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Home , Ja (Javanese), Kemanak, Khamma (ballet), Stamford Raffles, Whole tone scale

and the Anne Boyd

The truly fruitful hours for Debussy were spent in Raffles writes: the Javanesecarnpongof the Dutch section, which he enjoyed without number, his attention riveted Raden Rana Dipura, a native of , who on the percussive polyrhythm of a gamelan which accompanied me to , played on this proved inexhaustible in combinations of ethereal instrument [the kayu - a kind of and fleeting timbres. . . the total absorption of his xylophone] several of his national melodies before contemplation, that also of his silence constantly an eminent , all of which were found to listening,alreadypredicted that thatkind of - bear a strong resemblance to the oldest music of image" would leave more than one imprint on his Scotland, the distinctive character of both, as well brain and perhaps on his art; but which ones?l as of Indian music in general, being determined by Robert Godet (1926) the want of the fourth and seventh of the key and of all the . There were, and there still are, despite the evils of civilisation, some delightful native peoples for A footnote to this passage adds: 'The same whom music is as natural as breathing. Their observation has, I believe, been made on the conservatoire is the eternal rhythm of the sea, the character of Grecian music'.g wind among the leaves and the thousand sounds of nature which they understand without consulting The inaccuracy of this "observation" is less an arbitrary treatise. Their traditions reside in old important than the association made between the songs, combined with dances, built up throughout music of the Far East, European folk music and the centuries. Yet Javanese music is based on a that of ancient Greece. These ideas were still type of by comparison with which current a century later, for the content of this that of PalesVina is child's play. And if we listen without European prejudice to the charm of their passage is clearly the basis for the entire section percussion we must confess that our percussion is on music written by DonaldMaclaine Campbell, like primitive noises of a country fair.:! a British Vice-Consul to Java, in his Java: Past , Revue S.I.M. (19 13) and Present. (19 15) Hereinforces the association between the music of ancient Greece and that of 1 'Java in two further footnotes suggesting that this The first European account of Javanese music 'fact' can scarcely be a coincidence and by is found in the log-book of Sir Francis Drake, pointing out that there was a race of people in who on his voyage around the world in The Greece called Javan. lo Golden Hind in 1580 visited the South coast of This idea may, or may not have been known Java where he had his ship's musicians perform to Claude Debussy whose 'imaginative in honour of 'Raia Donan, King of Java'. The geography' embraces all three worlds in works Javanese king responded with a performance by such as 'Danseuses deDelphes' (Pre'ludes, Book his own musicians. Drake notes 'though it were I), 'Pagodes' () and Marche tcossaise of a very strange kind, yet the sound was pleasant sur un th2me populaire.12 and delightfulY.3 With regard to Debussy's wide ranging It .was another Englishman, Sir Stamford eclecticism, important because of the Raffles? lieutenant-governorof Java from 18 11 - programmatic nature of much of his music, it is 1816,5 who was responsible for what was worth noting that, in defining orientalism in the probably the first performance of Javanese music period 1765 to 1850, Raymond Schwab's in itself. When Raffles returned to Renaissance orientale (1950) l3 identifies England in 1816, amongst his personal possessions were two complete garnelan~.~ an amateur or professional enthusiasm for Travelling with him was a high ranking Javanese, everything Asiatic, which was wonderfully RAden RBna Dip6raY7an accomplished musician synonymous with the exotic, the mysterious, the profound, the seminal; this is a later transposition who was probably responsible for checking the eastwards of a similar enthusiasm in Europe for information on music contained in ~affles's Greek and Latin antiauitv- during- the High- 1 remarkable History of J~va.~ ~enaissance.l4 countries proved extremely popular attracting Interpreted in this light a large portion of many visitors, amongst whom was the composer Debussy's output becomes 'oriental' including, Claude Debussy21 accompanied, according to even, his opera Ptlleas et Mtlisande, which still contemporary documents, by another French stands alone in the theatre for its archetypal composer, Paul D~kas,~~and a close friend, freshness and simplicity. Robert G0det.2~ In Raffles's early account of Javanese music All Debussy's biographers have attached it is interesting, too, toobserve his farsightedness considerable importance to Debussy's first in considering apotential use for Javanese musical encounter with this music, based principally on instruments in a western musical context: accounts given of his experience by three of Debussy 's fiends, Robert G~det,~~JulianTiersot The gongs15 are perhaps the noblest instruments and Judith GautierF5 and on several statements of the kind that have been brought to Europe: I am assured that they are very superior to that which made by Debussy himself dating from a letter of was admitted in the terrific scenes of the serious 1895 written to Pierre Loujis who was then ballet representing the death of Captain Cook. travelling to Spain: 'Do you not remember the Suspended in frames, and struck by a mallet Javanese music, able to express every shade of covered with cloth or elastic gum, they sustain the meaning, even unmentionable shades and which harmonious triad in a very perfect manner, and are probably the most powerful and musical of all make our tonic anddominant seem like ghosts?'26 monotonous instruments. They might be Musical evidence of the influence of Javanese introduced with advantage in lieu of large drums. gamelan is believed to be found in several of They have the advantage of being mellifluous, Debussy's works, principally 'Pagodes' (1903), and capable of accompanying pathetic strains. The two differ from each other by one 'Et la lune descend sur le temple qui fct' (1907) note.16 and perhaps also in the Prklude, 'Terrasse des audiences au clair de lune' (1913).27 French Yet despite the wide dissemination of ethnomusicologist Constantin Brailoiu is throughout the world today, and despite frequently cited for his reference to the orchestra a number of successful works by twentieth of the (1897-9) and (1903-5) century influenced by the gamelan, as gamelan ~tylise.