Afternoon of a Faun Sample file - CurrClick -...
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But he was a difficult student. A brilliant pianist and musician, he did not like the restrictive rules taught at the Conservatory. At that time, he played pieces few other professional pianists could. But his interest was composition. For two years, he lived and composed in Russia. A piece of Debussy’s music came to the attention of the great Tchaikovsky, who generally disliked it. He then won a contest at the Paris Conservatory, the Prix-de-Rome, which allowed him to study music in Rome for four years. But Debussy, always argumentative, hated everything about Rome including the operas he heard there. In the end, Debussy was too much a rebel to follow anyone else’s musical lead. His compositions were critiqued by the Roman Academy as “unusual”, which was not intended as a compliment. And indeed, they were unusual, increasingly the first wave of a new kind of music. Debussy struggled financially as a young man, but continued to compose the music he believed in. Then, he composed Afternoon of a Faun, a piece that drew many fans and detractors, and which placed the young Debussy at the center of artistic life in France. He continued to develop unusual ideas. He moved away from the idea that themes needed to be repeated in a composition, and favored instead single pieces that evolved within themselves without need of repetition. He experimented with short pieces which seemed to violate all the existing rules of composition, in some ways ignoring the idea that a piece should develop around one set of harmonic notes, a “key”. This was a new idea in music at that time. He composed his only opera based on these ideas, Pelléas et Mélisande. Unlike any opera heard before, it was a tremendous success. is La Mer (The Sea) came close to the form of Symphony created by Haydn (the great German composer) a century earlier. Like many of his works, it had many supporters and critics. He experiment with stranger harmonies, many of which would be used later by jazz musicians. Debussy busily opened the door to the music of the 20 th century. His fame grew through Europe. He was frequently asked to conduct his works, and even became a music critic, supportive of many of the new composers on the rise, as well as of many of the masters of the past such as Bach and Mozart. His later works grew ever harsher and dissonant. (“Dissonance” in music is the placing together of notes in an unpleasing manner.) He developed the use of the whole tone scale, a six-step scale that sounds oriental. Towards the end of his life, Debussy started two operas developed from stories by the master of horror, American author Edgar Allan Poe. He was not able to complete them. He was a difficult man. Women apparently adored him. Two of them tried to kill themselves when he left them. Many people in the musical community despised his works 20 Sample file
Transcript of Afternoon of a Faun Sample file - CurrClick -...
But he was a difficult student. A brilliant pianist and musician, he did not like the restrictive rules taught at the Conservatory. At that time, he played pieces few other professional pianists could. But his interest was composition.
For two years, he lived and composed in Russia. A piece of Debussy’s music came to the attention of the great Tchaikovsky, who generally disliked it. He then won a contest at the Paris Conservatory, the Prix-de-Rome, which allowed him to study music in Rome for four years. But Debussy, always argumentative, hated everything about Rome including the operas he heard there.
In the end, Debussy was too much a rebel to follow anyone else’s musical lead. His compositions were critiqued by the Roman Academy as “unusual”, which was not intended as a compliment. And indeed, they were unusual, increasingly the first wave of a new kind of music.
Debussy struggled financially as a young man, but continued to compose the music he believed in. Then, he composed Afternoon of a Faun, a piece that drew many fans and detractors, and which placed the young Debussy at the center of artistic life in France.
He continued to develop unusual ideas. He moved away from the idea that themes needed to be repeated in a composition, and favored instead single pieces that evolved within themselves without need of repetition. He experimented with short pieces which seemed to violate all the existing rules of composition, in some ways ignoring the idea that a piece should develop around one set of harmonic notes, a “key”. This was a new idea in music at that time.
He composed his only opera based on these ideas, Pelléas et Mélisande. Unlike any opera heard before, it was a tremendous success. is La Mer (The Sea) came close to the form of Symphony created by Haydn (the great German composer) a century earlier. Like many of his works, it had many supporters and critics. He experiment with stranger harmonies, many of which would be used later by jazz musicians. Debussy busily opened the door to the music of the 20th century.
His fame grew through Europe. He was frequently asked to conduct his works, and even became a music critic, supportive of many of the new composers on the rise, as well as of many of the masters of the past such as Bach and Mozart.
His later works grew ever harsher and dissonant. (“Dissonance” in music is the placing together of notes in an unpleasing manner.) He developed the use of the whole tone scale, a six-step scale that sounds oriental. Towards the end of his life, Debussy started two operas developed from stories by the master of horror, American author Edgar Allan Poe. He was not able to complete them.
He was a difficult man. Women apparently adored him. Two of them tried to kill themselves when he left them. Many people in the musical community despised his works
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and him. Others saw him as the bright light of a new sun rising in the musical world. Time has proven them correct.
4. WATCH AND LISTEN: The famed Prelude to Afternoon of a Faun, as conducted by the great Leonard Bernstein.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvnRC7tSX50orhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kR5OWN_ydIY
5. WATCH AND LISTEN: The Golliwogg’ Cakewalk, a jazz-like piece, played by Debussy himself.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMrdhgWR9Zk&feature=related
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LESSON # 6:
1. WATCH AND LISTEN: La Merhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XVHLO9k3HIorhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgSNgzA37To
2. WATCH AND LISTEN: Clar de Lune, one of the most beloved pieces in all music.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gElTKhbnQxUor, played on the piano, as it often is:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fvo_iOuSck
3. WATCH AND LISTEN: Arabesque # 1, played by a young student.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_c-G9PeuEA
4. WATCH AND LISTEN: Preludes (two of them).http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWpN5ioWr2g&feature=related
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LESSON # 7:
1. WATCH AND LISTEN: (The entire opera is here. Listen to a piece toward the start, then skip 1/2 an hour, listen some more, then skip toward the end and listen. Or enjoy the entire opera. It's over 2 1/2 hours.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZQ2Kjvu0i4or a stranger and longer version:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoOj7hjaxwQ
2. WATCH AND LISTEN: from The Children’s Corner Suitehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGFYyaxNChworhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozisMKGGkB8
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LESSON # 8:
1. EXERCISE: How does Debussy use harmony to create beauty, or a dramatic effect capable of moving an audience’s emotions? 50 words or more.
