Page 231 - (DK) The Classical Music Book - Big Ideas Simply Explained
P. 231
MODERN 1900–1950 229
See also: The Ring Cycle 180–187 ■ Das Lied von der Erde 198–201 ■ Parade 256 ■
Quartet for the End of Time 282–283
deep sensuality of the moment.
Debussy’s interpretation of the
poem sought to replicate this
sensuality, in an almost subversive
upheaval of musical language.
Its use of timbres seemed
essentially new, of Debussy and Wagner
exceptional delicacy and This subversion is evident in
assurance in touch. Debussy’s unmistakable references
Pierre Boulez to the prelude from Wagner’s
Tristan und Isolde. That prelude Claude Debussy
opens with a yearning cello line
(the “longing” motif) followed by a Born in a Parisian suburb to
half-diminished chord (the famous a shop owner and his wife, in
“Tristan chord”). Debussy’s Prélude 1862, Debussy began music
also begins with a single line—a lessons at the age of seven,
shape of the poem, as well as the characterful flute flourish—before and at 10 he embarked on a
scenery so marvellously described landing on a half-diminished chord. decade of study at the Paris
in the text.” In the poem, a faun Wagner’s Tristan chord then begins Conservatoire. By 1890, he
awakens from an afternoon nap, a chromatic progression ending in had composed more than
recalling a moment of arousal at an unresolved imperfect cadence ❯❯ 50 songs, but fewer larger-
the sight of a pair of water nymphs. scale pieces, of which many
The faun tries to embrace the were not published and
nymphs, but they disappear into The Greek god Pan pursues the some never completed.
nymph Syrinx in François Boucher’s
In the 1890s, he established
nothingness. Mallarmé’s poem work. The amorous faun Pan featured the impressionist style for
is evocative, yet fundamentally in many of Debussy’s works, including which he is best remembered.
ambiguous, focusing on the “La Flûte de Pan” and “Syrinx.” His String Quartet (1893)
demonstrated many of the
traits that were established
in the Prélude à l’après-midi
d’un faune, the culmination
of which were his symphonic
masterwork La Mer (1905)
and his only published opera,
Pelléas et Melisande (1902).
In his later career, he focused
on smaller-scale forms,
composing many of his
best-known piano works,
including L’isle joyeuse (1904),
and his two books of Préludes.
Debussy died in Paris in 1918.
Other key works
1902 Pelléas et Mélisande
1903 Estampes
1903–1905 La Mer
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