~~Traces of gamelan principally by Britten (19 13-76),17 Colin McPhee influence, it is said, are also to be found in the (1900-64)l8 and Peter Sculthorpe (b. l929),19 StringQuartet,29whilst in the most specific study Indonesian musical instruments per se have yet so far undertakenof this complex subject, Richard toestablish apermanent position within Western Mueller establishes the use of borrowed and ensembles. stylised Javanese material in the first version of the Fantaisie (1889-90) for piano and orchestra, I1 the piano work Tarantelle styrienne (1890), the RAden RBna DipGra may have demonstrated song 'L7Cchelonnement des haies' (189 I), and all the various instruments of the Raffles gamelan 'Clair de lune' (1891), the sketches for the to the unnamed 'eminent' composer, but it was uncompleted Chinese ballet No--li (1914), as not until 1889, the year of the International well as in 'Et la lune', already mentioned.30 To Exhibition in Paris which marked the centenary this list, because of its extensive use of the of the French Revolution, that the first full whole-tone scale combined with a paraphrasing gamelan performance took place in Europe. This technique typical of Javanese music, Jens Peter event was part of the Javanese exhibition set out Reiche adds 'Cloches itravers les feuilles' (1908) as a kind of village, designed to illustrate the from , Book II.3 customs and way of life of the Javanese. Situated Detailed analytical studies of Debussy 's within the section of the Exhibition dedicated to musical language undertaken by Bem~an~~and the French colonies and protectorates, the Ringg01d~~also make considerable claims, based Kampong javanaise was on l'esplanade des on what is already accepted as sufficient Invalides not far from the Ammanite Theatre.20 documentation, for the importance of Debussy's The cultural events associated with these two contact with the gamelan. Typically, Berman writes: evidence for any kind of influence which cannot In answer toRobertGodet'squestion [seeprefatory be attributed with much greater validity to more statement], one could cite a whole host of pentatonically inspired, orientally coloured specifically European musical sources including passages in the Debussyan literature of which the the music of Wagner, Mussorgsky and the other introduction to 'Sirenes', the opening of La Mer Russian nationalist composers (also heard at the and the piano pieces 'Pagodes', 'La Lune qui 1889 Exhibition), the piano works of Greig, descend sur le temple qui fGt' and '' are the Liszt and Chopin, plainsong, gypsy music and most striking34 Spanish folk music, with which Debussy was Even more emphatically, in discussing acquainted all his life. Debussy's use of harmony in a heterophonic The Cooper passage quoted above is context, he writes: presumably an imaginative elaboration of an even earlier account given by one of Debussy's the motivation for anti-functionality was already principal early biographers, Oscar Thompson: alive in Debussy's thought before his critical encounter with Javanese music in 1889. But this New musical vistas were opened for him, not by motivation would have taken quite a different turn the printed pages of imported or domestic scores, without it; we notonly wouldnot have theDebussy but by unfamiliar sounds thatattracted his sensitive we know, but one may well ask whether another ear at the Exposition Universelle of 1889-90 . . . Debussyan music - one with the stimulus of the where in open air, or in tents or booths, native gamelan missing - would have been able to musicians from the Far East brought to Paris a transform the elements of the Romantic legacy medley of the exotic. For most visitors, this was into a style as consequential for the evolution of merely "atmosphere". For Debussy, some of it, at as the one we have. It is doubtfu1.3~ least, was a revelation. Javanese and Annamite orchestras chiefly fascinated him . . . the tuned Such claims made by a younger generation of drums of the East were a new source by rhythmic subtlety and excitement. The persistent use of the scholars become less surprising, though hardly altered and, for the moment, more acceptable, when received in the light of freshened melodic utterance. In long-drawn remarks such as those made by Martin Cooper in tremolos of the percussion instruments,with their his influential book, French Music, one of the peculiar tuning, were promptings for those few to appear in the . After successions of ninths that subsequently were to become fingerprints on Debussy's manuscripts. discussing the, to my mind, much more significant In the minor pulsations of theGamelang, Debussy fact of Debussy's possession of an original score found an antidote for the great surges of the (i.e. not the Rimsky-Korsakov version) of Wagnerian orchestra.38 Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov, Cooper writes: As a possible source of much confusion the Still more radical in their influence were the above passage requires some brief commentary, concerts given by the Javanese gamelan orchestras for the writer, perhaps drawing on Julien at the Exhibition, where Debussy heard for the Tiersot?9 clearly has no first-handknowledge of first time the pentatonic Oriental scale and sonorities from which string tone was completely Javanese gamelan music, nor indeed of what absent and the whole musical effect was produced Debussy actually heard at the Exposition - to by instruments of percussion. New rhythmic and date, no-one has clarified this second area (see melodic ideas and, generally, a new approach to section I11 of this paper). To refute some of the musical