Debussy Music

Similarly to Brahms, Debussy uses a Ternary Form structure of ABA. Furthermore, within the A section there is two subsections and a transitions. You can tell each different subsection because there is something new going on in each section. For example, in A1 the main theme of the flute is present, to the transition where the instrumentation changes and the melody starts to get scalic, and then for the final subsection it has a significant difference of a new tempo. This is a comparison with Brahms because Debussy has also experimented within the structure but has not gone to the extent that Brahms has. Lastly, the whole structure is based on description. Debussy is trying to give a musical/visual image to a tone poem, and this helps him to create his structure throughout, because it needed to adapt to what was going on.

inspiration for the composition of the piece, as it was written in French to make use of the language’s sound and enhance its decadence.

In this essay I will be discussing the extent that Dmitri Shostakovich adhered to and rebelled from the conventions and traditions that were normalized in classical music and I will offer varied examples of the many times Shostakovich has obeyed and dissented within music throughout his career. The career span of Shostakovich extends from 1926 when he presented his first major work, Symphony No.1 to 1970 when he presented Quartet No. 7.

Richard Taruskin is one of the many American musicologists and historians whose interest is in the theory of music performance. The author of many literary works such as No Ear for Music: The Scary Purity of John Cage is mainly interested in Russian folk literature where he analyzes the historical trends behind every story. The American author is also well-renowned for his famous articles written in The New York Times, for instance, ‘The Danger of Music and other Anti-Utopian Essays’ and others with a strong relation to social, cultural and political issues in the essays. This essay is a response to Taruskin’s No Ear for Music: The Scary Purity of John Cage. The essay will focus on analyzing its critical argument in an attempt to really

“Pagodes” is taken from Claude Debussy’s “Estampes”, a collection of three pieces for solo piano composed in 1903. Working from Paris, in these pieces Debussy explores the beginnings of the new French impressionist style that Debussy was a central innovator in, though Debussy personally rejected the term. “Estampes” moves away from the predominantly German, late-Romantic style by avoiding extreme length and melodic complexity in favour of, as Michael Kennedy describes it, “conveying the moods and emotions aroused by the subject” through briefer and melodically simpler pieces. Debussy also moves away from the tonal system, utilising techniques such as the use of the whole-tone and pentatonic scales and quartal and quintal chords to create

Bergeron, paradoxically yet successfully, chooses to get to the core of the French mélodie by looking at it from a distance. Her focuses on the mélodie’s complex relationship with the German Lied, the pedagogical movements of the French language in the late-nineteenth century, and Claude Debussy’s opera Pelléas et Melisande in order to “examine the range of French expression [Debussy] puts on stage and how he represents that range in music” are all indirect yet inventive ways in which Bergeron embraces the challenges of defining this elusive vocal genre (xiii). Perhaps Bergeron sets out to define the French mélodie through indirect methods for exactly that reason; a genre as complex as the mélodie could not be fully understood if one attempted to get to its center through traditional means. Stating that French art song is “a musical repertory based on […] delicacy and restraint […]”, Bergeron clearly has a grasp on

Susan McClary’s scholarly article, A Musical Dialect from the Enlightenment: Mozart’s Piano Concerto in G Major, K. 453, Mvt. 2, starts off with her recalling a time after watching a performance of the concerto with a colleague and the two of them confessing different opinions about the soloist’s performance. McClary, who liked the performance, notes that soloist articulates “unusual compositional strategies indicated in Mozart’s texts”. The argument ends with the two not only about the piece and Mozart, but also about the significance of the eighteenth-century. McClary’s article attempts to critique the perfection of Mozart’s works.

The piece written at a slow tempo and has a meter of 4/4 throughout. It has a soft and small dynamic range, moving between pianissimo and piano, and a light texture. The piece is written with three staves in order to clarify and neaten Debussy’s notation. The piece has a B-flat in the key signature, suggesting D minor. The piece mainly centers around the pitch D.

