Claude Debussy’s Scottish March has a bit of an odd conception. In 1890, the twenty-eight year old composer accepted a (seemingly random) commission by J. Meredith Read. At this time in his life, Debussy had not reached his compositional fame and thus supported himself by teaching piano lessons, arranging extant orchestral works for piano duet, and taking any commission offer that came his way. Read was an American diplomat who served as the U.S. consul general to France and Algeria in 1869-1873. After the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71), Read was appointed by French General Cissey to oversee the education of the English language to French troops. In France, Read, who claimed to be a descendant of the Scottish “Lords of Ross,” met and approached Debussy about writing a work based on a simple theme that was passed down through his extended family from Scotland. 

Read assumed the theme he hummed to Debussy was a bagpipe tune local to his family’s (supposed) heritage land. Recent scholarship suggests this theme was tied to Meggernie Castle in central Scotland and was not, in fact, associated with the Lords of Ross—a Northern Scottish clan—at all. 

Debussy agreed and wrote Read’s short work for piano duet. The composer was glad to receive the commission but was not particularly fond of this piece. Nearly twenty years later, Debussy revisited his piano work and decided to arrange the March for a full symphony orchestra. 

Debussy’s signature orchestral coloring (twenty years of compositional experience was fruitful) brings much needed dimension to the Scottish March; muted strings flutter through trills before a pair of flutes introduces a shortened theme. Bassoons and celli pick up where the flutes leave off, creating an orchestral take on a traditional Scottish reel. The main theme is definitely a march, though the rest of the work deviates rather quickly. Listeners might expect much more pomp and circumstance, but rather than remain in lock-step with a traditional march style, Debussy mutates the simple folk theme into a much more rhapsodic episode for orchestra. As the work progresses, Debussy doubles-down on the theme’s rustic charm, often supporting the tune with open fifths that create a sense of arcadian openness, harmonically.