My freshman year music appreciation class — a slow march through the history of traditional classical music from the Medieval period onward — felt like work, until the instructor put on a piece by Claude Debussy. Suddenly, finally, something in my heart flipped on.
Pianist Boris Berman, the head of the piano department at the Yale School of Music, certainly feels his own strong connection to the French composer’s work, having recorded two CDs of Debussy’s music and given lectures on the topic.
Berman will perform the “Complete Preludes of Debussy” at Sweeney Concert Hall at Smith College in Northampton Sunday at 3 p.m. It’s a free show and open to the public.
Whatever I learned about the French composer on that long-ago school day (like how Debussy was labeled an Impressionist, and he didn’t love the term), it was turned into background noise by the gentle shock of the lush, romantic music, with chords and harmonies that seemed so much more colorful and free than what had come before.
“The Complete Preludes” — two “books,” containing a total of 24 short pieces — include a hit single of sorts, the oft-played and eternally gorgeous “The Girl With the Flaxen Hair.” It lasts less than three minutes, yet the flowing piece more than once catches you off guard with breathtaking color shifts and beautiful shading, like the way the sky morphs as the sun sets.
Other standouts include the enigmatic journey of “The Sunken Cathedral” and the playful “La Danse de Puck,” which may have inspired some bits of the soundtrack to (believe it or not) the arcade game “Marble Madness.” It’s possible; Debussy’s many-hued compositions have influenced countless musicians (George Gershwin, Thelonious Monk, Burt Bacharach and John Williams just to name four).
Berman and one of his students, Smith’s Iva Dee Hiatt Visiting Artist in Piano, Henry Kramer, will have an informal discussion of “pianists living the musical life” at the Earle Recital Hall at Smith Saturday at 3 p.m. (Also free and open to the public.)
Zoe & Cloyd, the Asheville, North Carolina, husband-and-wife Americana duo of Natalya Zoe Weinstein and John Cloyd Miller, have some ties to the area (Weinstein is originally from Leverett). They’re in the middle of funding their second album through Indiegogo, and will bring their fiddle, banjo, mandolin, guitar, harmonies and personal style of Appalachian music to Wesley United Methodist Church in Hadley Friday at 7 p.m.
Folk/classical multi-instrumentalist Leyla McCalla (former cellist for Carolina Chocolate Drops) released a new record earlier this year, “A Day for the Hunter, A Day for the Prey,” and will play The Parlor Room in Northampton Friday at 8 p.m.
Peter Smolenski and Friends perform at the Luthiers Co-Op in Easthampton Saturday at 9:30 p.m. Sharing the bill are The Retroverts (8 p.m.) and Scott Meyers (7 p.m.)
The Proclaimers, aka Scottish twins Charlie and Craig Reid, are known on these shores for one big song, their 1993 top-10 smash “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles).” But in the United Kingdom they’ve had an award-winning stage musical (and film version) built around their tunes, and they play for massive festival crowds. See the brothers at Pearl Street in Northampton Monday at 7 p.m. Jenny O opens the show.
Post-rockers Explosions In the Sky have a long-awaited new album out, “The Wilderness,” and they bring their self-described “cathartic mini-symphonies” to the Calvin Theatre in Northampton Tuesday at 8 p.m. Julianna Barwick opens.
The indie band Lucius released a new record earlier this year (“Good Grief”). The Brooklyn-based group will be at the Academy of Music in Northampton Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. JD McPherson opens.
Onetime rootsy buskers on the sidewalks of Portland, Oregon, Fruition has become a big-stage act with rock energy. The group’s endless tour brings it to the Iron Horse in Northampton Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. Amherst’s own Mamma’s Marmalade starts off the night.
It’s a local band double bill when Dungeoness (heavy and melodic trio from Northampton) and Rebel Base (stoner-garage-metal from Greenfield) team up for a show presented by vinyl-only record label Peace & Rhythm at The Root Cellar (located below Mesa Verde) in Greenfield Wednesday at 8 p.m. Free admission, but you must be 21 or over to attend.
Violinist Darol Anger (a founding member of the David Grisman Quintet) brings his group, The Furies, to The Parlor Room on Thursday at 7 p.m.