Musical modernism can be seen as the time where music emerges its liberty from Romantic era style -that started in the late nineteen century to end of the Second World War- and gains new ideas and freedom. With the political turmoil and chaos that took over the European countries, -that lured countries into the First World War- composers and artists started to find, create more and new ways to express themselves. They eagerly began to discover the art of Eastern countries with the hope of finding new ways of expression. The changes in tonality, irregular rhythms, tone clusters, distressed and antagonistic melodies, the expressionist, abstract, unusual ideas over powers the music, the traditional structures recreated or composed with

Classical music in the twentieth century was marked by an avoidance of Common Practice Period traditions. At the same time, classical music in the twentieth century represented a blending of old ideas with new practices. These two beliefs tended to clash with one another, but this competition allowed for a great leap forward in musical evolution. Three artists were responsible for that great leap forward. Debussy sparked an interest in tonality, texture and timbre which others later emulated.

The 19th Century saw many composers come to light as they made a mark on the art music world. Unknown at the time, they would soon be remembered for their work in decades to come. As music developed so did the various ways to portray the piece that was being played. One type of art music that emerged at the time was ‘programme music’. This was defined as where the “composer intends to guard the listener against a wrong poetical interpretation” . In other words it was a way to correctly convince an audience of the story with a number of movements. Composer Camille Saint – Saens was one of the many who did this exceptionally well. Throughout his lifetime, 1835 – 1921, he was known to be one of “France’s most gifted musicians” . Many of his works are still used today and have helped inspire many in not only the musical world, but outside of it as well.

Claude Debussy was born in France on August 22, 1862 during a decade in which Roger Nichols’s claims was one of “the low points of French musical life” (4). Debussy clashed with the musical norms of his time due to his fascination with writing music for how it sounds and feels. Lesure writes, “Ever since his years at the Conservatoire, Debussy had felt that he had more to learn from artists than from career-obsessed musicians” (5). Debussy composed from the ideas around him and this is heard in his composition of “Clair de lune”. Claude Debussy’s “Claire de lune” is one of his most beloved and known piano works. “Clair de lune” is the third movement of Debussy’s piano concerto, Suite Bergamasque, published in 1905 and offers a view into the complexity and originality of Claude Debussy. “Clair de lune” beautifully displays Debussy’s fascination with nature and symbolist poetry. Debussy uses form and atmospheric phrasing to depict the melancholic and subdued beauty of nature.

Chopin wrote the Sonata, Op. 58 in 1844, several months after the Berceuse, Op. 57. The Berceuse provides inspiration for the slow movement (Samson, Chopin 23). These works were written at a time when Chopin’s relationship with George Sand was

Music in the nineteenth century was starting to become recognized as one of the major arts. No longer seen just as a casual form of entertainment, musicians and composers began to gain respect in artistic circles. One of the key figures to help bring up this new reverence for music was Beethoven, with his sonatas and symphonies impacting the public massively. Not only where his musical works perfect for the Romantic ideals of the time, but his personal afflictions, especially his deafness, fit perfectly into the Romantic archetype of the suffering artist. Beethoven literally became a figurehead of Romanticism in a much admired painting of the time depicting Franz Liszt at the piano, surrounded by other prominent artists, fixated on a bust of Beethoven in the windowsill. This painting perfectly depicts the new respect music had gained within the artistic community of the nineteenth century largely through the life and works of Beethoven.

Already rising up to becoming a great icon, Chopin played a major role in the art of composing piano pieces. Chopin created his own original technique that made his music so ingenious. He composed the “Trois Nouvelles Etudes”, the three new studies. These studies showed his various new techniques that later influenced the keyboard, and music itself (Hueneker 140). Chopin also constructed his own original pieces by including different genres of music into one composition. For example, he would combine a polonaise and a mazurka, two different Polish dances, one being slow while the other is lively. Frederic Chopin also influenced composition with his genius use of the piano. He used the instrument to its fullest effect to create a beautiful and expressive piece (Politoske, Daniel T.). His creativity was prominently brought out this way as he was able to produce melody and harmony (Samson 4). As a matter of fact, Chopin reached fame for his various piano compositions rather than his orchestral pieces (Politoske, Daniel T.). His arrangements utilized the piano in the most unique way which is why other musicians and his audiences admired his music. Arthur Rubinstein stated that, “…all possible expressions are found in his compositions and are all sung by him upon his instrument,” (Hueneker 91). Even