He not only infused each work with the harmonic language and compositional techniques of the period, but he also made the listener an important partner in the sharing of his most intimate thoughts and feelings. Analysis debussy voiles frederic chopin entertainment general. His compositions are extremely influential in the development of 20th century music. About the melodic and harmonic organization of debussys.
Claude debussy, in full achilleclaude debussy, born august 22, 1862, saintgermainenlaye, francedied march 25, 1918, paris, french composer whose works were a seminal force in the music of the 20th century. Preludes and an indepth analysis of brouillards and voiles are included. Musical analysis as a technique for performance decisions in. Voiles can mean either veils or masks or sails or sailboats. These notes supplement the annotated scores on moodle and are designed to be used in conjunction with them. Analysis debussy voiles claude debussy elements of music.
The sonata for flute, viola, and harp, written in 1915, is an excellent example of claude debussys later style. Spend lots of time making sure you understand the overall structure and the details of the analysis, using the scores on moodle and these notes. My analysis of canope debussy preludes for piano, book. Im currently in the early stages of posting a series of articles through my music blog on the process of analysis of the debussy piece arabesque no. Notes this edition is filled with mistakes, including incorrect rhythms and missing accidentals. Korsakov, debussy, and ravel, preserved a more conventional understanding of the relation between chord and scale,but within a significantly expanded musical vocabulary. I would argue the tonality of this piece as being primarily based in c major. Voiles is a composition by claude debussy for solo piano from 1909. Debussy, pentatonicism, and the tonal tradition jeremy dayoconnell this article presents a historical and analytical assessment of one of the important components of debussys musical style.
Voiles, meaning either veils or sails in french, is an example of an impressionist piece of music even though debussy himself refused the title of an impressionist. For a more in depth analysis of the harmonic and formulaic structure of the piece, click here. Other sources say that debussy was about to dedicate his string quartet to chausson but changed his mind, presumably because of chaussons personal reservations. He developed a highly original system of harmony and musical structure that expressed in many respects the ideals to which the impressionist and symbolist painters and writers.
Finally, although in voiles the contrast and similarity between the two modesboth with. Debussy wrote to a friend in 1916 quote, you do me great honor by calling me a pupil of claude monet. Its a piece called sails, voiles, sails by debussy. Other debussian devices include the regarding of the seventh chord e. Im looking very specifically at the in depth functionality of the music through a variety of analytic methods. But rather than taking such wholly understandable dissatisfaction as grounds for dismissal, it is more fruitful to consider whether the analytical categories. Parting the veils of debussy s voiles page 47 doesnt feel as it should and by some sense of the poetic penumbra that still. A different approach to analysis of claude debussys music. Nontraditional scales extended harmony traditional chords used in nontraditional context harmonic color tonal ambiguity. But for this piece, to make sense, weve got to meet a new scale that debussy employs here. Scribd is the worlds largest social reading and publishing site. With glissandos emulating the sound of a harp, and by incorporating numerous dissonant chords that do not resolve to any traditional patterns of chord. Debussy avoided the formal recapitulations and developments of the. In the first place, it attempts to oppose static and dynamic harmonic.
Appraising background information the composer claude debussy 18621918 was the leading french composer of the end of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Debussy reverie, practicing routines, blocking, harmonic analysis youtube piano instruction part 1. Parting the veils of debussys voiles page 45 important, if not the only, property of the wholetone scale itselfthe fact that it can be transposed once, by a semitone, to provide the other six notes of the chromatic scale. When we say nontraditional scales we refer to scales other than the major and minor scales used in baroque, classical and romantic music. Cambridge university press 97805211458 debussy in proportion. My analysis of canope debussy preludes for piano, book ii. As you listen to the piece, it may help to also reference the piano score if you have experience reading music. He is often labelled impressionist a term derived from painting, in which outlines are. One of its significant characteristics is the way in which debussy treats tonality. Analysis debussy voiles claude debussy elements of. A summary of their overall effect on debussys melody and harmony. Appraising background information the composer claude debussy 18621918 was the leading french composer of the end of the nineteenth and early. About the melodic and harmonic organization of debussys prelude canope 19 canope is a piano prelude of claude debussy 18621918. Claude debussy and the javanese gamelan debussys exposure to the gamelan debussy may have first heard the instruments of the gamelan as early as 1887, when the dutch government gave a gamelan to the paris conservatoire.
Debussy does not only use traditional church modes e. Claude debussy and the javanese gamelan brent hugh. Impressionism has become a vaguer term as the works of. The first remarkable change in debussy s piano literature occurs in pour le piano, which was published in 1901. The debussy prelude voiles, which i have not touched since my christmas concert, was languid and transparent, something i have been struggling to achieve at home. The wholescale serves as an organizing factor through most of the work. The purpose of this thesis is to discuss the elements of this later style and represent them graphically.
