Impressionism

with Mr Budd

Impressionism

WJEC Unit 6 (Appraising): list A, strand 1��Debussy: “Reflets dans l’eau” (set work)��Debussy: “Colloque Sentimentale” (subsidiary piece)��Ravel: “Prelude” (subsidiary piece)

Things you will need…

• Your annotated scores�
• Recordings of the works�
• Your notes or file�
• A notebook or paper�
• Coloured pens

A bit of (harmonic) background…

• Debussy rejected the Western tonal system, in pursuit of the ‘emancipation of dissonance’: he didn’t use chords in their functional or traditional sense! He used chords that didn’t relate to one another (see historical background).�
• Cadences become rare, and dissonances tend to ‘resolve’ into other dissonances.

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• Chords are based on their sonority, with added notes and pedal notes being common.�
• Debussy used modes in his harmony: Dorian or Phrygian rather than minor, or Lydian or Mixolydian rather than major. Spot the Gamelan influence! Also whole tone scale / pentatonic scale / octatonic scale etc.

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A bit of (historical) background…

• Debussy was born in 1862 in Paris. He attended the Paris Conservatoire, where his pianistic talents were quickly recognised: although his teachers were far from convinced of his innovative compositional style…!�
• In 1880, he was hired to teach piano: this involved him visiting Russia and much of Europe. He quickly became familiar with the work of Russian composers, which influenced his compositional style.�
• In 1884, Debussy won the composition prize at the Conservatoire: this allowed him to study in Rome, where he met Liszt.�
• In 1889, Debussy attended the Paris World Exhibition: he heard a Javanese Gamelan for the first time. �These sounds were soon to make their way into his music. Debussy also had close associations with painters and poets: more so than musicians.�
• Debussy therefore occupies an important position in musical history in the transition from Romanticism to Modernism.

Structure

• ‘Reflets’ is an unusual species of rondo form: it is based on two reoccurring �motifs (‘A’ and ‘B’). However… �
• New musical ideas are combined with previous material that is gradually eliminated, �resulting in continuous transformation of ideas.�
• This is described as a ‘cinematic dissolve’, as one image fades gradually into another. �It is unorthodox: although rondo-like, it lacks the conventional contrasting episodes. �Instead, its shape could be described as: A1 B1 A2 B2 A3 B3 A4/coda.

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Beware bar 23!

Tempo

• Tempo is almost constantly in flux: note the opening rubato instruction. �
• Metre is constant throughout (4/8) except for a 3/8 bar at 11, and the ‘extended’ �or ‘improvisatory’ passage in bar 23. �
• Rhythm is used very subtly; dotted notes and sporadic syncopation are features.

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Motifs

• Theme x1 (in bar 1) = rising and falling disjunct phrase, over a drone-like pedal in LH.
• It is immediately restated an 8ve higher in bar 2. This develops into a new motif (‘y’), �as the phrase descends in 4ths and 5ths.
• This theme is modified in bar 3 (starting on an Eb), before being developed again in bar 4.��The pianist Marguerite Long, who asked Debussy for advice on playing his music, reported that Debussy �referred to the opening motif as “…a little circle in water with a little pebble falling into it”. ��Howat states that “…the asymmetrical rise and fall across bars 1-2 sums up the piece’s overall shape”.

Tonality

- The tonality of ‘Reflets’ is surprisingly traditional…��Db – Eb – Ab7 – Db �(ie I – V of V – V7 – I)��However…. it is difficult to discern! Debussy uses…��…chromaticism, the whole tone scale, deliberate dissonance, �the octatonic scale, the pentatonic scale and pure diatonicism: �often juxtaposed in quick succession.�

Tonality

(A more detailed…)�Tonal outline

The Fibonacci link

The Fibonacci sequence is the series of numbers where each number is the sum of the two preceding numbers. For example: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377, 610….��The Golden Ratio is the relationship between two numbers in the �Fibonacci sequence.��This is important because it appears in various natural phenomena: it has applications in fields like art, architecture, and finance, demonstrating its mathematical and practical significance.��

The Fibonacci link

It must be mentioned that there is no evidence that Debussy purposely used these theories in his compositions. However….��Debussy was aware that his harmonic concepts required new forms and structures. In his letters, he wrote of wanting to break away from rigid formal structures, to allow more freedom: in 1907, he wrote of his aversion to ‘rigorous, traditional forms’, considering sonata form to be “…a legacy of clumsy, falsely interposed traditions”. �He even described the working out of themes as ‘dull mathematics’…��His forms seem to be a series of waves: principal themes recede into the background, allowing new ostinatos or other versions of themselves to appear (“the cinematic fade”). When ideas do return, they are not mere recapitulations. ��Some musicologists have identified the use of Fibonacci and Lucas series in several of Debussy’s works: this involves the use of the Golden Section (a way of dividing a fixed length into two parts, in such a way that the shorter portion to the longer portion). �

