1
Sonic Ephemerality and Expression: Timbral Aesthetics in Debussy’s Writings for Flute
Jasmine Yiqi Yuan Advisor: Gurminder Kaur Bhogal, Music
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Prerequisite for Honors in Music
2021
© 2021 Jasmine Yuan 2
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements 3
Introduction 5
Chapter One: Debussy at the fin-de-siècle and the Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune 11
Chapter Two: Unaccompanied Flute Timbres in Syrinx for solo flute 21
Chapter Three: Looking Backward and Looking Forward in the Sonate pour flûte, 34 alto, et harpe
Conclusion 55
Bibliography 58 3
Acknowledgements
I would like to begin by thanking my incredible thesis advisor, Professor Gurminder Bhogal, for her dedication, patience, and guidance. This thesis would not exist without her continual support and wonderful feedback throughout this whole process. Her expertise and invaluable insights into this field have given me new perspectives on this topic and I am grateful to have had this opportunity to work with such a remarkable music scholar and person. Thank you also to my major advisor, Professor Claire Fontijn, for her kind advice through my journey in becoming a music major. I would also like to thank the members of my thesis committee: Professors Jenny Johnson, Claire Fontijn, and Sharon Elkins. Special thanks to Carol Lubkowski for her kindness in helping me with research and finding resources.
This endeavor would not have been possible without the support from the Wellesley College Music Department and my music instructors over the years. I would like to thank Kathy Boyd, as her teaching has created spaces of such kindness and positivity in this difficult year. I would also like to thank Suzanne Stumpf for teaching and supporting me. Through her guidance I have grown so much as a flutist, musician, and person. I am grateful to Ai Tashiro for teaching me so much and for our tea chats during my semester abroad. Thank you also to Jenny Tang for her insightful performance coachings and critique every week. All of them have shaped me to be the musician I am today.
I owe gratitude to Jenny Tang and Eliko Akahori, who have been immeasurably dedicated to supporting my performance endeavors through all the challenges of this academic year. Thank you also to Gabriela Diaz for her wonderful chamber music coaching. It has been a joy and a privilege to learn from her and to work with my collaborators, Paige Jones and Erin Kim, on the Debussy Sonate every week.
Thank you to the Jerome A. Schiff Committee and the Office of the Provost for allowing me the opportunity to study timbres in performance with Alison Fierst, Associate Principal Flutist of the New York Philharmonic. Alison has inspired me immensely through our virtual Debussy coachings.
Finally, I would like to thank my family and friends. I am grateful to my parents for their unwavering love and support for me over all these years. I am thankful to Lucille Tsao, Marie Tan, Marinn Cedillo, Sandra Xu, and Silvia Yu for being the best friends and support system I could have at Wellesley. I dedicate this thesis to the late Dekui Zhu, who has shown me what it means to truly persevere and to share joy with others as an artist and musician. 4
Sylvain d'haleine première Si ta flûte a réussi Ouïs toute la lumière Qu'y soufflera Debussy
(If the flute has played well, the primal woodland breath hears all the light that Debussy has inspired in it.)1
- Stéphane Mallarmé
1 From a copy of the first edition of L'Après-midi d'un faune sent to Debussy by Stéphane Mallarmé in 1897. Translated in Paul Holmes, The Illustrated Lives of the Great Composers: Debussy (London: Omnibus Press, 2015), 48. 5
Introduction
Claude Debussy’s symphonic poem Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune (1894) is often considered by scholars to signal a turning point in the history of music. This orchestral piece was composed as an introduction to a poem by Stéphane Mallarmé, L’après-midi d’un faune (1876), which is about a dream/vision imagined by the mythical figure of a faun. Marked by a mysterious piano solo flute entrance, the flute emerges from silence, entering into a languorously winding arabesque melody that evokes the drowsiness of the faun’s awakening. As the hushed tone colors of the flute’s lower registers are joined by the harp, the listener is immediately transported into the magical dreamscape of the faun’s imagination. We might wonder why
Debussy chose an unaccompanied flute to open this orchestral work in this subdued manner, and what it is about this combination of flute and harp that makes the piece so alluring. How is the timbral blend of these sonorities able to successfully immerse the listener in the time and space of the composition? My thesis explores these, and other related questions, by examining the topic of timbre in Debussy’s works for flute.
Timbre is one of the most captivatingly immersive properties of music. This aspect of sound and auditory sensation is difficult to define, and it is often referenced using the mixed sonic-visual metaphor of tone color. In recent decades, scholars have tended to describe timbre as a sounding object whose unique qualities allow listeners to differentiate between musical instruments, and identify the unique sounds of one instrument in contrast to another. Recently scholars such as Isabella van Elferen have highlighted the concept of timbre as a paradox, that is, an ineffable aesthetic experience that embodies both physical and immaterial components.
Timbre has a tangible, physical presence that is difficult to capture in words, which bears a 6 tendency to erase its own meaning in creating an ephemeral “present absence.”2 Certain physical aspects of timbre extend to a consideration of material sound sources such as instrument design, body physiology of the performer, and frequency spectrum (overtones of pitch and the wide range of frequencies that we can interpret), in addition to the spectral envelope of the sound
(attack, decay, sustain, and release). The material properties of timbre function to shape an aesthetics of tone color. Timbre is also characterized by immaterial components such as its ability to emotionally affect listeners and its proximity to the quality of the sublime, a transcendental experience created by a paradoxical absence of presence.3 The expressive capabilities of timbre extend beyond its physical presence to facilitate stimulating experiences that invite thoughtful contemplation. Timbre has the ability to engender an alluring auditory experience by conveying the indescribable and the ineffable, qualities that are inherent to French aesthetics of the early twentieth century with which Debussy identified. The aesthetic moment of timbre is immediate and unpredictable because it is contingent on factors in performance such as the interplay of articulation, vibrato, and dynamics used to shape the mingling of sounds in space. Timbre is a critical determinant of our musical experience, and its immediacy invokes emotional responses in listeners. When we hear and perceive timbre, we participate in configuring a timbral aesthetics, which is centered around the paradox of materiality and immateriality. Timbre’s aesthetic allure is based on these kinds of intersections and those that are juxtaposed between the physical and the sublime.
2 Isabella van Elferen, Timbre: Paradox, Materialism, Vibrational Aesthetics (New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2020): 76-89. 3 See Elferen’s discussion of timbre’s “aesthetic reaching” from the physical to the transcendental in Timbre: Paradox, Materialism, Vibrational Aesthetics, 97. 7
My interest in timbral aesthetics as explored in relation to Debussy’s music can be traced back to my experience of listening to and being fascinated by the enchanting flute arabesques and tone colors of the Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune. Debussy was one of the most influential composers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and his music flourished within the rich cultural milieu of fin-de-siècle/début-de-siècle Paris. Over the course of his lifetime, Debussy wrote multiple works involving the flute, giving the instrument a significant role in his body of work. His music was often concerned with topics that were of interest to contemporaneous literary and artistic movements in Paris at the turn of the twentieth century: the world of dreams, idealized visions of nature, and escapist fantasies. His development of flute timbres was firmly aligned with ideas inherent to fin-de-siècle aesthetics. As I analyze his flute compositions, I also offer a glimpse into the cultural contexts that shaped Debussy’s cultivation of flute timbres.
Debussy’s treatment of timbres was an important precursor to timbral innovation that took place later in the twentieth century. Pierre Boulez explained that the development of timbral blending in orchestration during the nineteenth century allowed timbre to be liberated from the constraints of fixed instrument identities.4 As sonorities of instruments merged together to create new orchestral sounds, individual timbres became less identifiable and took on a multitude of characteristics. On the one hand, an orchestral instrument might be identified with a specific musical topic when used in a soloistic capacity. On the other hand, its timbres could become unrecognizable when combined in ensembles with other instruments due to the complex nature of these timbral blends. Debussy’s music broke away from traditions of nineteenth-century
4 Pierre Boulez, “Timbre and composition—timbre and language,” Contemporary Music Review 2/1 (1987), 164. 8 orchestration since he viewed each instrumental timbre to be a source of “potential sonorous beauty, a much less defined agent of musical colour, light, mood and effects.”5 He believed that music, through attention to timbral development, was most capable of attaining the
“inexpressible.” As I will explore, Debussy often elicited specific sonorities from the flute through emphasis on soft dynamics, gently articulated phrases, winding arabesque figurations, and shimmering accompaniment in projecting an effect of the ephemeral. The hushed, faint tone colors of the flute that Debussy highlighted in his compositions exist in close proximity to silence, reflecting the fleeting, ungraspable presence of dreams and illusory visions. Debussy utilized ephemeral flute timbres to express Symbolist ideals of the “inexpressible”— transcendent worlds and fantasies existing beyond the physical experiences of everyday life.
My thesis examines the role of ephemeral flute timbres in three pieces composed by
Debussy: the orchestral tone poem Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune (1894): Syrinx for solo flute (1913, published posthumously in 1927): and the Sonate pour flûte, alto, et harpe (1915).
Each of these pieces are standards in the flute repertoire and they bookend Debussy’s composition career: the Faun Prélude is an early composition, while the Sonate was written at the end of his life; Syrinx was composed in 1913 but only published in the years after Debussy’s death (1918) in 1927. Debussy’s rich cultural life, his friendships, and intellectual alliances, all left their mark on his music, not to mention, on his political beliefs. In considering the significance of these interrelationships for his flute repertoire, I will also draw on several treatises on orchestration with the goal of understanding the expressive qualities of the flute and
Debussy’s motivation to use this instrument as a vehicle for expression. Since I am preparing a
5 Elferen, Timbre: Paradox, Materialism, Vibrational Aesthetics: 107-108. 9 thesis in performance, I will examine timbral aesthetics in Debussy’s music as rooted in my experiences as a flutist and performer. I examine several material components of timbre, including the acoustic properties of the flute and physical generators of tone color (such as embouchure shape, vibrato, airstream properties) as explored in my own performance practice. I also reflect on how timbral adjectives and metaphors are used to describe the aesthetic impact of timbre and its contribution to an ineffable listening experience.
