A Mighty Fortress Is Our God
Debussy composed "En blanc et noir" at his vacation residence on the Normandy coast between 4 and 20 June 1915. He was suffering from cancer. France had been at war since 3 August 1914, and emotions were heated against everything German. The work is a late fruit of his experience as a pianist and composer, and it contains many personal allusions which have not been completely deciphered. In the second movement, he quoted Martin Luther's hymn "Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott", known in English as "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God", as a reference to Lutheran Germany. Around the same time, during a late flourish in his prolific output, he composed his Cello Sonata, Sonata for flute, viola and harp, and the piano "Études", to which "En blanc et noir" is often compared.