The Fibonacci link�0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89…

Howat divides ‘Reflets’ by bar and beat numbers, and then looks for proportional relationships �based on important musical events. So…��Reflets consists of 94 bars, with the climax at bar 57 (where the loudest dynamic is placed, followed by a crescendo �into bar 58). If you multiply the total number of bars (94) by 0.618, this can be divided into a ratio of 58:36: �ie placing the climax exactly where the loudest dynamic is (at bar 58). ��Other ‘golden sections’ or Fibonacci series relationships can be found in individual phrases and melodic motifs: �for example, the numbers 21, 34 and 55 are significant (eg returning to the ‘A’ material at bar 34, and modulating to Eb in bar 55). Other smaller scale opportunities can be found in the piece too.�

The Fibonacci link

Debussy requested that the print below (‘The Hollow Wave off Kanagawa”, by Japanese artist Hokusai) appeared on the first edition of the score of ‘Reflets’. ��The print displays Fibonacci proportions, in using the Golden Ratio.

A�(bars 1-18)

B�(bars 19-48/50)

A�(bars 49/51-end)

Historical background

Debussy composed a set of songs (collectively called ‘Fetes Gallantes’) in 1882: they were poems by Paul Verlaine, set to music. There were no thematic, harmonic or narrative links between the pieces, and were not intended as a song cycle. ��In 1892, Debussy grouped three of them together and published them: ‘Clair de lune’ was one of them.��Thirteen years later, Debussy returned to it and set three new texts: the third of which was �‘Colloque Sentimentale’.�

Look out for examples of the octatonic scale, the whole tone scale, use of pedal notes and more…

A�(bars 1-18)

B�(bars 19-48/50)

A�(bars 49/51-end)

• The two outer sections (narrator) frame a central ‘conversation’ (ghosts), making a type of ABA form.

• Bars 48-50 are a sort of linking cinematic that ‘dissolve’ from the conversation back to the narrator’s ‘commentary’. Other than the recitative-like vocal setting, the outer sections are mostly unrelated musically.�
• Note how Ghost 1 uses the more personal and affectionate ‘tu’ while addressing Ghost 2, while the latter uses the more formal and more distant ‘vous’. (This is similar to the use of ‘ti’ and ‘chi’ in Welsh.)

Harmonic language

• Whole-tone scale in bars 1-3 and 11-14�
• Octatonicism and pedal note (Ab) feature in bars 19-50. �

• ‘Tristan’ chord (half-diminished 7th) is significant in bars 33-45. �

• Parallel 9th chords in bars 51-58

A Tristan chord is any chord that consists of an augmented fourth, an augmented sixth and the augmented ninth above a bass note. It was famously used by Wagner in the opening to ‘Tristan und Isolde’ (with the notes F-B-D#-G#).

Colloque Sentimentale

Nightingale

The text is taken from a poem (‘Colloque Sentimentale’). The poem that precedes it in the collection I is ‘En Sourdine’, which Debussy also composed music for. This poem describes the deep connection e between two lovers, meeting at dusk. In the final verse, it talks of the nightingale as the ‘…voice of our despair’. �� Commentators therefore assume that the lovers are the same in both poems.��To underline this connection, Debussy brings back the nightingale motif (which he used in�the earlier song) in the second section of ‘Colloque Sentimental’. ��The diagram shows the opening of ‘En Sourdine’, where the nightingale’s song is initially accompanied by the ‘Tristan chord’. ��The ‘sound’ of the Tristan chord is that of a half-diminished 7th chord, one found abundantly in Debussy’s music (the first chord heard in his ‘Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune’, for example). At the opening of ‘En sourdine’ the chord is spaced identically to that in Wagner’s iconic opening to ‘Tristan und Isolde’: it uses the same pitches (an octave higher at first but, when repeated in bar 5, also identically), so highlighting the connection. The harmonization at the start of this conversation is very different however, reflecting the change in the lovers’ situation.

