La mer. The sea. Trois esquisses symphoniques. Claude Debussy (1862-1918) composed these three symphonic sketches between 1903 and 1905. Based on nature, but only as a starting point. Left to the 'mysterious correspondences' of his interior world, permeated by associations and accidental consciousness. 'The sound of the sea, the curve of a horizon, wind in leaves, the cry of a bird, leave manifold impressions in us. And suddenly, without our wishing it at all, one of these memories spills from us and finds expression in musical language', he writes.

Let's talk deconstruction in music ... Deconstruction at work in Zeena Parkins' striking version of Claude Debussy's La mer ... Deconstruction: the disruption of a construction or composition with the purpose of producing other, new meanings with the same elements. Destructive and constructive aspects at work simultaneously. Dismantling in order to create something new. It is necessary to emphasize the affirmative nature of deconstruction. 

Zeena calls it 'La Mer': a 'rebuilding' or 'transcription' of Debussy's composition (especially the first movement). Rebuilding. Transcription. Words that could replace deconstruction. To rebuild means to decompose in order to construct something new: affirmation. And transcription. Literally a writing 'beyond' or 'into a different state'. 'La Mer' is a piece of music through La mer and across La mer, tributary to it and totally different at the same time. Based on it, but only as a starting point, permeated by associations and (un)conscious thoughts ... (The same method of working as Debussy's?) ... Zeena: 'I use many different sources: first of all the score, but also moments from his biography, his writings on music, his diaries' ... And suddenly these elements find expression in music ...

'La Mer' is originally composed for three harps (two acoustic and one electric), sampler, trombone, electronics and turntables. The score consists of fifteen different sections. Each section contains a description of what every instrument should play. However, only sampler, harps, and trombone get 'real' notes. The musicians playing electronics and turntables obtain their instructions by catchwords.

An example. The turntable player can get cues for textures ('play wobbling strings') referring to playing techniques specific to that instrument (the vari-speeding of an LP or the rhythm of scratching), certain instruments s/he has to imitate, dynamics, gestures, rhythms, etc. Besides there are, what Zeena calls: 'identifiable references'. The musician should choose sounds fitting the musical influences of Debussy: Javanese gamelan and other East Asian music, circus music, the music of brass bands, compositions by Richard Wagner and music Debussy used to write about (music he had heard or heard of). However, it is not intended to use exact excerpts of La mer itself.
Principally, the harps play the original harp parts composed by Debussy. The trombonist, however, is not only playing some of the trombone parts of the original. Sometimes s/he is playing flute parts as well. And the sampler is often used to play references to the strings and wind sections.

The above should already make clear that 'La Mer' is and is not an interpretation of La mer. If one expects a performance of Debussy's composition, one will hear something completely different; if one does not expect it, one will hear countless references. Not an arrangement either: no exact rendition of the original score on other instruments. No repetition but transposition. Between identity and alteration ... Between self and other ... Between, that means both/and and neither/nor.
Zeena: 'I concentrated on the first movement of La mer. I've chosen all sorts of melodies from this movement, and this does not necessarily mean the principal melodies'. Zeena made her own hierarchical order of the importance of one melody to another, even if they are in the background in the original. Secondary or background melodies are placed in the foreground. Background becomes core. Center becomes periphery. Deconstruction in music. 'To deconstruct [...] first of all is to overturn the hierarchy at a given moment', French philosopher Jacques Derrida writes in Positions. However, what happens in 'La Mer' is not a simple reversion of the hierarchies. The opposition between foreground and background melodies is unsettled. The old structure is reinscribed in another way; it becomes unstable. It is simultaneously a practice of overturning and displacing the old conceptual order.

The used melodies from the first movement are as it were the scaffolding of 'La Mer'; they act as a kind of frame. Just like 'La Mer' is a new frame, a new context for La mer, La mer is a frame for 'La Mer'. But an unstable frame. Zeena makes use of the demontability of the scaffolding; it seems fluid. The order of the original is sometimes mixed up. Melodies that are used earlier come back again. Or they are processed, turned inside out or looped for instance.

Not an interpretation but a rebuilding; not an arrangement but a transcription. For example because 'La Mer' contains improvisational parts. Sometimes they act as the transition from one section to another, sometimes they form the centerpiece of a particular section. According to Zeena, these improvisations are 'the glue' or 'the guts' of the piece. 'It is decided in advance which member of the band is going to improvise when. I'm choosing the musicians that are going to play, sometimes solo, sometimes in duo or trio configurations. I'm using these possibilities of orchestration, that effect density and color', Zeena says. Principally, indications are given concerning dynamics or cues like 'play short phrases' are suggested. The length of the improvisations is determined by the composer/conductor. Zeena: 'They encourage a relationship between the players/improvisors, that is not possible in other areas of the piece.'

La mer and 'La Mer'. An orchestral piece versus a performance by an (partly) electronic chamber orchestra. (In the beginning, in the middle and near the end, Zeena adds three times what she calls a 'tribute to cinema'. 'These parts should give a real orchestral feeling. Everybody is playing, everybody has to think like an orchestra; it's a reminder that the original piece is an orchestral work'.) A chamber orchestra that inserts improvisations into a fully notated impressionist composition. We seem to be very far removed here from Debussy's La mer. And yet ... although Debussy never included any space for improvisation in his work, 'La Mer' nevertheless still is pervaded by his spirit. Zeena: 'Debussy himself loved the 'jazz music' of his time and devoted special attention to non-western music that included a fascination with non-notated aspects'. So she takes Debussy into areas where he never could have dwelled but without compromising him. With shameless attention she explores the periphery (or is it the heart?) of his composition. Following it with meticulous care, she lends it occasionally (un)recognizable echoes. Between identity and difference ... As if only something that is infinitely close can sound so far away ... 

'La Mer'. Also a deconstruction of the space where the visual and the audible meet without ever merging into each other ... I'm talking about music notation here. The score of 'La Mer' knows many different visual aspects. Zeena takes parts out of the original score. (And this can be taken very literally: she makes a copy.) She takes parts out and blows them up, creating a visual picture or graphic (re)presentation. Sometimes she adds an arrow to these blown-up excerpts, meaning: play something like this part, but do not repeat it just like that. Furthermore she adds her own (hand)written notes - as a kind of re-mix or annotation.  Before the music 'itself', the visual information is rebuilt, transformed, deconstructed.

Writing on the margins of the original score ... Writing on the frame: neither on the inside, nor on the outside ... Writing as a frame. Framing music. Framing it as music ... 'La Mer' ... Repetition and transformation ... Repetition as transformation ... Destruction and construction ... Deconstruction in music ... a deconstructive sea ...

This essay has come into being on the base of the listening experience of the author during a live performance of Zeena Parkins' 'La Mer' at Tonic (NYC), October 29, 2000 and an interview with Zeena on October 30, 2000.