La damoiselle élue

Claude Debussy's "La damoiselle élue," based on Dante Gabriel Rossetti's poem of the same name, was composed in 1888 during his scholarship period in Rome and underwent fundamental revision in 1903. The work stands at the transition between the composer's still romantically influenced early works and his later impressionist musical language, which is already discernible here in its initial traces.

The composition for soprano solo, women's chorus and large orchestra displays characteristic elements of emerging French modernism: subtle harmony, refined orchestration and a new treatment of the human voice that seeks to distinguish itself from the German vocal tradition. Despite the large forces employed, Debussy creates an intimate, almost chamber music-like atmosphere.

"La damoiselle élue" is considered an important step in Debussy's development toward that unmistakable style that would shape French music around 1900. The mystical-religious theme of Rossetti's poem inspired the composer to create a musical language of particular delicacy and spirituality that already anticipates the symbolist aesthetic of his mature creative period.