This was really interesting. I also love Debussy and often wondered how he created such glorious atmospheres. I’d love a similar treatment of Delius, on hearing the first cuckoo in Spring, if you are looking for ideas. Thank you Professor!
Though Voiles is obviously rooted in Debussy's explorations in the structure of the whole tone scale this piece in particular stands out to me as being able to convey the split brain activity of the composer more than any of his other works. It imparts the sense that there is something being lost, some kind of imposing and unavoidable sadness is approaching at the fruition of that endeavor, while at the same time there is something else, something smaller, more petite, something unaware, something ignorant, something hopeful is just starting to develop in another area. There is a sense of bliss within augmented structures but there is also a lingering aroma of wilful ignorance, an awareness that though we are here now we won't always be. It is the parent beaming at the child while simultaneously recognizing that this is my replacement, the inner ghost of Christmas future telling you to get busy. Voiles can be translated into English as either sails or veils. I lean heavily toward believing his intended meaning was the latter. On another level, what it brings to my mind is 2001 A Space Odyssey. The moments when it becomes clear that, yes, we have advanced a long way but we have come just far enough to realize that we have a much longer path ahead of us than we knew before we advanced; we took one step only to realize that we have endless steps should we pursue that direction, ie we are nowhere near as near as we had thought we were, our step towards the thing only brought us farther away from the thing we had intended to advance upon. I'm near certain that he knew what he was doing with this work. Thank you for bringing it to everyone's attention with such a good in-depth video. I think Voiles is, in a nutshell, a perfect theme for the generations now experiencing COVID.
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Beautifully explained. I've loved Debussy's music since I was a child, but could never put my finger on why. And I never understood how the whole tone scale worked until now. Thank you.
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I really liked the video and would really like to see some more about Debussy and his harmony and style of composition. Thank you so much for your great videos!
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The arabesques are my favourites , love all his work . The Clarinet rhapsody is fantastic. I discovered Debussy via django Reinhardt & french music . . Apparently his teachers said what your doing is wrong but had to admit it sounded good . beautiful music , Thank you Gareth .
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I recently came across Music Matters quite by accident, and am overwhelmed! So much expert commentary on so many aspects of music. I compliment you, Gareth Green, on these delightful videos. I've just been through the video on Debussy and the whole tone scale - fascinating! Even the title of the piece is ambiguous: le voile (masculine) means the veil, whereas la voile (feminine) means the sail. I feel sure that Debussy intended this, omitting the artlice from the title of the piece. I shall work my way through as many of your videos as I can, adding a new dimension to my piano and trumpet playing. Thank you!
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If you would make similar videos on jazz composition, it would greatly help with our understanding of how Jazz evolved in the C20th and give us a better appreciation of the contribution of the great innovators and their seminal works.
For sure. A lot of people think Charlie Parker and John Coltrane just picked up a horn one day and started playing. They were incredibly dedicated students and I've heard that Parker and others were very interested in Debussy et. al.
Lately I have been intrigued about the fact that proportionate and symmetrical intervals are considered so dissonant except for the octave. An octave is a perfect doubling and it is the most consonant sound after unison. But half an octave is an dim5 which is considered really dissonant. Same for augmented or diminished chords. A major third is considered really consonant but 2 major thirds stacked is considered pretty dissonant even though they fit nicely into the octave. Just like the whole tone scale. Perfectly splits the octave in 6 equal parts yet sounds pretty dissonant. But if you stack a perfect consonant like a 5th or 4th it doesn’t fit the octave and you get major 2nd dissonances yet it sounds really consonant.
The problem with thinking in half/double is that the scale is logarithmic. "Half" an octave is sqrt(2) (~1.414), so midway between 10/7 (~1.428) and 7/5 (1.4). The major third is 14 cents sharp in 12 equal, putting it in an odd spot when stacking.
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Thank you! I found this was very interesting. I Also appreciated your teaching Style-- without knowing anything pertaining to your background you very much sounded like a college professor of music and music history. I will have to check out other content you have posted. So again, Thank you for your contributions and work. Blessings
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That was, indeed, interesting. Thank you. (I got a bit of a shock when I discovered, just now, that that piece is already over 100 years old!) When I was a teenager, I thought Bach was everything (I still do!) and I looked down my nose at Debussy. To me, he was simple, and facile, and, occasionally, discordant. Now that I am older, I am wiser!