structure and feeling, were revealed to inaccuracies in this passage: firstly, Debussy's him by these concerts which left a permanent mark on his writing for the pianoforte and the earliest knowledge of Wagner, a genuinely development of his musical ideals36 profound influence, came through the score of the Tannhauser , introduced to the young To correct one small factual error, thegamelan Debussy by his teacher at the Conservatoire, music which Debussy heard did include a string Albert Lavignac. Lockspeiser writes: instrument, the two-stringed , as will be seen later.37 As for the larger claims for new The young professor and his eager pupil became rhythmic and melodic ideas and, generally, a so absorbed in the novel Wagnerian harmonies that they forgot all sense of time. When they new approach to musical structure emanating eventually decided to leave they found themselves from this contact, there is not a shred of musical locked in and wereobliged to grope their way out, arm in arm, down the rickety stairs and the dark and techniques and his hold upon French music. comdors of the crumbling scholastic buildingPo This dissatisfaction in later years grew into outright hostility. It is possibly this attitude By the time Debussy was the winner of the which in the eyes of Debussy's commentators Prix de Rome (1885) he was madly 'Wagnerian cast a view across a continuing, subtle, if not all- to the pitch of forgetting the simplest rules of pervasive Wagnerian influence, which threads courtesy'.41 He did not, however, attend a its way, however finely disguised, through peformance of a Wagner opera until Lohengrin precisely those compositions generally regarded was given in Paris in 1887 (also the year in which as Debussy 's most mysterious, most exotic and the Dutch government presented a complete therefore most orientally inspired. The origins gamelan to the Conservatoire). In the two of Debussy's static, impressionistic textures summers following, 1888 and 1889, in the surely flow more convincingly as tributaries company of Robert Godet, Debussy travelled to from the larger river of Wagner's Rheingold Bayreuth where he heard Tristan, Parsifal and Prelude than from any other source. Die Meister~inger.~2 Wagner's music itself provides a number of 111 instances of the prolonged use of a major triad A considerable part of the research for this with added sixth and ninth, the delicious paper has been an attempt to answer the question pentatonic harmony so much used by Debussy of what gamelans Debussy heard at the and which is often wrongly attributed to the InternationalExpositions of 1889 and 1900. The influence of his encounter with the gamelan; see, findings add to the confusion but perhaps also for example, the 'Waldweben' of Siegfried.43As clear the path for a Javanese musical expert to for considering the gamelan as the source for the answer the remaining unresolved questions. chainsof ninth chords foundin Debussy's music, All the accounts, including the normally this idea borders on silliness. It is presumably irreproachable Edward Lockspeiser, firstly, based on Tiersot's account of the tremolo chord mention that the gamelan which Debussy heard formed by the Javanese ensemble, was from J~gyakarta~~and, secondly, refer to reinforced by the tuneddrum which accompanied the amazing bed~yas~~as the quartet of young it, as shown in Example 1. Amusingly, Tiersot girl dancers who so captured the imaginations of himself relates this chord to Wagner: 'And what Parisian audiences at the Exposition of 1889.47 is this chord? A chord of the ninth, a full, rich Neither the origin of the gamelan nor the harmony, absolutely modem, a Wagnerian chord, description of the dancers as bedayas is supported of which one can find characteristic examples in in evidence unearthed by Anik Devries in his Tristan and Isolde and the Meistersingers. Here historical article on the music of the Far East is proof of the artistic sentiment of the Ja~anese'.~~ presentedat the 1889E~hibition?~Devries states The clue to what is possibly the main reason that there were sixty Javanese of whom twenty for such an exaggeratedinvocation of thegamelan were women drawn from five different provinces as an important influence upon Debussy's music in Java. Quoting from the Dossier estampe Va lies in Thompson's final absurd sentence; the 271 h (tome IX) de la Bibliotheque nationale, he gamelan provides a convenient, and at that period, gives the distribution as follows: incontrovertible foil for Wagner's continuing influence in Debussy's music at the very Thirty-two were from Preanger [a mountainous beginning of the periodof the composer's publicly region South East of Batavia], known for its expressed dissatisfaction with Wagner's ideas coffee, eleven came from Batavia [now Djakarta], seventeen were residents of Bantam, an area further west in the island. From the point of view of race, A I fifty of the natives were Sundanese, a tribe living in the western part, the ten others were from , eight from Surakarta and two from the sultanate of ~jogjakarta~~

If these statistics are taken to include the four Example 1 : Angklung tremolo (Tiersot, p.35) dancers, their two attendants, the girls' parents - all mentioned by Devries - as well as the gamelan performance. When theserimpiperform they glide musicians, Jogyakarta becomes an impossible forth from their chambers across the courts into place of origin for the gamelan. Two musicians the centre of the gilded audience-hall, led by two elderly matrons, who are their caretakers, teachers can scarcely have produced the 'full and powerful and their admonishers if the sultan desires their orchestral tone' described by Judith Gautier.50 punishment. .. Thedancers are in the age from ten The descriptions of the four dancers provide to fourteen . . . They are the choicest beauties of some further interesting evidence. According to Java, selected for the royal bed. . .Throughout the Devries's findings, 'these were attached to a whole performance their eyes aredirected modestly to the ground, and their body and limbs are by ballet troupe (composed of twenty-eight dancers) slow movements