Claude Debussy

This paper focuses upon Adorno's critique of musical temporality-as found in his musical criticism and as implied by his philosophy as a whole. I shall contend that the two do not necessarily coincide. Adorno presents temporality in a different light in each, and rather than labor over Adorno's 'disparate and diverging comments on temporality in an attempt to prove their inner consistency, I dwell on their irreconcilability. This is made a particularly plausible approach by Adorno's own methods, which I characterize as being driven by the principle of antinomy. It is not for nothing that Adorno refuses to issue coherent, succinct theses, and we misunderstand his rationale by passing over or attempting to explain away the apparent inconsistencies and paradoxes in his writing. It does not need my intervention for the contradictory element in Adorno's writing to be made fully apparent. Current reception of Adorno neatly polarizes into those devotees who

«Musica/Realtà», novembre 2001, pp. 22-35.
Questo saggio prende in esame le allusioni all'acqua e alle materie fluide nella poetica debussyana (titoli, riferimenti negli scritti dell'autore...) e nella storia della ricezione della musica di questo compositore.

Il seguente lavoro ha lo scopo di analizzare Fêtes, secondo dei Trois Nocturnes, non solo dal punto di vista musicale. L’analisi delle fonti extramusicali (lettere, saggi, articoli di giornale) redatte dallo stesso Debussy, o da personaggi vicini sia ideologicamente che fisicamente, ha permesso di ottenere informazioni più interessanti del capire una tonalità o del riconoscere i temi.

Claude Debussy is probably the first modern composer who emphasized silence as an active element, of meaning and value, in his music. What specific meaning and value, however, is far from clear. It has even been said that precisely the imprecision and enigmatic character are the most typical traits of the semantic behaviour of debussyste musical silence. For example, we can distinguish the speculative breath of the interpretations proposed by Vladimir Jankélévitch and Lydia Goehr; both treat the debussyst musical silence as an ideal mean for evoking a certain sense of mystery. On the one hand, L. Goehr considers this sense of mystery belonging to a typical symbolist tendency: that of creating works of art which evokes more than they can express, thus referring to a type of intangible transcendence, capable of opening a generous imaginative space for endless interpretation. On the other hand, the French philosopher believes that the inner musicality of silence in Debussy’s creation does not in any way signify the intention of representing some occult reality, but precisely the reality of the existing world as it is. In other words, Debussy’s music succeds in evoking the supreme mystery of existence, namely its instantaneity and transience, the amazing and deeply inexplicable fact that there is something rather than nothing.

As the 20th century began, composers sought the new sounds of modernity. Jazz was one of those new sounds. Soon, European composers and jazz musicians began to influence one another in a period of transcontinental mutual influence that helped shape the musical makeup of the 20th century. Written in May 2015 for an undergraduate 20th century Western music history course, this paper focuses on three particularly important composers of the early 20th century - Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, and Igor Stravinsky - and examines the ways in which they were influenced by jazz as well as how their works, in turn, influenced jazz musicians.

This essay begins with the hypothesis according to which Claude Debussy chose Paul Verlaine’s poems for their innovative character even though within a traditional framework. In his mélodies the Ariettes oubliées (1903), on texts by Verlaine chosen from Romances sans paroles (1874), Debussy dissociates his work from the typical model of the genre of French art song.
However, tonal language is still used as a core basis, with its anchor points
in relevant degrees of a chosen tonality, its cadences and its framework which regulate the musical discourse. The renewal of language, as well as innovation within a known frame, are notable points of convergence between Debussy and Verlaine, which will be studied in parallel. The poetic techniques of contrasts and breaks, and of repetition and sound saturation, enrich new approaches to Debussy research.

