• Claude Debussy - The Innovator of Impressionism and Primary Proprietor of Poly-rhythms
    5 replies, posted
Claude Debussy was an innovative, but generally unappreciated composer of the latter half of the 19th century. He was born in France in 1862, and began writing music at the age of 10 during his stay at the Paris Conservatoire. He met Isidor Philipp there, and the two soon became lifelong friends. He studied with various well-known professors (at the time) including Ernest Guiraud, with whom he studied composition, Émile Durand, with whom he studied harmony, and Antoine François Marmontel, with whom he studied piano. Though showing great talent and appreciation for the masters of the time (Beethoven, Schumann, Webster etc.) he was steadfast and argumentative about subjects concerning dissonance and tonality. He frequently argued with the head of the Conservatoire. I will allow the preceding to remain as the biographical portion of this thread. Debussy's music (during the latter part of his life, where his innovative impressionistic style arose) took great leaps forward in rhythm and tonal theory in Europe. He adored writing in indeterminate keys, or in two or more keys at one time. He commonly employed the whole tone scale (moving up the keyboard from the note C in only whole steps.) and pentatonic scales (take any major key, and play only the 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6 degrees.), the latter of which had a very interesting and wholly unique sound, especially for the time. Besides his dissonant and atonal sound, he commonly contrasted with large, glittering runs that were fairly sonorous and mostly in key. The following are examples of his music. La Mer (The Sea): [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66hX8Ms0FwE[/media] This song was featured in both Bioshock 1 and 2 in various places in the game. Valse Romantique (Romantic Waltz): [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiRRYiIeBu4&lc=Dnh_uRY1xTp34L8ZVhfknnkWEnENZMJ6KzyWkGCipYM&context=C3dfd9e5ADOEgsToPDskJeQvefwsn3XqYXGrg973Iz[/media] This song was written by Debussy during his time in the Paris Conservatoire, and is more romantic than impressionistic. Reverie (A dreamlike state): [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0CLYpYKHNY[/media] Arabesque #1: [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6s49OKp6aE[/media]
I love the Clouds movement from Nocturnes [video=youtube;e1XSJHTOFAI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1XSJHTOFAI[/video]
That really does evoke clouds very well. I like the dominance of the strings very much, as well.
Without meaning to be a dick, a lot of OP's information is quite wrong. Debussy actually openly disliked beethoven, schumann and many of the other German masters whom he considered to be bad role models for french composers. Also those composers were significantly before his time. And really his music is for from Atonal, more ambiguous. Rant over though Debussy was incredible for forwarding modernism, if you haven't already check out Ravel.
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[QUOTE=ThunderGod;34678736]Without meaning to be a dick, a lot of OP's information is quite wrong. Debussy actually openly disliked beethoven, schumann and many of the other German masters whom he considered to be bad role models for french composers. Also those composers were significantly before his time. And really his music is for from Atonal, more ambiguous. [/QUOTE] That's what I get for not copying Wikipedia, I guess. Thank you for the corrections, BTW.
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