thrown into every graceful of Prince Mangko-Negoro,Sl a Javanese king attitude that the most flexible form is capable of. living at Solo (actually Surakarta seat of the . . .57 The bedayas, who perform a figure dance by ancient Mataram kingdom)'.S2 From Arthur eight persons, are in some respect to the nobles Pougin's description we learn that 'all four were what the serimpi are to the sovereign. They are dresssed nearly in the same manner as the serimpi, drawn from the top class of their profession, les though not so richly or expressively.58 Serimpi, a privileged cast, whose members were born, lived and died in the prince's household. If these dancers were accompanied by a They are trained in their particular dance from gamelan other than one from the court at early childhood, remain virgins and enjoy great Surakarta, and anything in this Javanese musical respect . . .'53 medley may have been possible, it is more The central Javanese courtly tradition supports likely, based on Devries's statistics, that the two distinct [female] dance forms,54the bedaya, gamelan which Debussy heard on this occasion a group dance performed by seven or nine dancers was of Batavian origin.59 Could it be that these and the serimpi, performed by two or four dancers: musicians had been especially trained in the music of the sacred serimpi dances of Prince These dances are also dramatic expressions of Mangkunegara's court and these were performed portions of a mythical story; often the part chosen is a battle scene, and consequently the serimipi without the parts of narrator and chorus? dances usually end in a dance-fight . . . The Nowhere in the accessible literature have I found compositbns are arranged symmetrically with any description of what is to Western ears the symmetrical ground-plans, that is, all dancers in most prominent characteristic of all in the group continuously perform similar performances by the central Javanese court movements. The choreography and formations are less symbolic than those of the more abstract gamelans, the bedaya form. Thus the serimpi arrangements are For example, in discussing Sindknan lampah closer to actual human behaviour and actions such sekar, a customary form of music accompanying as fighting, offeringand receiving, weeping etc. . the bedaya andserimpidances, Jaap Kunst writes: .. the story is explained and recited by a story teller 'In this, the singing is accompanied only by the and the chorus is accompanied by the gamelan colotomic instruments (i.e. Ketak, , and music.55 ); a purely rhythmic instrument (Kemanak) a few paraphrasing instruments (gambang, All the contemporary evidence (including a gender), andan agogic instrument (the Ketipung). photograph) supports the fact that the dancers Thecantus firmus instruments, however, (sorons were not the bedayas at all but the serimpi etc.) remain silent'.61 described above. This, however, does not sound at all like the Another descriptive account of the serimpi gamelan described62 and tran~cribed~~(see dance which goes much further in capturing the Example 2 overleaf) by Tiersot, who specifically refined sensuality and exoticism of this dance is mentions the use of the -grave (see line 4 given by Donald Maclaine Campbell. From him of Example 2) which he perceives as the principal we learn that instrument of the orchestra. Could it be that, The music is slow, and the performance is on the influenced by Western distaste for the particularly gamelan ~alendro?~verses from the romances of nasal tones of Javanese singing, especially that Panji, descriptive of the attire and beauty of the of the female voice,64 the Dutch organisers had wives and concubines of that hero, are chanted as persuaded the musicians to omit the vocal parts a prelude to the entertainment and during its in favour of the only , the rebab, frame held in the hand and shaken, each a kind of two-stringed bowed fiddle, an instrument sounding one note: instrument featured prominently in Tiersot's transcription (see line 2 of Example 2) and in The marches performed by the angklung are very characteristic. Their interest is purely harmonic descriptions of the music?65 and rhythmic, not melodic. Thesuccessiveenuies Quite uncharacteristic, too, of traditional begin in the character of a slow march, gradually Javaneseperformancepractice,was the 'overture' becoming more animated as each of the instruments performed by an angklung ensemble of eight enter, then the tempo becomes quicker . . . the musicians and a drum, probably of Sundanese drum acts as the time keeper for the ensemble masking the strong beats with a fundamental origin66which at the 1889 Exposition signalled note.68 the beginning of every gamelan perf~rmance.~~ It is possible to imagine that the unusual The angklung are instruments comprising two sound of these instruments whose spirit is or three bamboo pipes suspended in a bamboo captured in a contemporary 'transcription' by Louis Benedictus (see Example 3), might have suggested to Debussy the pizzicato textures in the scherzo movement of the . However it is interesting to note a counter claim for the influence of Spanish music by Manuel de Falla: 'the second movement of the String Quartet, the greaterpart of which, ifonly because of its texture, might well be one of the most beautiful Andalusian dances ever ~ritten'.~9 Another striking correspondence between a Benedictus 'transcription' of music heard at the 1900 Exhibition, and Debussy's 'Et la lune' is given by Mueller (see Example 4).70

(Ce morceau doit Btrs jod piano jusqu.e Is fin) Allegretto moderato. B------..-...... -.-.------..

Example 2: Tiersot's transcription of gamelan. The subtitle reads:'La premiere ligne renferme lecontrepoint du bonang; la seconde, le chant du rebab; la troisihme, les parties d'harmonicas et de xilophones; la quatrieme, le bonang grave et les gongs; enfin, la cinquieme, les instruments a Example 3: Benedictus, Les Musiques Bizarres a percussion: une sorte de sistre et un tambour frappe par /'Exposition, I: 'Le Gamelang : Procession des musiciens une seule baquette'. javanais'. 1. Debussy, Et la lune. IL

I 3. 'Danse javanaise' (Benedictus, 1889).

