Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

Passepied

Life

Claude Debussy was one of the most significant figures in the development of 20 th Century
European art music. He was born in St Germain-en-Laye in 1862 and died in Paris in 1918. He
entered the prestigious Paris Conservatoire, and also in Rome from 1885 to 1887 after winning
the Prix de Rome. Visits to Bayreuth in 1888 and 1889 led to a brief intoxication with the music
of Wagner, although this soon developed into an utter rejection of Wagner’s approach to
composition. Other significant influences at this time were Musorgsky (after Debussy became
acquainted with the opera Boris Godunov) and Javanese gamelan music, which he heard at the
Paris Expo in 1889.

Debussy was very much self-educated. He travelled across Europe, absorbing the Oriental
cultures that were being increasingly revealed to Westerners, and coming into contact with the
leading artistic figure of the day. From 1892, his music started to attract wider attention,
although it was not for another decade that the significance of his ground-breaking ideas became
fully recognized.

Debussy was also an outspoken music critic, writing under the pseudonym Monsieur Croche (Mr
Quaver). He had to endure trials in his private life, including financial struggles, the distancing of
many friends after he left his first wife for the woman who would become his second, and a long
battle with cancer. Debussy died just a few months prior to the end of WWI, by then an
internationally celebrated composer.

Impressionism

Emerging as a radical innovator from within the conservative French music scene of the late 19 th
century, Debussy virtually single-handedly changed the course of European musical development.
By dissolving traditional rules into a new language of unsuspected possibilities in harmony, rhythm,
form, texture, and colour, he created a rich body of work that would leave an indelible imprint on
20th-century music.

Debussy is a founder of what has been aptly called the Impressionist School in music – aptly,
because, like the pictorial Impressionists, the members of that school largely avoid the dramatic,
the narrative, the formal, the conventional and the involved, preoccupying themselves with tone
‘qua’ tone as the painters did with light ‘qua’ light.

The art of Debussy, then, represents, on the face of it, a revolt against both the Classics and the
Romantics. Yet on careful analysis it will be found to possess the classic qualities of balance and
restraint and of the skilful treatment of definite melodic themes, and similarly, when its
emotional content is closely observed, it is realised that Impressionism is a refinement of
Romanticism.
The label “impressionist” is the one most commonly applied to Debussy’s music, despite the fact
that the composer himself objected to it. Impressionism is concerned not merely with the
portrayal of an object, but also with the way in which it is perceived. The visual artists of this
school frequently explored the effects of light and water in their work, often resulting in a
general hazinesss of outline. Much of Debussy’s music similarly has a vagueness in its harmony,
rhythm and form, and an emphasis on the sensuous aspect of sound.

The great movement, Impressionism, has had an enormous influence on modern music by widening
and enlarging the vocabulary of musical speech. It freed music from certain ideas that were
thought to be essential, so that music could suggest ideas and thoughts with far greater subtlety.

Debussy rarely chose friends from the music world – but more frequently from the poets and
symbolist writers of his generation (Mallarme and Louys in particular). He shared with them, and
with many of the impressionist painters (such as Monet, Manet, Renoir, Degas, Pissarro etc.) not
only a revolution of the techniques of art, but the uncovering of a new way of looking at and
assessing the world.

Debussy invented a new pianistic idiom. He occasionally experimented with the whole tone scale.
He liked to add a 2nd and 6th to a triad, treating the new effect as a concord (this device now
being a common feature in modern popular music). He sometimes used parallel discords, writing a
series of them in the way an earlier composer would have written a single line of melody. He
experimented with the effects of the higher discordant overtones, as for example in the bell
effects in the well-known Prelude ‘La Cathedrale Engloutie’ – the ‘Engulfed Cathedral’, All of these
effects were very dependent upon the skilful use of the pedal, which is sometimes directed to be
held on throughout a number of changing harmonies. The result of all these devices created a
feeling of ‘atmosphere’ which is closely related to the effect of an impressionistic painting.

He treated the piano in an entirely new way from his predecessors. Alfredo Casella wrote that
Debussy “made the impression of playing directly on the strings of the instrument with no
intermediate mechanism’ and “he used the pedals in a way all his own”, while Marguerite Long
wrote that Debussy constantly advising that “one must forget that the piano has hammers” Other
contemporaries spoke of an “orchestral” quality to his playing.

