Debussy

Title

Debussy

Creator

Osbon, Bert Paul

Language

English

Year

1941

Subject

Claude Debussy, 1862 – 1918 -- Biography.

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Abstract

Second series of ‘Great Composers of Music.’

Fulltext

NOVIMBH., 1941 T HE YOUNG CITIZEN 397 MUSIC APPRECIATION SECTION GREAT COMPOSERS OF MUSIC SECOND. S ERIES By BERT PAUL OSBON • XI. D E BUSSY DEBUSSY Modernistic Composer OF ALL composers, the music of Claude Debussy (de-bu-se) is the most difficult to write about, and it is more difficult yet to listen to and understand his compositions. H owever, the few facts regarding his life,are quickly told. Debu" ssy was born in France in 1862. He went to school in the French town in which he was born, and grew up with the_ intention of entering the navy. So as a boy he was not a musical prodgy. A musical aunt guided him to the Conservatory of M usic in Paris, but he was too impatient of technical drill . and too • Formerly in the Department of Music Educa~ tion, New York. University, New York City, U .S.A. original to excel there either as a pianist or composer. N evertheless, upon graduation in .1884, he wrote a cantata called T he Prodigal S on which brought him fame and which won a prize in the music school at Rome so to Rome he went for further study'. He was oppressed and unhappy and unable to work in the grandeur of Rome. H e returned to Paris after one year's absence, which was all he could stand. H~ was sensitive and high-strung, and was very unhappy. Ugly people and crying children disturbed him, although he adored his own child whom he called Chou-Chou. T o her he dedicated his piano suite called Th e Children's Corner with its charming Golliwog's Cake-walk and the D oll's Serenade. H e has made thousands happy with his delightful Childrrn's Corner which you should hear; in addition to Golliwog's Cake-walk and.D oll's Serenade, there is limbo's Lullaby (which refers to an elephant), T he S now Is D ancing and T he Little Shepherd. Debussy wrote another composition which has become very well known. It is called The Afte;noon of a Faun. A poet wrote a poem about a faun which is one of a class of rural Italian deities represented as of human shape, with pointed ears, small horns, and sometimes a goat's tail, or as half goat and half man. Debussy called his Afternoon of a.Fa1w a prelude, but rather by reference to the poem which he followed, instead of following THE YOUNG CIT IZEN NOVEMBl!R, 1941 the form of a musical prelude. It is a very fascinating piece of music with an exotic, languorous atmosphere that no other composer has achieved. W e may consider this composer as the most poetic and original of pr.esent music writers, with striking cantatas and symphonic poems. H e also wrote a few operas, besides smaller works. Such modern composers as T schaikowsky (see THE YOUNG CITIZEN for July, 1941) and Debussy have literally created tonal coloring of the symphony orchestra o~ which Haydn, M ozart, and Beethov~n did not dream. The melodies of W agner and Debussy are more exciting than the simpler patterns of H aydn, M ozart, and Schubert. •But it is worth remembering that each kind of music was thoroughly satisfying to the public in its day. · There is realism as well as beauty in other orchestral works of Debussy such as T he S ea, and two nocturnes called Clouds and F etes which have been played in Manila 'by the M anila Symphony Orchestra. In the program notes of the concert given on September 9, 1941 by the Manila Symphony Orchestra, a critic has this to say regarding Debussy's composition Clouds_ (Nuages) : " In this lovely impressionistic fragment, Debussy dop not attempt to point a picture of clouds moving through the sea of ·heaven, but , rather to evoke such a mood. as might come upon one who gazes upon the slow and solemn passage of the clouds dissolving into a grey vagueness tinged with white." And of the composition F etes, these notes are printed: "F etes is an unforgetable example of the quality in music that accomplishes meaning and suggestions quite beyond word!. T he music seems to come from th~ shadowy distance. Swiftly dancing figures, whirling in complete abandon, crowd and jostle on the scene, lost in the joy of sensuous movement. Swiftly they disappear, and the scene fades.n In his piano music of a se(ious nature Debussy includes many picturesque titles,' such as T he G irl with the F laxen H air, Goldfish, Ga1 ·de11s in the R ain, T he Subm erged Cathedral, Moonlight, R