Grade 11

Music History

Voiles by Debussy
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Claude Debussy (1862 – 1918):
 Debussy was a French impressionist composer who linked the Romantic era with the
Twentieth century
 He was born in St. Germain-en-Laye, a small town near Paris
 At the early age of ten, he entered the Paris Conservatory, where he studied until
he was twenty-two
 While Debussy was at the Conservatory, the impressionists were exhibiting their
paintings in Paris
 Debussy’s teachers regarded him as a talented rebel who improvised unorthodox
chord progressions of dissonances that did not resolve
 In his late teens, Debussy worked summers as pianist for Mme. Von Meck, the
Russian patroness of Tchaikovsky
 During these stays in Russia, Debussy’s lifelong interest in Russian music took root
 In 1884, he won the highest award in France for composers, the Prix de Rome, which
subsidized three years of study in Rome
 He left Italy after only two years, because the lacked musical inspiration away from
his beloved Paris
 During the summers of 1888 and 1889, Debussy travelled to Bayreuth, Germany, to
hear Wagner’s music dramas
 They were memorable events for Debussy, who was both attracted and repelled by
Wagner’s music
 The Asian music performed at the Paris International Exposition of 1889 also had a
strong impact on Debussy
 For years, Debussy led an unsettled life, earning a small income by teaching piano
 Until the age of thirty-one, Debussy was little known to the musical public and not
completely sure of himself
 In 1893, Debussy completed a masterpiece, his String Quartet
 In 1894, he created another masterpiece, the tone poem Prelude to “The Afternoons
of a Faun”, which has become his most popular orchestral work
 A dramatic turning point in Debussy’s career came in 1902, with his opera Pelléas et
Mélisande. Critics were sharply divided – some complained about the absence of
melody and the harmonies that broke traditional rules while others were delighted
by the poetic atmosphere and subtle tone colours
 The opera soon caught on and Debussy was recognized as the most important
living French composer – musicians all over the world imitated his style
 Debussy craved things of luxury which left him in a state of constantly borrowing
money
 Debussy married Emma Bardac, an intelligent, talented and rich society woman
 This marriage necessitated Debussy’s undertaking of concert tours to maintain their
high standard of living
 Debussy presented his music throughout Europe
 The onset of World War I in 1914 heightened his sense of nationalism, and he began
to sign his works “Claude Debussy, French Musician”
 Debussy developed cancer at the age of fifty, and died in Paris in 1918, while the city
was being shelled by German artillery

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Debussy’s Music:
 Debussy was a master at evoking a fleeting mood and misty atmosphere
 His interest in the effects of fluidity and intangibility is reflected in the titles of his
compositions (e.g. Reflets dans l’eau (Reflections in the Water))
 Literary and pictorial ideas often inspired Debussy, and most of his compositions
have descriptive titles
 His music sounds free and spontaneous – almost improvised
 One section of Debussy’s music melts into the next – melodic lines tend to be brief
and fragmentary
 Debussy’s impressionist style was both a final expression of Romanticism and the
beginning of a new era
Timbre:
 Debussy once wrote
o “I am more and more convinced that music is not, in essence, a thing which
can be cast into a traditional and fixed form. It is made up of colours and
rhythms.”
 This stress on tone colour, atmosphere, and fluidity is characteristic of impressionism
in music
 Tone colour truly gets unprecedented attention in Debussy’s works
 His subtle changes of timbre are as crucial to his music as thematic contrasts are in
earlier music
Orchestra:
 The entire orchestra seldom plays together to produce a massive sound – instead
there are brief but frequent instrumental solos
 The woodwinds are especially prominent and are used in unusual registers
 Strings and brasses are often muted – their sound seems to come from far off
 Atmosphere is created through the shimmer of a string tremolo or the splash of the
harp
Piano works:
 Debussy wrote some of his finest music for piano
 His frequent use of the damper pedal, which allows a pianist to sustain notes after
the keys are released, results in hazy sounds
 Chords are often blended together, and the pianist is directed to let the sounds
vibrate
 The rich variety of bell and gong sounds in Debussy’s piano works may reflect the
influence of Asian music he heard at the Paris International Exposition in 1889
Harmony:
 Debussy’s treatment of harmony was a revolutionary aspect of musical
impressionism – he tends to use a chord more for its special colour and sensuous
quality than for its function in a standard harmonic progression
 He uses a succession of dissonant chords that do not resolve

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  He freely shifts a dissonant chord up and down the scale – the resulting parallel
chords characterize his style
 Debussy’s harmonic vocabulary is large – along with traditional three- and four-
note chords, he uses five-note chords with a lush, rich sound
Tonality:
 Debussy once wrote that, “One must drown the sense of tonality.” Although he
never actually abandoned tonality, he weakened it by deliberately avoiding chord
progressions that strongly affirm the key
 He used scales in which the main tone is less emphasized than in major and minor
scales – for example he used Church modes, the pentatonic scale, and the whole-
tone scale
Rhythm:
 The pulse in Debussy’s music is sometimes as vague as the tonality
 Debussy wrote that, “Rhythms cannot be contained within bars.” He thus avoids
strong accents that coincide with the bar line
 His rhythmic flexibility reflects the fluid, unaccented quality of the French language

Voiles (Sails/Veils):
From Preludes for Piano, Book 1 (1910)
 In this short piece, Debussy exploits the blurred and tonally vague quality of the
whole-tone scale to suggest the gentle rocking of the sails in the wind
 Voiles is subdued in dynamics, moderate in tempo, and played “in a rhythm that is
caressing and not strict.”
 Debussy uses the piano’s damper pedal to create lingering vibrations that suggest a
misty atmosphere
 Contributing to the impression of motion in place is a low repeated tone, B flat, that
serves as a pedal point in all three sections of the piece

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