This article presents the interpretation of 21 songs (composed between 1911 and 1927) by Irena Wieniawska (1879–1932), based on Paul Verlaine’s poems. The composer, also known as Poldowski or Lady Dean Paul, was a daughter of the famous Polish artist and violinist – Henryk Wieniawski, and Isabelle Hampton-Wieniawska. She lived and worked in Belgium and England. It is worth mentioning that Madame Poldowski knew some impressionistic works (among others Maurice Ravel’s) in France and these experiences influenced her artistic idiom.
First, the author analyzes the lyrics (main themes as well as the structure of Verlaine’s texts). Then the attention is paid to the music level: the author subsequently describes the basic musical elements such as melody, piano accompaniment, harmony, texture, form. In the third part of this article, following some of the rules (so-called corollaries) by Henry Woollett, the problem of word-music relationships in Wieniawska’s songs is discussed. In conclusion the author suggests that Madame Poldowski’s vocal-instrumental pieces represent the genre of French mélodie because of verbal transparency (recitative and syllabic treatment of text) as well as harmonic and formal complexity, and variability. A hypothesis is put forward that this aesthetics is a reinterpretation of common symbolist features in music.

This study shows, through a new reading of Technique de mon langage musical, and examples of Olivier Messiaen’s composing with elements found in the music of Claude Debussy, that borrowing plays a more central role in Messiaen’s compositional practices than has previously been recognized. Messiaen’s conscious and intentional reuse of Debussy’s music spans the length of his career, and primarily involves passages from Pelléas et Mélisande and a handful of piano works. Using Messiaen’s descriptions of Debussy’s influence, his analyses of Debussy, and his own theoretical writings, we examine examples of Messiaen’s musical borrowing in terms of their compositional strategy. Four groups of case studies describe how Messiaen transforms borrowed harmonic material, creates meaning, borrows gesture, and composes texture and form by combining different types of borrowed material.

La perfetta simbiosi esistente, nella musica di Debussy, fra tonalità e sistemi sonori non diatonici viene indagata a fondo nel saggio. Prendendo come punto di riferimento il primo libro dei Préludes (1909-10), viene illustrato come molti procedimenti armonici – apparentemente riconducibili alla tradizionale sintassi tonale – ravvisabili nei brani che compongono la raccolta, nascondano tra le pieghe alcune peculiarità che possono essere definite “interferenze modali”. Particolarmente rilevante è la relazione che si instaura con la scala esatonale, ovvero con il sistema sonoro che più di ogni altro sembrerebbe essere antitetico rispetto alla tonalità, soprattutto per l’impossibilità di dar vita a relazioni di quinta e a movimenti per semitono. Anche la relazione con i modi pentatonici, che pure presentano maggiori affinità con le comuni scale diatoniche, viene esaminata sotto questa nuova luce, fornendo una chiave di lettura inedita per interpretare quegli aggregati, così frequenti nella produzione del compositore francese, formati dalla sovrapposizione di intervalli di seconda e/o di quarta.

**

To browse the paper online: www.domenicogiannetta.it/flip-pdf/Giannetta_Il-primo-libro-dei-Preludes/mobile/index.html

Tout au long de l’histoire de sa réception, Reflets dans l’eau a souvent été associé aux paysages aquatiques de peintres impressionnistes comme Manet, Renoir, Sisley, Monet. Pour Emile Vuillermoz, Paul Roberts, François Sabatier et tant d’autres, les sonorités de cette pièce évoquent des paysages typiques de ces peintres. Comment une expérience purement sonore peut-elle renvoyer à de telles perceptions visuelles suggestives, jusqu'à tisser, comme le disait André Suarès, un véritable « poème de l’agonie de la lumière » ? Les métaphores de la réception nous fournissent des clés de lecture de la pièce. Et une analyse perceptive de l’œuvre permet d’étudier les équivalences entre expériences auditives et visuelles comme mise en jeu de mécanismes de perception similaires. La poétique de la pièce se présente ainsi comme axée sur la relation entre une mobilité inertielle et géométrique de la surface et une mobilité vitale et non gestaltique du fond.

