Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

musical modernism • move away from conventional practices of representation in the arts

challenges to • scales • melody • harmony • rhythm • tone color • time • tonality • and more

Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

musical modernism

Paris (1889 International Exposition)

Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

musical modernism

Paris

gamelan

Claude Debussy“Pagodas”, from Prints (1899)

influenced by hearing gamelan music

multiple melodies moving at separate tempos (at start)

percussive, resonant timbre

exoticism: attempt to evoke “the East” (title, scales, music)

impressionistic effects

Claude Debussy (1862-1918)“Clouds”, from Three Nocturnes (1899)

Impressionism - blurred impression of outer reality

Claude Monet (French impressionist painter)

James Whistler

Debussy, “Clouds”, from Three Nocturnes (1899)

oscillating, repeated, cyclical chords

motivic, not goal-oriented

unconventional development, unconventional form

alternative scales• pentatonic scale• octatonic scale

Debussy, “Clouds”, from Three Nocturnes (1899)

Some Musical Effects:

Not about progress, development, goals • Listen to individual moments

Different sense of Time (floating, suspended)

Not as clear a sense of form or individual measures