Colloque Sentimentale

Background

‘Ma Mère l’Oye’ was originally written between 1908–10 as a piano duet for Mimie and Jean Godebski, children of a close friend of Ravel. It consisted of five pieces based on fairy tales from Charles Perrault, Madame d’Aulnoy and Madame Beaumont. �

In 1911 Ravel was commissioned to write a ballet version of the suite. However, as the original pieces were essentially unrelated, Ravel needed to find some way of linking the various pieces together for the ballet version… �

His solution was to base the entire ballet on the fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty, since, in this tale, Beauty sleeps (and dreams) for a hundred years. The sections now become related by all forming part of this ‘dream sequence’. ��To set up the fairy tale, Ravel composed a new Prélude (and a new scene, ‘Danse du rouet et scène’). Although the Prélude is new (and has been called a sort of ‘musical once upon a time’), a great deal of the musical material is taken from �the original piano suite.

A musical ‘once upon a time’…

Mother Goose Prelude

Structure

Mother Goose Prelude

Harmonic Language

Mother Goose Prelude

• Bars 1 to 7 are mostly triadic (initially in parallel), with occasional 7th chords; G mixolydian mode gives way to darker G dorian.
• Bars 8-13 are essentially based on a single octatonic chord.
• Bars 14-16: the atmosphere darkens, with previous modal fanfares now almost octatonic. There is just one ‘rogue’ note (B).
• Bars 19-34 are fundamentally modal; some initial chromatic touches (e.g. 21); some V→ I progressions in evidence (19 beat 4 -20, 23 beat 4-24).
• From bar 25 onwards, E aeolian established in 25-34.
• Bars 32-4 are pentatonic.
• From bars 35-37, the fanfares now fully octatonic.

Melody

Mother Goose Prelude

• Use of melody is diverse, with thematic material taken from each of the original suite’s five movements.
• Opening fanfare is an example of a ‘triadically thickened’ melodic line.
• Two melodies are combined in 16- 19..
• Linear writing in bars 20-31, emphasises the intensely melodic aspect of this section.
• Use of fragmented horn fanfares (39→), which both complements and matches the mosaic of birdsong motifs in the woodwind and tuned percussion (xylophone).

Similarities and differences

What are the similarities and differences between ‘Reflet dans l’eau’ and ‘Prelude’?

Similarities to ‘Reflets’�

• Harmony: use of extended chords, parallelism, pedal points and octatonicism. Juxtaposition of different harmonic styles is also similar. Programmatic use of harmony – e.g., to underline characters and situations (cf. bars 1-8 with 14-18 and 35-38).

• Structure: blurring of section divisions by the combination of new and pre-existing melodic/harmonic material.

• Texture: varied textures (cf. bar 1-7 and 8-13), with some quasi-counterpoint: e.g. combination of motifs in bars 1-7.

• Rhythms: Some dotted rhythms, with occasional time signature and tempo change

Differences to ‘Reflets’

• Some instances of “pure” octatonicism, with no “chromatic” decoration.

• Rondo-like (A1-B1-A2-C-A3/B2), but A2 contains new material and elements of both A and B are found in the last section.

• Melodic material more varied – uses themes that appear later in the ballet. More sustained lyricism in A2 and C.

• Texture is more varied, including contrapuntal elements. B1 and B2 are texturally quite complex – also rich in instrumental timbre, which is sometimes used programmatically.

• Sense of metre in B1 unclear due to improvisatory nature of the music. Less so in B2 due to horn fanfares.

• Lyrical melodic material in bars 16-34

Similarities and differences

What are the similarities and differences between ‘Reflet dans l’eau’ and ‘Colloque Sentimentale’?

Similarities to ‘Reflets’�

• Harmony: use of extended chords, pedal points, whole-tone scale, parallelism and octatonicism.

• “Programmatic” function: e.g., ghosts are differentiated harmonically, tonally, melodically, rhythmically, texturally.

• Significant use of “nightingale” motif from earlier work, which is subjected to development (also the “Tristan” chord).

• Tempo is variable, with many gradual changes

• Dynamics mostly p to pp; one climactic (f cresc) moment (35-7).

• Piano part uses quite a high tessitura for melodic material, underpinned by low (often more sustained) bass notes

Differences to ‘Reflets’

• Only three plain triads used in entire song; more reliant on octatonicism.

• Structure is A-B-A’, but A’ combines elements of A and B (similar to ‘Reflets’).

• Less traditional tonal plan, with each section (F-Db-Am) a major 3rd away.

• Harmony more important structurally.

• Melodically more diverse, with recit-like and lyrical passages: also more chromatic melodically.

• Sense of metre less pronounced: e.g., slow tempo, ties over the bar, combined duplets/triplets, subtle rhythmic changes to motifs, recitative style. • Texture is varied, but piano writing is sparser overall (though is still used to underline the text

What will help you…

• Listening to the works�
• Listening to the works with your score and notes�
• Completing practice questions�
• Wider listening (and reading) regularly, with a�pen and paper to hand

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