The Importance of 1888-89:

During this time, Debussy made his first trip to Bayreuth, Germany - home of the fabled opera
house built by Richard Wagner (1813-83) (Pictured to the right). It was here that Debussy was
exposed to the music of Wagner - starting a lifelong fascination/relationship with the music of
this monumental German composer. Debussy realizes the importance of chromatic mediants
from Wagner's music. Though perhaps the extroverted emotion brought by Wagner's music
would not be something Debussy pursues, many of Wagner's theory and opinions of opera
poured into Debussy's only opera and considered to be his greatest work - Pellas et Mlisande
(Pelleas and Melisande). (Said theories and opinions will be left for a different blog post and
examples of Wagner's opera can be seen at this blog post).
The other major influence that Debussy was exposed to in 1889 was the Exposition Universelle
- or the World Expo. The World Expo brought performances by groups from around the world.
Debussy and several other composers were exposed to all sorts of music which would take a
huge influence on their music.
One example found at the World Expo that influenced Debussy would be Javanese Gamelan.
Some of the aspects of gamelan that influenced Debussy would be the static harmony within the
music, the planar writing (many different planes of activity simultaneously), very complex
rhythms, non-Western scales (pentatonic, etc.), and circular form. Here is an example of Jazanese
Gamelan:
Another major influence that Debussy found at the World Expo is Russian music. Russian
music at this time was "exotic" to the European ears. Debussy found Modest
Mussorgsky particularly interesting - especially with the use of the interval of a tritone and
tritone relationships - this will become evident in the piece that made Debussy internationally
famous - Prlude l'aprs-midi d'un faune (Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun).

Debussy, Impressionism, & Symbolism:

As mentioned above, Debussy is commonly categorized as a composer of impressionist music.
Impressionist music, in a nutshell, focuses on depicting an atmosphere rather than depicting a
story or strong emotion as music of the romantic era did. In comparing the two styles, romantic
music utilized chromaticism within the diatonic structures of major and minor scales.
Impressionist music, on the other hand, had the tenancy to make more use out of dissonances using uncommon scales (i.e. whole tone scale, synthetic scales). Romantic music leaned toward
longer forms such as symphonies and concertos. Impressionist favored shorter forms such as
nocturnes and preludes. In a sense, impressionism is a reaction to romanticism.
Despite being labeled as an impressionist, Debussy soon molded into a symbolist after making
use of several literary works by major symbolist writers. Symbolism appealed to the idea that art
should speak of absolute truths, however these truths could only be described indirectly. As
symbolism relates to Debussy, we must look a little bit about the construction of literary works
as many of the major writers of the symbolist movement gave Debussy inspiration in his music
(to be discussed on blogs which feature the afore mentioned inspired works)
Symbolist literature focused free verse where the text could focus more on the natural
emphasis or fluidity of normal speech. Text was meant to evoke ideas through symbolic imagery,
not to describe them. Literary techniques like alliteration, onomatopoeia, obscuration, vagueness,
and symbolic imagery were commonly used in symbolist literature. Here is a really prime
example of symbolist writing by Charles Baudelaire's (1821-67) Correspondences taken from
wikipedia:
Il est des parfums frais comme des chairs d'enfants,
Doux comme les hautbois, verts comme les prairies,
Et d'autres, corrompus, riches et triomphants,
Ayant l'expansion des choses infinies,
Comme l'ambre, le musc, le benjoin et l'encens,
Qui chantent les transports de l'esprit et des sens.
(There are perfumes that are fresh like children's flesh,
sweet like oboes, green like meadows
And others, corrupt, rich, and triumphant,
having the expansiveness of infinite things,
like amber, musc, benzoin, and incense,
which sing of the raptures of the soul and senses.)
As for Debussy, he pulled from the texts of four symbolist writers for his his works:

Maurice Maeterlinck (1862-1949)

o Wrote the story of Pellas et Mlisande (Pelleas and Melisande) (1892) which
was the basis for Debussy's opera (1902) by the same name.

Stphane Mallarm (1842-98)

o Wrote the poem L'aprs-midi d'un faune (The Afternoon of a Faun) (1876) which
was the basis for the piece that made Debussy internationally famous, Prlude
l'aprs-midi d'un faune (Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun) (1894)

Paul Verlaine (1844-96)

o Wrote several poems that Debussy used in his art songs.

Charles Baudelaire (1821-67)

o Wrote several poems that Debussy used in his art songs.

Debussy and his Opera - Pellas et Mlisande:

Debussy's only completed opera, Pellas et Mlisande, was finished and performed in 1902.
This is considered to be Debussy's greatest work. This section will merely give a general
overview of some of the musical developments. The piece will be discussed in detail in a later
blog post.
The writing and structure of the opera can be traced back to Wagner's ideals in opera - the
music drama. Wagner believed that opera had "too much singing" to the point that it creates stops
in the drama. Wagner wanted to keep the drama and the story moving along. This can be seen
throughout Wagner's operas as all the singing is done in a sort of recitative style with major
orchestral accompaniment. Debussy follows his this model (perhaps, minus the major orchestral
accompaniment), but adds the symbolist ideals by relying on the natural speech patterns rather
than focusing so much on singing.
The opera also uses tonal symbolism - where certain keys represent certain emotions. The
opera in general is very quiet - in the entire three and a half hour opera there are ONLY four FF
markings in the score. Leaving the audience listening to mostly the vocalists and subtle
orchestration.
I believe it was composer Richard Strauss (1864-1949) who saw a performance of Pellas et
Mlisande
in Paris. He left the opera theater part way through asking, "Where's the music?"
Debussy's Late Period - Jeux:
Arguably one of the most important pieces in Debussy's output was his final orchestral piece
for his ballet - Jeux. It is considered his most modern approach to music. (More details for the
piece will be provided in a separate blog)
Summary of Debussy's Contributions to the Breakdown of the Tonal System:

Diatonic Saturation - also known as Pandiatonicism.

o Using other diatonic notes of a scale in any given harmony without the limitations
of functional tonality

Use of Tritone Relationships - Acquired from Modest Mussorgsky

Use of Modal Scales - Acquired from his time in Rome with Franz Liszt

Use of Non-Western Scales - Scales such as the Whole Tone Scale and the Pentatonic
Scale

Use of Static Harmony - Acquired from from Javanese Gamelan

Use of Chromatic Mediants - Acquired from Richard Wagner

Use of Harmony as Pure Color - Chordal Planing and using chords without the
conventions of traditional harmony

Summary of Debussy's Music that Developments 20th Century

Change of Musical Aesthetic

Non-Directional Music - Developed from Javanese Gamelan

Use of Silence - Contributes to the style of Anton Webern and John Cage

Rhythmic Complexity - Contributes to the style of Igor Stravinsky