Debussy and Ravel are 2 of my faves! I love knowing this things, although I'm still young and can barely play piano, but I do understand some of what you've said... but this is just utterly amazing!
Thank you so much for making this video! Debussy and Ravel are my absolute favourite composers! The chords are so rich, yet simple and dissonantly consonant, somehow, particularly in Debussy's 'Images,' or my personal favourite at the moment, Ravel's 'Le tombeau de Couperin'
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Interesting talk... thanks... Took me a while to warm to Debussy. But now I know how he composed, he was very clever. Actually a genius. I always liken his music as looking at a 19th century country scene through a sepia filter. Kind of difficult to realise at first. But very romantic and evocative...
Green for go! I just wish you had got to me at eight rather than eighty. I have always called Debussy Claude the Chord. Now I know so much more about his composing style. Thank you.
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@@MusicMattersGB just one note: "Voiles" can both mean "Sails" and "Veils". i'm not sure which one Debussy meant/intended. if i had to guess i'd say it's probably Veils.
@@MusicMattersGB it's quite possible, it's Debussy after all. ; ) i loved the example of the F# chord after the C chord. it 'breaks' music theory while still sounding wonderful.
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Fascinating Debussy, exploring new harmonic possibilities! I worked on his Prelude the Sunken Cathedral (la cathédrale engloutie) where he uses modal harmony. Thank you for this analysis!
Interesting video. My analytical skills are near nought. I don't study. But videos like this interest me. It make me think of another one I saw on Messiaen's modes of limited transposition. Maybe that idea was inspired, in part, by hearing Debussy's use of the whole tone scale in C.
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The whole tone scale works very well for such a style, and renders itself perfectly to the French language. French speakers get more results by asking for something indirectly than they do directly. It is also interesting to note that in this composition and some of his other similar piano works, Debussy places the title at the very end of the piece. The reason may be is that he doesn't want to create a predefined image of what the title may infer according to the music that will follow. This too, is also indirect way of telling a story. The listener must allow his mind to "paint the picture" of what he hears, without giving the surprise away at the beginning.
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As the composers gets older, the more horizons they explore and cover. I always pretty bummed out that their latter works adds more and more pages to play like from ten pages to hundred pages long.Its ridiculous but challeging and fascinating.
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Modes of limited transposition! Good stuff. Did you know that the chromatic harp has two sets of strings tuned in whole-note scales a semi-tone apart? Beyond me how anyone learns to play it. Beautiful inspiring performance of the Debussy.
Not sure if this is a joke or not 😅 two whole-tone scales a semi tone apart is standard 12tone. Guitar frets technically are the same thing; every other note is a note in the same whole time scale
@@YeahBoy1019 No it is not a joke. The chromatic harp has two sets of strings, one for the right hand and one for the left hand. They are tuned in whole tone scales a semitone apart.
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Whole tone scales starting on C and Bb would give you the same whole tone scale. One starting on C and another starting on B would give you both the possible transpositions.
@@MusicMattersGB This would ne great :). Maybe you could analyse the hypnotic beginning of une barque sur l'ocean one of my favorite pieces by Ravel or maybe Ondine :). Thanks!
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The seismically influential New York pop genius Laura Nyro was very influenced by Debussy, and she saw music in colors. The best example is probably her incredibly beautiful song Upstairs by a Chinese Lamp (1970) - gorgeous melodies, evocative, moody, space, exotica, etc.
Great video! Love the sound of the whole tone scale. Always makes me think of the video game Majoras Mask. If u want to see some cool whole tone imagery look into that games artwork
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Django Reindhart composed a song that has that exact same Debussy progression and for the life of me I couldn't figure it out and now...here is the explanation.
Probably my favorite composer and my favorite time period. This is also the beginning of jazz… Arpeggiating the whole tone scale we get stacked major 3rds which was often used by Charlie Parker and Miles Davis and I’m sure many others. Would love to see more Debussy videos. Thank you.
Jazz didn't arise from a breakdown in tonality. It embraced Western harmony and spiced it up with swing rhythm and blue notes, at least in the early days.
