Debussy Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

As a long-time admirer of classical music, I was always particularly interested in symphonic descriptions of the Sea. Since several years I began taking notes of the pieces on the subject and finally it took a form of the current compilation. This program is not pretended to be comprehensive as it is based on my personal musical preferences which would equally explain the domination of the Russian composers.
I would like to address this program to my family that admires the Sea, to my shipmates of archaeological missions in Egypt and those of the sailing frigate ‘L’Hermione’, as well as to all people that love symphonic music and the Sea.
The accompanying text section (in English, Russian and French) includes general information and some curious facts concerning the creation of each piece.
I wish you a nice listening,
A.B.

- by
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- Maritime Archaeology, Oceanography, Benjamin Britten, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy
- by Daniel Shanahan
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- Music Theory, Debussy, French Music

Impressionism in music - In relation to Debussy

- by Vasile Tiano
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- Music History, Music Theory, Musicology, French Impressionism

«Musica/Realtà», novembre 2001, pp. 22-35. Questo saggio prende in esame le allusioni all'acqua e alle materie fluide nella poetica debussyana (titoli, riferimenti negli scritti dell'autore...) e nella storia della ricezione della musica... more

«Musica/Realtà», novembre 2001, pp. 22-35.
Questo saggio prende in esame le allusioni all'acqua e alle materie fluide nella poetica debussyana (titoli, riferimenti negli scritti dell'autore...) e nella storia della ricezione della musica di questo compositore.

- by Francesco Spampinato
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- Musical Semiotics, Debussy, Claude Debussy

Takemitsu’s two-piano concertante work Quotation of Dream: Say Sea, Take Me! (1991) is typical of the composer’s late works in its rarefied atmosphere and spacious, carefully balanced structure, both qualities which highlight the influence of Claude Debussy. Uniquely within his output, however, here Takemitsu makes this debt explicit: Quotation of Dream is interwoven with a series of direct quotations from Debussy’s La Mer, which serve as crucial landmarks in its formal drama. Three metaphors taken from Takemitsu’s writings serve to delimit a number of different layers at which we might perceive the work. We might hear it as a ‘dream’, perceptually immediate and built around bizarre free-associations; as a Japanese ‘stroll garden’, where elements recur in ways which seem free but are actually carefully balanced; or as a fractured ‘mirror’ (or even a hall of mirrors), integrating Western and Japanese elements into an ambiguous, unstable whole.

- by Mark Hutchinson
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- Music, Intertextuality, Contemporary Music, Music analysis

L'analyse des listes de vélocités fournies par le fichier-Midi de l'enregistrement numérique d'une interprétation de 'La Cathédrale Engloutie' réalisé en situation de concert, permet de mettre à jour très précisément certains aspects de la stratégie de lâinterprète face au problème de la sonorité debussyenne, et plus particulièrement des rapports timbre/intensité. Elle apporte en outre des données sur les corrélations entre les prescriptions écrites et leur réalisation effective.

- by Didier Guigue
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- Piano, Debussy, Piano performance and repertoire, Analyse Musicale

Il seguente lavoro ha lo scopo di analizzare Fêtes, secondo dei Trois Nocturnes, non solo dal punto di vista musicale. L’analisi delle fonti extramusicali (lettere, saggi, articoli di giornale) redatte dallo stesso Debussy, o da personaggi vicini sia ideologicamente che fisicamente, ha permesso di ottenere informazioni più interessanti del capire una tonalità o del riconoscere i temi.

- by Andrea Sordano
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- Symbolism, Classical Music, Debussy, Claude Debussy
- by Damien Ehrhardt
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- Aesthetics, Music Aesthetics, Franz Liszt, Berlioz

The musical developments that occurred during the Belle Epoque are indicative of the cultural changes taking place, such as moral relaxation, international awareness, and the birth of a community that promoted artistic development.

