the nursing home to pick up Mom's things, we found she had very few decorative items in her room. They included a doily I had crocheted for her which she had never used and a counted cross-stitch picture with the words to her favorite hymn which I had made for her and which she had never displayed in her home. It told me everything I needed to know. I'm so glad I made those things for her and that I played Debussy for her.

"La Cathèdrale Englouite"
Achille-Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
Sequence by T. O. Drisceoil
From Classical Music Archieves
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