Harmonic tonality 4 chapter ii scales, modes and chords. Harmonic innovations in historical and musical context by ford fourqurean a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements of the csu honors program for honors in the degree of bachelor of music in music performance college of the arts columbus state university thesis advisor cylx. The title refers to a type burial urn from the city of canope in egypt. An analysis of debussys sonata for flute, viola, and harp. Debussy for free and with almost a years training, debussy gained acceptance into the paris conservatoire 31. Voiles music score from preludes book 1 debussy, claude at imslp notes. Analysis debussy voiles frederic chopin entertainment. Faure, an older contemporary of debussy, was attracted to symbolist poetry as well, and he set many poems to music. Debussy preludes the student must look for the book the piano works of claude debsusy, by e. In voiles, debussy uses a slightly different approach to layering his melodies. Richard parks set theory useful to analyze debussys music.
But he first heard the complete gamelan orchestra, played by skilled native musicians, in 1889 at the paris exhibition. Claude debussy 18621918 was a french impressionist composer and pianist. Dissonance after wagner, voiles sails, from the first book of preludes for pianocan be said to exist without harmonic resolution and, therefore, without traditional tonality. Voiles, from debussys first book of preludes, certainly displays some of debussys compositional affinities. Debussy, pentatonicism, and the tonal tradition jeremy day. Claude debussy background debussy 18621918 was in many ways a radical composer. The choice of compound triple meter for this movement shows the.
Debussys diatonic writing the quality of harmonic goaldirectedness. It is the second piece in a set of twelve preludes published in 1910. Todays video is based on a simple concept that youre bound to run into on your piano journey the whole tone scale. The excerpt in figure l is the main melody of voiles as it opens the piece and constantly reappears throughout the piece as a repetitive motif. Debussy, pentatonicism, and the tonal tradition jeremy dayo. A descriptive analysis of the preludes book i of claude debussy thesis presented. In his later works, debussy took greater chances, implementing more nonresolving dissonances selfproclaimed floating chords and fragmented forms. Memory and tonality in debussy s prelude a lapresmidi d. Their relationship to melody and harmony in the preludes of debussy.
This practice, while often radical, nevertheless also. In the first movement, prelude, debussy introduces a large section based on wholetone harmony ih which the tonal cerite is suspended. Its a piece that is very well suited to an instrument with a very singing, limpid treble set over a deep, resonant bass perfect for those recurring bflat pedal points. Debussy threw out wagners harmonic glue, allowing more options for harmonic movement. It has like debussys prelude a simple, stylized classical design. Voiles for not being as he elsewhere describes lisle joyeuse a satisfying subject for detailed harmonic analysis p. Beginning his magisterial tome on the movement, impressionism, art historian meyer schapiro writes. On both an harmonic and melodic level, debussy made use of a variety of scales such as the wholetone, octatonic and pentatonic see, for example, the use of wholetone scales in voiles from the first book of preludes.
Debussys early phase 18881890 consisted of small conventional style pieces, but a ravel performance in 1898 may have influenced his change to a new style. C harmonic tonality 4 chapter ii scales, modes and chords. In this prelude we find examples of harmonic procedures commonly used in claude debussys music like. The title of the piece may be translated to english as either veils or sails. From this point, debussys quality of education is unquestioned but the conservatoire environments strict methodology would spur his artistic growth while feeding debussys distain toward the conservative approach to harmony. The piece elicits feelings of serenity within an eerie tranquility. I provide the original scanned version and the filtered, because the filter does some changes smoothening, sharpening borders and some portions of the scan get lost sometimes when they are too small e. Questi tre elementi vengono sovrapposti alle battute 912.
Parting the veils of debussy s voiles page 45 important, if not the only, property of the wholetone scale itselfthe fact that it can be transposed once, by a semitone, to provide the other six notes of the chromatic scale. Used pentatonic and whole tone scales in his works did not follow typical harmonic progressions was very interested in color and timbre conclusion passepied is the fourth movement of suite bergamasque a passepied is a french court. Memory and tonality in debussy s prelude a lapresmidi dun faune. It is a very descriptive book where all the formal, structural, harmonic and contextual analysis of the work can be found. This is a special type of mode that is frequently found in early twentieth century music. Aug 12, 2017 todays video is based on a simple concept that youre bound to run into on your piano journey the whole tone scale. Debussys contribution to the genre was a characteristically impressionist one. The purpose of this thesis is to discuss the elements of. A musical analysis roy howat excerpt more information. Norton critical score, the hermeneutic analysis by david j. It provides another interesting perspective by actually looking at the music while also thinking of the imagery inspired by each section.
The first remarkable change in debussys piano literature occurs in pour le piano, which was published in 1901. Debussy s contribution to the genre was a characteristically impressionist one. Heres a musical counterpart of this painting about ships and sails by monet. His settings are known as melodie, a genre of art song. Il primo comincia con lelaborazione della quartina di biscrome tratta da a. As seen in figure l, while maintaining the same right hand melody, debussy adds not just one, but two melodic lines under. Scale networks and debussy dmitri tymoczko it is frequently observed that over the course of the nineteenth century the chromatic scale gradually supplanted the diatonic. Despite the research i have done regarding the title, the results i have found are still only speculation. A stylistic analysis of the piano works of debussy and ravel thesis presented to the graduate council of the north texas state teachers college in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of master of music by elizabeth rose jameson, b.
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