- by Mallory Johnson
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- France, French Impressionism, Debussy, Belle Epoque
- by C.M. Griffiths
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- Music, Symbolism, Michel Foucault, Twentieth-century Music

Claude Debussy was a notable music critic of the French Third Republic. The aim of this study is to determine the signification of the critical works of Debussy in the context of both musical and cultural history. As a young composer,... more

- by Joowon Kim
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- Literature and Music, Music Criticism, Debussy

Os ateliers, seminários e encontros realizados com Claude Ledoux se inscreveram no âmbito de atividades acadêmicas desenvolvidas na Unicamp e na Usp na área de Análise Musical e compreenderam: Reflexão sobre a Análise Musical relacionada a tradições populares; Impacto do conhecimento de tradições populares no ato da composição musical; Claude Debussy e as tradições do Sudeste Asiático; Ligeti e a influência de músicas subsaarianas; Feldmann, tradições do Oriente-Médio e filosofias orientais; Scelsi, Murail e Harvey: interesse mutuo em músicas tibetanas, mongólicas e outros rituais budistas; Eötvös e Kurtag em relação às tradições da Europa Central; Claude Ledoux: influência das músicas da Índia do Norte e Indonésia; Relações com etnomusicologia e improvisação musical em extensão às reflexões analíticas; Levy Strauss e a Sinfonia de Berio; Relação entre música e texto em Berio e Kurt Schwitters.

- by José Augusto Mannis
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- Popular Music, Oral Tradition In Popular Music, Popular Culture, Edgar Morin
- by Nigel Simeone
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- Debussy, French Music

Le prélude « La fille aux cheveux de lin » de Debussy est de ces pièces qui conjuguent intérêt pédagogique et musical. Accessible aux jeunes pianistes, interprétée par les plus grands, elle présente en trente-neuf mesures une complexité de forme et de langage qui a suscité l’intérêt de nombreux musicologues et analystes. Au-delà d’un bilan des recherches analytiques développées depuis près d’un siècle sur la base de ce prélude, l’objectif de cet atelier est d’instaurer un dialogue entre discours analytique et jeu instrumental : quels choix d’interprétation les différentes analyses sont-elles susceptibles de suggérer ? Et dans quelle mesure l’interprétation pianistique peut-elle conduire à développer certaines approches analytiques de cette pièce ? Nous présenterons certains éléments d’analyse et tenterons d’en évaluer la pertinence sur le plan de l’interprétation en dialoguant et en expérimentant au piano avec les interprètes présents. Nous inviterons également les pianistes à partager leurs propres conceptions analytiques et réaliserons ensemble de nouvelles analyses. Les points envisagés porteront notamment sur la forme d’ensemble, la rhétorique formelle, l’harmonie, le timbre, ainsi que sur les relations complexes entre la conduite mélodique et les progressions harmoniques. Ces éléments seront mis en regard avec différents choix interprétatifs. Cet atelier s’adresse autant à des spécialistes et amateurs de l’analyse musicale qu’à des interprètes, enseignants, étudiants ou plus jeunes élèves de conservatoire.

- by Nathalie Hérold
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- Music Theory, Piano Music, Music analysis, Debussy

La perfetta simbiosi esistente, nella musica di Debussy, fra tonalità e sistemi sonori non diatonici viene indagata a fondo nel saggio. Prendendo come punto di riferimento il primo libro dei Préludes (1909-10), viene illustrato come molti... more

- by Domenico Giannetta
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- Music Theory, Modality, Music analysis, Debussy

Tout au long de l’histoire de sa réception, Reflets dans l’eau a souvent été associé aux paysages aquatiques de peintres impressionnistes comme Manet, Renoir, Sisley, Monet. Pour Emile Vuillermoz, Paul Roberts, François Sabatier et tant d’autres, les sonorités de cette pièce évoquent des paysages typiques de ces peintres. Comment une expérience purement sonore peut-elle renvoyer à de telles perceptions visuelles suggestives, jusqu'à tisser, comme le disait André Suarès, un véritable « poème de l’agonie de la lumière » ? Les métaphores de la réception nous fournissent des clés de lecture de la pièce. Et une analyse perceptive de l’œuvre permet d’étudier les équivalences entre expériences auditives et visuelles comme mise en jeu de mécanismes de perception similaires. La poétique de la pièce se présente ainsi comme axée sur la relation entre une mobilité inertielle et géométrique de la surface et une mobilité vitale et non gestaltique du fond.

- by Francesco Spampinato
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- Semiotics, Musicology, Metaphor, Imagination
- by Richard Greenan
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- Nationalism, Debussy

L'Isle joyeuse (The Joyful Island) is one of Claude Debussy's (1862-1918) piano piece with the most developed, colored and complex writing. The composer will say himself "This piece seems to gather all the ways to touch the piano, for it unites force with grace." He's here at his musical maturity, having already composed works like Prélude à l 'Après-midi d'un faune, or Pelléas et Mélisande; Marguerite Long describes it as "a lavish vision, a wind of joy of a tremendous exuberance." What makes L'Isle joyeuse such a masterpiece in piano music? We'll see firstly the evolution of his music for piano, the agitated biographical context, then references to visual arts and the relation of the piece with Masques. Then, we'll examine the structural part and the stylistic and harmonic techniques through the detailed analysis of three motifs used in the piece.

