Debussy, Math, and the Golden Ratio
Given that Debussy’s music is apparently so concerned with mood and colour, one may be surprised to discover that, according to Howat, many of his greatest works appear to have been structured around mathematical models even while using an apparent classical structure such as sonata form. Howat suggests that some of Debussy’s pieces can be divided into sections that reflect the golden ratio, frequently by using the numbers of the standard Fibonacci sequence. Sometimes these divisions seem to follow the standard divisions of the overall structure. In other pieces they appear to mark out other significant features of the music. The 55 bar-long introduction to ‘Dialogue du vent et la mer’ in La mer, for example, breaks down into 5 sections of 21, 8, 8, 5 and 13 bars in length. The golden mean point of bar 34 in this structure is signalled by the introduction of the trombones, with the use of the main motif from all three movements used in the central section around that point.
The only evidence that Howat introduces to support his claim appears in changes Debussy made between finished manuscripts and the printed edition, with the changes invariably creating a Golden Mean proportion where previously none existed. Perhaps the starkest example of this comes with La cathédrale engloutie. Published editions lack the instruction to play bars 7–12 and 22–83 at twice the speed of the remainder, exactly as Debussy himself did on a piano-roll recording. When analysed with this alteration, the piece follows Golden Section proportions. At the same time, Howat admits that in many of Debussy’s works, he has been unable to find evidence of the Golden Section (notably in the late works) and that no extant manuscripts or sketches contain any evidence of calculations related to it.
(Source: Wikipedia)
Debussy’s Blüthner Grand Piano
Debussy’s stay in Jersey may have included an alleged purchase of a Blüthner grand piano whilst in on the island. According to his stepdaughter Hélène Bardac (1892-1985, nicknamed Dolly) he purchased a 1904 Blüthner grand piano (1.92m long and 1.51m wide, equipped with the unique Aliquot system) here on the island which then remained in his salon for the rest of his life. She mentioned this fact during a lecture in London on December 18, 1972. The piano is now at the Musée Labenche in Brive-la-Gaillarde, Limousin.
Debussy - Rhapsody for Saxophone and Orchestra
Performed by Kenneth Radnofsky with the New York Philharmonic lead by Kurt Masur
Debussy - Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune
Performed by the New York Philharmonic lead by Kurt Masur
Impressions: Sunrise. Claude Monet.
The term impressionism was first used by Louis Leroy in the French paper Charivari in application to the now famous painter Monet in a derogatory way over the vague nature of his work, Impressions: Sunrise. The aim of impressionists was to “suggest rather than to depict; to mirror not the object but the emotional reaction to the object; to interpret a fugitive impression rather than to seize upon and fix the permanent reality.”
The application of the term “impressionist” to Debussy and the music he influenced is a matter of intense debate within academic circles. One side argues that the term is a misnomer, an inappropriate label which Debussy himself opposed. In a letter of 1908, he wrote “I am trying to do ‘something different’—an effect of reality…what the imbeciles call ‘impressionism’, a term which is as poorly used as possible, particularly by the critics, since they do not hesitate to apply it to Turner, the finest creator of mysterious effects in all the world of art.” The opposing side argues that Debussy may have been reacting to unfavorable criticism at the time, and the negativity that critics associated with impressionism. It can be argued that he would have been pleased with application of the current definition of impressionism to his music.
Debussy - La mer - III. “Dialogue du vent et de la mer”
Performed by the New York Philharmonic lead by Kurt Masur
Debussy - La mer - II. “Jeux de vagues”
Performed by the New York Philharmonic lead by Kurt Masur
Debussy - La mer - I. “De l’aube à midi sur la mer”
Performed by the New York Philharmonic lead by Kurt Masur (1996)
Debussy used chords, featuring chromatically altered sevenths and ninths and progressing unconventionally as shown above.
Rudolph Reti points out the following features of Debussy’s music, which “established a new concept of tonality in European music”:
- Glittering passages and webs of figurations which distract from occasional absence of tonality;
- Frequent use of parallel chords which are “in essence not harmonies at all, but rather ‘chordal melodies’, enriched unisons”; some writers describe these as non-functional harmonies;
- Bitonality, or at least bitonal chords;
- Use of the whole-tone and pentatonic scale;
- Unprepared modulations, “without any harmonic bridge.”
He concludes that Debussy’s achievement was the synthesis of monophonic based “melodic tonality” with harmonies, albeit different from those of “harmonic tonality”.
Debussy - Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune
Orchestra - Berlin Philharmonic
Conductor - Herbert von Karajan
Debussy - Rêverie for piano, L 68 - Arranged for harp
Debussy - Sonata For Flute, Viola & Harp - Interlude