Chapter One explores the expressive aspects of flute solos in Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune. Debussy’s Prélude is centered around melodic arabesques of the flute. I will discuss the significance of charging the flute with this role, while considering how its foregrounded lower timbral registers harness a capability for expression. This chapter also presents a brief overview of Debussy’s life as situated within la belle époque. I will consider the relationships that Debussy developed with his artistic and literary contemporaries, and highlight the impact these had on his compositional development. This background serves as a basis for understanding the aesthetic influences of the Symbolists on his use of timbres. As Symbolism was concerned with the notions of the intangible and inexpressible, Debussy emphasized frail flute timbres to illustrate the impermanence of mysterious visions.
Chapter Two examines unaccompanied flute timbres in Syrinx for solo flute. This composition was originally written as incidental music to Gabriel Mourey’s play Psyché where the melody is played to express the beguiling nature of Pan’s flute melody. Ephemeral flute timbres are used to illustrate the transitory, mythical dreamscape of Pan and Syrinx. I will highlight the Symbolist associations that contributed to the musical conception of this piece, particularly, how timbres evoke impressions of sensuality, melancholy, and ambiguity. Lastly, I 10 will highlight connections between Debussy’s cultivation of flute timbres and aesthetic ideas pertaining to Symbolism, Wagnerism, and the Pre-Raphaelites, that is, aesthetic movements that rose to prominence in France during la belle époque.
Chapter Three examines the Sonate pour flûte, alto, et harpe, one of Debussy’s final chamber music works composed during wartime Paris. I contextualize Debussy’s outward ideas of nationalism and his championing of French musical ideas in this piece against the background of World War One. I also consider how the Sonate’s instrumental timbres, artistic influences, and idiosyncratic flute writing look back toward French Baroque music and relate to his earlier pieces, the Faun Prélude and Syrinx. We will see how aspects of fin-de-siècle culture in the form of ephemeral timbres persisted through Debussy’s late compositions, even as this piece points toward future developments with timbre in twentieth century experimentalist composition.
Debussy greatly influenced the status of the flute in music composition through the early twentieth century. His contributions to the flutist’s repertoire were significant due to his awareness of and sensitivity toward the expressive capabilities of the instrument. In writing this thesis, I hope to gain a deeper understanding of the flute’s expressive potential through a focus on timbre, which also informs the study and development of my performance practice. I look forward to sharing my perspectives on performing Debussy’s timbral aesthetics. 11
Chapter One: Debussy at the fin-de-siècle and the Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune
The Creation of Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune (1892-94)
When describing the impact of Claude Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune
(1894) on twentieth-century music, the composer Pierre Boulez observed, “the flute of the Faune brought new breath to the art of music; what was overthrown was not so much the art of development as the very concept of form itself… Its use of timbres seemed essentially new, of exceptional delicacy and assurance in touch.”6 The Prélude, composed between 1892 and 1894, was Debussy’s most performed orchestral work during his lifetime. The composition of this piece is considered to be a pivotal moment in Debussy’s compositional output and orchestration, as it introduced a new language of harmony, musical form, meter, and orchestral texture. In this piece, Debussy’s flute writing is uniquely expressive, and it embodies several aspects of fin-de-siècle aesthetics. The flute part, with its emphasis on lower registral timbres, harmonic ambiguity, and arabesque figurations, secures the status of this piece as a major landmark in symphonic flute repertoire from the twentieth century to the present day.
Among other subjects, Debussy studied composition under Ernest Guiraud at the Paris
Conservatoire. In 1883, Debussy won the Prix de Rome for composition with his cantata L'enfant prodigue. With the award from the Académie des Beaux-Arts came an opportunity to reside and work at the Villa Medici in Rome to further the winner’s compositional studies. Debussy was reportedly unhappy during his residency there from 1885 to 1887 as he found the Villa Medici to be an extension of the constraining environment of the Paris Conservatoire.7 In his later writings,
6 Pierre Boulez, Notes of an Apprenticeship: Texts Collected and Presented by Paule Thevenin, trans. Herbert Weinstock (New York: Knopf, 1968), 344. 7 Stephen Walsh, Debussy: A Painter in Sound (London: Faber and Faber, 2019), 81. 12
Debussy disapproved of the musical establishment and the conventional compositional exercises that he learned at the Conservatoire. In an interview with Maurice Leudet that was published in the French newspaper Le Figaro in February 1909, Debussy spoke about his stance against academicism: “For my own part, the truth is that one must escape the Conservatoire as soon as possible in order to find one’s individuality.”8 He also wrote several articles under the pseudonym Monsieur Croche that ridiculed the traditions of competitions like the Prix de Rome.9
Debussy’s early compositions such as the Faun Prélude represented a departure from traditional ways of learning that shaped his earliest academic endeavors.
Upon his return to Paris in 1887, Debussy sought to integrate himself into the city’s intellectual circles and become involved in several artistic networks. Around 1892, Debussy was a regular attendee of the “Mardis” gatherings hosted by the Symbolist poet Stéphane Mallarmé, along with other musicians, artists, and writers including Paul Verlaine and Joris-Karl Huysmans.
10 These gatherings allowed the group to share their interests in contemporaneous creative activities and fostered experimentation across all forms of artistic expression. As Debussy developed his musical style, he was influenced by ideas from Mallarmé, Baudelaire, and the
Symbolists. He was particularly drawn to Mallarmé’s integration of dreamscapes with the natural world, music, and themes concerning desire. Mallarmé considered music to be mysterious, imprecise, and detached from the physical world, in keeping with nineteenth-century notions of
“absolute music.”11 In his poems, he linked music to visual representations of light and shadow
8 Claude Debussy, Debussy on Music: The Critical Writings of the Great French Composer Claude Debussy, ed. Richard Langham Smith and Lesure Francois (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1977), 237. 9 Debussy, Debussy on Music: The Critical Writings of the Great French Composer Claude Debussy, 238. 10 Rosemary Lloyd, “Debussy, Mallarmé, and ‘Les Mardis,’” in Debussy and His World, ed. Jane F. Fulcher (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), 256. 11 For example, in L’après-midi d’un faune, Mallarmé wrote: “I would immortalize these nymphs: so bright / Their sunlit colouring, so airy light, / It floats like drowsing down. / Loved I a dream?” For translation, see Adolf de 13 in nature.12 Both Mallarmé’s writings and Debussy’s music dwell in the space between desire and music-making, wakefulness and dreams, and reality and illusion. Debussy’s use of instrumental timbres and harmonic language mirror the ambiguous and shifting visual imagery of Mallarmé’s poems.
On January 30, 1891, the program for a collaborative stage performance of Mallarmé’s
L’après-midi d’un faune (with Debussy providing the musical accompaniment) was announced in an issue of L'Écho de Paris. The performance was scheduled for February 27, 1891, with Paul
Fort at the Théâtre d’art. However, the project never materialized after Mallarmé postponed the performance.13 Although the stage collaboration never came to fruition, Debussy was later motivated to write music to Mallarmé’s poetry. In October 1894, Debussy signed the publication contract for the Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune with the French publisher Eugene Fromont.14
With this work, he showed his enthusiasm for Mallarmé’s poem L’après-midi d’un faune, which is thought to have been inspired in turn by Pan et Syrinx, a 1759 painting by François Boucher now housed at the National Gallery in London.15 On December 21, 1894, Debussy wrote to
Mallarmé, emphasizing the importance of the flute part: “Dear Master, need I tell you what a joy it would be to me if you were willing to encourage with your presence the arabesques that a possibly blame-worthy pride has led me to believe your faun's flute dictated.”16 Debussy published the score for the Prélude the following year.
Meyer and Jennifer Dunning, L'Apres-midi d'un faune: Vaslav Nijinsky, 1912 (New York: Dance Horizons, 1983): 45-48. 12 Barbara Kelly, “Debussy’s Parisian affiliations,” in The Cambridge Companion to Debussy, ed. Simon Tresize (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 34. 13 Ibid. 14 David J. Code, Claude Debussy (London: Reaktion Books, 2010), 66. 15 Steven F. Walker, “Mallarmé's Symbolist Eclogue: The ‘Faune’ as Pastoral,” PMLA: Publications of the Modern Language Association of America 93/1 (1978), 106. 16 Lloyd, “Debussy, Mallarmé, and ‘Les Mardis,’” 255. 14
Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune depicts a sensuous dreamscape. In his poem, Mallarmé describes the inner monologue of a faun who glimpses a pair of nymphs and contemplates the reality of his vision, unsure of whether they may have arisen from his imagination. The faun becomes aware of the deceptive nature of his music as he notices that these illusory sensations seem to stem from the music of his flute.17 Debussy explained that the piece was only a loose illustration of Mallarmé’s poem, containing “a series of backdrops on which the desires and dreams of the faun move in the warmth of the afternoon.”18 Debussy’s composition functions as a prelude, an introduction to foreshadow the events to come in the poem. The premiere of his work took place in a concert of the Société Nationale de Musique on December 22, 1894, at the Salle d’Harcourt with the flute solo performed by Georges Barrère. The conductor Gustave Doret recalled that the audience was “completely subjugated” by the piece, and the performance was encored after the enthusiastic final applause.19 Mallarmé attended the concert the following day, and wrote to Debussy immediately afterward: “What a marvel! Your illustration of ‘The
Afternoon of a Faun’ offers no dissonance with my text, except that it goes further, truly, in nostalgia and light, with finesse, uneasiness, and richness.”20 Debussy’s musical interpretation had left a deep impression on the poet.