L'Isle joyeuse (The Joyful Island) is one of Claude Debussy's (1862-1918) piano piece with the most developed, colored and complex writing. The composer will say himself "This piece seems to gather all the ways to touch the piano, for it unites force with grace." He's here at his musical maturity, having already composed works like Prélude à l 'Après-midi d'un faune, or Pelléas et Mélisande; Marguerite Long describes it as "a lavish vision, a wind of joy of a tremendous exuberance." What makes L'Isle joyeuse such a masterpiece in piano music? We'll see firstly the evolution of his music for piano, the agitated biographical context, then references to visual arts and the relation of the piece with Masques. Then, we'll examine the structural part and the stylistic and harmonic techniques through the detailed analysis of three motifs used in the piece.

The aim of this article is to interpret songs by Gabriel Fauré, Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel and a less‑known composer — Irena Wieniawska (1879−1932), based on the same poems by Paul Verlaine. In the first part of this paper, the relationships between Wieniawska, Fauré, Debussy, Ravel and Verlaine are subsequently described. Then, the author makes a comparison between selected songs by French composers and Madame Poldowski, indicating main similarities and differences. The final part consists of some remarks related to the fact that Wieniawska fulfills features of the French mélodie very strictly. This is why her songs seem to be more traditional, not as allusive and sophisticated as Debussy's or Ravel's vocal works.

Einflüsse und Annäherungen fernöstlicher asiatischer Musik in dem Klavierwerk Claude Debussys - Debussys Weg in eine neue musikalische Ästhetik im Spiegel seiner Zeit, bewertet anhand einer detailierten Anaylse seiner Klavierkompositionen und seinem historischen Umfeld. Diplomarbeit aus dem Jahr 2001

Resumen El artículo indaga en las técnicas de montaje elaboradas por el cine, como un procedimiento para la organización formal en la música. A partir de frag-mentos heterogéneos que se cortan y conectan han resignificado la forma y el tiempo musical desde las vanguardias del pasado siglo XX. Se analiza el caso del preludio Canope, número diez del segundo libro de Claude Debussy y la incidencia de su concepción musical para nuevas poéticas. Palabras clave Abstract The article explores the assembly techniques elaborated by the cinema as a procedure for the formal organization of music. From heterogeneous fragments that are cut and connected, they have resignified the musical form and time since the avant-garde movements of the 20th century. The case of the Canope prelude, number 10 of Claude Debussy's second book and the incidence of his musical conception for new poetics is analyzed.

When Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien premiered in May 1911, it was mired in religious controversy: The Archbishop of Paris banned Catholics from attending performances and all of poet Gabriele d’Annunzio’s works were placed in the Papal Index of forbidden writings. D’Annunzio may have desired such scandal, but he also had loftier goals for the work. Both he and Debussy were proponents of literary symbolism, and Le Martyre is an example of a large-scale attempt to represent mystery onstage. Analysis of correspondence, stage directions, and musical cues support the claim that literary symbolism informed the work’s genesis and is discernible in its content.

A study of Pelléas et Mélisande as a work of symbolist theatre arising from the literary and visual movements in France and Belgium in the late nineteenth century, and as a exploration of what was later to be called 'Neurosis' in its various characters. The study will approach both through early interpretations and recent stagings and writings, reflecting several angles on the elements of mental disturbance intrinsic to the play and opera. Debussy's reactions to this element in the play will form a final focus.

This was my BA submission for Part II of the Cambridge University music tripos.

Proust has shown little interest in the decorative arts of his time, but his work bears the mark of the "submarine style" distinctive of Art nouveau. The low bookshelves with glass panes in the Grand Hôtel room at Balbec ― the symbol of À la Recherche’s unity, according to Georges Poulet in Proustian Space ― prove to be authentic witnesses of “modern style”. But what does “modern style” actually mean? À la Recherche includes five occurrences of the expression that could lead to misunderstanding. Contrary to a preconceived idea, it is not the English name for Art nouveau. This French coined anglicism refers to the international revival of the decorative arts at the beginning of the twentieth century, a fascinating but disturbing blend of aesthetics and social ideas. Proust detected at once and discreetly highlighted the cosmopolitan and "rastaquouère" (so to speak "métèque") inspiration of an ephemeral artistic movement contemporary with the Dreyfus affair. Enriched with an abundant and entirely original iconography, full of new discoveries and identifications, Rastaquarium brings back to life an epoch of which the novelist caught the essence. For the first time the whole question of decorative arts in À la recherche is fully tackled in all its ramifications, in a fascinating instance of the network of connections at the heart of Proust’s system.