Thank you very much! Could you possibly record the major third voicings from 8:40 in this video, with the octave bass, and the "constant" Bb as you mentioned? Thank You!
I'm jazz fanatic. So, it's not at all a stretch for me to get into a cat like Debussy. What he does with tonality captivates me. Moreover, he seems to accomplish that ambiguity using tertiary textures. I've heard a few pieces where he uses quartals
If you already know what whole tone scales are and why there are only two of them, you can skip ahead to 7:40 for the excellent explanation of how Debussy uses whole tone scales in Voiles.
Thank you for your explanation, which I find very clear. Although you spend some words on the musical revolution at the turn of the century, I miss the quintessence of it. Debussy lived at a time when the classical music, based on melodies fitting into a scale or a key was running out of steam and was rapidly replaced by music based on chord progressions. 99,99% of 20th century compositions (Jazz, Pop, Rock, Blues, Folk) are based on chord schemes instead of well fitting into a scale or a key. 20th century music uses the chords more freely than before. Their composers feel free to use chords like C and Fsharp together in one composition (which, on the contrary, you contribute to Debussy, without giving an example of it. Besides, in the given piece this is clearly impossible since in a whole note scale composition both chords are non-existing as you rightfully mention. Only augmented chords are possible. But this aside) Composers of that time, like Gerswin, Ravel and Debussy noted this change in the public interest and tried to do their best to keep their compositions refreshing. Gershwin started to compose Porgy and Bess on a chordscheme-base and his non-chordscheme Rhapsody in F is played far less. Ravel is most famous for his chord.scheme-based Boléro and again his non-scheme-based compositions are almost forgotten compared to the Boléro. And Debussy stayed in the chord-scheme-less compositions, but tried to find it exciting by using a largely unknown whole note scale. This “Voiles” can be seen as one of the many struggles by the 19-20th century composers to compete with the chord-scheme-music, that by that time, was taking the musical scene over like a tsunami.
Many truths there. My reference to C major/ F# major was merely an example of non-functional harmony. We also have to take into account the other significant innovations of the time, such as Serialism and the liberation of all 12 chromatic notes of the scale, Neoclassicism and the reworking of Baroque & Classical ideas in a new harmonic context.
@@MusicMattersGB Quite right. The innovations you mention were some of the numerous historically interesting but largely unsuccessful ways by which some 19th-20th century composers tried to modernize a bygoing era, while slowly but steadily losing ground against for instance jazzbands and ragtime piano players who had found a more widely appealing new way of making modern music, not based on clever and ingenious, scales and intervals but on polyphonic melodies within a repetitive chord scheme, that started a truly revolutionary development that turned out to become the brick and mortar of 99,99% of 20th century music.
That’s certainly true of popular music but, whether or not one likes Serial or Neoclassical music, they grew to become substantial movements in twentieth century music that still make a massive impact today.
@@MusicMattersGB It is just what you call "substantial movements" and "a massive impact". For me as a doctor in early modern history, it is just a footnote. But I respect other opinions as well.
Much depends on where one’s musical life is focused. For others, these would be seen as the mainstream. For me, it’s important to recognise the significance of the various threads in as balanced a way as possible so we don’t end up with too many musicians standing in particular camps.
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This was really interesting. I also love Debussy and often wondered how he created such glorious atmospheres. I’d love a similar treatment of Delius, on hearing the first cuckoo in Spring, if you are looking for ideas. Thank you Professor!
Delius lived in my home town !
Great music .
Bradford?
Yes , Bradford . West Yorkshire .
😀
Yes, Debussy has always been my favorite too! His classical brand has always seemed so fresh and exciting.