The other great “impressionist” composer was Maurice Ravel (1875-1937), who, of course, was
also French. Other contemporaries of Debussy, who composed in very different styles, included
Isaac Albeniz, Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss, Bela Bartok, Arnold Schoenberg and Igor
Stravinsky.

Debussy’s harmonic Style

In his later works, such as the Preludes, Debussy used techniques that subverted some of the
fundamental rules of tonal harmony. He often used chords purely for their sonority, rather than
their harmonic function. Dissonances were allowed to remain unresolved, and chords were used in
parallel streams, prolonging their sound colour while disregarding the previously-held principles of
counterpoint.

Debussy avoided traditional cadences; chord progressions did not necessarily lead to a particular
harmonic goal. Often, he would use a scale that contained no leading note (the Aeolian, dorian,
Phrygian and mixolydian modes, the pentatonic scale or the whole-tone scale, all of which have a
whole tone rather than a semitone step to the tonic). Apparently unrelated harmonies could be
used side by side. Pedal points would often be used to assert the tonal centre.

Explanation of modes: Dorian mode is the white-note scale starting on D; it may be transposed, in
which case some black keys will be needed. Likewise,

 The Phrygian mode is the white-note scale starting on E, or a transposition of it.

 The Lydian mode is the white-note scale starting on F, or a transposition of it.
 The Mixolydian mode is the white-note scale starting on G, or a transposition of it.
 The Aeolian mode is the white-note scale starting on A, or a transposition of it.

Music

It was apparent early on that Debussy conceived music in a novel way, but it took him time to
assimilate and crystallize his ideas. His Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune marked the definitive
spreading of his wings: thereafter, he took every genre – orchestral, vocal, piano, and chamber
music – to new realms. His ability to perpetually build on his innovations and to renew himself
creatively could leave even his most ardent followers confused. Though he has been called an
Impressionist, Debussy’s allusions to many idioms and movements, always masterfully integrated,
are stamped with an individuality and inventiveness that defy all categorization. His interest in
contemporary as well as ancient artistic currents, and in foreign, often exotic influences
(including Spain and the Orient), reflected his insatiable curiosity and abhorrence of repetition.

Debussy was influenced by the gamelan, and Indonesian music ensemble that typically plays gongs,
chimes, metallophones, and cymbals.

Key works

Opera: Pelléas et Mélisande.

Orchestral: La Mer, Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune (Symphonic poem).
Piano works: Suite Pour le piano, Estampes, L’isle joyeuse, Suite bergamasque, Images, Children’s
Corner Suite, Preludes, Etudes, Arabesque, Nocturnes.

Analysis
SUITE BERGAMASQUE – the word Bergamasque refers to the Italian city of Bergama and its
inhabitants. The word evokes an antique setting and in this case to characters in the Harlequinade
that flourished throughout Europe in the 17 th century and said to have originated in Bergama. This
suite is then indeed a blend of Debussy’s amazing innovations and tradition.
Debussy wrote Suite Bergamasque over a fifteen-year period (1890-1905). The Suite uses the
names of Baroque dances in some of its movements, i.e. 1- Prélude, 2- Menuet, 3- Clair de lune
(translated ‘Moonlight’ is arguably the most famous movement), and 4- Passepied. The movements
are all in different keys and the term ‘Suite’ is used in its free, modern sense.

Passepied (French for “passing feet”) is a French court dance from the Baroque era. Originally a
passepied was a quick, spirited dance in 3/8 or 6/8 time. Debussy’s Passepied is not in triple
meter, however he retained the spirited feeling of the dance, kept alive by the constant eighth
note pulse provided by the left hand. The staccato passagework reminiscent of the plucking of a
lute.

The beginning of Passepied starts with typical harmonies. Passepied has an evolution of texture.
In the middle section, new harmonies and chords are introduced, and the form begins to change.
The piece could be called ABCBCA overall. Passepied shows a maturation of “impressionism” within
the piece, a reflection of what is happening in the world.

Musical terms

Allegretto light and cheerful, a little faster than Moderato

Piu a little
Cedez French meaning “to give way”, go a little slower or play a note slightly longer
Un peu a little, slightly
Sub (subito) suddenly