Proust n’a manifesté que bien peu d’intérêt pour les arts décoratifs de son temps, mais son œuvre ponctuée d’aquariums est marquée par le «style sous-marin» caractéristique de l’Art nouveau. Les «bibliothèques vitrées» de la chambre de Balbec ― dans lesquelles Georges Poulet voyait le symbole de l’unité de l’œuvre ― se révèlent d’authentiques témoins du «modern style». Mais qu’est-ce que le «modern style»? L’expression, qui revient cinq fois dans À la Recherche du temps perdu, n’avait jamais vraiment été élucidée. Contrairement à une idée reçue, ce n’est en rien le nom anglais de l’Art nouveau. Cet anglicisme bien français désigne un renouveau international des arts décoratifs qui, mêlant esthétique et idées sociales, fascine et inquiète… Proust a parfaitement perçu et discrètement mis en valeur l’inspiration cosmopolite et «rastaquouère» d’un courant artistique dont le bref épanouissement coïncide avec les années de l’affaire Dreyfus. Enrichi d’une vaste iconographie, entièrement originale, fourmillant de trouvailles et d’identifications nouvelles, Rastaquarium fait revivre une époque dont l’écrivain a su capter l’essentiel. Toujours abordée de façon fragmentaire, la question des arts décoratifs dans la Recherche n’avait jamais été traitée dans son ensemble, seule manière de saisir les réseaux de correspondances si chers à Proust.


Table of Contents

Note sur l’iconographie – Remerciements – Abréviations

Rastaquarium

Qu’est-ce que l’Art « nouveau » ?

Le « modern style » n’est pas un style

Naissance d’une expression

Le mobilier des Proust

Le monde de Liberty

Contre Ruskin

1905 : « Sur la lecture »

La Femme inconnue de Lille et le Printemps par « Brown »

Le moment Maple

Bing !

Le « modern style » dans la Recherche

Les bibliothèques vitrées de Balbec

De la référence anglaise à la référence bavaroise : le Salon d’Automne de 1910

Style « sous-marin »

Le Royaume de Neptune ou la civilisation de l’aquarium

Le « modern style », agent de l’étranger

L’esthétique dreyfusarde

Siegfried n’est pas Samuel

Le règne de l’impur

Le style franco-sémitique

Une nouvelle croisade

Dreyfusards avant Dreyfus

Style rastaquouère

Bibliographie - Index nominum - Table des illustrations

In 1911 Turin hosted the Esposizione Internazionale, an International Exhibition of Work and Industry, to commemorate the fifty-year anniversary of the nation's unity. In a wagnerian - at that time -  town like Turin, Giuseppe Depanis arranged an orchestral season of modern music and brought to Turin the most famous batons of that time: Safonov, Mengleberg, Kajanus, Elgar and Claude Debussy as well. The article recreates the preparations for the concert, an event destined to remain in Turin and italian music history, because it influenced young composers and critics who attend it, among them Guido M. Gatti (then influential music promoter and artistic director), Ettore Desderi (then composer), Andrea Della Corte (then reporter). Two letters by Debussy now in Archivio Storico del Teatro Regio di Torino are published here for the first time. These letters have no recipient, but perhaps it was Depanis himself or Federigo Bufaletti, a piano teacher in Turin who is said to have been a pupil of Debussy and who was one of the first to spread the music by 'Claude de France' in Turin, although a rather traditionalist one. Debussy's letters throw light on the selection of the program: Chabrier, Roger-Ducasse, Dukas and “Iberia”, the “Prélude à l'après-midi d'un Faune” e “Children's Corner” (orchestration A. Caplet) by Debussy himself. The paper retraces the days Debussy went by in Turin, starting with his arrival at Porta Nuova station, welcomed by the young Vittorio Gui, Depanis and composer Leone Sinigaglia, besides his unsatisfaction about italian orchestra in the rehearsals, which finally were conducted by Vittorio Gui. The latter would give up the baton to the composer only the day of the concert, June 26th. In the following september Toscanini would conduct – again in the Exhibition's concerts – the entire “La Mer”, with success, inciting Debussy to write a letter of thanks (here transcribed, but the original is lost) to Sinigaglia. The paper also adds substance to Debussy's reception in the press in Turin, one of the most precocious in Italy, in personalities like – among others – Leone Sinigaglia, Enrico Thovez, etc.