I have been able to locate only the Benedictus I Allegretto transcriptions of Javanese music heard at the I 1889 Exhibition. This set, which, incidentally, bears only the most superficial resemblance to Javanese music, was published by G. Hartmann in 1889, a generous and farsighted publisher Example 5a: Debussy, melody from ~arantellestyrienne whom Debussy met around 1890 and who, from (1 890), bars 1-4. about 1894, provided the composer with a yearly Assez vif et gaiement. income of 6,000 francs until the publisher's death in the spring of 1900. It is surely possible in these circumstances that Debussy had in his possession the Benedictus 'transcriptions'. I Mueller's 1986 paper, so far the only serious and scholarly attempt to shedlight on the musical influence of the gamelan on Debussy's work, identifies a Javanese melody, Wani-Wat~i,~~ Example 5b: Debussy, melody from L'echelonnement which he suggests was borrowed by Debussy in des haies (1 891 ), bars 1-6. the first manuscript version of the piano Fantaisie Allegro giusto, nel russico; senza alleg~zza, poco sostenuto J =104. which Debussy composedin 1889. In substantial revisions Debussy made to printer's proofs of the work in 1890,72the passage which contains Wani-Wani is deleted, although the melody crops up in two subsequent works Tarantelle styrienne Example 5c (1890) and L'Echelonnement des haies (189 1) of the whole-tone scale and, secondly, the (see Examples 5a & b). The second use of this heterophonic characteristics of the later works. melody in particular puts me in mind of the much Discussing the second of these two more familiar melody of the same family quoted 'influences', the term 'heterophony' implies an inExample 5c. It has been said that Mussorgsky's inner structural melody to which every surface Pictures at an Exhibition suggested to Debussy detail or elaboration is subservient. the idea of using programmatic titles for his two 'Heterophonic' describes a means of organising sets of piano Pr~!ludes.~3 musical materials in alinearor horizontal manner, Two further frequently-cited technical rather than in the vertical relationships implicit correspondences between the gamelan and in functional harmony. Such textures are Debussy's music need comment: firstly, the use commonly foundin the courtly musical traditions un peu en dehors

-+I -+I

Example 6: Debussy, Cloches 8 travers les feuilles (Images, Book 11, 1903-5), bars 1-4. of and and indeed, to some extent Music, Christopher Palmer writes: 'Also of seem to inform the idea of lagu in Javanese oriental origin is that most elusive and evocative gamelan music. of scale formations, that of the whole-tone scale, I can find no examples of heterophonic textures which never before had attained such pre- of this kindinDebussy 's works, although striking eminence in Western music.'74 Palmer's instances of passages based on the prolongation confusion arises probably from descriptions of of a single harmony can be found as early as in the Javanese as a scale consisting of the setting of the Verlaine poem 'C'est l'extase' nearly equi-distant intervals, as distinct from the (1887). In this example, a lingering ninth, which is made up of much larger and eleventh and thirteenth chordremains unresolved smaller intervals.75 for the first eight bars until after the line 'C'est la Contemporary evidence supports the idea that fatigue amoureuse' . Clutching at further straws, Debussy heard a gamelan in slendro tuning at there are also passages in several of Debussy's the Exposition in 1889. Even allowing for the works in which rhythmic stratification bears a distinct regional variations of tuning shown in superficial resemblance to a similar technique various studies of Indonesian mu~i;,~6and for found in Indonesian musical practice. A familiar internal variations in tuning within different example can be found in bars 68-9 of 'De l'aube octaves in individual gamelans, nowhere does a h midi sur la mer' in La Mer (1903-5). sonority emerge which is remotely like that of A further technique referred to, related to the whole-tone scale. Schoenberg is surely much heterophonic practice is that of paraphrasing of closer to the mark when he shows in his Theory the kind which can be found in, for example, the of Harmony how the whole-tone scale can be opening of 'Cloches h travers les feuilles' (see derived from the chord of the dominant ninth, Example 6). But surely such ideas, diatonically much favoured by Debussy, by simultaneously based, can be found even in certain of Czerny's raising and lowehng the fifth degree:77 scale studies. There are noinstances of heterophonic textures such as those usedin Benjamin Britten's Curlew River, where the influences of Japanese noh and gagaku traditions are remarkably contained within the cradle of the European medieval mystery play. In his illuminating study, in Example 7 This derivation is supported by Berman who many, many more uses of this sonority can be draws attention to Debussy's use of this scale as found in Debussy's oeuvre) dates from 1880, a kind of dominant. He writes: some nine years before he heard the gamelan.83 The existence of gamelan-like elements in Even in 'Voiles' (PrNudes, I, 1910), traditionally Debussy's music before his first contact with considered the most "aimless" evocation of the whole-tone scale, there is a perceptible dominant this ensemble may well have enabled him to function in the measures just preceding the recognise these same elements in gamelan music, pentatonic passage on E-flat [see bars 38-47]. The which in its turn provided a stimulus which recognition of this dominant preparation for E-flat encouraged him to use these same elements more than helps to explain why theB-flat has acted more extensively in his later compositions. With as a pedal from the beginning of the piece?8 this thought I can find no special argument The whole-tone scale has been in existence in especially viewedin the perspective of the almost Western musical literature from a considerably universal orientalising elements prevalent in earlier period, its tonally disruptive function French culture during the last thirty years of the notedas early as Mozart's MusicalJoke, K.522.79 nineteenth century. Other examples are commonly foundin the music Certainly Debussy 's contact with the gamelan of the Russian nationalists, as well as in piano in 1889 was inspirational and it is extensively works by Chopinsoand Li~zt.