Fin de Siecle End of a Century End

Fin de Siecle End of a Century End of an Era

Late 19 th Century & early 20 th • Cultural center of Europe is Paris. • Conflict between the German-Italian style of music & the French style. • Eventually the French tradition would become more important & influence music in Europe. • The musical culture of Europe was closely connected to other arts, particularly painting & literature. • Impressionism had not only changed the art world but it would influence music too.

• Impressionist artists sought to capture the visual impression of their subject matter. • They were concerned with the way light played on an object. • Mood & atmosphere became important in their works; nature was their inspiration. • Symbolist poets also influenced music. • These poets experimented with rhythm, sound, & the clustering of images to suggest moods or emotions. • Fin de siecle music & art were characterized by experimentation & change.

Characteristics • Emphasized mood & atmosphere • Nature is main source of inspiration • Fragile & decorative beauty • Sensuous tone colors • Subdued atmosphere • Elegance & refinement (It cast off the more pompous, heavy, & serious quality of the German tradition that was heard in the works of Wagner. )

Claude Debussy 1862 -1918 “In an age when airplanes fly in the sky, music cannot stay the same. ” • Debussy studied at the Paris Conservatory where he received traditional training in late romantic style. • He used much of this in his early works, but eventually rejected much of what he was taught. • He rejected the strict tonality of the Germanic tradition

• According the Debussy the primary goal of music was to give pleasure & to appeal to the senses.

Debussy’s Style • His music is considered to be program music (not that it tries to tell a story though. ) • Music tries to create a mood or atmosphere to correspond to the subject. • He was the first European composer to break with the old system of tonality. • His music is organized around sound patterns. • Spacing of notes were all the same, so the music was not in any specific key.

Main influences were Ø Chopin & Liszt ü Mussorgsky v. Exotic influences of the music of the South Sea Islands (Bali & Java. ) q. Literature, particularly the symbolist poet Stephane Mallarme § Sound & rhythmic patterns of the French language.

Debussy’s Works NO symphonies or concertos Wrote mostly for piano; his early works are non. Impressionistic Piano works include • Clair de lune (“Moonlight”) written in 1890 • Suite Bergamasque (1893) • Pour le Piano (1901) piano suite Orchestral works include • Prelude a l’apres-midi d’un faune (1894) “Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun”

• Nocturnes (3; 1894) – Nuages (Clouds) – Fetes (Festivals) – Sirenes (Sirens; from Greek mythology) • La Mer (The Sea; 1905) These are called “symphonic sketches. ” String Quartet/chamber music • 1893: Quartet in G Minor for strings Opera (1) • Pelleas et Melisande Incidental music & art songs from poems. First to incorporate titles.

Prelude a l’apres-midi d’un Faune “Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun” • Based on a poem by Mallarme • Debussy’s first orchestral work • Choice of instruments (small group) – 3 flutes – 2 oboes – English horn – 2 clarinets – 2 bassoons • This wind group would play the main melody

• Brasses – 4 horns • 2 harps • 1 pair of tiny cymbals • Full strings (muted & divided) The Sound ﺥ The opening theme is a sensuous melody (solo flute); this melody would be heard throughout the piece in various transformations. ﺹ In general, the piece has a delicate, restrained, dreamlike quality; relaxed, vague rhythmic movement w/out a strong beat.

ﻍ There is a sense of floating on a gentle summer breeze. ﻕ The music is to describe the dreamy afternoon of a faun (similar to the Greek satyrs. ) ﻺ Satyrs & fauns have human torsos with the body of a goat below the waist. ﻁ The faun dreams of 2 nymphs, female woodland spirits, he had seen earlier in the day. ﺱ He can’t remember if he carried them off to his lair or was it just a dream…. . so he drifts off to sleep again. It’s the impression that is important, not a literal interpretation of the poem.