Page 252 - ESSENTIAL LISTENING TO MUSIC

Example 15.1 > the flute of the faun
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Listening Cue
Claude Debussy, Prelude to The Afternoon of a Faun (1894) Download 44 Genre: Symphonic poem (tone poem)
Form: Ternary (ABA’)
what to listen for: First, the hazy undulating flute and then the kaleidoscope of instrumental colors that continually dissolve one into the next. Within the ternary form, sections A (0:00) and A’ (6:22) sound modern because of the wisp-like melodies and the prominence of the woodwinds. B (2:48), with its long, lush string melody (5:07), seems to return to the sentimentality of the Romantic period.
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reAD . . . a detailed Listening Guide of this selection online.
LiSTeN TO . . . this selection streaming online.
WATCH . . . an Active Listening Guide of this selection online.
DO . . . Listening Exercise 15.1, Debussy, Prelude to The Afternoon of a Faun, online.
Impressionism and Modernism
Impressionism was not the mother of Modernism (see below)—more like its aunt. It possessed some, but by no means all of the genetic musical mate- rial of the later, more radical Modernist style. Debussy, for example, sometimes sounds Romantic and other times Modernist. As to what is most modern in De- bussy’s music, consider the composer’s abhorrence of what he called the Ger- man “developmental agenda.” Debussy believed that music need not progress and evolve to be pleasing to the listener; instead, he created repetitive, ostinato- like melodies and harmonies that meander without a well-defined goal. He also demonstrated that music did not have to march along with a strong meter—it could just relax and enjoy the moment. Most important, Debussy rejected the clearly delineated themes of the German Romantics—preferring momentary splashes of sound color instead of arching melodies and motivic development. For him, color and texture were as, or more, important than meter and melo- dy. How music sounded in the moment became what music was. This is a very Modernist aesthetic, one that even anticipates Postmodernism. But first things first: Modernism.
chapter fifteen european impressionism and modernism
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