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Essay on debussy and his music
Essay on debussy and his music
History paper about Debussy
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Claude Debussy, who is one of the most important French composers that represent the early twentieth century, he composed the prelude to “The Afternoon of a Faun”. He wrote this Prelude based on an inspiration of a poem that was written by Stephane Mallarme, who was a prominent French writer. There are some historical contexts and stylistic contexts that can be seen and discussed from this. And, these factors made this piece the best-known orchestral work of Debussy.
Debussy was born in 1862 in the town of St. Germain-en-Laye , a town near Paris. When he was eleven, he entered the Paris Conservatory. Instead of following music ideas and structure that done by his predecessors, he started to compose and play harmonies that defied the rules. These strange, peculiar sounding harmonies shocked his lecturers. By that time, he already started trying on new harmonies that was something different.
The year 1890 was Debussy’s most glorious time of his career. He composed two operas, Pelleas and Mellisande. Because of the new things that Debussy wrote, Pelleas was rejected at first, for the lack of melody, form and substance. But, this work has also made him famous, and he started to conduct his works in the capitals of Europe.2
As a French composer, Debussy declared that French music is always clear, elegant and simple. Not only that, Debussy’s works is always new and fresh, as he always wanted to try something different. Also with Mussorgsky’s encouragement to disobey the scholastic rules, and to be more daring in creating harmonies, he will often break the traditional rules and patterns, and try out some new elements.
We can see a lot of use of exotic scales such as chromatic, whole tone and pentatonic scales, we can hear that disson...
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...pany with. To him, he was trying to make 'something new', in a way his interpretation of the things around him and not be tied down by the rigid ways of the romantics and those before him. He wanted to bring forth the colour and feelings of each piece, and allow the listener to paint for themselves the image of each part of his piece.
In conclusion, Debussy's work has inspired many, and to this day chords and melodies that were first played hundreds of years ago are still being used today as accompaniment from multi-billion dollar movies, video games to bring out the feeling of each set and each part of the experience.
Works Cited
Kristine Forney, and Joseph Machlis. The Enjoyment of Music: Eleventh Edition. New York: W.W. Norton, 2011.
Vallas, Leon, Maire Brien, and Grace Brien, Claude Debussy, his life and works. New York: Dover Publication, 1973.
Mussorgsky was too knowledgeable about contemporary aesthetic philosophy and was too self-conscious, to the extent that his mental wrestling cut down on further composing. However, he knew what he wanted and felt it his job to flesh out his artistic intuitions. Mussorgsky's music challenged the music in the Nineteenth Century, and laid outside the standard Brahms-vs.-Wagner fight. He opened up a new musical path and a new aesthetic attitude. Even with being a patronized composer in the Nineteenth Century, he escalated to become a hero in the Twentieth.
Gottschalk was a child prodigy, showing astonishing musical abilities at a young age. His father, against his mother’s wishes, sent him off to study music more intensively in Paris. During his time in Paris, Gottschalk studied piano with Charles Hallé, Camille Stamaty, and later studied composition with Pierre Maleden. Paris was just the beginning of the many places where he would compose some of his finest works.
Corresponding to Interior with Two People, Degas’ family portrait, The Belleli Family, of his aunt Laura and her family is a painting about “the contradictions riddling the general idea of the high bourgeois family in the middle of the nineteenth century.” 6,7 The painting is considered a representation of “The ...
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky is the author of six symphonies and the finest and most popular operas in the Russian repertory. Tchaikovsky was also one of the founders of the school of Russian music. He was a brilliant composer with a creative imagination that helped his career throughout many years. He was completely attached to his art. His life and art were inseparably woven together. "I literally cannot live without working," Tchaikovsky once wrote, "for as soon as one piece of work is finished and one would wish to relax, I desire to tackle some new work without delay." The purpose of this paper is to give you a background concerning Tchaikovsky's biography, as well as to discuss his various works of art.
