![]() Rather, he views Debussy's approach as one of respectful understanding and integration, and thus leading toward a more enlightened twentieth century attitude of sincere appreciation of "world music."ĭebussy's outlook hardly arose in isolation but was intimately bound to the broader esthetic shifts of his era. Howard Goodall contrasts Debussy's embrace of Asiatic sound with then-prevalent colonial exploitation in which simplified artifacts of "primitive" cultures were appropriated (often with exaggerated sexual features) to bolster feelings of European aloofness and superiority. Played with deep spirituality in leisurely pieces that slowly evolve using a non-tonal scale, overlapping tones, compound rhythms and intricate arabesques to radiate complex counterpoint and subtle harmonies. … Here he found a supple diversity of forms, rhythms, chords and scales, in marked contrast to the stereotyped forms and harmonies, the stiff, symmetrical rhythms and the modal restrictions which he had been taught in vain at the Conservatoire … and he contrasted the grandiloquent art of Bayreuth with the more direct expressive action of the Oriental theatre.Įxposed to a wide variety of non-Western music, Debussy was especially drawn to Indonesian gamelan, a large ensemble of tuned gongs and metallophones, would listen with the closest attention to the improvisations of popular musicians whose talent had not been stifled by strict scholastic rules and who knew no principle but that of absolute liberty. For Debussy Léon Vallas called it a voyage of artistic discovery through the various countries of the world without ever having to leave Paris: The trigger for Debussy's revolt was the 1889 Paris Universal Exhibition, best remembered nowadays for its landmark – the Eiffel Tower. But as he began the decade of gestation required to craft Pelléas, Debussy launched his revolution with the Prélude á l'après-midi d'un faune and his Quartet. The richness of the frame causes us to overlook the poverty of ideas." He described his ideal approach as: "to discover the perfect design for an idea and to add only what is absolutely necessary as ornament." Debussy would launch a frontal attack on Wagner's home turf in 1903 with his only opera, Pelléas et Mélisande, whose prosaic text, repressed emotion, modal tonality, delicate orchestration, shreds of occasional melody, absence of arias and steadfast narrative diametrically opposed the opulent, unrestrained German (and Italian) prevailing operatic esthetic. In a letter to his friend and fellow composer Ernest Chausson, Debussy wrote of Wagner: "We have been taken in. Yet Debussy soon rebelled against the rebellion. Like most of his generation, Debussy at first fell under the seemingly irresistible spell of Wagner, whose searching harmonies, massive architecture and sense of unabashed drama represented an alluring revolt against academic strictures and promised to reorient the entire course of Western music. And yet, they reflect the distinctive musical personalities of their authors, whose outlooks and significance were quite different despite their comparable prominence and popularity. True, the two quartets are distant relatives and do share some superficial traits – they have roughly similar structures each was an early work that helped introduce its creator's style and establish his fame and each was the only quartet of its composer, who often are lumped together as the foremost musical Impressionists. Debussy." The bond was cemented in the LP era when they were paired as seemingly inseparable soul-mates, each filling one side of an album. Reacting to the premiere of the Ravel, critic Pierre Lalo (son of composer Edouard) was hardly alone in proclaiming: "In all the elements it contains and all the sensations it evokes it offers an incredible resemblance to the music of M. The string quartets of Claude Debussy (1862–1918) and Maurice Ravel (1875–1937) seemed destined to face an identity crisis from the very outset. But the indignity of mistaken identity seems even less fair for mere siblings, much less those wholly unrelated, who just happen to look somewhat alike. Identical twins often struggle to establish their own personalities. Finally, we list references and resources. In this article we consider Debussy in 1893, his String Quartet, its premiere, initial criticism, some stylistic performance guidelines, its acoustical recordings and early electrical recordings, Ravel in 1903, his String Quartet and its early recordings.
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