The Flute Solo and Instrumental Timbres
The Prélude opens, distinctively, with a sinuous unaccompanied arabesque flute melody
(Example 1.1). Marked piano and doux et expressif, the solo begins on C#⁵, a relatively unstable
17 David J. Code, “Hearing Debussy Reading Mallarmé: Music après Wagner in the Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune,” Journal of the American Musicological Society 54/3 (2001), 514. 18 Lloyd, “Debussy, Mallarmé, and ‘Les Mardis,’” 255. 19 Code, Claude Debussy, 67. 20 Lloyd, “Debussy, Mallarmé, and ‘Les Mardis,’” 256. 15 note in the middle register of the flute. Dr. John W. Coltman, in his study of the acoustics of the flute, found that in the first and second registers, C# had the greatest variation in intonation after withdrawing the headjoint by one millimeter.21 In the modern Boehm system, the difficulty of producing a steady tone quality in this note is caused by the small size of the C# tone hole, which also acts as a register vent to produce different octaves.22 An open tone hole in the flute impedes the acoustic vibration, isolating the tube below the air column from vibrating.23 The smaller the tone hole, the higher the impedance to the vibration of the instrument. The instrument has the most tone holes open with C#⁵, which is operated by the first finger. Thus, the note sounds relatively hazy, and frequencies produced by the instrument for this note are dependent on the performer’s playing habits. Flutist Ernestine Whitman argues that Debussy makes use of this frailty by suspending the note in place. By beginning with the sustained C#⁵, its relative instability in pitch allows for flexibility in timbre.24 The flute player can shape the timbre of the note using the internal shape of the mouth, airstream pressure, and airstream direction across the lip plate. Varying the vibrato speed and depth also allows the tone color to shift as the pitch is sustained; a slower, narrower vibrato can produce a hazy, darker sonority to convey the indolent gentleness of the piece. The open malleability of the note and soft dynamics allow the flutist to create a delicate entrance.
21 John W. Coltman, “Designing the scale of the Boehm flute,” The Woodwind Quarterly 4 (1994), 28. 22 In 1847, German flutist Theobald Boehm made mechanical improvements to the flute and invented the modern cylindrical-bore flute, which became widely adopted in the twentieth century. The invention of the modern Boehm system flute (which was based on acoustic relationships rather than ergonomic requirements) allowed flutists to achieve a wider range of tone colors. 23 Ibid. 24 Ernestine Whitman, “Analysis and Performance Critique of Debussy's Flute Works,” PhD diss., (University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1977), 85. 16
After the first note, the phrase descends chromatically into the lower register to emphasize the tritone, or augmented fourth interval. The interval forms the basis for the whole-tone scale, and the figure ascends through the whole-tone scale in returning to C#⁵. The augmented fourth interval also represents a static symmetry, as it divides the octave exactly in half.25 Music theorists have long considered the tension in the interval as unstable, and Debussy allows the phrase to float between the dissonant tritone in a rhythmically unstable and unconstrained arabesque. In the whole-tone scale, each note is an equal whole step distance apart, which creates a blurred, indistinct effect where no particular note stands out. The use of this scale, and the nonconfirming cadence in the fourth measure, support the trance-like, illusory nature of the faun’s vision. The displacements from diatonicism where the phrase wanders into whole-tone harmony generate uncertainty, inviting contemplation similar to the illusory imagery of Mallarmé’s Symbolist poem.26 The piece ushers in a new musical syntax, in which elements of the whole-tone scale are interspersed within the broader framework of a diatonic tonality. The dream-like associations of the whole-tone scale and harmonically ambiguous nature of the figure conjure the languorous and mysterious atmosphere of Mallarmé’s poem.
Debussy draws on the unique timbres of the flute in shaping the solo’s expressive qualities. Hector Berlioz, a greatly revered orchestrator, wrote about the timbre of the flute in his
Grand traité d’instrumentation et d’orchestration modernes, Op.10 (1843-44). While he considered the flute to be “almost lacking in expression” compared to other woodwind instruments, he also noted the nuanced sonority of the middle register, which could provide a
25 Walsh, Debussy: A Painter in Sound, 162. 26 John Crotty, “Symbolist influences in Debussy's Prelude to 'The afternoon of a faun,’” In Theory Only 6/2 (1982), 20. 17
“desolate - but also humble and resigned - tone for a sad melody.”27 The desolate sonority of the flute contributes to the sense of fading to nothingness, an emptiness that other instruments cannot convey. Charles-Marie Widor also brought attention to the “weak-toned” nature of the flute's middle register.28 This characteristic is striking at the beginning of the Prélude where the soft dynamic markings and the lack of pronounced articulation in the meandering flute solo contribute to a lack of presence.29 The soloist’s use of vibrato on the sustained notes enhances a feeling of disintegration, which conveys the transience of the faun’s dream. At the opening of his piece, Debussy utilizes the timbre of the flute’s lower register to communicate an ephemeral, shrouded sensuality.
Isabella van Elferen situates Berlioz’s precise assignment of identity and expression to instrumental timbres in the context of Romantic idealism. In the Romantic era, instruments were no longer charged with carrying specific assigned functions. Their unique timbres, however, expressed “feelings, shades, and subtleties”; using the visual metaphor of tone color meant that instrumental timbres could only be described with imprecise and vague adjectives.30 Composers in the Romantic era also began to foreground the subliminal, ephemeral aspects of timbre.
Berlioz was one of the earliest composers to move toward the idea of “timbral emancipation” by creating new sound objects from blending different instruments in his orchestration.31 Debussy's orchestration highlights the ephemeral timbres of the flute, allowing the flute to emerge
27 Hector Berlioz, Berlioz's Orchestration Treatise: a Translation and Commentary, ed. Hugh Macdonald (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 140. 28 Charles-Marie Widor, The Technique of the Modern Orchestra - a Manual of Practical Instrumentation, trans. Edward Suddard (London: Joseph Williams Ltd, 1906), 18. 29 Gurminder Kaur Bhogal, “Ephemeral Arabesque Timbres and the Exotic Feminine,” in Arabesque Without End, ed. Anne Leonard (New York: Routledge, 2021), 11. 30 Isabella van Elferen, “Drastic Allure: Timbre Between the Sublime and the Grain,” Contemporary Music Review 36/6 (February 2017), 618. 31 Makis Solomos, “Timbre,” in From Music to Sound: the Emergence of Sound in 20th- and 21st-Century Music (Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2020), 22. 18 imperceptibly from the silence preceding the work and to dissipate into nothingness. The accompaniment to the flute part is handled sensitively as the movement in the accompanying harp, stringed instruments, and muted horns is limited.32 The string parts also function to veil the distinct timbres of wind instruments in generating a blanketing, blurring effect that supports the feeling of a reverie.
Debussy’s treatment of timbres also overlaps with aspects of fin-de-siècle aesthetics, namely the fascination with allusion, evocation, and suggestion that emerged from the Symbolist movement.33 Arnold Schoenberg admired the timbral impressionism in Debussy's music, and in his treatise wrote about what van Elferen describes as a “timbral imperative.” Schoenberg thought of timbre as the “highest and most ineffable form of musical expression,” believing that its ineffability would evoke “illusions, dreams, and a new kind of vitality.”34 The mythical world created by the Prélude occupies the space between consciousness and unconsciousness;
Debussy's combination of the flute and the arpeggiated harp melody transports the listener to a distant, dream vision, which relates to Mallarmé’s linking of dreamscapes to the physical world through music. Debussy’s harmonic language also connects to prevailing Symbolist and
Decadent ideas of obscurity and interiority. The lack of tonal confirmation in the flute part becomes a “lazy, luxurious embrace of the ambiguity,” forming a new musical language of
“unclarified possibilities.”35 Additionally, the flute arabesque undergoes varied repetition against the changing background of the orchestration, where it becomes more harmonically complex upon each repetition. James Hepokoski argues that the wispiness of the flute opening represents a
32 Whitman, “Analysis and Performance Critique of Debussy's Flute Works,” 89. 33 Lloyd, “Debussy, Mallarmé, and ‘Les Mardis,’” 268. 34 Elferen, “Drastic Allure: Timbre Between the Sublime and the Grain,” 620; Schoenberg, Arnold, Harmonielehre (Vienna: Universal-edition, 1911), 438. 35 James A. Hepokoski, “Formulaic Openings in Debussy,” 19th-Century Music 8/1 (1984), 56. 19 vertical florification, a “growing-inward in thickness and complexity.”36 Debussy’s compositional work through fading flute timbres communicates the Symbolist aesthetic of interior growth within the context of sensual fantasy.
In this chapter, we have seen how Debussy’s treatment of timbres in the Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune signifies a breaking away from orchestral tradition. By opening the piece with the flute’s lower register timbres, the piece showcases new soloistic capabilities for the instrument. The piece highlights ephemeral, immaterial qualities of flute timbres to convey impressions of sensuality and obscurity. In this way, Debussy's Prélude participates in the artistic circles of Paris during la belle époque and reveals the influence of Mallarmé’s “Mardis” gatherings that Debussy was involved with. The Faun Prélude illuminates the fin-de-siècle fascination with ambiguity and dreams in French aesthetics at the turn of the twentieth century, and I will continue to explore these connections in relation to Debussy’s other works for flute in later chapters.
36 Ibid. 20
Example 1.1. Claude Debussy. Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune (opening flute solo), measures
1-4. 21
Chapter Two: Unaccompanied Flute Timbres in Syrinx for solo flute
In Chapter One, I showed how flute timbres in the Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune communicate an ephemeral sensuality and in so doing, convey aspects of fin-de-siècle aesthetics.
In this chapter, I will continue the discussion of timbral aesthetics in relation to a later piece,
Syrinx for solo flute (1913, published posthumously in 1927). As we will see, there are some overlaps in the inspiration behind both pieces in terms of their underlying narration and connections to prevailing Symbolist ideas. We will also see how the unaccompanied flute is used differently in Syrinx than in the Prélude where lower register flute timbres precede the instruments of the orchestra. In parallel with the Prélude, I will argue that Debussy’s flute writing in Syrinx is significant given his sensitive use of ephemeral timbres across multiple registers of the instrument, which effectively transport the listener to an illusory dream world much as they did in the Prélude. In Syrinx, Debussy employs the unique sonorities of the flute to communicate a sense of ambiguity, melancholy, and enchantment, as heard through his exploratory development of arabesque motives and the ambiguous harmonic language of the piece.