Debussy demeure!, pentru a parafraza un titlu al lui Boulez privindu-l pe Stravinski! Este uimitor ce persistenţă are încă în reprezentările noastre Claude Debussy. Şi aceasta nu numai că i se potriveşte ca un etalon al perenităţii, al duratei neştirbite, pe care chiar şi numai simpla înşiruire, statistic  privind lucrurile, a numelui Debussy în programele de concert sau în exegezele istoric-stilistice i-o asigură, ci şi pentru că el, Claude Debussy, desparte manifest secolul romantismului de modernitate, marcând prin muzica sa, dacă nu şi prin impresionismul acesteia, începuturile noului, căutat dincolo de orizonturile moştenite. În plus, pitorescul personajului încă predispune la comentarii (nu neapărat defavorabile) care fac, fără îndoială, din compozitorul francez un prototip al artistului independent ce va marca începutul modernităţii, ale avangardismului chiar. Deşi ştiute toate aceste date şi daturi ale lăsământului debussyst, este inutil a fi rememorate pentru a vedea unghiurile lor de abordare din partea acelora ce şi le apropie şi şi le apropriază. Ei pot fi intelectuali de varii formaţii şi, în primul rând muzicieni care au acces în diferite grade şi la gândirea abstractă. Cazul din urmă este prin excelenţă caracteristic lui Gabriel Bulancea, de formaţie ghitarist, practician al instrumentului şi angajat în predarea acestuia, dar care prin interesul faţă de subiectul ales şi, posedând pe deasupra mijloacele teoretice necesare, întreprinde o atrăgătoare incursiune exegetică în universul de gândire muzicală şi estetică a lui Claude Debussy.
Dând senzaţia de a se fi cantonat în cea mai comodă etichetare a operei debussyste ca aparţinând impresionismului, autorul debutează cu o incursiune destul de vastă în sfera artistică în care curentul impresionist a apărut, şi anume, acela al picturii. Consideraţii istorice, sociale, estetice, filosofice, chiar psihologice, se încrucişează în primul articol ca pentru a constitui fundalul primitor pentru o posibilă paralelă impresionistă în muzică. Dar lucrurile nu stau nici pe departe astfel, autorul neîncercând asemenea paralele, necăzând, aşadar, în propria-i capcană... El pune în discuţie de aceea apariţia în momentul respectiv a unui curent cel puţin contemporan – simbolismul – ale cărui trăsături caută să le identifice în literatură dar şi în artele plastice şi chiar în muzică. Tabloul acestor aderări şi pseudo-aderări ale artelor la cele două curente rămâne – pentru a ne păstra în atmosfera timpului – destul de flou pentru ca dezbaterea cu privire la aderarea totală a gândirii artistice debussyste faţă de una dintre orientări de aici să înceapă. Considerând pictura, poezia şi muzica arte ce „operează cu categorii estetice şi cu sisteme semiotice distincte”, autorul nu exclude unele analogii estetice (inclusiv analogiile spaţiu-timp) dintre arte fie ele şi neînrudite ontologic sau fenomenologic. Sub imboldul celor scrise de Lucian Blaga, autorul încearcă şi reuşeşte chiar o apropiere a gândirii debussyste de aceea a lui Henri Bergson, de intuiţionismul celui de-al doilea. Hotărâtoare în clarificarea, atât de larg dezbătută astăzi, a dilemei impresionism – nonimpresionism în opera debussystă este, finalmente, raportul dintre muzica impresionistă şi natură.
Autorul lucrării ne convinge – dincolo de imperativele gândirii estetice – de existenţa unei gândiri muzicale în sine, ce se aplică unei opere anume (lucrările de scenă, simfonice, dar şi studiile şi preludiile pentru pian) sau unui ansamblu de lucrări (cicluri) similare, vădind omogenitatea concepţiei tocmai tocmai pe aceste grupuri de lucrări, care rareori se repetă la alte grupuri. Antiromantic, pseudoimpresionist sau quasisimbolist, Debussy nu încearcă o direcţie stilistică dominantă ci, cel mult, o coerenţă a unor principii grupate pe anume genuri căci, graţie neconformismului său funciar el pare adesea neconform cu sine însuşi.
Operele mari beneficiază de popasuri analitice prelungite, precum Tristanul debussyst – opera Pelléas et Mélisande – sau Martiriul Sf. Sebastian, numit aici Parsifalul debussyst, cu ale sale trăsături panteiste. Leitmotivica, trăsăturile programatice ale operelor evocate, dar şi acelea ale altor genuri sunt peste tot discutate. Cele din urmă sunt totuşi caracteristice stilului său de poet-muzician (precum romanticii), căci descriptivismul lui se bazează pe sugestie, „pe tot ceea ce ar corespunde limbajului aluziv.”
Limbajul compozitorului francez este scrutat în varii ipostaze, fie ele pe un fond estetic generalizat, fie, mai ales, prin parcurgerea analitică a operei: timp muzical, tematism, armonie, funcţionalitate, culoare etc.
Într-o încleştare intelectuală continuă între idei consacrate (parţial acceptate) şi idei eretice, datorate unor autori naţionali şi străini (este suficient să amintim aici dilemele privind impresionismul lui Debussy), pendulând între orizontul estetic şi cel stilistic dar focalizând până la urmă viziunea asupra adevărului ultim – limbajul compozitorului -, autorul oferă astfel o panoramă seducătoare asupra celui ce a marcat trecerea spre modernitate. Seducătoare nu numai pentru cititorul avizat ci şi pentru cel doritor să se iniţieze! O socotesc de aceea o contribuţie importantă a muzicologiei româneşti, nu tocmai săracă pe această linie directă (Constantin Brăiloiu, Romeo Alexandrescu, Constantin Bugeanu, Adrain Raţiu, Laura Vasiliu) dar şi pe o linie de ricoşeu (Vasile Tomescu, Alfred Alessandrescu, Clemansa Firca) atunci când sunt puse în ecuaţie reflexele debussyste în compoziţia autohtonă.