Though Voiles is obviously rooted in Debussy's explorations in the structure of the whole tone scale this piece in particular stands out to me as being able to convey the split brain activity of the composer more than any of his other works. It imparts the sense that there is something being lost, some kind of imposing and unavoidable sadness is approaching at the fruition of that endeavor, while at the same time there is something else, something smaller, more petite, something unaware, something ignorant, something hopeful is just starting to develop in another area. There is a sense of bliss within augmented structures but there is also a lingering aroma of wilful ignorance, an awareness that though we are here now we won't always be. It is the parent beaming at the child while simultaneously recognizing that this is my replacement, the inner ghost of Christmas future telling you to get busy. Voiles can be translated into English as either sails or veils. I lean heavily toward believing his intended meaning was the latter. On another level, what it brings to my mind is 2001 A Space Odyssey. The moments when it becomes clear that, yes, we have advanced a long way but we have come just far enough to realize that we have a much longer path ahead of us than we knew before we advanced; we took one step only to realize that we have endless steps should we pursue that direction, ie we are nowhere near as near as we had thought we were, our step towards the thing only brought us farther away from the thing we had intended to advance upon. I'm near certain that he knew what he was doing with this work. Thank you for bringing it to everyone's attention with such a good in-depth video. I think Voiles is, in a nutshell, a perfect theme for the generations now experiencing COVID.
Great reflection. Thank you.
Again another gem of music education. Thank you Gareth. Just beautifull explained.
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Beautifully explained. I've loved Debussy's music since I was a child, but could never put my finger on why. And I never understood how the whole tone scale worked until now. Thank you.
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Your channel should be a must watch for all music majors.
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I really liked the video and would really like to see some more about Debussy and his harmony and style of composition.
Thank you so much for your great videos!
A pleasure
Thank you! I love Debussy and appreciated your insights on this piece..
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Landed on this via Rick Beato's YT channel. What an engaging and lucid explanation. Subscribed!
That’s great. Welcome!
Would love more Debussy analysis! What glorious Music this man created!
It’s absolutely fabulous
Super - as always; utter joy and window into the impressionistic soundscape of a great composer. Thank you Gareth.
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You explain things so concisely and with such involvement. You are a treasure. My thanks...
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The arabesques are my favourites , love all his work . The Clarinet rhapsody is fantastic. I discovered Debussy via django Reinhardt & french music .
. Apparently his teachers said what your doing is wrong but had to admit it sounded good . beautiful music ,
Thank you Gareth .
A pleasure.
Debussy always one of my favorite composer great post Thank You !!!
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I am not a trained musician but this was so clearly explained with such enthusiasm that I feel enormously well informed now.
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He has always been my favorite Composer! Thank you for this! It makes sense to me now why he has stood out from the pack for me.
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Excellent video. Thanks!
A pleasure
Is quite a rare thing to assist to a class where the teacher is teaching his favorite subject. This is one of the cases.
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Thanks to this video, I learned something new today. It was a good day.
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I recently came across Music Matters quite by accident, and am overwhelmed! So much expert commentary on so many aspects of music. I compliment you, Gareth Green, on these delightful videos.
I've just been through the video on Debussy and the whole tone scale - fascinating! Even the title of the piece is ambiguous: le voile (masculine) means the veil, whereas la voile (feminine) means the sail. I feel sure that Debussy intended this, omitting the artlice from the title of the piece.
I shall work my way through as many of your videos as I can, adding a new dimension to my piano and trumpet playing. Thank you!
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Thank you Gareth for such a clear explanation of whole tone scales and how they fit into Debussy’s compositional style.
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Amazingly wonderful Sir.
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Really interesting and entertaining, thank you!
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Thank you for your wonderfully clear explanations. This can change people's lives.
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lovely and clear explanation, thank you
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Major thirds are fantastic, aren’t they? Such a bright sparkle.
Absolutely
Very helpful analysis and tips how to make the Whole Tone Scale sound more „smooth“. Thank you!
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Thank you for this straight-forward, easy to understand, illumination of the elements. You have sparked my imagination.
A pleasure. Enjoy!
If you would make similar videos on jazz composition, it would greatly help with our understanding of how Jazz evolved in the C20th and give us a better appreciation of the contribution of the great innovators and their seminal works.
😀
For sure. A lot of people think Charlie Parker and John Coltrane just picked up a horn one day and started playing. They were incredibly dedicated students and I've heard that Parker and others were very interested in Debussy et. al.
That’s true
Debussy certainly influenced Django Reinhardt jazz playing as like other late 19th century composers such as Fauré
😀
Lately I have been intrigued about the fact that proportionate and symmetrical intervals are considered so dissonant except for the octave. An octave is a perfect doubling and it is the most consonant sound after unison. But half an octave is an dim5 which is considered really dissonant. Same for augmented or diminished chords. A major third is considered really consonant but 2 major thirds stacked is considered pretty dissonant even though they fit nicely into the octave. Just like the whole
tone scale. Perfectly splits the octave in 6 equal parts yet sounds pretty dissonant.
