Page 175 - HandbookMarch1

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He suggests various touches that evoke the gamelan's percussive, shimmering qualities. Numerous
articulation markings such as slurs, tenutos, and dots permeate the score. Not marks of expression, these
instead indicate how to strike the piano keys. The sound qualities achieved by differing strokes and the use of
pedal resemble the sound qualities of the gamelan instruments. For example, at m. 11 the bright ping of notes
struck staccato contrasts the mellow bong of those struck tenuto, thus distinguishing the timbre of the two
simultaneous melodies. The Western classical meanings of sharply separated notes (staccato), stressed long
notes (tenuto), and smoothly connected notes (slur), melt instead into marvelously vibrating resonances of the
gamelan when engulfed in Debussy's pedals.

The piano, with its equal-tempered chromatic tuning, cannot possibly reproduce gamelan scales. But the piano's
black-key pentatonic scale roughly simulates the five-note slendro: it has no half steps, and its whole steps and
minor thirds approximate slendro's intervals somewhere in between. Even its two larger intervals simulate the
not-quite-equidistant spacing found in slendro tuning. Debussy chooses the pentatonic scale for most of the
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motives and sonorities in Pagodes. For example, it produces the G# C# D# F# G# motifs in mm. 3, 11, and 27. A
different pentatonic grouping A# C# D# F# G# appears in the upper voice at m. 15. Yet another moves to a new
position B G# F# D# in m. 19. Their differing focal tones and ranges may even allude to the patets Debussy
would have sensed in Javanese music.
The texture of Pagodes comprises stratified layers in the fashion of authentic gamelan music. The opening
fourteen measures illustrate this. Measure 1 introduces an imaginary gong ageng, on the low B. At m. 3 a
pentatonic motive begins in sixteenth notes at high register, perhaps calling to mind the timbre of a
metallophone. Its agile cengkok-like pattern moves between and around notes of an imaginary skeleton that
proceeds by conjunct motion in an arch up and back down. At m. 7 a central-register melody enters with a down-
up arch in unadorned conjunct eighth notes, functioning perhaps as the balungan in this imaginary gamelan.
The smooth contour and quietness might evoke the bowed string timbre of the rebab. At m. 11 another mid-
register melody copies the stepwise down-up arching contour of its predecessor in m. 7, now in quarter notes
and positioned higher in the pentatonic scale such that the "steps" are actually somewhat larger as in the
slendro scale. Along with it appears another upper register rendition of the original cengkok pattern, only now in
eighth notes instead of sixteenths. In sum, the first fourteen measures of Pagodes build up multiple layers in
low, middle and high registers in slow, moderate and fast rhythmic activity, all layers presenting some plain or
elaborated version of an arch-shaped conjunct skeleton.
The stratified effect continues throughout the piece. At m. 23 two layers present a variant of the original cengkok
pattern arching in opposite directions with staggered entrances over a recurring gong. At m. 27 yet another
version appears in two voices a fourth/fifth apart (constituting parallel motion within the pentatonic scale and
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the four-note patet in use here) in triplet eighth notes above a slower rendition in quarter notes. In the coda, at
m. 80, a new layer appears in the fastest motion of all, thirty-second notes. The entire piece comprises stratified
layers distinguished by register and rhythmic activity (and timbre in the hands of a skillful pianist), yet always
blended because they all accommodate the pentatonic scale and the same arching skeleton contour.
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