~' documented, unlike the mysterious lack of The slendro scale corresponds more nearly documentation of the Exhibition of 1900 in with the anhemitonic pentatonic scale, the whichgamelan music was also featured, but the sonority so frequently used by Debussy, a scale real sources for the evolutionary aspects within made up of major seconds and minor thirds. A Debussy's musical style lie not in the gamelan frequently-cited pioneering study of tradition, which can only have made the most pentatonicism in Debussy's music by emminent fleeting of impressions, but in sources much French ethnomusicologist Constantin Brailoiu closer to home, overhwelmingly in the music of notes: Wagner, and also in the music of the Russian nationalists (especially Mussorgsky), Chopin and Pentatony in his composition is not an unconscious Liszt, French composers such as Franck and or reflex-like reminiscence. He proves it himself Chabrier, the revival of ancient church music by referring to it whenever he wants to evoke and Spanish folk-music. something "not from here": Pagodes, the exotic herdsman and the English soldier of La botte a At most, Debussy's contact with the garnelan joujoux; S. Pickwick; Lafille aux provided acatalyst through which the techniques cheveux de lin (conveying a kind of and materials used to suggest the orient, the mysteriousness). This admitted pentatony aiming mysterious, the far-off, the elemental, the at couleur locale serves in a way as a screen for all sensuous, already present within the Western that emerges from his works, if not always dissimulated but, at least, very often intimately musical language could-be more fully absorbed, associated with other components which suddenly focused, extended and transmitted in a body of evoke or shroud it.82 works which are among the most dream-like evocations of an exquisitely refined sensuality The earliest of Brailoui's 182 musical ever created in the West. examples (still only the tip of the iceberg, for Robert Godet, 'En Marge de la marge', Revue musicale, l3 Schwab, La Renaissance orientale (Paris, 1950). VII (May 1926). 56-67. l4 Schwab quoted in Said, Orientalism, p.51. Quoted in Edward Lockspeiser, Debussy: His Life and l5 The gongs referred to are the large bronze , Mind, rpt (: 1962-5; Cambridge & New York, approximately three feet in diameter of which one or two Cambridge University Press, 1978) I, 115. are found in each gamelan. Jaap Kunst, Music in Java: Its history, its theory and its 'I5 Sir , History of Java, I, 469-72. technique (The Hague: Nijhoff, 1949), I, 5. l7 Britten visited Bali during his Far Eastem tour of 1956. Sir Stamford Raffles (1781-1826) is more commonly His works in which stylisation of gamelan elements is most known for the creation of and the establishment easily detected are the ballet score for The Prince of the of the Royal Zoological Society. Pagodas (1956) and the ballet scenes associated with The British presence in Java at this time was bought Tadjio in Death in Venice (1973). about through theNapoleonicWars. France conquered the l8 Canadian-born Colin McPhee, who shared his Netherlands in 1795; a few years later the Dutch East enthuisasm for Balinese music with Britten, is better Company was dissolved and the new Dutch government known as the author of the monumental and influential assumed control of its affairs. In 1810 put his study Music in Bali (New Haven: Yale University Press, brother. Louis Bonaparte, on the throne of Holland and the 1966) than as a composer. His orchestral composition Indies became French temtory. The British, under the Tabuh Tabuhan (1935-6),which was written directly from direction of Lord Minto, quick to seize advantage of the inspiration he received whilst living in Bali from 1931 French weakness in this far comer of Napoleon's empire, to 1935, incorporates many Balinese musical elements. A succeeded in gaining control of Java. Raffles, apart from particularly fascinating analysis of this and other works by his innovative land-rent system, is particularly noteworthy McPhee is made by Richard Mueller in, 'Imitation and for his deep interest in the life and culture of the Javanese stylisation in the Balinese music of Colin McPhee' (Ph.D. as reflectedin his comprehensiveHistory of Java (London, University of Chicago 1983). 