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Views Seem to Make Sense UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI Date:___________________ I, _________________________________________________________, hereby submit this work as part of the requirements for the degree of: in: It is entitled: This work and its defense approved by: Chair: _______________________________ _______________________________ _______________________________ _______________________________ _______________________________ Claude Debussy and equalizing balances: A different approach to analysis of Claude Debussy’s music with examples from Preludes, Books 1 and 2 DMA Document by Daniel Sachs Advisor: Prof. Joel Hoffman Daniel Sachs 9026 Rich Woods Court Loveland, OH 45140 Phone: 513-238-9519 E-mail: [email protected] Abstract This dissertation provides a foundation for a different analytical approach to the music of Claude Debussy. As the musical description of a state of being gains the primary importance over dramatic development, a new structural and developmental coherence emerges in his style. It can be found in the relationship between simultaneously occurring layers of musical elements. These relationships are such that one element establishes a parameter such as harmony, rhythm, and meter, the other contradicts that parameter simultaneously. The two elements do not stand in a conflicting contradiction, but in a fine-tuned balance that defines the musical content of the piece. This approach to analysis of Debussy’s music opens the door to understanding the undercurrent in his music and provides a framework, which unveils the particular in the context of the whole and vice versa. It connects all elements and gives insight into the relationship between the harmonic, the melodic and the formal structure. In that regard this approach can be considered an attempt to apply Schenkerian principles to Claude Debussy’s music. A wide variety of examples from the Preludes and an in-depth analysis of Brouillards and Voiles are included. Table of Contents I. The Theory 1. The Question 2. Developing the Theory 3. Examples 4. Towards a Methodology 5. Defining Opposition and Contrast II. In-depth Analyses 1. Brouillards 2. Voiles Bibliography Appendices A: Reductive Analysis: Voiles B: Marked score: Brouillards C: Marked score: Voiles 1 Chapter I The Theory 1. The question Two things initiated this work: first, the search for an answer to what really unifies Claude Debussy’s compositional style. Many answers have been given in scholarly writing about what is typical of his music and which new elements he introduced: the whole tone scale, the octatonic, associative harmony, his melodic language, and so forth. Though true and essential, these theories often make isolated observations and do not give the deeper unifying aspects, the undercurrent thread that weaves his works together. I was looking for that which is always present in his music and distinguishes it from other composers. Certainly there are many answers to this, but I believe that the following ideas and concepts are crucial in order to perform his music with a deeper understanding. The answer to this question lies in the realm of aesthetics and perception as well as in the realm of theory and analysis. One must ask which aesthetic element is present at all times? Obviously, this question can and should be asked of any composer. Why does one immediately recognize Brahms as Brahms at all times? What makes a musical language typical, so that a particular element is recognizable almost at any given moment or within the smallest musical context? As a listener and a performer of Claude Debussy’s music, I perceive the most consistent characteristics to be a sense of weightlessness and the impression of a musical description of a state of being. Dramatic development is of 2 secondary importance if even that. Debussy’s opera Pelléas et Mélisande is a very good example: the purpose of the music is not to dramatically portray individuals, individual stories and developments of their circumstances, but rather to portray the overall outer atmosphere that is around the characters, for example the gloominess of the castle, the forest, and the sea. If these are the overall dominating aesthetic characteristics, how are they achieved compositionally? How is a state of being created? 2. Developing the theory The second inspiration that led to this work was an article by Roland Nadeau in the publication Cahiers Debussy 1. The article is about the first Prelude for piano in Book 2, Brouillards. It is a response to another article, which claimed that this piece was atonal. Nadeau argues that it is tonal. In reading this excellent and insightful article a question arose: how does this debate capture the essence of the piece? I wondered whether it was really relevant to determine whether the piece was tonal or atonal. It seemed obvious that there is a presence of C major or a C-centeredness, and it seemed equally obvious that there was something opposing that at the same time. That led to the idea that this reality could be expressed in terms of a relationship between the simultaneously occurring musical elements, the idea of a new type of polyphony. In the case of Brouillards it would 1 R. Nadeau, “Brouillards: A Tonal Music,” Cahiers Debussy, Nouvelle Série No 4-5 (1980-1981), 38. 3 be the relationship between the elements that define C as the central key area and those that contradict it. In further analysis this idea established itself to really work. The two elements stand in a relationship of artistic complexity. There is an extensive analysis of this piece in chapter II. In researching the existing body of knowledge on Debussy’s music, in particular works that focus on polyphony, counterpoint, and harmony, I could not find any consideration of this idea of a continuous relationship between layers. As I extended my analysis under this paradigm to other pieces, I found that Debussy makes use of this all the time and with different musical elements besides tonality: for example rhythm and meter. The facts are always the same: There is a stabilizing element and a destabilizing element, an establishing element and a contradicting element, which occur simultaneously. The two elements stand in a relationship that I find best described as an equalizing balance. The elements are equal in weight though not equal in rank. There is a hierarchy among the elements. The way this works could be compared to an old-fashioned scale of weights where two weights balance each other out. In the course of a piece the balance is not always the same and does not always consist of the same elements, but the compositional development is the weighing of the different elements so that in the process of the entire piece the elements appear in a balance of equal weights. If we stay with this comparison for a moment, then during the course of a piece, it appears that the scale lowers on one side and then lowers on the other side, ultimately creating the overall impression of a perfect balance between the elements. This approach to analysis of Debussy’s music opens the door to understanding the undercurrent in his music and provides a framework, which unveils the particular in the 4 context of the whole and vice versa. It connects all elements and gives insight into the relationship between the harmonic and the melodic and formal structure. In that regard this approach could be considered an attempt to apply Schenkerian principles to Debussy’s music. 3. Examples If one played the first five notes of “Les Fées sont d’exquises danseuses” from the Second Book of the Preludes very slowly, the listener would be likely to hear a resolution from an augmented triad to a major triad (see Example 1). This would be especially evident if one gave it some metric structure within those five notes, for example emphasizing the lower A-flat. But the real metric structure is that of a quintuplet. Therefore there is no metric point of reference within the group, because the quintuplet is not evenly divisible. The effect is that one hears the following somewhat simultaneously: the augmented triad, the major triad, and the resolving effect. All three elements are present, but are destabilized in their clarity of successive appearance by rhythm. Example 1. “Les Fées sont d’exquises danseuses”, m. 1 5 These quintuplets are organized as a successive progression in a 3/8 meter, the groups of quintuplets act as a chord progression. In measures 6-8 the harmony suddenly becomes very stable (see Example 2). An E-flat major chord appears with a sustaining trill. At the same time the length of the chord seems undetermined and becomes a destabilizing element. This is an example in which the balance shifts from one set of elements to another. Example 2. “Les Fées sont d’exquises danseuses”, mm. 1-8 In the fifth Prelude of Book 2, “Bruyères”, I would like to look at two passages that show an interesting relationship between harmony and metric structure. Debussy uses more functional harmony in this piece than in any other of this collection. However, he 6 avoids and undermines a conventional-sounding appearance through subtle metric placements. In the opening phrase, one could understand the hypermetric structure as 2 measures +1 measure +1 measure, each beginning with an upbeat (see Example 3). Accompanied by the strong cadential tonal language, it sounds simple and clear. But this is not quite what Debussy wrote. The piece actually begins with a full measure, and therefore with the rests and not with the upbeat. If we now think of the music beginning on the first beat of the first measure, the hypermetric structure is completely shifted: it is 3 measures +1 measure +1 measure. With that there is a new flow, a vagueness of flow that opposes the harmonic stability as the first note enters into the “sounding silence”.
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