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The passage in mm. 15-18 harmonizes its arching top-voice melody with dyads and triads created from
chromatic, not pentatonic, linear counterpoint. The lower two voices complement the up-down contour of the
pentatonic melody with down-up nearly parallel chromatic motion (sometimes arriving at unisons single-
stemmed in the score). The contrary motion and intervallic diminution in use are two venerated Western
polyphonic techniques. Yet the choice of chromatic pitches in this passage contrasts with the pentatonic content
of the entire rest of the piece. Timbre again suggests a possible reason: the shimmering quality of the discords
subtly evokes those intentional mistunings of gamelan unisons.
Rhythmic aspects, too, complement authentic gamelan practice. For example Debussy chooses not only eighth
notes, sixteenths and thirty-seconds as the counterpoint to quarter notes, whose ratios all produce the rhythmic
doublings characteristic of gamelan iramas; he also chooses triplet-eighths and triplet-, quadruplet- and
quintuplet- thirty-seconds, which have no place in traditional gamelan music. And these shift among each other,
as in the sections at m. 11 with both duplet- and triplet-eighths, and at m. 80 where triplet-, quadruplet- and
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quintuplet- thirty-seconds fluctuate. With these superposed shifting rhythms, spread over multiple octaves,
Debussy creates the illusion of complexity among many contrapuntal layers as in gamelan practice, yet
composes music that is actually playable by one pianist on one instrument.

His sensitivity to the capabilities of the pianist emerges likewise in mm. 37-44.The crescendo and repeated quick
cengkoks in mm. 39-40 simulate the addition of extra instruments in preparation for the loud phrase at m. 41,
but the pianist is spared the technical difficulties of playing fast octaves or cross rhythms. The fragments of quick
notes in mm. 42 and 44 provide the illusion, rather than the actuality, of continuing through slower ones in a
fashion readily playable by the pianist.
Phrase structure and form in Pagodes furnish by Western means the necessary organization that is provided
instead by gong phrases and their subdivisions in Javanese music. Pagodes' four-measure phrase lengths,
common to much Western music, fit the gamelan illusion well. Even the two "extra" measures at the beginning
and in mm. 31-32 can be accounted for as an allusion to the gong's prolonged ringing. Yet the Western ABA form
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with coda creates a unifying large-scale structure that is not at all characteristic of Javanese design, which is
governed entirely by perfectly regular gatras. The Western classical form creates the vehicle for carrying the
impression of the exotic gamelan effectively to Debussy's intended audience. 43
Context

Placing Pagodes in the framework of Debussy's other works provides perspective on his evolution as a
composer. At this formative time in his life, after his studies at the Paris Conservatory (1872-1884) and his time in
Italy as winner of the Prix de Rome (1885-1887), the 1889 Exposition provided exposure to a completely new kind
of music.

Some of his earliest compositions had already revealed experiments with non-traditional elements such as
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pentatonic scales, ostinato, static harmony, and stratified textures. Such experiments shaped a style that was
not always appreciated by musical experts: Printemps, his required submission as winner of the Prix de Rome,
earned him an admonishment in 1887 to "be on his guard against that vague 'Impressionism' which is one of
the most dangerous enemies of truth in works of art." 45

Rather than creating an entirely new style, the timbre, tuning, layering, and rhythm he found in Javanese music
instead nourished elements already latent in his writing. Pagodes did not immediately follow Debussy's
encounter at the 1889 Exposition. Fourteen years intervened. Those years were dominated by the composition of
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his opera Pelléas et Mélisande, which he says "took me twelve years to write." Other works of the time include
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the Fantaisie for piano and orchestra, begun while the Exposition was still on, the String Quartet, Prélude à
l'après-midi d'un faune, Chansons de Bilitis, Nocturnes, and Pour le piano. All of these contain some elements
attributable to the gamelan, yet none specifically evokes one.

Pagodes of 1903 is the first of Debussy's piano compositions alluding to the Orient, and the first that represents
the Impressionistic style for which he is today admired. His friend Robert Godet recalls those intervening years:
At first, in the three or four years [sic] that passed between the Exposition of 1889 and the publication of
Pagodes (first date, barring error, of the works bearing the imprint of "exoticism") one had the occasion to
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submit to the composer numerous documents collected in diverse places of Asia and the Islands of Sonde