My discussion of timbral aesthetics in this piece draws on Isabella van Elferen’s analysis of the paradoxes inherent in the perception of timbre where the aesthetic position of tone color occupies the space between the material and the sublime.37 Timbre contains both physical and immaterial components, and its aesthetic allure is based on the overlaps between materiality and ephemerality. The material origins of timbre—the acoustic design of the flute, the resulting frequencies that are produced, and the physical actions taken by the flutist—are all factors that
37 Isabella van Elferen, Timbre: Paradox, Materialism, Vibrational Aesthetics (New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2020), 9. 22 shape tone color aesthetics during performance. I will also describe, using timbral metaphors and tone color adjectives, the immaterial components of timbre that contribute to its ineffable listening experience. The experience of timbral aesthetics is not passive, but rooted in a combination of “thoughts, practices, and affects.”38 I approach the study of timbral aesthetics while addressing the musical qualities of Syrinx as reflected in my own performance practice.
Debussy’s Syrinx for solo flute was written almost two decades after the Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune. As with the Prélude, Syrinx has its origins in incidental music. The
Prélude’s depiction of the faun draws on Ovid’s myth of Pan and Syrinx as filtered through
Mallarmé’s poetry, and provides the basis for Syrinx as a piece that has dramatic origins in
Gabriel Mourey’s poem. Syrinx is remembered today as the first unaccompanied flute work composed during the twentieth century by a major composer. As such, it represented the beginning of a renewed interest in the flute as a solo instrument after the invention of the modern
Boehm system. Syrinx showcases the soloistic timbral capabilities of the instrument, which operate within a unique harmonic language, rhythmic framework, and thematic structure.
Debussy aligns ephemeral flute timbres with musical topics of exoticism, ambiguity, and utopian visions which were of interest to several artistic movements in France at the turn of the twentieth century.
Dramatic Origins of Syrinx
Syrinx was originally composed as incidental music to Gabriel Mourey’s dramatic poem
Psyché in 1912. Titled “La Flûte de Pan,” the piece was completed in 1913, and later published
38 Elferen, Timbre: Paradox, Materialism, Vibrational Aesthetics, 175. 23 as Syrinx in 1927, nearly ten years after Debussy’s death. While Debussy’s autograph is missing from the score, a manuscript copy reveals the piece’s origins in drama.39 Most of Debussy’s completed works from 1911 to 1914 were theatrical, and based on literary or poetic sources.40
Mourey was a Symbolist poet, writer, and art critic who formed an acquaintance with Debussy.
Debussy and Mourey met in 1889 and attempted to collaborate several times, but were initially unsuccessful. In July 1907, Mourey presented the libretto for an opera based on Le Roman de
Tristan by Joseph Bédier to Debussy, but conflict over the rights for theatrical adaptation hindered the completion of the work.41 Several other projects were proposed by Mourey to
Debussy, but none of these materialized. Correspondence reveals that Mourey first invited
Debussy to compose music for Psyché, and that Debussy subsequently responded by inquiring about the placement of the music within the surrounding dialogue.42 Eventually, Debussy was able to complete Syrinx for a specific scene in the three-act play, which premiered in December of 1913.
In the play, Syrinx’s melody functions as the flute melody played by Pan, the mythological Greek god of shepherds and shepherdesses. The myth of Pan and Syrinx is most well-known in relation to Ovid’s Metamorphoses: Pan favoured the nymph Syrinx and relentlessly pursued her, despite his unreturned affections. Syrinx escaped Pan’s lustful pursuit by imploring the water nymphs for help, who subsequently transformed her into reeds. Pan created the pan flute by cutting the reeds that constituted her body and thus inadvertently caused
39 David Grayson, “Bilitis and Tanagra: Afternoons with Nude Women,” in Debussy and His World, ed. Jane F. Fulcher (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), 132. 40 Marianne Wheeldon, Debussy's Late Style (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2009), 5. 41 Laurel Astrid Ewell, “A Symbolist Melodrama: the Confluence of Poem and Music in Debussy's La Flute De Pan,” DMA diss., (West Virginia University, 2004), 1. 42 K. Dawn Grapes, “Understanding Syrinx: Finding the Voice of Pan,” Pan: The Journal of the British Flute Society 33/1 (March 2014), 26. 24 her death. In Mourey’s Psyché, Pan is depicted as being more closely aligned to Apuleius’s
Metamorphoses than the character in Ovid’s rendition. Instead of the lustful Pan of Ovid,
Apuleius’s Pan is displayed comforting Psyche after Cupid abandons her.43 Pan and Psyche’s relationship mirrors the interaction between the naiad (water nymph) and the oread (mountain nymph) in the scene where Debussy’s Syrinx is heard.
Although Mourey described Syrinx as the final melody that Pan plays just before his death, this statement is not indicative of the position of the piece within the drama.44 According to the manuscript, the music was to be played at the beginning of the first scene in Act III, continuing through the dialogue between a naiad and an oread. In this scene, the oread is attempting to reassure the naiad, who is fearful about entering Pan’s lair. The stage directions read that at certain moments of the conversation the two nymphs, “all pause, astonished, listening to the syrinx of the invisible Pan, moved by the song that escapes from the hollow reeds.”45 The melody is diegetic to the play, as the naiad comments on the enticing power of the syrinx during the conversation:
O Pan the sounds of thy syrinx, like a wine Too fragrant and too sweet, have intoxicated me. O Pan, I no longer fear you, I am yours.46
The nymphs are entranced by the beautiful timbres of Pan’s flute music, which encourages the naiad to venture further into Pan’s cave dwelling. Program music has often capitalized on the
43 Ibid. 44 Grayson, “Bilitis and Tanagra: Afternoons with Nude Women,” 132. 45 Julie McQuinn, “Exploring the Erotic in Debussy’s Music,” in The Cambridge Companion to Debussy, ed. Simon Trezise (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 126. 46 As cited in Ewell, “A Symbolist Melodrama: the Confluence of Poem and Music in Debussy's La Flute De Pan,” 83. 25 extra-musical identities attached to the sonorities of specific instruments and voices.47 As incidental music, Syrinx employs the enchanting, melancholy associations of flute timbres to convey the allure of Pan’s flute music.
This piece was dedicated to flutist Louis Fleury, a prominent soloist and performer of contemporary music. Fleury owned the autograph manuscript for the piece and played the flute in the premiere of Psyché on December 1, 1913. Fleury studied at the Paris Conservatoire under
Paul Taffanel who is regarded as the founder of the French flute school. Fleury often performed
Syrinx on concert tours in Europe and thus introduced Debussy’s composition to many audiences. In his article, “The Flute and its Powers of Expression,” Fleury explored the expressive capabilities of the instrument. He cites several musical examples from Debussy’s composition to demonstrate the wide expressive abilities of the flute. According to Fleury, a skillfully composed work can bring out the “melancholy sweetness” and “limpidity” of the instrument. He references Debussy’s Syrinx, stating that the piece, while short in duration,
“reaches piquant melancholy by the very simplest means.”48 As I now explore, Debussy’s flute writing contributes to a combination of melancholy and sensuality, creating impressions of ambiguity and enchantment in performance.
Flute Timbres in Syrinx
Debussy foregrounds the immaterial aspects of flute timbres in Syrinx to draw the listener into the performance’s immersive otherworldliness. The structure of the piece can be divided into three main sections (measures 1-8, 9-25, and 25-35), each introduced by a variation on the
47 Elferen, Timbre: Paradox, Materialism, Vibrational Aesthetics, 67. 48 Louis Fleury and Arthur Henry Fox Strangways, “The Flute and Its Powers of Expression,” Music & Letters 3/4 (1922), 388. 26 arabesque motive introduced in measures 1 to 2 (Example 2.1). The variations allow the performer to modify the tone colors upon each reintroduction, shaping the imaginative journey of the piece. The opening arabesque theme begins on Bb⁵and initiates a chromatic descent that is decorated by thirty-second notes. Longer principal tones are graced by these shorter rhythmic values, the rhythmic alternations lending a feeling of tentative improvisation.49 The arabesque is limited to a narrow range in the middle register of the flute. When playing this first melodic gesture, I use the dynamic tone colors of the instrument to interpret the phrase as indicating Pan’s fleeting expression of longing. I start the phrase by forming a rounded vowel shape with the inside of my mouth, instilling the mezzo-forte notes with a steady airstream and a greater height to the sound that communicates a beckoning motion, as if Pan is calling out to Syrinx.
The melody then returns to the opening note at the end of the phrase in measure 2 where the fermata over the half-note Bb⁵ emphasizes its importance through prolongation. The Bb⁵ becomes a central note of the piece, and the lack of covered tone holes in the body of the flute provides the note with a wispy, frail quality that evokes the vague impermanence of a dream.
Debussy allows the flute to linger on the limpid wistfulness of this pitch, foreshadowing the plaintive mood of the piece. The constant circling back to the opening arabesque, the use of rubato, and the improvisatory quality of this piece generate a wandering mood that characterizes the exploratory development of themes in the piece. On the sustained Bb⁵, I allow the prolonged sound to taper off into nothingness by reducing the aperture of my embouchure to create a finer airstream for the note. The tone color of the note becomes shallow and silkier. The sound of the
49 Gurminder Kaur Bhogal, Details of Consequence: Ornament, Music, and Art in Paris (NY: Oxford University Press, 2013), 180. 27 flute gradually fades away, the silvery, vanishing sound reflecting the intangible nature of Pan’s desire.