1817). Java was restored to Dutch control in 1816after the l9 In the early 1960s, Australian composer Peter Scul- Congress of Vienna. thorpe, in the tradition of Percy Grainger (1882-1961)who I5 One of these gamelans is housed in the , advised young composers to look to the musical cultures of the other at Claydon House, a National Trust property at Australia's neighbours in Asia and the Pacific for their Bletchley in Buckinghamshire. The British Museum has inspiration, and stimulated by the appearance of Colin published a mongraph, The Raffles Game1an:A Historical McPhee's Music in Bali, composed three works which use Note (London: British Museum,l970), edited by William directly borrowed as well as stylised Balinese musical Fagg, on their gamelan. This publication,besides providing materials: the orchestral Sun Music 111 (1966), Tabuh a number of beautifully detailed illustrations of the Tabuhan for wind quintet and percussion (1968) and instruments, reproduces the section on music from Raffles's String Quartet No. 8 (1969). Discussions of these works, The History of Java. as well as the Asian influence in Sculthorpe's music in Fagg notes, somewhat mysteriously, that although general, canbe found in Michael Hannan, Peter Sculthorpe: RAden RAna Diplira was in England for several years (until his music and ideas 1929-1975 (St Lucia, Queensland: Raffles's return to the East in 1820) and gave at least one University of Queensland Press, 1982),pp. 83-85,86-88, performance, possibly using the instruments now housed 89-91 and 68-71. respectively. Interestingly,Sculthorpe's in the British Museum, Raffles's biographers, including fist visit to Bali was in 1973 and, somewhat ironically in his widow, barely mention the visit, while the importation the light of his earlier involvement, marks the end of his of the gamelan is completely overlooked. conscious use of Balinese musical materials as an element Fagg. Raffles Gamelan ,p.9. in his compositions. Fagg., Raffles Gamelan, p.25. 20 Anik Les Musiques, 'Les Musiques dVExtreme-Orient lo Campbell, Java Past and Present (London: William h 1'Exposition Universelle de 1889', Cahiers Debussy Heinemann, 1915), 11.1015. Nouvelle Serie, (1977), 24-37. Although many important The term 'imaginative geography' is borrowed from details remain unestablished I am nevertheless indebted to Edward W. Said'sOrientalism (New Yo*: Vintage, 1979). Devries who, although not an ethnomusicologist, has The special interest shown by French scholars in modality uncovered information which goes some way towards dates from Beaulieu's Mimoire sur quelques airs qui sont dispersing the mists which surround what actually took dans la tonaliti grigorienne of 1858. lace in the Kampong javanais. l2 Of course, as an 'imaginative geographer', Debussy's OscarThompson,Debussy: ManandArtist (New York: boundaries are even wider than suggested here and include Dover, 1967), pp.9 1-2. also Spain (the songs 'Fantoches' and 'Mandoline', the 22 Dukas (1865-1935) was a fellow-pupil of Ernest piano pieces , 'Les collinesd' Anacapri' ,'LaPeurta Guiraud, Debussy 's composition teacher, and is best known del Vino', 'Serknade interrompue', Lindaraja, 'La soirk for his descriptive orchestral work The Sorcerer's dans Grenade' and the orchestral Ibiria), Portugal (Danse Apprentice and theoperaAriadneandBluebeard. Guiraud profane for harp and strings), ancient Egypt (the ballet, was known to be sympathetic to both Wagner and exotic Khamma, and piano pieces, 'Canope' and 'Pour musical influences. l'egyptienne'), India (possibly 'La terrasse des audiences 23 Godet's (1866-1950) friendship with Debussy dates du clair de lune') and China (the incompleted ballet No-ja- from their visits to Bayreuth in 1888 and 1889. A fervent li and arguably the piano piece 'Pagodes' and the first Wagnerian, he was also one of the first French critics to movement of La Mer). recognise Mussorgsky's genius and undertook a study of the historical background of the characters in Boris Rarahu. One of my fellow music critics actually thought Godounov. He was also an orientalist and travelled in his of the flower maidens in Parsifal. One of the dancers - youth to Java and other Far Eastern countries. Towards the Wackiem is her name - with her sweet serious face, her end of his life he translated historical and aesthetic works shouldersand bronze armsemerging from under acuriously on India and Mohammedan civilization by Alfons Vaeth draped gold-embroidered costume and wearing on her and Westermarck. head either a gold helmet or white lotus flowers, is the 24 See Godet, 'En Marge de la marge'. living image of a little Indian divinity. Another is Gamina, 25 Lockspeiser, Debussy, 1, 115. almost Pamina of The Magic Flute; and indeed an 26 Lockspeiser, Debussy, 1, 115. association with Mozart's masterpiece with its mysterious 27 Lockspeiser, Debussy, I, 114. ceremonies and its invocations to Osiris and Isis, is by no 28 Loskspeiser, Debussy, I, 116 n. means out of place.' Tiersot, Musiquespittoresques, quoted 29 Roger Nichols. Debussy (London: OW, 1972), p.21. in Lockspeiser, Debussy, I, 114. 30 Mueller. 'Javanese influence on Debussy's Fantaisie The four girls are identified by Devries. 'Les Musiques andBeyond', Music, vol.10 no2(Fall1986), dlExtrem-Orient', p.33: Vakiem, Sariem, Soekia and 157-186. Tanimah, aged respectively 12, 14, 13 and 16 .years. 31 Reiche, 'Die theoretischen Grundlagen javanischer Devries's article contains a photograph which shows the Gamelan-Musik und ihre Bedeutung fiir Claude Debussy', four girl dancers in the costumes supplied by 'Le Prince de Zeitschrift fur Musiktheorie, 3 (1972), 5-15. Solo' andaccompanied by the two attendant 'admonishers' 32 Laurence David Berman, 'The Evolution of tonal mentioned by Maclaine Campbell. thinking in the works of Claude Debussy' (Ph.D. Harvard Devries, 'La musique d'Extreme-Orient', pp.24-37. University 1965). 49 Devries, 'La musique d'Extreme-Orient' , p.33. 33 John Robert Ringgold, 'The Linearity of Debussy's See Lockspeiser, Debussy, I, 115. music and its correspondences with the Symbolist esthetic: 51 Mangko-Negoro is presumably Prince Mangkunegara developments before 1908' (Ph.D. University of Southern of Surakarta. California 1972). 