2. EXERCISE: How does Debussy develop his main theme (melody) through the repetition of it, in new and interesting variations, and at the same time as the theme is being played? How does he use “counterpoint” to develop the power and emotion of the piece? 50 words or more.
3. EXERCISE: How does Debussy use different instruments in different ways to create the effects he wants? (Count the human voice as an instrument, here!) 50 words or more.
4. EXERCISE: What do you like best about his music? 50 words or more.
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LESSON # 9:
1. LOCATE: On a map, globe or the Internet:
Ciboure, FranceParis, FranceSpainNew York, New York (United States)Boston, Massachusetts (United States)
2. UNDERSTAND THE WORDS:
Grand Opera – Dramatic pieces of theater which are almost entirely sung, and which tell large, dramatic stories.
3 READ AND UNDERSTAND:
Debussy’s works often feel “unstructured” and wild. The next French master composer also composed Impressionist music. But the son of an inventor, his works are highly sophisticated and structured, and demonstrated more thoroughly that Impressionism in music could have a formal, classical structure. Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) composed works that are probably more beloved than those of any other French composer.
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His father was an inventor of note. He created one of the earliest internal combustion engine (the sort a car uses). He created a machine for circuses called “The Whirlwind of Death”, that did kill one circus performer. Maurice inherited from his father not just a spirit of adventure, but a mind capable of organizing and putting together unique ideas. Where his father built machines, Maurice Ravel applied his genius to music.
He was born in Ciboure, France, but moved to Paris when three months old. His mother was from Spain, and Spanish music was one of the boy’s early loves. Some of his greatest works would later demonstrate a powerful Spanish influence.
He started studying piano at age seven, and first concertized at age fourteen. But his real interests were in composition. He heard the music of Russians such as Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908) , and Debussy. He admired (as did most composers) the orchestrations of German composer of grand opera Richard Wagner (1813-1883).
He entered the Paris Conservatory, and was considered an exceptional pianist. But he was also thought to be a careless student. He dressed well, and read extensively.
In 1898, he started studying composition with Fauré (who you will study later on this course). These studies lasted fourteen years. He studied carefully every instrument in the orchestra, so he could fully understand what it could do. Ravel became one of the finest orchestrators of his generation, orchestrating his known works as well as works by other great composers, such as Debussy.
He led the way into the new French music with Debussy, and was both loved and hated by music critics and audiences. He was a great fan of Debussy’s music, but felt that his own musical needs were quite different. He generally felt that Debussy’s orchestration could have been better. But together, their music started a wave of new ideas in music that swept France, and then the world.
Ravel looked for ways to expand his musical command, and composed several operas, children’s pieces, piano pieces, string quartets, and ballets. In 1909 he composed his ballet, Daphnis et Chloe, for the master dancer/choreographer Nijinsky to perform. This project was so demanding that it taxed Ravel’s health. Then World War I struck. Many of Ravel’s friends died in the war. He wrote a tribute to the composer Couperin, The Tomb of Couperin, in four short movements. Each movement was written in memory of a fallen friend. It is one of his most performed works.
With Debussy’s death, Ravel became the guiding light of French music. But music was changing, growing less structured or “tonal”, and new composers around the world were experimenting, creating the music of the 20th Century. Ravel never composed quickly, but he had a great gift for accepting and understanding new ideas, and integrating them into his music. He continued to compose works that were “cutting edge” in many regards, including modern jazz elements. His orchestrations and compositions made him wealthy, and he toured the world performing concerts of his music. He was received with great
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acclaim in New York and Boston. It became clear that of all the French composers of the day, he had composed the most beloved music.
There is a fabled story at while in America, Ravel met the great American jazz composer George Gershwin (1898-1937). Fans of each others music, Gershwin suggested he’d like to study with Ravel. Ravel asked “Why should you become a second-rate Ravel, when you are a first-rate Gershwin”. Then, Ravel asked how much money Gershwin made. Gershwin told him, and Ravel suggested that perhaps he should study under Gershwin. This may or may not have happened, but if it did, it was before Ravel composed Bolero, which made him quite wealthy indeed.
No work of Ravel’s is more known or loved than Bolero. Strongly influenced by the Spanish music his mother shared with him as a child, Bolero is one of the most performed works in all classical music. Ravel himself disliked the piece.
In 1932, in an accident while riding in a taxi, Ravel suffered a blow to the head. It affected his ability to think and work. In 1937, he had an operation on his brain, and did not survive. He left behind a remarkable body of work. No one else’s music sounds like Ravel’s.
4. WATCH AND LISTEN: Bolero, probably his best known work.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KK23BhEQVyUorhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igWt_WnqmUw
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LESSON # 10:
1. WATCH AND LISTEN: Le Tambeau de Couperin.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWgOyIkOm2Eorhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVxKp9ql3jM
2. WATCH AND LISTEN: The String Quartet in F Major.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1ghYW3pQ90orhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGo_nGA58O0
3. WATCH AND LISTEN: Pavanne of the Death of a Childhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKkeDqJBlK8or on piano:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-63vYjXJd4
4. WATCH AND LISTEN: The great pianist Richter plays Jeux d'eau, a piano piece that led the way into 20th century music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cumoVX7x3Zo
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