- by Gabriel Barnagaud
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- Music, Vladimir Jankélévitch, History of music, XXth century music

An analysis of Le Jet d’Eau from Claude Debussy’s Cinq poéms de Charles Baudelaire, reveals the composer’s modernist approach in setting text in musical symbolism. Unlike the German lieder of Mahler or Schubert, this song evidently deviates from the Wagnerian chromaticism. Since his encounter of exoticism in the 1889 World Exposition in Paris, Le Jet d’Eau essentially illuminates Debussy’s shift in compositional aesthetics. Hinged within the symbolist perspective of “hearing as pleasure,” Debussy’s aesthetic transformation becomes evident. Traits, such as the absence of using leitmotiv, the use of non-resolving harmonic sonorities, and his use of musical symbolism to capture his own synaesthesia are among the few indications to his deviation from Gesamtkunstwerk. He separated himself aesthetically through his use of musical symbolism. Consequently, his unique modernist approach—composition through the “hearing as pleasure” —affected later composers pertaining to the relationship between symbolism and music.

- by Glenn P Llorente
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- Music, Symbolism, Modernism, Music analysis

"La cathédrale engloutie" de Debussy is, no doubt, one work with many atractions for the musical analysis. There is the question about the tonal (or, best, modal) background, which raise also questions about modal scales, polarity and... more

- by Enrique Igoa
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- Set Theory, Modal Analysis, Piano Music, Debussy
- by James O'Malley
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- Music, Musicology, Performance Studies, Debussy
- by Marco Brighenti
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- Musicology, Theodor Adorno, Vladimir Jankélévitch, Philosophy of Music

Il ruolo di Claude Debussy nella nascita del flauto del Novecento

- by Luca Rossetto Casel
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- Archaeology, Acoustics, Music, Musical Composition

A study of Pelléas et Mélisande as a work of symbolist theatre arising from the literary and visual movements in France and Belgium in the late nineteenth century, and as a exploration of what was later to be called 'Neurosis' in its... more

- by Emma Brown
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- Music, Musicology, Opera, Symbolism

A substantial analytical literature has been devoted to Syrinx. The piece’s importance for the flute repertoire as well as its unconventional harmonic language has inspired a wide variety of approaches. Through the lens of Schenkerian theory, this paper provides an alternative reading of the piece. It demonstrates how tonal infiltration affects Syrinx’s harmonic discourse, generating a unique process of directional tonality, in which 1^ in Bb minor eventually becomes 3^ in Gb major. The conclusion shows that the procedure not only defines the harmonic structure of the piece, but also reflects the programmatic content originally intended for it.

- by Gabriel Navia
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- Schenkerian Analysis, Debussy, Theory of Harmony, Heinrich Schenker

Timbre is doubtlessly one of the main paradigms of Debussy’s music. It is thus obvious to consider timbre research as a promising tool for the analysis of Debussy’s works. Within the scope of this text, this process is exemplified by an analysis of Nuages, the first movement of Debussy’s Nocturnes for orchestra (1897–99). Timbre constellations are investigated by close listening and by implementation of the MIRtoolbox software (developed by Olivier Lartillot and Petri Toi-viainen in 2007). By comparing four different recordings, a close relationship between bars 5–8 and 80–82 of Nuages is revealed. In respect to their properties of sound and harmony, these passages are ambiguous. This might tempt us to call Debussy’s treatment of sound ‘mysterious’ or ‘inscrutable’. It should always be kept in mind, however, that these ambiguities are composed out with the utmost precision. This insight leads to a reflection on questions of form. If we locate and describe specific constellations of timbre and their precisely defined properties, we are able to compare different areas of form that feature similar properties of sound. As a result, we realise that musical elements are not merely juxtaposed in Debussy’s music, but interwoven in a complex fashion. By re-evaluating formal aspects in their relation to timbre, we approach a new perspective of form that is informed by current timbre research.

