Impressionism Wider Listening

Structure - Ravel

• Ternary form but it has several unusual features.

• The B section is much slower than the A section, being pretty much half the speed 

• It is also contrasting in terms of key (hovering around Eb – a long way from the Aeolian opening) and textures 

• It has many motivic links to the A material 

• There is an extensive link back to the reprise of A, in which material from both sections is reworked and combined (fig 25).

Melody- Debussy

• Use of pentatonic scale in the melodic writing, which was influenced by the Javanese slendro scale.

• Melodies are short (Opening melody heard in bar 3 is only 2 bars long).  Brevity was common in impressionism.

• Overwhelmingly conjunct and scalic melodic lines.

• Whole tone melodic ideas are employed most notably at the beginning of the B section.

• Ornamentation is used occasionally such as trills at bar 50, which allude to the sonorities of a gamelan ensemble.

• Use of countermelodies such as in bar 7.

Tonality- Debussy

• Key signature of five sharps suggests B major or G# minor but neither key is properly established.

• Debussy uses the black notes of the piano for their pentatonic possibilities.

• B is tonal centre.

• The tonal scheme remains rooted in B major, from which it rarely departs.  Even considering this, there is some ambiguity.

Harmony - Debussy

• Overall, the harmony is non-functional, drawing heavily on pentatonic material

• Gong-like open fifths at the opening represent the gongs from the gamelan ensemble.

• At the beginning long pedal notes merge the harmony

• Open fifths such as at the beginning keep the tonality vague as there is no 3^rd to confirm if the tonality is major or minor.

• There is use of parallel movement in the chords such as the parallel 4^th and 5^th chords, in the right hand, towards the end of the A section

• The chords contain added notes such as the G# in the right hand in bar 1, which is an added sixth.  Debussy is trying to avoid straightforward triads but instead recreating gamelan harmonies.

• Whole tone melodic ideas are also employed, notably in the new melodic idea at the beginning of the B section, and later from bar 46.

Texture - Debussy

• 3-part layered ‘Gamelan’ structure (low gongs: core melody: decoration) 

• Ostinato figure are common throughout this work, such as the triplet figure in the left hand in bar 15 and the demisemiquaver ostinato at bar 78.

• Melody dominated homophony in bar 3-6 with a chordal accompaniment and drone accompaniment.

• Bars 11-14 the pedal note supports a two-part counterpoint, with each part in octaves.

• 78-98 incorporates the greatest textural detail, with rippling demisemiquaver movement in the right hand starting high and then developing into a figuration that spans two octaves.  The melody, heard in single notes, then octaves and with supporting harmonisation, is heard in the middle range (left hand).  This is all supported by long bass notes.

Sonority - Debussy

• Two pedals used

  • Sustain pedal – This pedals sustains the sounds and creates a wash of sound very common in impressionism

  • Soft (una corda) pedal – This makes the sound a little softer.

• Player is told to hold the sustain pedal down for several bars e.g. bars 27 – 31.  This gives a blurred sonority.

• Full range of the piano used.

• Rippling demisemiquavers e.g. in bars 78 create a shimmering sound reminiscent of metallophones.  

Metre and Rhythm - Debussy

• Irregular rhythmic groupings blur the metre and bar line. 

• Triplets are used frequently throughout the A section.

• Cross rhythms are a feature of the A section, such as with the left-hand triplets against the simple melody at bar 16, creating two against three. 

• Another rhythmic device used frequently throughout is syncopation, for example the left hand chords always falling on the offbeats from bar 3.  Both cross rhythms and syncopation serve to blur both metre and bar-line; a common feature of Impressionistic music.

• The rippling demisemiquaver right hand movement in the coda is a common feature of impressionism.

• Numerous ‘ritneutos’ clearly mean the pulse is subject to rubato within the moderately quick tempo (modérément animé). This blurring of pulse is a key impressionistic trait, although the simple, quadruple time signature is only departed from at 92 and 94, where simple duple bars are inserted to underline the temporary six-beat structures at this point.