Study guide
Debussy
Includes a detailed summary of the information needed for A2 exam. Background, Key points of interest, Structure, Melody, Tonality, Harmony, Texture, Sonority, Rhythm & Metre. (FYI Secured B Grade with these notes)
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Debussy’s Estampes:All Pieces
BACKGROUND
- Debussy: Works marked a break from 19th Century Romantic tradition.
↪ Described as impressionist in style although he was reluctant to be classified in
this way.
↪ Include French directions in music.
- Like painters of the time, fascinated with nature, art coming from the Far East
(Javanese Gamelan) and exoticism in general
↪ eg looking to Spain (Le Soiree dans Grenade)
- Estampes: 3 piano pieces exploring main elements of Impressionist style:
● Brevity: short melodies and structure,
● Descriptive music: titles give starting point for interpretation of listener
● Pentatonic and modal melodies- Eastern and Western folk elements.
● Unconventional tonal schemes.
● More diatonic than other early 20thC music.
● Parallel chords.
● Sustaining pedal on the piano to produce misty, watery effects.
POINTS OF INTEREST
- The French style and Impressionism
- 20th Century features
- The Far East and Exoticism
↪ Gamelan
- How he broke away from German Romantic tradition
, Pagodes
STRUCTURE
Point Explanation Reference(s)
Loose ternary form Loose ternary form: ‘Nocturnes’, Debussy (1899)
↪ though the central section - Sense of structural freedom and
has elements from the first ambiguity was one of Debussy’s key
one, and each of the three stylistic traits, and a typical feature of
sections has a number of the ‘Impressionist’ style.
subsections. - Writing undefined forms of a cyclical
nature, with the structural role of
functional tonality severely weakened
= was Debussy’s most important step
in moving away from the style of
Germanic Romanticism,
- It perhaps was rooted in Debussy’s
admiration for the work ‘The Nursery’
(1868) by the Russian romantic,
Mussorgksy, who also looked away
from the music of central Europe.
--------------------------------------
Structural brevity: ‘8 Songs’, Anton Webern (1901)
(a feature here) - A composer who also
- At odds with the grandeur of German eschewed the Germanic
romanticism was perhaps influenced language of the late
by the early works of Anton Webern Romantic era
- These works also
maintained the importance
of motivic writing within
short structures;
something that is true here
of Debussy also.
Largely dominated by the Largely dominated by the tonal centre of B: ‘Jeux d’eau’, Debussy (1901)
tonal centre of B (a loose B - Despite the weakening of tonality, it - Despite moving away
major, but without definitive still bears a structural role within the from functional tonality,
confirmation) work still uses tonality in a
↪ With some modulatory - Therefore marking Debussy out as structural capacity
movement considerably less extreme than some
(although couldn’t say that of his contemporaries in his approach
tonality to tonality, such as Bartok and Scriabin
articulated structure in any
functional sense) - Debussy is still more associated with
composers such as Ravel despite
moving away from functional tonality,
still uses tonality in a structural
capacity.
, MELODY
Point Explanation Reference(s)
Opening melody of the piece evinces tendency of Structural brevity: 8 Songs’, Anton
many early twentieth century composers towards (a feature here) Webern (1901)
brevity: - At odds with the grandeur of -
- being only two bars in length German romanticism was
perhaps influenced by the
early works of Anton Webern:
A composer who also
eschewed the Germanic
language of the late Romantic
era
These works also maintained
the importance of motivic
writing within short structures;
something that is true here of
Debussy also.
Melodies are influenced by the pentatonic scale Melodies are influenced by the Prèlude à l’après
↪ such as the Javanese slendro scale. pentatonic scale: midi d’un faune’,
- Gives the music an ‘oriental’ Debussy (1894)
hue
- Pentatonic influences had
been an important part of
Debussy’s ‘‘Impressionist’
musical language before this
work as a means of breaking
away from the harmonic
language of Germanic
Romanticism
Two-bar pentatonic-style melody begins in bar 3 + is Motivic writing within ‘8 Songs’ Anthony
then used as an ostinato: short forms: Webern (1901)
- this melody actually contains only four pitches – C♯, - Remained an important part
D♯, F♯ and G♯. of Debussy’s style
↪ fifth note (B) is in the accompanying pattern - Common to many of the
A three- note figure is played three times in the
‘post-tonal’ writers of his
second of these bars, up an
time
octave each time.
- 1st two notes are then repeated as part of a triplet.
- melody here is equivalent to what might be played
on the metallophones of a gamelan ensemble
- Bar 11: same four-note figure presented in a triplet
variation as part of a passage of two-part
counterpoint
↪ B now in the lower, harmonised voice
- We can see a similar approach used imitatively in
23
Showing overall:
A DEGREE OF MOTIVIC DEVELOPMENTAL PROCEDURES
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