- by Lukas Haselböck
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- Sound, Musical Form, French Impressionism, Debussy
- by Johannes Menke
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- Debussy, Musical Analysis, Claude Debussy

Il Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune

- by Luca Rossetto Casel
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- Musicology, Organology, Music Performance, XXth century music
- by Michela Landi
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- Music and Language, Literature and Music, Debussy, Nocturnes
- by Lauren V Coons
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- Music Theory, Literary Symbolism, Debussy, Musical Analysis
- by Luca Rossetto Casel
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- Music, Musicology, Organology, Philosophy of Music

O estudo da música, não somente do presente como também do passado, como um método de compreensão do pensamento e processo composicional. A análise musical pode ser praticada com essa finalidade, não buscando uma verdade absoluta, mas uma... more

- by José Augusto Mannis
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- Mozart, Beethoven, J S Bach, Franz Schubert

In 1911 Turin hosted the Esposizione Internazionale, an International Exhibition of Work and Industry, to commemorate the fifty-year anniversary of the nation's unity. In a wagnerian - at that time - town like Turin, Giuseppe Depanis arranged an orchestral season of modern music and brought to Turin the most famous batons of that time: Safonov, Mengleberg, Kajanus, Elgar and Claude Debussy as well. The article recreates the preparations for the concert, an event destined to remain in Turin and italian music history, because it influenced young composers and critics who attend it, among them Guido M. Gatti (then influential music promoter and artistic director), Ettore Desderi (then composer), Andrea Della Corte (then reporter). Two letters by Debussy now in Archivio Storico del Teatro Regio di Torino are published here for the first time. These letters have no recipient, but perhaps it was Depanis himself or Federigo Bufaletti, a piano teacher in Turin who is said to have been a pupil of Debussy and who was one of the first to spread the music by 'Claude de France' in Turin, although a rather traditionalist one. Debussy's letters throw light on the selection of the program: Chabrier, Roger-Ducasse, Dukas and “Iberia”, the “Prélude à l'après-midi d'un Faune” e “Children's Corner” (orchestration A. Caplet) by Debussy himself. The paper retraces the days Debussy went by in Turin, starting with his arrival at Porta Nuova station, welcomed by the young Vittorio Gui, Depanis and composer Leone Sinigaglia, besides his unsatisfaction about italian orchestra in the rehearsals, which finally were conducted by Vittorio Gui. The latter would give up the baton to the composer only the day of the concert, June 26th. In the following september Toscanini would conduct – again in the Exhibition's concerts – the entire “La Mer”, with success, inciting Debussy to write a letter of thanks (here transcribed, but the original is lost) to Sinigaglia. The paper also adds substance to Debussy's reception in the press in Turin, one of the most precocious in Italy, in personalities like – among others – Leone Sinigaglia, Enrico Thovez, etc.

- by Stefano Baldi
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- Debussy, Turin, Claude Debussy, 20th Century French Music
- by Christophe Charle
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- Cultural History, Music History, Social History, Debussy

Debussy's musical language is based on the juxtaposition of different musical units each consisting of a limited number of pitch-classes, a situation that would seem to be ideal for an analytical approach based on PC-set Theory. The presence of a definite reference pitch, however, shows the similarity of these units with known types of scale, and this interpretation seems the most appropriate for the specific language of Debussy. The transition from one unit to another is facilitated by the presence of one or more pitches, in common to both the modal systems, that work as a pivot, often in combination with some chromatic shiftings which make the transitional process easier and natural. The most surprising aspect, finally, is the way in which Debussy is able to combine this technique with the requirements of the tonality. The great variety of scales used, in fact, although considerably enriches the harmonic context, don't preclude the presence of tonal functions. A double interpretation is always possible: the first is based on the modal system obtained by the pitch-classes present in a specific musical unit, while the second one takes into consideration the relationship established between the different units that reminds the traditional tonal syntax.

- by Domenico Giannetta
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- Music analysis, Debussy