The motivic development of the piece allows the flutist to explore a wide range of timbres with soft dynamics and sustained notes. The rhythmic variation and motivic repetitions of Syrinx contribute to the piece’s versatile, “kaleidoscopic” quality where contrasts between repetitions of fluctuating rhythms and musical gestures contribute to a swinging sensation between liveliness and immobility.50 Richard S. Parks likens the repetitive structure of Syrinx to a series of journeys where each excursion arrives at a new destination, and the observer is then transported back to the beginning point before starting a new trip. The melody returns to the opening motif at the beginnings of the first three phrasal gestures of the piece at measures 1, 3, and 9.51 The modified repetitions of gestures call back to the monophonic flute solo in the opening of Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune. The beginning of Syrinx is similarly characterized by a “triple-gesture opening” as described by James Hepokoski where each phrase is a modified sequence of the initial phrase.52 The phrases in the piece expand and grow, generating new musical figures as the piece progresses. However, instead of increasing in volume and growing through its dynamic trajectory, the melody becomes softer upon each repetition of the phrase, foregrounding the hushed timbres of the flute. As the melody circles back to the starting point, the gentle sonorities of the flute in the middle and lower registers transport the listener to a mysterious, distant vision. The repetitions of arabesques diminish in dynamics, the faint timbres of the flute express the distant, fleeting nature of this fantasy. When I play the third gesture
50 Richard S. Parks, “Music’s Inner Dance: Form, Pacing and Complexity in Debussy’s Music,” in The Cambridge Companion to Debussy, ed. Simon Tresize (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 214. 51 Bhogal, Details of Consequence: Ornament, Music, and Art in Paris, 180. 52 James A. Hepokoski, “Formulaic Openings in Debussy,” 19th-Century Music 8/1 (1984): 48-59. 28 marked piano in measure 9, I drastically reduce the intensity of the sound by angling the airstream higher and using a narrower vibrato. This produces an aura of airy, breathless surprise.
The registral range of the flute expands as the music of Syrinx progresses. In his treatise on orchestration, the Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov brought attention to the timbral profiles of different instruments; in particular, how instruments could be employed to communicate specific emotions with their unique sonorities. Rimsky-Korsakov stated that flute timbres in the middle and upper register were “cold in quality, specially suitable, in the major key, to melodies of light and graceful character; in the minor key, to slight touches of transient sorrow.”53 The cold, melancholy timbre of the flute is suited to channeling Pan’s feelings of longing and sorrow given his unrequited love for Syrinx. The flute enters the upper register at the climactic point of the piece at the beginning of the third section (measure 27). As the phrase increases in volume, I use a wider vibrato to heighten the moment’s emotional intensity through a ringing sound. I can create more richness in timbre by lifting the soft palate to increase the space in the oral cavity. Debussy also employs several of the lowest notes of the flute register for expressive effect. The lowest point of the piece occurs in measure 16 of the second section, preceded by a descending chromatic sequence. When arriving at the low C⁴, I create a paler tone with a slower airstream to contribute to the moment of somber, deadened stillness. After the aforementioned climactic point, the flute line descends lower in range until the end of the piece
(Example 2.3). The distinctive combination of the melodic contours, harmony, rhythmic repetitions, dynamic shaping, and lower register flute timbres that form the music of Syrinx function to communicate a lament, the “severest and soberest expression of great mental
53 Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Nicolas Rimsky-Korsakov: Principles of Orchestration: with Musical Examples Drawn from His Own Works, ed. Shteinberg Maksimilian, trans. Edward Agate (Berlin: Éditions Russes de Musique, 1923), 19. 29 suffering,” as described by Louis Fleury.54 In particular, the lower register of the flute, with its pastoral associations and characteristic mildness, contributes to a gentle, expressive sorrow.
The harmonic language in Syrinx conveys a dreamlike otherworldliness, establishing a connection with prevailing fin-de-siècle aesthetic ideas. Three aesthetic movements that emerged in the 1880s (Wagnerism, Pre-Raphaelitism, and Symbolism) all upheld the idea that art was a means to “create an alternative world of truer meaning,” a way to escape from “materialistic reality” and the ordinary experiences of the physical world.55 Debussy described that music should concern itself with the mysteries involved in the world of dreams rather than be confined to everyday life.56 While the assigned key signature of Syrinx has five flats, the piece strays away from a fixed tonality. Several motives throughout the piece move chromatically in a stepwise descent. The timbres of closely situated notes blur together as if eliciting the haziness of a dream, as the sound slips between adjacent pitches.57 Debussy also utilizes multiple pentatonic scales, which are associated with stereotyped music of the Far East and were often used by composers to evoke exoticism as heard in Syrinx, measures 10-12 (Example 2.2). The harmonic language in
Syrinx employs pentatonicism and whole-tone scales to evoke a vision of ancient Greece, the original location of the myth of Pan and Syrinx. Philosopher and musicologist Vladimir
Jankélévitch wrote about the geographical picturesque where composers would “demand from
Ancient Greece” a “geographic dissolution compounded equally of ubiquity and Utopia.”58 The
54 Fleury and Strangways, “The Flute and Its Powers of Expression,” 388. 55 Hepokoski, “Formulaic Openings in Debussy,” 52. 56 Claude Debussy, Debussy on Music: The Critical Writings of the Great French Composer Claude Debussy, ed. Richard Langham Smith and Lesure Francois (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1977), 155. 57 Gurminder Kaur Bhogal, “Ephemeral Arabesque Timbres and the Exotic Feminine,” in Arabesque Without End, ed. Anne Leonard (New York: Routledge, 2021), 11. 58 Vladimir Jankélévitch, Music and the Ineffable, trans. Carolyn Abbate (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2003), 104. 30 veiled flute timbres operating within Debussy’s unconventional harmonic language transport the listener to a faraway place, one of an idealized, exoticized vision.
The ending of the piece is marked by a whole-tone scale that descends to a Db⁴, one of the lowest notes that the flute is capable of producing. Flutist Mimi Stillman situates the winding arabesques of Syrinx within the Art Nouveau movement, an ornamental style that flourished throughout Europe and the United States from the 1880s to the 1910s. Debussy was fascinated by Art Nouveau, and his use of falling arabesque lines connects to the Art Nouveau concept of instilling descending lines with an “emotional decline and diminishing of energy.”59 The ending winds down as the piece diminishes in intensity, which is reinforced by the en retenant jusqu'a la fin and the très retenu markings (Example 2.3). During performance, I allow the sound of the flute to gradually disintegrate, letting a slight fuzziness enter the tone as if the sound itself is unraveling. The listener must strain their ears to hear the delicate final note, marked by a hushed piano dynamic marking and perdendosi. Debussy allows the sound of the flute to fade imperceptibly into the atmosphere, perhaps conjuring the fleeting image of Syrinx slipping away from Pan’s grasp.
The final Db⁴, extended by the fermata, occupies the liminal space between noise and silence, “the border of the material and immaterial,” and the “almost-nothing” of “minimal existence.”60 Here, fading flute timbres are again used to signify a lack of presence. In contrast to the many open tone holes of the Bb fingering, the key used to produce Db⁴ is located at the footjoint end of the flute. Because Db⁴ has nearly all the tone holes pressed down, there is no cutoff frequency where the vibration of the flute would be impeded by the air in the open tone
59 Mimi Stillman, “Debussy, Painter of Sound and Image,” Flutist Quarterly (Fall 2007), 43. 60 Jankélévitch, Music and the Ineffable, 143. 31 holes.61 The covered tone holes and the relatively few overtones within the note create a characteristic dullness and dryness of tone quality. The flutist can use very little to no vibrato in the final phrase to emphasize its dramatic listlessness. The vaporization of the note represents the illusory nature of the alternate, sensual dreamscape created by Debussy’s music, which fades in and out of existence. Debussy employs the hollow, ghostly feebleness of the flute sound to reinforce the mysterious, melancholy resignation of the piece’s end.
In this chapter, we have seen that Debussy’s flute writing in Syrinx takes advantage of the instrument’s ephemeral timbres to shape the multifaceted expressive qualities of the piece—of sensuality and enchantment, as well as of longing and sorrow. I have shown how the acoustic properties of the flute effectively communicate the sublime immateriality of these aspects, especially in the middle and lower registers of the flute. My goal is to have also demonstrated how the motivic development and the unconventional use of pentatonic and whole-tone tonalities align with the fin-de-siècle idealization of escapist realities, and mysterious, transient dream worlds.
61 John W. Coltman, “Designing the scale of the Boehm flute,” The Woodwind Quarterly 4 (1994), 29. 32
Example 2.1. Claude Debussy. Syrinx (opening theme and variation), measures 1-8.
Example 2.2. Claude Debussy. Syrinx (use of pentatonic scales), measures 9-12. 33
Example 2.3. Claude Debussy. Syrinx (ending, use of whole-tone scale), measures 29-35. 34
Chapter Three: Looking Backward and Looking Forward in the Sonate pour flûte, alto, et
harpe
In Chapter Two, I discussed the use of ephemeral flute timbres in Syrinx for solo flute, and drew broad stylistic parallels to aesthetic ideas pertaining to Symbolism, Wagnerism, and the
Pre-Raphaelites. In the current chapter, I will examine the techniques and aesthetics of timbral blending and study the treatment of instrument sonorities by Debussy in his Sonate pour flûte, alto, et harpe (Sonata for flute, viola, and harp, 1915), the first major composition written for this instrument combination. My study of timbre involves examining the material sound source of timbres as they emerge in the flute, the mingling of distinct instrument sonorities as suggested in music notation and in performance, and their sublime effect on the listener’s experience.
Composed during the First World War, the Sonate demonstrates a continued development of
Debussy’s shift to a “late” style in his final years.62 In contrast to earlier compositions such as the
Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune and Syrinx, many of Debussy’s later works turn away from a reliance on theatrical and dramatic origins toward traditional musical forms and smaller ensembles. The Sonate exhibits a championing of the French musical past, a sentiment that aligned with the nationalistic fervor of wartime Paris. This piece combines elements from
Debussy’s earlier style with forms from French Baroque music alongside Debussy’s continued innovation in timbre and harmony. The Sonate foregrounds the ephemeral qualities (the expressive ability of timbres to convey a fleeting, transitory experience, where faint flute timbres are used to allude to the topic of dreams and illusion) of timbral blends (the fusion of sounds produced by the flute, viola, and harp). Debussy draws on these qualities to vary instrumental
62 Marianne Wheeldon, Debussy's Late Style (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2009), 6. 35 textures, articulation, melodic fragments, and dynamics in evoking characteristic fin-de-siècle sonorities while paying tribute to France’s musical history.
