WIDER LISTENING

To write a music essay, you will sometimes

need to make reference to other similar
works that are not set works. You should be
able to demonstrate that you are listening
widely to related music.
 ESSAY QUESTION

• Evaluate Debussy’s use of harmony, tonality

and texture in ‘Pagodes’ and ‘La Soiree Dans
Grenade’.
Relate your discussion to other relevant works. These may include set works,
wider listening or other music.
 DEBUSSY
CONTEXT

• Early C20
• Impressionist
• Interested in fusion
• French
• Debussy (1862-1918) and Ravel (1875-1937)
were the 2 most influential and important
French composers of the C20.

• Both are often characterised as IMPRESSIONIST

• BUT They both have distinctive characteristics

in their music so they are useful to compare
• Each were accused of stealing from each other
• Both lived in Paris during era of rich cultural confluence
• Shared many common influences including:

Symbolist movement in literature

Impressionist movement in arts
Anti-romanticism
The Russians
Oriental art and culture (world exposition 1889)
How are Ravel and Debussy’s compositions similar?

• Both progressive in their in their outlook for new harmonies that did not
conform to the conventional tonal scheme

• New sonorities from the Far East

• Preference for modal and pentatonic scales

• Use of unresolved 7ths and 9ths

• How are Ravel and Debussy’s compositions similar?

• Ostinato technique – Russian influence

• New textures and timbres (Gamelan influence)

These Debussy characteristics can be seen in Ravel’s La Vallee des Cloches
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnTmtjO6IKI

• Ostinato
• Pedal tone
• Wider ranges
• layering
 HABANERA CONTROVERSY
• Controversy began when Debussy published La Soiree dans
Grenade in 1903, which highly resembles the Habanera
movement of Ravel’s Site Auriculaires which was composed
and premiered 5 years earlier.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIz1ekvmjCg

• Why was this controversial?

• Ravel was born on the Spanish border and had a close

affinity to Spanish music whereas Debussy wrote Spanish
music without knowing intimately Spanish territory. In fact, he
only went to Spain once for a couple of hours to watch a bull-
fight.
• Both have 3
sharps
• Continuous C#
pedal
• Ostinato
habanera
• Improvisatory
melodies
Similarities can also be
found in the melodies

• Triplet rising
figure, followed
by duple beat
Both end almost
identically:

Clear tonality of F#
due to added # on
the A

Persistent rhythmic
C# pedal tone
 RAVEL’S NEW ‘IMPRESSIONISTIC’ APPROACH
TO PIANISTIC WRITING
• Ravel recommended pedal in high passages – produced vague, misty
impression of vibrations in the air. This appealed to Debussy as can be seen
here:
 STRUCTURAL DIFFERENCES
• Ravel often writes in Ternary form

• Debussy’s work is usually through-composed although he

does apply ternary form in much of his piano writing such as
’Pagodes’

• Debussy uses motivic gestures and recurring themes to unify

his pieces

• Ravel’s ‘Habanera’ is in a simple binary form whereas

Debussy’s ‘La Soiree dans Grenade’ does not follow any
traditional form – through composed with recurring themes
and sections
 THEMES AND MELODIES
• Ravel preferred to write long, clear melodies, presented in a single line

• Debussy transforms his themes into accompaniment figures, bass lines,

ornamental figures, transitional figures and also layers and combines
fragments of them

• Debussy presents 6 different themes in ‘La Soiree dans Grenade’ whereas

Ravel uses only 2 main themes in ‘Habanera’

Theme 2 from Pagodes – embedded

within multiple layers with Theme 1 in
the upper voice, pedal on open
5ths, persistent accompaniment in
3rds – subtle and vague introduction.
 MODES AND TONALITY
• The use of modes can be seen in both Ravel and Debussy’s String Quartets
and the use of the pentatonic scale can be seen in Ravel’s Piano Trio as well
as in Debussy’s ‘Pagodes’.

• Ravel showed particular preference for the Dorian (D-D) (Basque folk music)
and Phrygian (E-E) (Andalusian folk music) modes as in ‘Habanera’

• Debussy used modes but also had a particular preference for whole tone
scales. (‘Voiles’) -58/64 bars are whole tone https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVV0jkZC4jI

• In ‘La Soiree dans Grenade’, Debussy uses the whole tone scale in
addition to Phrygian mode whereas Ravel’s themes in ‘Habanera’ are
Phrygian
 PEDAL TONE AND OSTINATO
• Debussy uses pedal notes and ostinato extensively whereas Ravel does so
sparingly

• Debussy’s use of the pedal tone as a low Gong inspired by Gamelan is

featured in ‘Pagodes’ and also in other slow paced works such as
‘Cathedrale Engloutie’. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVMGwPDP-Yk

• There is also extreme use of pedal notes in ‘Voiles’

• Debussy often uses his pedal tones in different ways whereas when Ravel
uses one, he keeps it the same

• This gives a static feeling whereas Ravel liked to give more momentum to his
material
 RANGE AND TEXTURE
• Debussy often uses a profound bass resembling a gong, layers of sonority in
the high registers and often a 3rd layer of sound, serving as some type of
melody. Debussy uses a wide range extending to the extremes of the piano
as well as a multi –layered texture.

• Ravel keeps the left and right hand much closer together, moving in parallel
motion and usually only writes in 2 voices – melody and accompaniment as
can be seen in ‘Jeux d’eau’