prof. univ. dr. Gheorghe Firca

Questo scritto si articola in due momenti fondamentali che si concentrano in altrettanti aspetti del percorso poetico e critico dell'opera di un poeta centrale nella storia della letteratura non solo italiana, ma anche europea del secolo scorso, Eugenio Montale.
  Montale e la sua opera sono infatti al centro della riflessione novecentesca sulla poesia e sarà intenzione di questo scritto mettere in risalto quegli aspetti che legano il poeta italiano alle tradizioni letterarie e culturali esterne all'ambito puramente nazionale, come nel caso dell'interesse per la storia della musica e l'attenzione agli sviluppi contemporanei di questa o la ripresa di tematiche e forme poetiche della letteratura straniera, soprattutto anglosassone.
  La prima parte di questo scritto riguarderà principalemente la prima
produzione poetica di Eugenio Montale, dalle poesie giovanili fino ad Ossi di Seppia, tenendo conto del lavoro di eminenti critici sullo stesso argomento. Qui si cercherà di dimostrare le affinità che legano il nostro poeta alle molteplici espressioni della cultura europea fin de siècle e in particolar modo alla musica di Claude Debussy, nei temi, nei motivi e nelle soluzioni espressive del reciproco linguaggio artistico.
  La seconda parte invece tenterà brevemente un confronto con altre voci della tradizione musicale del Novecento, alla luce delle profonde conoscenze e degli interessi teorici di Montale che emergono nei suoi scritti di critica culturale e musicale.