Scan 437
The MacMillan EncyclopEdia Of Music And Musicians In One Volume-I, 1938
4 lines. Read by computer on 16 September 2026. Printed page 434. See the scan on archive.org.
1DEBUSSY
3mixed achievement, showing at times the sure hand of the master, and also some exploration of new fields, but, chiefly, evidences of the mind losing its elasticity and the powers failing. To the majority of music lovers, Debussy's piano music is probably best known and most enjoyed; in this department his fame has been widely extended, and he has been much discussed. That he established a new style cannot be questioned; neither this generation nor the next will be able to judge whether his style has permanence. Technically, his innovations have been valuable, if only to give pianists a new viewpoint, and to open up to them the greater possibilities of their instrument. Many of Debussy's keyboard passages have required new methods of fingering, and he opened up an entirely new field in the matter of the use of pedals. His overlaying of vague harmonies, and his fertility in the invention of rhythmic problems have presented the pianist with many matters for thoughtful consideration, but his influence in non-technical details has not been so great. In works such as Brouillards and Feux d'artifice, for example, he seems to be harmonically ruminating, so to speak. Many of his later piano pieces seem so concerned with a few unimportant harmonic problems that they come to an end before any definite decision is reached. But the outstanding works, such as La Soirée dans Grenade, Reflets dans l'eau, Poissons d'or, Les fées sont d'exquises danseuses, Bruyères, and the masterpieces that form two-thirds of the first set of preludes and reach their climax in the noble La Cathédrale engloutie, show how versatile his imagination could be. With the exception of Bruyères and La Cathédrale engloutie, these works are not broad conceptions for the pianist who is accustomed to dealing with the emotional and intellectual tasks set for him by such men as Brahms and Franck, but they constitute a gallery of beautiful sketches for him to color with the subtlest pigments at his command. The orchestral works, L'Après-midi d'un faune, Nuages and Fêtes and part of the string quartet antedated the outstanding piano pieces, and prepared the way for his acceptance as a distinguished composer. They presented many new problems to conductor, players and listeners alike. Debussy's later instrumental works including Iberia, the 'cello sonata, the sonata for flute, viola and harp, and the ballet Jeux seem to reveal a definite decline in his powers, although several of them, particularly the 'cello sonata, contain many extremely beautiful passages. Debussy's songs are notable for the equal division of interest between the vocal line and the accompaniment, although in this department of composition he may otherwise be considered less of an innovator. His musical invention is somewhat hemmed in by the restrictions of voice-range and by the necessity of avoiding the over-balancing of the voice-part by the accompaniment. His progress in harmonic development is particularly to be noted in three songs of sentiment, Romance (1887), Green (1903), and Je tremble en voyant ton visage (1910). The last of these has in every bar the perfectly mature harmonic frame-work. They are all very beautiful songs, each in a different way, and all exhibit the same type of emotional outlook. Of Debussy's love-songs, probably the first two of the Chansons de Bilitis are the most individual; the very sensitive La Flûte de Pan and the passionate La chevelure. From the works of Baudelaire and Verlaine he drew some of his finest inspirations, among them Recueillement, Colloque sentimental, Fantoches, Chevaux de bois and Le Faune. The poems of Charles duc d'Orléans provided him with texts for some of his freshest and finest expressions, and he reached his climax as a song composer in the three splendid Villon ballades, voicing the most opposite emotions with equal subtlety and power. Three works for voices and orchestra are outstanding. La Damoiselle élue is a work of haunting, mystical beauty, slight in style and nebulously, fitting perfectly the mood and thought of Rossetti's poems. Pelléas and Mélisande, Debussy's largest, and, in many respects, his most revealing work, is set to the text by Maeterlinck. With all its inequalities, it is one of the composer's greatest achievements. Aside from its intrinsic merits, and they are many, it is one of the mileposts in the history of opera. It is extremely useful in estimating the comparative importance of its composer, because it provides a common ground on which he may be placed with other great men in music. For those who are chiefly interested in opera, it provides the means of finding exactly what Debussy stands for, and its performances in America and throughout the world are frequent enough to provide opportunities for first hand study. It epitomizes the aims and methods of the composer, and represents the summit of musical impressionism, showing precisely how far impressionism may venture into the field of stage music. The hand of the composer is extremely sure, and the economy of the craftsmanship is remarkable. The faintest nuance of the words is caught up and amplified by the orchestra and the music is tense and full of pulsating beauty. The third work in this classification is the elaborate music to d'Annunzio's Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien, an unequal piece, written during the last few years of the composer's life, and by no means able to bear comparison with the two last-mentioned works. As to Debussy's contribution to art, taken as a whole, he was greatly attracted to chords of the ninth and their derivatives treated as primaries, and in particular by chords in which component notes are separated by whole tones. The resulting idiom had rich possibilities within its sphere but its limitations were extremely definite. We must assign a high place to one who could write such things as La Cathédrale engloutie, and the scene of Mélisande's death. His world may have been small, but in it he was a great man, and sometimes he saw beyond. Most of Debussy's compositions of real importance have been discussed in this article; biographies
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