This article discusses the relationship of musical climax and orgasm by considering the case of L'isle joyeuse, a piano piece that Claude Debussy (1862-1918) began in 1903, completing it in the Summer of 1904 soon after starting a sentimental relationship with Emma Bardac, née Moyse (1862-1934), his second wife and the mother of his daughter Claude-Emma, alias 'Chouchou' (1905-1919). By exploring the genesis of the piece, I suggest that the creative process started as the pursuit of a solitary exotic male fantasy, culminating in Debussy's sexual encounter with Emma and leading the composer to inscribe their shared experience in the final, revised form of the piece. The erotic component of the piece has been stressed by, among others, Michael Klein, who speaks of 'undeniable sexual energy' close to the point where, he says, 'the music reaches orgasm.' 1 This description of the final climax seems justified and indeed throws new light on the ways in which music and sexuality are intertwined in the individuals' experience, including, potentially, the listener's. Now, while Klein's insights into the piece are stimulating, he does not justify the use of the word orgasm, which he takes only as a hyperbolic substitute for climax. By exploring the role of music in the actual life of the actors, this article makes a case for orgasm being more than a literary metaphor. At a theoretical level, an ecological approach to music perception suggests that music can afford sexual behaviour and representations in particular situations. I privilege here a discussion of analogies between climax and orgasm, not because I think that orgasm is the essence and purpose of sexual pleasure, as generally thought, but rather because it is well suited for a systematic analysis of the formal relationships between sex and music. 2

- by Esteban Buch
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- Music, Musicology, Gender and Sexuality, Debussy
- by Eni Lulja
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- Music, Music History, Musicology, Classical Guitar

Malgré tout lâintérêt que cette þuvre singulière a pu susciter, il semble extrêmement difficile dâélucider, au moyen des outils théoriques dont la musicologie contemporaine dispose, comment DEBUSSY est parvenu, techniquement, à réaliser une composition bâtie sur un paradigme dâopposition de sonorités. Cet essai, au-delà de la tentative de réponse à cette problématique, vise à mettre en lumière certains éléments structurels spécifiques et sans doute fondamentaux du langage pianistique de DEBUSSY, en ce quâil recèle de plus prospectif pour la musique du XXe siècle : une pensée compositionnelle qui, se libérant des contraintes dâune logique structurante exclusivement motivico-thématico-harmonique, se réalise à partir du concept dâobjet sonore fonctionnellement articulé, responsable pour lâessentiel de la dynamique formelle, une pensée orientée objets.

- by Didier Guigue
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- Sonority-based structure, Debussy, Analyse Musicale
- by Juan José Pastor Comín
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- Music, Music Education, Musicology, Literature and Music

Razdoblje u kojem je Debussy živio bilo je najintenzivnije povezano sa ideološkim i umjetničkim pokretima koji će imati veliku važnost za budućnost evropske kulture cijelog 20. stoljeća. Da bi se moglo dublje zaroniti u analizu Debussyjevih djela, potrebno je obuhvatiti stilove koji su prodirali i u drugim granama umjetnosti. Primjera radi, važan je doprinos impresionista u slikarstvu koji se nije temeljio na onemogućavanju starog načina promatranja, već na učenju približavanja novog viđenja realnosti. Jednaku dozu noviteta izazvala je i Debussyjeva muzika označivši snažnu promjenu tradicionalnog muzičkog jezika 19. stoljeća i pridonijevši nov i snažan udar cjelokupnoj dotadašnjoj koncepciji zapadnoevropske muzike.

- by Harun Zulić and +2
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- French Impressionism, Debussy, Claude Debussy

This article develops analytical tools which illustrate temporal disruptions in the programmatic works for Debussy and Ravel and reshape traditional modes of sonata analysis. In Debussy, a new analytical paradigm, one that invokes his affinity for filmic techniques, is the aborted rondo‐sonata, which employs a post‐expositional breakthrough following an expositional disruption: a rondo form retrospectively morphs into a sonata following the breakthrough. For Ravel, the key analytical tool is what I call resetting of the formal compass (RFC): virtuosic passages, analogous to a formal Etch‐A‐Sketch as a reaction to the music having become ‘lost’ or ‘confused’, that restore formal consciousness. Previous scholarship on Ravel suggests the presence of arch form; the current theory permits an interpretation consistent with a linear, forward‐vectored thematic trajectory. Each of these concepts is based on sonata form's rotational structure, in which temporal fissures disrupt the order of thematic modules either by binding two non‐continuous thematic events or by neutralising formal function to resume thematic progress. When the analyses in are considered in tandem, they can help to build a unifying theory of fin‐de‐siècle French sonata forms.

- by Andrew Aziz
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- Film Studies, Phenomenology, Debussy, Maurice Ravel
- by Marco Brighenti
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- Vladimir Jankélévitch, Philosophy of Music, Debussy, Maurice Maeterlinck
- by Luis Ballesteros Pastor
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- Mozart, J S Bach, Ancient Greek Music, Baudelaire