Debussy’s Sonatas in Wartime Paris
The Sonate pour flûte, alto, et harpe was composed from September to October 1915, toward the end of Debussy’s life. At the start of the First World War in 1914, Debussy was preoccupied with his worsening financial situation, illness, his family, and the stresses caused by the war. The cultural climate of war-torn Europe and Debussy’s terminal cancer had negatively impacted the composer’s creative output, and there was a period of almost a year where Debussy did not produce any compositional work.63 Debussy moved from Paris to the small village of
Pourville in the summer of 1915. During this time, Debussy re-worked his musical style, and his renewed attempts at composing were considered to be the beginning of his final creative period.
In Pourville, he composed the Sonate pour violoncelle et piano (for cello and piano), En blanc et noir (for two pianos), Douze Études (for solo piano), and the Sonate pour flûte, alto, et harpe.
Debussy’s late compositions indicated a movement away from his previous interest in theatrical and literary elements, and a shift toward more traditional genres affiliated with the concept of absolute music.64 He explored small-scale instrumental genres in the form of music for solo and chamber ensembles. Marianne Wheeldon explains how against the backdrop of the war, these stylistic shifts indicated the composer’s increasing awareness of his own role in maintaining
France’s musical legacy. We might hear this stylistic shift as reflecting his efforts to establish a
“national heritage” in his music.65 Debussy sought to evaluate his French roots and his
63 Ibid., 6. 64 Ibid., 2. 65 Ibid., 6. 36 relationship to the French musical past, and he did so through wartime compositions rooted in the concept of the French Baroque Sonata.
The Sonate pour flûte, alto, et harpe was composed as the second of a set of six planned sonatas. Each sonata was intended to have a different combination of instruments with the final sonata incorporating all the instruments used in the previous five. These sonatas reflected
Debussy’s interest in exploring the timbres of unique instrument groupings. By the time of
Debussy’s death on March 25, 1918, he had completed three of the six sonatas. The title pages for each of the completed works were signed “Claude Debussy, musicien français,” demonstrating Debussy’s efforts to attach an outward French identity to his music (Figure 3.1).
Debussy’s signature, and his plan to compose six sonatas at a period of his life when he knew he was dying, also illustrate his self-positioning as an heir to the French Baroque tradition.66 The rise in nationalism in the French capital during the war paralleled a growing interest in the idea of developing an “authentic” French style in music. Debussy had previously positioned himself against the classicism of the Schola Cantorum as upheld by Vincent d'Indy; Debussy viewed this institution as representative of the sterile, rigid mold of the Austro-German musical tradition.67
Debussy, instead, sought inspiration in the music of revered French Baroque composers,
Couperin and Rameau. In his decision to connect the three-movement sonata with French nationalism, Debussy decisively recast the notion of Sonata as French, alluding to it as “simply an instrumental piece.”68 Gone are the evocative titles of the prior decade as seen in his Images and Preludes for piano where descriptive titles often alluded to an extra-musical narrative based
66 Barbara Kelly, “Debussy’s Parisian affiliations,” in The Cambridge Companion to Debussy, ed. Simon Tresize (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 40. 67 Jane F. Fulcher, "Speaking the Truth to Power: The Dialogic Element in Debussy’s Wartime Compositions," in Debussy and His World, ed. Jane F. Fulcher (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), 222. 68 Ibid. 37 on poetry or visual imagery. For instance, the fourth piece in the Preludes, “Les sons et les parfums tournent dans l’air du soir” (The sounds and scents swirl through the evening air), is based on Baudelaire’s poem, Harmonie du Soir (Evening harmony), and the first piece in
Images, “Reflets dans l'eau” (Reflections in the water), is based on visual imagery of light reflecting from the surface of water. In contrast to the evocative titles of these earlier works, titles from Debussy’s late works like the Sonate pour flûte, alto, et harpe provide little indication of their musical content. Debussy’s deliberate engagement with French classicism through the genre of the Sonata shows the influence of the nationalistic climate of wartime Paris and his own desire to establish his legacy as a French composer. The understated emotion, delicate sonorities, and intimacy that characterizes the Sonatas looks back toward the style galant while pushing ahead toward the streamlined, neoclassical style of the postwar period.69
Even as the Sonate pour flûte, alto, et harpe recalls Baroque tradition through the use of baroque dances and picturesque titles of movements in the vein of Couperin, Debussy continued to focus on timbre as he did in his previous works where ephemeral timbres evoked an aesthetics of the ineffable through allusions to the topics of dreams and mystery.70 According to Léon
Vallas, Debussy had originally intended to compose the piece for flute, oboe, and harp.71
However, he later replaced the oboe with the viola because he felt that the timbres of the viola blended better with the flute. Robert Godet, a Swiss journalist and Debussy’s lifelong friend, highlighted the stylistic effect of the combination of timbres in the Sonate. He described the
69 Ernestine Whitman, “Analysis and Performance Critique of Debussy's Flute Works,” PhD diss., (University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1977), 5. 70 Edward Lockspeiser, Debussy: His Life and Mind, vol. 2 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978), 180. 71 Leon Vallas, Claude Debussy: His Life and Works, trans. Marie O'Brien and Grace O'Brien (London: Oxford University Press, 1933), 263. 38 piece's modernity, as well as its ability to “evoke music of the past,” through its instrumental timbres. Regarding the configuration of instruments in the piece, Godet stated:
It seems to me that the reflective viola resurrects your youth in some kind of veiled, tender manner while the flute, assuming both a languorous and a vivacious manner as if it were impersonating a melancholy version of Puck, seems to be questioning the hidden meaning of things. You combine these two voices, the one a warm, soulful voice thrown into relief by the other, rather colder voice, and their intercourse is woven together by the harp.72
In this way, Godet observed the juxtaposition of moods created by the dissimilar voices of the flute and the viola, which are unified by the sonorities of the harp.
Debussy also wrote about the indefinite character of the Sonate in a letter to Godet on
December 11, 1916: “The sound of it is not bad, though it is not for me to speak to you of the music. I could do so, however, without embarrassment for it is the music of a Debussy whom I no longer know. It is frightfully mournful and I don't know whether one should laugh or cry— perhaps both?”73 Debussy recognized his younger self in the work as the Sonate bears a resemblance to his earlier orchestral works in its colorful sonorities and harmonic ambiguity.
Godet responded to Debussy’s letter with his perspective on the work:
Sometimes, while your forward march relentlessly progresses, something causes you to glance backwards, and it seems to me that your second ‘French Sonata’ represents one of those retrospective glances thanks to which the development of your genius remains all of a piece. In looking back to one’s youth one does not see the familiar scene again, for the viewpoint has changed.74
Godet viewed the Sonate as exhibiting a connection to the composer’s older works. The sound of the piece looks toward Debussy’s musical past by continuing the use of faded, ephemeral timbres
72 Francois Lesure, “Cinq lettres de Robert Godet,” Revue de Musicologie (1962): 81-82. Passage translated in Lockspeiser, Debussy: His Life and Mind, 218. 73 Lockspeiser, Debussy: His Life and Mind, 218. 74 Ibid. 39 but also points toward future compositional developments given its combination of fragmented instrumental timbres that are placed against an ambiguous harmonic background. Later composers who were inspired by Debussy’s ensemble of flute, viola, and harp, included Maurice
Duruflé as heard in his Prélude, Récitatif et Variations, Op. 3 (1928), Tōru Takemitsu’s trio And then I knew 'twas Wind (1992), and Per Nørgård’s Billet Doux à Madame C. for alto flute, viola and harp (2005).
Debussy utilized the multidimensional nature of timbre in the Sonate pour flûte, alto, et harpe to create ambiguity of mood within the formal context of the Sonata. In her recent book,
Isabella van Elferen discusses the multifaceted nature of timbre, which she describes as a singular sound event that is shaped by a multiplicity of material, perceptual, and performative factors.75 Elferen argues that timbre’s “musical context,” or its place in composition and performance, makes up a component of the “ecology” of timbre. Timbre is not only shaped by its material sound source but also by dynamic musical contingencies that occur in performance.76 In the Sonate, the timbres of the flute, viola, and harp are shaped by ephemeral aspects of instrumental dialogue, as individual sounds are transformed through fusing with other timbres, in addition to interactions with acoustic and musical entities. These factors are immediate and unpredictable in performance. The unpredictable nature of these sounds facilitate the projection of an ambiguous, fading sonority, which is suitable for conveying the ineffable.
The Sonate consists of three movements: I. Pastorale: Lento, dolce rubato; II. Interlude:
Tempo di Minuetto; and III. Finale: Allegro moderato ma risoluto. The piece has a cyclical
75 Isabella van Elferen, Timbre: Paradox, Materialism, Vibrational Aesthetics (New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2020): 44-46. 76 Ibid. 40 structure where the opening Pastorale theme makes a return in the final movement. Debussy’s exploration of timbres operates within this multimovement structure where a unique timbral identity is crafted for each movement. Debussy’s blending of instrumental timbres creates a gradual progression in momentum and energy through the movements as experienced through an interplay of dynamics, articulation, motivic structure, instrumental range, and rhythmic drive. I will now delve into the composition and performance details of the Sonate to examine the idiosyncratic use of instrumental textures and timbres.
Timbral Blends in the Sonate
In the Sonate pour flûte, alto, et harpe, Debussy delicately blends instrumental sonorities and foregrounds soloistic timbres to convey a sorrowful return to the remote past. The woodwind opening suggests a scene of mythical antiquity due to the conventional timbral associations of the flute with the faun in the Greek myth of Pan. The “Pastorale” begins with a rising arpeggiated harp figure that is met by the flute (Example 3.2). The flute entrance, marked mélancoliquement and piano, moves tentatively as arabesques leisurely flow back and forth. The gentle sonorities of the lower flute register feel hazy and watery as if a scene is gradually materializing. The introduction lingers over the tritone interval, suggesting tension and ambiguity. Judith Shatin Allen in her analysis of the Sonata describes the arabesques surrounding the harmonic center of the piece as suggesting a “tonal mirage: infinitely vanishing, eternally unattainable.”77 Marked leggiero (light), the lower register flute timbres and soft dynamics convey a fleeting, ungraspable presence. When performing the opening, the flutist can use gentle
77 Judith Shatin Allen, “Tonal Allusion and Illusion [in] Debussy’s Sonata for Flute, Viola, and Harp,” Cahiers Debussy: nouvelle série 7, 38-48 (Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France, 1983), 38. 41 tonguing and a lighter vibrato to reinforce the hushed tone colors of the flute. The faded timbres at the movement’s beginning shroud the opening of the piece in mystery and ambiguity. The first motive of the piece sets the stage for the illusory scene that unfolds out of the motivic fragments that give shape to the movement.
