Sign Up Now
Get instant access to over 1 million+ study documents
OR
Already registered? click here to login
By creating your account, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and student honor code.
And the goal of Impressionist painting is always just that -- to given an impression, rather than to suggest a coherent, linear picture of experience. Impressionists depicted emotions and subjective concepts, rather than attempted to convey a singular view. There is no 'point' to Monet's paintings of water lilies; there is merely the artist's reflection on color. The story goes nowhere in "Prelude to the afternoon of a faun," but the atmospheric canvas of light, shade, and sound creates a scene. Backdrops rather than plot; emotions and desires and dreams rather than clear movements characterize this Impressionistic work of art.
The original inspiration of the work was a poem by the French poet Mallmarme. However, the poem's uncertainty and daydream-like quality is not a literal 'synthesis' of the poem (Lloyd 154). Instead, Debussy created...
The music allows for a greater ambiguity in its composition than words could ever express. The uncertainty of what is a dream, what is real, what is the composer's vision of the faun, what is supposed to be an 'actual' faun, and with whom the faun is interacting is never resolved. Music allows for this greater plasticity that is not permitted in words.
Debussy's work is relatively short -- only ten minutes -- much like the poem that inspired it. However, it has become more memorable and influential than the original source. Its dialogue of instruments makes the work accessible for ordinary listeners. However, on an interpretive level, the work is far more complex than it initially appears. The work resists a singular interpretation, just as Debussy resisted creating a singular, driving melody.
Debussy repeats this flute melody throughout the piece at different paces against a variety of chords. While the overall form of the piece is considered to ABA, it is important to note how one section of the piece blends beautifully with the next. The piece has a continuous flow and it is so subtle that listeners are not tempted at any point to beat time to any rhythms. The typical
Claude Debussy after his CentenaryfootnoteRef:1], authors Francois Lesure and Denis Stevens review the legacy of Debussy's work and his life at the one hundred years anniversary of his birth. The authors are particularly concerned with exploring misconceptions, contradictions and areas requiring further study that have arisen as a result of the recent scholarship on the French composer. [1: Lesure, Francois and Stevens, Denis. Claude Debussy after his Centenary. The Musical
Schoenberg developed a kind of experimental method of music composition that was completely relativistic: the free use of 12 tones, in which the relationships are merely one-on-one and not related to a whole (in the traditional sense), mirrored the philosophical modern worldview of the times. This method was meant by Schoenberg to follow in the Germanic tradition of greatness. However, his break from traditional methods of composition (and even
DEBUSSY'S PELLEAS & MELISANDE Music Debussy's Pelleas & Melisande Debussy's Pelleas & Melisande I found this opera to be enjoyable from the vey onset. I knew nothing of the opera and knew just a little of the story/myth from antiquity of Pelleas and Melisande. At the time of my viewing, I did have a solid background with the music of Claude Debussy, but I was excited to engage a work of Debussy's with which
" This he maintained was the highest honor he could claim. " (Seroff, 1956, 113) Some of the melodies that Claude Achille Debussy created for example the C'est l'Extase' -- based on the ninths and series of common chords has continuous modulations which are embedded with a lot of changing tones and may have been symbolic of a breeze and the sounds of small voices. Like wise the use of rhythmic
It is as if the art was improvised, much like Monet's portrait of flowers gives the impression that the artist simply happened upon a cluster of flowers one day, and was moved to paint by the beauty he saw before him. Of course, it must be argued that neither composition, although they create such an extemporaneous impression, was truly spontaneous. Both works were carefully and consciously planned by the artist