Chapter 20: The Twentieth Century: Early Modernism

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Chapter 20The Twentieth Century Early Modernism

• Debussy and Impressionism

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Key Terms

• Impressionism
• Nocturne

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The Twentieth CenturyEarly Modernism (1)
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The Twentieth CenturyEarly Modernism (2)

• 1st phase of modernist music 1890-1914
• Took place mostly in Paris Vienna
• Leading figures were Debussy, Stravinsky,
  Schoenberg
• Other modernist rumblings in Russia, Hungary,
  Italy, the United States
• A period of rapid change development
• Revolution in tonality especially captured early
  20th century imagination
• Along with rethinking of melody harmony

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Debussy and Impressionism

• On the border between late 19th early 20th
  century styles
• Some features remind us of Romanticism
• Investigation of sensuous new tone colors
• Development of new rich harmonies
• Search for new ways to express emotion
• Some features rebel against Romanticism
• Favors subtle, mysterious shades of sound
• Fragmentary melodies based on vague scales
• Ambiguous harmonies clouded tonality

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Claude Debussy(1862-1918)

• The leading impressionist composer
• Trained at Paris Conservatory
• Influenced by the kuchka, gamelan, Wagner
• Style crystallized in his early 30s
• Influence of impressionism symbolism
• Innovations in orchestration piano writing
• Brief career as a music critic
• Wrote orchestral works, piano music, songs,
  chamber music, an opera
• La Mer, Preludes, Pelléas et Melisande

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Debussy, Three Nocturnes (1)

• Impressionistic symphonic poems
• Vague evocative no clear-cut narrative
• Title suggests Chopins piano nocturnes
• But Debussy was thinking of a set of atmospheric
  paintings by Whistler
• Three character pieces for orchestra
• Clouds a pure nature piece
• Festivals mysterious night-time fairs parades
• Sirens wordless womens chorus evokes alluring
  but deadly singers from The Odyssey

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Whistler
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Monet
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Three NocturnesClouds (1)

• Very loose ternary form A B A
• No literal return of A only vague recollection
• No full-blown melodies in the A section
• Motives melodic fragments only
• Cloud theme built on oscillating chords
• Haunting octatonic English horn motive
• Focus on subtly shifting textures, tone colors

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Three NocturnesClouds (2)

• B section more melodic complete
• Pentatonic tune repeats three times
• A even more fragmentary than A

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Conclusions on Debussy

• The 1st great modernist composer
• Breaks down traditional approaches to melody
  harmony
• Tone color takes on a new importance
• Few tunes mostly motives melodic fragments
  based on exotic scales
• Pedal tones ostinatos anchor the tonality
• Frequent use of parallelism rich chords
• Static, fragmentary quality draws attention to
  his exquisite tone colors