52 There are two different dance styles in Java emanating 34 Berman, 'Evolution of tonal thinking', p.206. from the division of the ancient Mataram Kingdom (central 35 Berman, 'Evolution of tonal thinking7,p.214. Java) into twodistinctkingdoms, Jogyarkartaand Surakarta 36 Cooper, French Music: from the death ofBerlioz to the in 1755. The Dutch subdivided Surakartaintothe Surakarta death of Faure' (London & New York: Oxford University Kingdom and Mangkunegaran Princedom; and in 1812 the Press, 1951), p.90. English divided Jogyarkata into the Jogyarkarta kingdom 37 Lockspeiser, Debussy, I, 114. and the Pakualam Princedom. 38 Thompson, Debussy, p.92. 53 Pougin, Le Thkatre d /'Exposition universelle de 1889. 39 Tiersot's three articles, 'Promenades ?il'exposition Notes et descriptions, histoire et souvenirs (Paris: universelle', ~e ~knestral(Paris) 26 May, 30 June and 14 Fischbacher, 1890), quoted by Devries, p.33. July 1889, are quoted in Thompson's bibliography. " A third court dance, the bekan lawung (lance dance), 40 Lockspeiser, Debussy, I, 32. dating from the seventeenth century, is performedby men. 41 Robin Holloway, Debussy and Wagner (London: 5S Koentjaraningrat, 'Javanese Court Dances', in Eulenberg, 1979). p. 19. For the special historical Preservation and Presentation ofTraditiona1 Music and perspective of Debussy's encounter with gamelan, Dance in Asia (Tehran: Unesco, 1978). pp.71-72. following so soon on the heels of hisvisits to Bayreuth, this 56 Javanese musical scales are of two distinct types: the whole section (pp.18-20) is important reading. slendro, -note scale referred to here, characterised 42 Debussy's complicated life-long, love-hate relationship by intervals corresponding approximately with Western with the music of Wagner is also extensively and temperedminor 3rd~and major 2nds and thepelog, aseven- perceptively documented by Holloway. note scale (in which two notes are often suppressed), 43 For further commentary upon Wagner's nature containing larger and smaller intervals sometimes evocations as forerunners of the important impressionist- corresponding to the Western intervals of the major 3rd symbolist techniques with which Debussy's music is and minor 2nd. principally associated see Christopher Palmer, 57 Maclaine Campbell, Javapart and present, pp.1024-7. (London: Hutchinson, 1973), 58 Maclaine Campbell, Java past andpresent, p.1027. pp.91-108. 59 Jaap Kunst, Music in Java, 11, 546, lists 88 complete 44 Tiersot,Musiques Pittoresques: Prornenadesmusicales bronze slendro orchestras in Batavia. ci /'Exposition de 1889 (Paris, 1889), p.35. 60 With the exception of Debussy's own statement (1913) 45 Lockspeiser,Debussy, I, 114. It should be noted that which mentions 'old songs combined with dances' (see this passage cites Judith Gautier describing the gamelan prefatory quotation). An example of a serimpi dance, heard at the 1900 Exhibition as being from Solo, Bali - a Gending Anglirmendung is recorded by Doreen Powers on marvellous example of geographical confusion which Java: Music of Mystical Enchantment, Lyrichord LLST Lockspeiser lets pass unremarked. Solo is Surakarta in 730. This is in thepelog mode which was apparently not Central Java, not Bali. heard in gamelan performances in 1889. 46 Godet and Tiersot, as cited in Lockspeiser, Debussy, I, 61 Kunst, Music in Java, I, 128. He here cites the musical 113-5. example mentioned in the note above as being typical of 47 'Each compared the Javanesedancers with some heroine the music accompanying the serimpi dances. ofhis choice. One imaginesSalammbo, another the Queen Tiersot, Musiquespittoresques, p.34. 69 Lockspeiser, Debussy, 11.256. 63 AS reproduced in Reiche, 'Theoretischen Grundlagen'. 70 Mueller, 'Javanese Influence', p.170. These four bars Tiersot regarded as a kind of stretta. Mueller, 'Javanese Influence', pp. 115-6. 64 Kunst, Music in Java, I, 122, writes: 'The ideal which Mueller. 'Javanese Influence', p. 180. Javanese vocal music strives after is different from that of 73 David Cox. Debussy Orchestral Music (London: BBC, the Western manner of singing. As all Eastern singing, the 1974). p.6. Javanese variety, too, is more or less nasal . . . Europeans 74 Palmer, Impressionism, p.2 1. do not like Javanese singing especially by females; but 75 See note 56. whoever has taken the trouble to settle down to listen to it 76 See Wasisto-Surjodiningrat, P.J. Sudarjana, and Adhi with an unprejudiced mind and without allowing himself Susanto, Tone Measurements of Outstanding Javanese to be discouraged by an initial lack of appreciation, will Gamelans in Jogjakarta and Surakarta (, 1972). find that this vocal music will gradually reveal to him 77 Theory of Harmony, transl. Adams (New York: unsuspected beauties'. Philosphical Lib., 1948), p.325. 65 See Devries, 'Les Musiques d'Extreme-Orient', p.36. Berman, 'The evolution of tonal thinking', p.213. 66 'Although this well-known instrument was, and/or is, 79 , Hannony, rev. ed. (London: Gollancz, spread over the whole of Java, Madura and Bali, as well as 1978). p.482. part of and , it is not, at present, found Chopin, Prelude Op.28 No 19. anywhere so generally as in the Sundanese mountain Liszt, Unstern. districts, for which reason it is often wrongly taken to be a 82 Brailoiu, 'Pentatony in Debussy's music', in Studia typical Sundanese instrument.' Kunst, Music in Java, I, memoriae Belae Bartbk sacra, 3rd ed. (Budapest, 1956; 361. London: Boosey and Hawkes, 1959), p.378. 67 Devries, 'Les Musiques d'Extreme-Orient', p.34. 83 See Debussy's song 'Fleur de BlCs', c. 1880, rev. 1891. Devries, 'Les Musiques d'Extreme-Orient', p.34.