eflections in the W ater., E vening ·in Granada) etc. It is Debussy who has given real individuality t o French piano music, and his novel effects of tonal coloring, suggesiing gray, cloudlike backgrounds and blurred . outlines, represent something unique in music, thus far defying imitation by any other composer. H e is priinaril'y a composer of program music, and most of his pieces h~ve descriptive titles such as those given above. - Debussy uses many dissonances in his compositions, but his music is now accepted as well written, and his original genius is unquestioned. In some' compbsitions he uses the whole-tone scale. T he modern whole-tone scale, as its name im(Pleau tur n' to page 408.) THIRTY FEET! HOW MANY DO YOU KNOW? How MANY of the animal's feet s[lown in the picture on the next page can you name? T ry first, then check with the following list. In the first row from left to right they are: horse, elephant, eagle, newt, ostrich, camel ; second row: chimpanzee, tiger, duck, shrew, lizard, beetle; third row : sloth, bear, locust, flamingo, platypus, cra'b; fourth row : peccary, spider, giraffe, frog, arn\adillo, ox; fifth row: kangaroo, tortoise, squirrel, iguana, mouse, gecko. ·THE YOUNG CITIZEN NOVEMBER, 19.p THE OLD CLOCK DEBUSSY I MOUNTING BUTTERFLIES (Con tinued fr(Jm page 394) (Continued from page 398) (Continued from page 400) thought, as he macje his way plies, goes up and down in board lengthwise, an <l across the wla, "and I can steps of a whole tone, with- fastened in tiny notches at do it." out any of the half-tone in- each end of the board, as Crash! There was a tervals found in the diatonic shown in the lowest P.icture. dreadful noise He had scales. This explains some To keep the body pushed over the tall, old of the p e c u 1 i a r chords straight, pins should be clock in the dark. Uncle which he uses. stuck into the groove of the Juan's door opened quick- He never crowds his mu- board undern~ath the-lower ly, and he came hurrying sic with tone color, but he end of the body to support with a flashlight in his has made music express it. The feelers (antennae) hand. poetic feeling in the most and legs of the butterfly "Why, I'sidro, what's the delicate and unusual fash- should be carefully armatter ?" ion. One simply feels the ranged, and, if necessary, "Oh, U ncle Juan, I just effect of his music as one may be kept in position by meant--" he began. ' "I dbeoae · us t1.5fut1nl laigfthetr,nooorn.a ·calm pins stuck into the board slantingwise and pressing wa2ted it to-.- " " Musicians .ha v,e peen upon the feelers and the If you will help me, keenly interested in D ebus- legs. said Uncle Juan, "perhaps sy's use of the old Greek The specimens should be together we can lift it up." scales and in his orchestral laid aside in a shady, dry There was not much combinations. But to the place, free from dust and damage done. The works listener, the point of inter- secure from the attacks of of the old clock were un- eEt is in the effect of the ants, mice, or cockroaches. hurt, but the back of the music. Small specimens will dry case was broken right away. Claude Deb~1ssy is the quickly, but the larger ones It lay splintered from the real founder of modern may take several weeks. fall, and there among the music. His highly original To know whether a specisplinters was something else methods of harmonizing men is ready for placing in ' -a long, thick envelope and creating tonal colors the collecting cabinet, touch with red seals! The color has rev o 1 u ti on i zed the the abdomen with a needle, went from Uncle Juan's whole musical art. His and if the skin is dry and face as he lifted it up. orchest r al compositions immovable, the drying is "What's this? Why, it's speak a new and different completed. the. lost paper !" he gasped. language, and his piano In the cabinet the speciJust at that minute the pieces are unique. He wrote mens may be damaged by pendulum started again. It his songs in such a manner mice, ants or cockroaches, swung to and fro, and there as no other composer has or they may mould. The was a whirring sound. And ever equaled. Everything is filing cabinet should be then, in the half-darkness, vague, ethereal, without a kept dry and lnsect proof. the song of the clock began definite rl;ythm or melody. A little napthaline or a few once more: "I knew- I Such is the music of Claude moth balls may be placed I knew- I knew! " Debussy. in the cabinet.

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