Antonin Dvorak was born on September 8, 1841 in the small village of Nelahozeves. Dvorak began his early music education training when he was eight years old at the local school in his village. When he was 14 he trained with the church choirmaster in the nearby town of ZIonce. At the age of 16 he studied at the German municipal school briefly and a year later, in 1857, he began his studies at the Prague Organ School, graduating in 1859. (Stefan 25-30).
René Descartes was a French philosopher born in La Haye, France, on March 31, 1596. In the 17th century. Now that town is now named after him, because of the great things he has done. He spent most of his life in the Dutch Republic He had two siblings and was the youngest. His father and mother's name were Joachim and Jeanne Brochard. His mother died before his first birthday. In addition, his father was in the provincial parliament as a council member. After their mother died, Joachim had the kids go live with their grandmother on their mom's side. They stayed there even though their father eventually remarried. Even though their father did not want them around, he still wanted the best education for his children so he sent René when he was eight, to boarding school to the Jesuit college of Henri IV in La Flèche. And he stayed there until he was 15.
This is the second volume of Richard Taruskin's historical work, and it highlights composers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He examines the progression of different styles and eras of music.
There are two pieces in our Renaissance Era musical feature this evening, the first by Pierre Phalèse called Passamezzo d'Italye - Reprise – Gaillarde. Phalèse began as a bookseller in 1545 and not long after he set up a publishing house. By 1575 he had around 189 music books. Much of his work was devoted to sacred music but there was a small amount of Flemish songs and instrumental works. Phalèse borrowed work from many composers and did not hesitate to include other composer’s music in his works. The sec...
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'It seems to me, my dear friend, that the music of this ballet will be one of my best creations. The subject is so poetic, so grateful for music, that 1 have worked on it with enthusiasm and written it with the warmth and enthusiasm upon which the worth of a composition always depends." - Tchaikovsky, to Nadia von Meck.
A group of poets known as, the Symbolists began poetry in which the words that were used were used purely for their sounds and not for their actual meaning. Symbolists tried to convey impression by suggestion instead of definition. Music compositions from the Impressionism period contained some of the same characteristics of impressionist paintings. Impressionist composers and its music at the time were breaking away from classical techniques. In the impressionism spectrum, Debussy is to impressionist music as Monet is to painting, meaning in that they are both the father figures of their medium in which they portray the impressionist style. Impressionist music was very much like the paintings; they stirred emotions to their audience. Claude Debussy was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music but he never ever considered himself an Impressionist instead he considered himself a “Realist” (Classical 1). Debussy’s style and works are closely similar to those of the impressionists. For instance, in order to achieve an effect that was comparable to that painted by the visual artists, Debussy emphasized those musical elements that could be immediately grasped and understood the instant they were heard, namely timbre and harmonic color. Claude
The artwork that I picked out was by Edgar Degas Interior. It was created between 1868–1869 and can be found at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. I picked this artwork because when I took Intro to Art in my freshmen year this artwork appealed to me because of its mysteriousness and agitation. When I looked at other works of arts by Degas I found this one very striking. There are no clear clues or answers to the questions that are raised when one looks at this work by Degas which makes it very unique.
...s and syncopation. Though a passepied is traditionally written in triple meter, Debussy employs an interesting choice of meter throughout his piece that deviates from the norm of such a form. Modal chords give it a rather moto perpetuo feel, meaning a fast tempo and a steady, continuous stream of notes. Present in almost every measure is a crisp staccato accompaniment under which the melody provides us with two themes: the acicular introductory theme and the more graceful second theme. Throughout the course of this final piece, the second theme is heavily varied, oscillating between duple and triple meter and containing multiple inversions. The piece ends beautifully with a cascade of eighth notes as Debussy plays with the modal conflict of F-sharp and B. We also encounter a flurry of pianississimo chords which finally end with an array of sporadic staccato chords.
Throughout this semester we have discussed an array of musical periods ranging from the Middle Ages and Renaissance to more recent modern times. As music progressed through time certain concepts such as melody, harmony, and texture changed along with the introduction of different instruments. In the early phases of music it was more directed toward religious ceremonies, but as time went on it became integrated into everyday life. Even though musical dynamics seem to change as the years go on, it has never failed to create some form of emotional response such as laughter or sadness.
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