The joining of flute and harp timbres in this languorous section is reminiscent of the beginning of the Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune where the combination of these distinct timbres function to transport the listener to a dreamlike, distant reverie. In the Prélude, timbral ephemerality of the flute is emphasized through its proximity to silence, soft dynamics, lower register sonorities, and the timbral shimmer provided by accompanying sonorities of the harp and strings. In relation to the flute arabesques in the Prélude, we may observe how an aesthetics of vibration, or an active perception and engagement in the experience of timbre, involves recognizing “the inscription of musical and extra-musical identity to that flute timbre but simultaneously the joy that ensues as this identity gradually dissipates in the dreamlike world evoked by the composition” as explained by Elferen.78 As the flute arabesque merges with the other sonorities of the orchestra, the timbre of the flute is liberated from its fixed instrumental identity and is able to dissolve into the sound world of the composition. Similarly, in the opening of the first movement of the Sonate, the flute emerges from the faint plucked strings of the harp before melting into the muted strings of the viola. The leisurely winding of the arabesque melody allows for an anti-teleological way of listening where time is experienced as meandering and aimless.79 Elferen brings attention to this idea of temporal diversion, stating that timbral aesthetics also acknowledges the “disappearance of ordinary time-space into a musical
78 Elferen, Timbre: Paradox, Materialism, Vibrational Aesthetics, 184. 79 See more about “arabesque time” in Gurminder Kaur Bhogal, “Ephemeral Arabesque Timbres and the Exotic Feminine,” in Arabesque Without End, ed. Anne Leonard (New York: Routledge, 2021), 4. 42 time-space that is non-existent but tangibly and yet ephemerally present; and it includes our own willing disappearance into the time and space of musical experience.”80 The mingling of flute timbres with the harp and viola creates a temporary dissolution of time that the listener surrenders to through the flute’s meanderings: arabesque time.81 In performance, timbre is shaped by interactions between musicians and listeners, and these aspects of sound production and perception contribute a quality of ineffability to the work. The Sonate projects a mythical vision of ancient antiquity by exploiting the traditional timbral associations of the flute and harp with the pastoral. As hushed tone colors reflect the ephemerality of the faun’s dream and the lack of harmonic direction recalls the lethargic drowsiness of his imaginary environment, the Sonate once again transports the listener back to a mythical past. The Sonate acts as an extension of the
Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune, continuing Debussy’s use of fading flute timbres across a multimovement work while looking ahead to timbral developments of the postwar period.
Debussy showcases evanescent timbres through the use of a thin instrumental texture that pervades the entire movement where the music is often reduced to a single unaccompanied line.
Flutist Ernestine Whitman explains that because of its sparse texture, the Sonata “is an intimate, delicate work, and emphasis must be on blending the sounds of the three instruments rather than on projecting any one sound.”82 The viola arrives in unison with the shimmering, open timbre of the flute on E⁵ in measure 3, before continuing with a soloistic passage that extends the harmonic ambiguity of the opening (Example 3.2). The fingering of the middle register E⁵ in the flute acts almost like an overtone as it has the same fingering as the lower octave E⁴. Unlike the neighboring notes of Eb⁵ and D⁵, the first tone hole in the E⁵ is covered, preventing air from
80 Elferen, Timbre: Paradox, Materialism, Vibrational Aesthetics, 184. 81 Bhogal, “Ephemeral Arabesque Timbres and the Exotic Feminine,” 4. 82 Whitman, “Analysis and Performance Critique of Debussy's Flute Works,” 47. 43 venting outward. These properties cause the note to sound faint and transparent. The flutist can emphasize this character by relaxing the airflow, opening the throat, and allowing more head resonance through the sinus cavities. Debussy takes advantage of the pale, veiled quality of this note to reinforce the hushed sound world of this first movement. The performers must carefully use articulation, dynamics, and vibrato to pass the melody seamlessly between their parts.
The early work of the Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune already exhibits Debussy’s interest in using the functional colors of flute and harp timbres in invoking the ineffable. In the
Sonate, Debussy returns to the ineffable world of dreams but elevates the role of timbre to an unprecedented structural status. The handing of the melody over to the viola in measure 3 allows for a transference of timbre that is similar to the technique of klangfarbenmelodie, or “tone color melody,” a term coined by Schoenberg at the end of his treatise on harmony (Harmonielehre,
1911). Klangfarbenmelodie refers to the connecting of phrases and sections of phrases by passing the melody line between different instruments. Schoenberg considered tone color melody as music of the future, and he ended his treatise with the idea of the “timbral imperative,” where he urged composers to focus on timbre “to create music so intense that it seems as ineffable as a dream, as indescribable as a noumenon.”83 Schoenberg considered timbre to be the most aesthetically powerful musical quality, capable of expressing “the inexpressible.” The use of a technique that is similar to klangfarbenmelodie in the piece invokes tone colors of the flute, viola, and harp as structural elements of the piece itself. Debussy's use of timbres in the Sonate to evoke the intangible worlds of dreams and mythical visions relates to Schoenberg’s idea of the
“timbral imperative.” As Schoenberg admired Debussy’s use of tone colors, this connection
83 Elferen, Timbre: Paradox, Materialism, Vibrational Aesthetics, 110. 44 between the two composers demonstrates how Debussy’s treatment of timbres would be inspirational for the timbral developments of composers that followed.
In bar 3, the viola arises out of the sound of the flute, whose melody emerged out of the harp figuration in the opening bar. The viola is muted (marked doux et pénétrant (soft and penetrating)), producing a sound that is sharper in contrast to the leggiero (light) entrance of the flute. The mute causes the timbres of the viola to be thinner and darker by lowering the amount of higher partials. In effect, this allows the melody to sound like a distant shadow of the flute.
The distinct timbres of the viola are highlighted by a lack of accompaniment in measures 4-6. It is only at measure 12 that all three instruments play together in a prolonged section. István
Kecskeméti compares the simplicity of the monophonic textures used throughout the piece with
“motto-like tunes which all reflect a melancholy longing for virgin Nature or ancestral antiquity.”
84 The pastoral associations of these soloistic passages suggest a nostalgic turning to an idealized, simplistic past. The title of the movement, “Pastorale,” also reinforces the idea of a longing for a distant, idyllic scene where the faun’s languid daydreaming takes place. These soloistic passages recall the monophonic textures of flute arabesques in Syrinx for solo flute, which looked toward nature and used music to generate an escapist fantasy. Perhaps Debussy wanted to reference a past world that was far removed from the war-torn climate of Paris he found himself in while composing this piece. With its overall casting of mythical antiquity, the Sonate inhabits a world where war is not present. By alluding to the French musical past, the piece allows dreams to emerge from a past that aspires toward a more pleasant future.
84 István Kecskeméti, “‘Claude Debussy, Musicien Français’, His Last Sonatas,” Revue Belge De Musicologie / Belgisch Tijdschrift Voor Muziekwetenschap 16, 1/4 (1962), 137. 45
Debussy utilizes the distinctive sonorities of harmonics in the harp to underscore the intangible sound world of the Sonate. The first appearance of this technique is in the third measure of the first movement where harp overtones are played in accompaniment to the flute
(Example 3.2). Harmonics on the harp are acquired by placing the ball of the hand on the middle of the string while plucking the string with the thumb and first two fingers of the same hand.85
The harpist plays a portion of the string to obtain the harmonic partial, the octave above the pitch of the string. Charles-Marie Widor wrote about the use of harp harmonics in his study on instrumentation:
Of course, harmonics cannot be made use of in forte passages: they are mysterious and poetic like dew-drops glistening in the moonlight. They recall sounds echoing through a dream; they can only be heard when all is hushed in silence and sleep.86
In keeping with Widor’s evocative description, Debussy’s use of harp harmonics at hushed moments of the piece generates a surreal aura of mystery. The sonorities of harmonics on the harp are softer and less defined than when the string is plucked normally, and Debussy uses these harmonic notes to recall distant echoes of a dreamlike vision or past. In a similar vein, Hector
Berlioz also acknowledged the distinctive quality of harp overtones in his orchestration treatise.
Berlioz described that harmonic notes are especially “magical,” continuing on to state that “there is nothing like the mysterious sonority of these notes against chords on flutes and clarinets in the middle register.”87 The use of harp harmonics coupled with the faint sonorities of the flute at the
85 Hector Berlioz, Berlioz's Orchestration Treatise: a Translation and Commentary, ed. Hugh Macdonald (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 75. 86 Charles-Marie Widor, The Technique of the Modern Orchestra - a Manual of Practical Instrumentation, trans. Edward Suddard (London: Joseph Williams Ltd, 1906), 133. 87 Hector Berlioz and Hugh Macdonald, Berlioz's Orchestration Treatise: a Translation and Commentary, 74. 46 opening of the piece further establishes the ethereal, obscure nature of this faltering vision of the faun.
The harp part features overtones in several areas of the piece, and Debussy employs them sensitively in their musical contexts. In the second movement, the “Interlude,” the harpist plays overtones in quarter notes at the piano passage of measures 56-59 against the sustained low piano notes of the flute and viola (Example 3.3). The harp abruptly stops playing harmonics at measures 60-61. Instead, it plays a glissando that leads to a melodic motive where all three instruments are brought to a high F# with a mezzo-forte that grows in volume and intensity. The brilliant and accented F#⁶ in the higher register of the flute is particularly striking in its louder dynamic levels as it descends through decorative figuration together with the viola and harp.
