By: Morgan Topol

Claude Debussy was a French composer who became one of the pioneers of Impressionist music. Although many know him to be inspired by Impressionist painters like Claude Monet, it was his encounter with Asian music that would lead him to become one of the most influential composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Historically, within European classical music, composers were bound in their writing by established parameters of Western harmony and form – rigid rules that they were practically forbidden to break. These rules were only reinforced to Debussy when he became a student at the Paris Conservatory in 1872, where he would remain for 11 years.

This would all change after Debussy’s visit to the 1889 World’s Fair, which also happened to be the first time Debussy heard music that wasn’t European. He was entranced by the music of Java, Cambodia and Vietnam, and hearing this music opened Debussy’s mind to a realm of creative possibilities, ones where he finally felt he could express every aspect of his musical personality.

Within Asian music, Debussy found “music of the sea, the wind in the leaves, and a thousand other tiny noises.” He realized that sound did not only have to be used aurally, but could also be used visually to paint pictures in the mind.

Rather than continuing to create the obvious Western tension and resolution of melody as he’d been taught, Debussy decided to break away from the rigid rules of art that had previously been forced upon him. He abandoned Western leading tones in favor of the pentatonic scale, which prioritizes musical ambiguity rather than the aforementioned tension and resolution of melody. Debussy’s Nuages (“Clouds”) from Nocturnes, which he composed in 1899, is a great example of his use of the pentatonic scale.

La mer (“The Sea”), composed in 1905, is Debussy’s most popular and widely performed concert work, and for good reason. His abandonment of traditional musical form in favor of musical ambiguity gave him the freedom to write this composition, which attempts to aurally emulate the visual aspects of the ocean – its “shifting shapes, sparkling surfaces and mysterious depths.”

Each of the three orchestral movements of La mer bears a suggestive poetic title. The first is “De l’aube à midi sur la mer,” or “From dawn to midday on the sea.” The second is titled “Jeux de vagues,” or “Play of the waves.” The finale, “Dialogue du vent et de la mer,” which translates to “Dialogue of the wind and the sea,” is far more raucous relative to the first two movements.

Although all three movements of La mer are incredible in their own right, I’ll only be discussing the last movement (15:59 to end) in depth, as I played it at Governor’s School and therefore am most familiar with it. In this movement, it is widely interpreted that its two main melodic themes, one representing “the wind” and the other representing “the sea,” alternate to create the “dialogue” mentioned in the movement’s title.

In this interpretation, the melodic theme representing “the wind” is first heard in the trumpet (16:47 to 17:05). Then, it is answered by the melodic theme of “the sea” in the oboes, English horn and bassoon (17:24 to 17:49). The theme of “the wind” returns again after this in the bassoons and the cellos (18:27 to 18:46), followed by a quieter passage featuring a chorale led by the french horns and accompanied by the violins (19:13 to 19:35). The theme of “the sea” then returns, this time quietly, heard in a duet by a solo flute and a solo oboe (20:01 to 20:39). After more instruments gradually join in, the theme of “the sea” is reiterated, this time loudly and passionately by the full orchestra  (21:03 to 21:32). “The wind” and “the sea” then alternate again, until the aforementioned chorale is reintroduced, this time by the full orchestra, bringing La mer to a stunning and exciting close (22:41 to end).

If I could talk to Debussy, I would thank him for rejecting tradition in favor of creating new sounds and textures, because it gave him the freedom to create masterpieces that have stood the test of time. I’ll end this blog with a quote from him, a testament to his reliance on his own intuition:

“There is no theory. You have merely to listen.”

If you’d like to listen to more music composed by Debussy, he’s also written a well-known solo for flute that I’ve played called Syrinx. You can listen to it here.