Ernestine Whitman observes that measure 61 is the only place in the piece, aside from the ending, where the flute, viola, and harp play forte in unison.88 At this moment, the melancholy soundscape of the piece seems to subside briefly to allow a new bright, passionate energy to emerge. This nostalgic mood disappears just as quickly as the harp harmonics make a return in the subito dolce section in measures 62 onward. Debussy deliberately brings out the mysterious, frail timbres of harp overtones during passages of softer dynamics and against low, hushed tones in the viola and flute. The allure of this mingling of overtones with frail timbres further draws the listener into the otherworldly, fleeting time-space of the musical-aesthetic experience.
Within the illusory vision that Debussy creates in the Sonate, the piece draws inspiration from harmonies and timbres that evoke an idealized view of Asia to deepen the sense of exotic fantasy. Despite the wartime nationalistic interest in establishing the “purity” of French culture,
88 Whitman, “Analysis and Performance Critique of Debussy's Flute Works:” 31-32. 47 and thus eradicating foreign influences from music, Debussy continued to incorporate non-Western influences in the development of his compositional style.89 The composer first heard the music of the Javanese gamelan at the 1889 Paris Universal Exposition where he was fascinated by its textures and its emphasis on the musical line, which he associated with the arabesque.90 The third movement, the “Finale,” opens with the harp briskly alternating a perfect fifth, thereby establishing the tonal center and the unrelenting rhythmic drive of the movement
(Example 3.4). The viola plays snapping pizzicato notes marked forte and sforzando while the flute enters with a rhythmically varied arpeggiated motive. Debussy accentuates the percussive plucking of strings with a sustained rhythmic motion that recalls the articulation of Javanese gongs. When performing this movement, I emphasize the percussive nature of flute articulation by firmly tonguing the accented notes in an imitation of the plucked strings. In order to maintain the decisive and energetic character of this movement, I also maintain a steady airstream and ringing sound through the arpeggiated triplet figure. With the sul ponticello or sur le chevalet (on the bridge) markings in the viola, the bow is used near the bridge to allow these notes to create a rougher metallic and glittering sound.91 A similar effect is seen in the notes marked près de la table (played near the soundboard) in the harp, which renders the sound more metallic and diffuse with additional partials in the notes. The distinctly energetic timbral identity of the third movement is shaped by the use of rhythmic motifs, strong dynamics, and pointed articulations.
In a surprising moment, Debussy brings back the first motive of the Sonate in measure
109 of the final movement as part of the cyclical structure of the multimovement work (Example
89 Fulcher, "Speaking the Truth to Power: The Dialogic Element in Debussy’s Wartime Compositions," 225. 90 Caroline Potter, “Debussy and nature,” in The Cambridge Companion to Debussy, ed. Simon Trezise (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 144. 91 Widor, The Technique of the Modern Orchestra - a Manual of Practical Instrumentation, 190. 48
3.5). The passage, marked Mouvt de la "Pastorale” (Movement of the “Pastorale”) is a quotation of the opening theme of the piece transposed up a minor third. The interjection of the “Pastorale” theme creates a sense of suspended motion within the movement. This feeling of arrested time is reinforced by the delay in the entrance of the flute, which is marked pianissimo and dolce espressivo (sweet and expressive). Signified by the hushed timbres, this quotation is a return to the ancient mythical dreamscape that greets the listener at the beginning of the piece. This trance-like moment only lasts for three measures before it suddenly breaks to allow the piece to end with an exuberant conclusion. This thematic recall near the end of the piece exemplifies what Godet observed as a “retrospective glance” in the meeting of the old and modern in the work.92 Kecskeméti found the return of the “Pastorale” theme to be more meaningful than a
“mere formal summing up” as typical of Romantic tradition, stating that “Debussy thereby pronounces the meeting of ancient antiquity and modern primitiveness. He passes Pan's pipe to the Javan flute-player.”93 Debussy crafted a unique timbral identity for Pan’s domain, this melancholy dreamscape of an irretrievable past. The distinct juxtaposition in timbres clearly delineates a division between the hushed, ethereal sound world of the faun as expressed through the “Pastorale” theme, and the energetic, exuberant world of the rest of the “Finale” movement.
The piece thus demonstrates a simultaneous wistful turning back toward the past and a lively progression toward the future.
Within the Sonate pour flûte, alto, et harpe, Debussy created an idealized dream landscape that was distant from the climate of war-torn Paris. As a late work, the Sonate demonstrates the composer continuing to craft similar sounds and build on ideas from his earlier
92 Lesure, “Cinq lettres de Robert Godet,” 81. Lockspeiser, Debussy: His Life and Mind, 218. 93 Kecskeméti, “‘Claude Debussy, Musicien Français’, His Last Sonatas,” 137. 49 compositions. The fin-de-siècle fascinations concerning the ineffable worlds of mysteries, dreams, and the interest in the exotic persist in the Sonate. As such, the piece does not necessarily show a new style in Debussy’s use of timbres. Instead, Debussy recasts sonorities from the Prélude and older works and constructs them within the neoclassical mold of the
Sonata. The Sonate can be considered a stylistic continuation of the faun topic through a genre belonging to musical tradition as seen in Debussy’s effort to cultivate his French nationalist lineage. Nonetheless, Debussy still establishes the innovative nature of the work, continuing to experiment with timbres and incorporate new techniques to create an alluring, sublime aesthetic experience for the listener. 50
Figure 3.1. Inner title of the first edition for the Sonate pour flûte, alto, et harpe (Durand 1916). 51
Example 3.2. Claude Debussy. Sonate pour flûte, alto, et harpe, I. Pastorale: Lento, dolce rubato
(opening), measures 1-7. 52
Example 3.3. Claude Debussy. Sonate pour flûte, alto, et harpe, II. Interlude: Tempo di Minuetto
(harp harmonics, flute enters the high register), measures 56-63. 53
Example 3.4. Claude Debussy. Sonate pour flûte, alto, et harpe, III. Finale: Allegro moderato ma risoluto (opening), measures 1-6. 54
Example 3.5. Claude Debussy. Sonate pour flûte, alto, et harpe, III. Finale: Allegro moderato ma risoluto (quotation of “Pastorale” theme), measures 109-114. 55
Conclusion
My thesis examines timbral aesthetics in relation to three compositions by Debussy that feature the flute: Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune, Syrinx for solo flute, and the Sonate pour flûte, alto, et harpe. We have seen the particular ways in which Debussy has drawn on the unique sonorities of the flute to shape expressive qualities in each of these pieces. In the Prélude,
Debussy showcased new soloistic capabilities for the instrument by foregrounding its lower registral timbres especially at the opening of the piece. The tone colors of the flute are used in combination with the harp and muted strings to evoke the mystical world of the faun’s dream and convey a latent sensuality. In Syrinx for solo flute, timbres of the flute interact with sinuous arabesque lines to create impressions of enchantment and melancholy within the mythical vision of Pan and Syrinx. As a late work, the Sonate pour flûte, alto, et harpe continues to build on ephemeral timbres from Debussy’s previous compositions and constructs an idyllic sound world distant from war-torn Paris. The Sonate pays tribute to the French musical past in the composer’s efforts to maintain a French nationalist lineage and also pushes ahead toward the streamlined neoclassicism of the postwar period and timbral experiments of late twentieth-century composers.
In each piece, Debussy’s treatment of timbres paralleled contemporaneous artistic activity in Parisian culture. These pieces reveal the interconnectedness of artistic and literary circles in
Paris at the turn of the twentieth century, and the borrowing of ideas that took place between different visual media. With the Prélude and Syrinx, Debussy found inspiration in underlying
Symbolist narration. The composer was interested in conveying notions of the inexpressible and intangible in his music, and he utilized evanescent flute timbres as a sonic representation of the 56 mysterious worlds of dreams and illusions. The foregrounding of ephemeral, fading timbres of the flute in conjunction with winding arabesque melodies, harmonic ambiguity, and stereotyped
Far Eastern timbres and harmonies, reflected the fin/début-de-siècle fascination with exoticized fantasy.
Debussy’s approach to writing for the flute brought renewed interest to the modern
Boehm flute as a solo instrument. This profound effect on later composers cannot be overestimated. As he experimented with tone colors, he gave timbre a distinctly central role in his compositions. His impressionistic use of timbres where each instrumental timbre was treated as a source of colors and sonorous allure foreshadowed the development of timbral aesthetics in the twentieth century. Debussy’s timbral impressionism would later inspire other composers including Schoenberg, who wrote about the composer in his Harmonielehre (Theory of
Harmony, 1911).94 Schoenberg considered Debussy’s compositions to exemplify the mystifying power of timbre. Debussy’s movement toward harmonic ambiguity and the dissolution of tonality privileged timbre, such that unconventional chords and features such as pentatonicism and whole-tone scales became effects of color.95 Debussy’s idiosyncratic writing has significantly enriched the repertoire of the flute, especially given how he used the tone colors of the instrument to evoke the ineffable.
This thesis has aimed to open up a broader perspective of inquiry into the topic of timbral aesthetics of the flute. Timbre has been a relatively less-commonly studied musical parameter, although its musical-aesthetic power makes it one of the most powerfully immersive. In writing this thesis, I offer my performance perspective on the aesthetic allure of flute timbres in
94 Schoenberg, Arnold, Harmonielehre (Vienna: Universal-edition, 1911), 438. 95 Makis Solomos, “Timbre,” in From Music to Sound: the Emergence of Sound in 20th- and 21st-Century Music (Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2020), 34. 57
Debussy’s music. I have discussed several aspects of timbre’s material sound source pertaining to the physical design of the flute, and it would be relevant to examine other acoustic properties of the flute and their effects on timbral aesthetics. Although my analysis of timbres draws from
Isabella van Elferen’s concept of the timbral paradox between the material and the sublime, it would be interesting to consider different frameworks in studying timbres that extend beyond the binary of materiality and immateriality. A topic for further investigation could include exploring the temporal aspect of timbre where timbre has the ability to create its own time-space in a composition. As we have seen, Debussy’s use of instrument sonorities is able to transport us into an ineffable musical time-space where listeners perceive timbres in becoming active agents of the aesthetic moment. I hope to open up further areas of inquiry into this topic: the captivating, alluring experience of timbre that moves us. 58
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