But if you stack a perfect consonant like a 5th or 4th it doesn’t fit the octave and you get major 2nd dissonances yet it sounds really consonant.
Consonance and dissonance is a really interesting topic.
The problem with thinking in half/double is that the scale is logarithmic. "Half" an octave is sqrt(2) (~1.414), so midway between 10/7 (~1.428) and 7/5 (1.4). The major third is 14 cents sharp in 12 equal, putting it in an odd spot when stacking.
😀
This piece was featured in ABRSM's Grade 8 Piano Exam 2019-2020 syllabus and I'm so glad I have a copy of it! I think it's a wonderful piece.
Yes. It’s a gorgeous piece.
Absolutely fantastic - your enthusiasm shines
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Thank you! I found this was very interesting. I Also appreciated your teaching Style-- without knowing anything pertaining to your background you very much sounded like a college professor of music and music history. I will have to check out other content you have posted. So again, Thank you for your contributions and work. Blessings
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Highly skillfull analysis Gareth, and genious composition coming together. Thank You
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This video was so informative. Thank you!
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Wow! Even I who know nothing about music understood and enjoyed this very much. Thank you : )
A pleasure
Thanks a lot. Great teaching. Rgrds from Sweden🇸🇪❤️🇸🇪
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I really enjoy your lessons! So clear and insightful!
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That was, indeed, interesting. Thank you. (I got a bit of a shock when I discovered, just now, that that piece is already over 100 years old!) When I was a teenager, I thought Bach was everything (I still do!) and I looked down my nose at Debussy. To me, he was simple, and facile, and, occasionally, discordant. Now that I am older, I am wiser!
Yes, the wisdom acquired as the years pass!
Debussy and Ravel are 2 of my faves! I love knowing this things, although I'm still young and can barely play piano, but I do understand some of what you've said... but this is just utterly amazing!
That’s brilliant
I love Debussy so bad! Thank you very much for the interesting explanation! I love the parts when you're singing rather than talking..
😀
Thank you so much for making this video! Debussy and Ravel are my absolute favourite composers! The chords are so rich, yet simple and dissonantly consonant, somehow, particularly in Debussy's 'Images,' or my personal favourite at the moment, Ravel's 'Le tombeau de Couperin'
Fabulous music.
Great class! Thank you for making this!
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A BEAUTIFUL presentation, this! CHEERS!
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Interesting talk... thanks... Took me a while to warm to Debussy. But now I know how he composed, he was very clever. Actually a genius. I always liken his music as looking at a 19th century country scene through a sepia filter. Kind of difficult to realise at first. But very romantic and evocative...
Wonderful music
Thank you kindly.
Thanks for your support
Debussy's name is ahead of his time.
😀
Green for go! I just wish you had got to me at eight rather than eighty. I have always called Debussy Claude the Chord. Now I know so much more about his composing style. Thank you.
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Love the whole tone scale, Debussy has the groove
Yes it’s a fabulous scale to work with
Wonderful video . . . Thankyou.
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beautiful!!
It’s wonderful music
"tonal crisis". i liked that ! : )
thank you, another great video !
A pleasure
@@MusicMattersGB just one note:
"Voiles" can both mean "Sails" and "Veils".
i'm not sure which one Debussy meant/intended.
if i had to guess i'd say it's probably Veils.
That’s true. Possibly he meant both?
@@MusicMattersGB it's quite possible, it's Debussy after all. ; )
i loved the example of the F# chord after the C chord.
it 'breaks' music theory while still sounding wonderful.
It’s fabulous. I agree
So interesting to learn.
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@@MusicMattersGB I have already gone over the course contents of your website. I ' ve been searching for a presentation like this.
😀
Fascinating Debussy, exploring new harmonic possibilities! I worked on his Prelude the Sunken Cathedral (la cathédrale engloutie) where he uses modal harmony. Thank you for this analysis!
A pleasure. Those Debussy Preludes are amazing.
Interesting video. My analytical skills are near nought. I don't study. But videos like this interest me. It make me think of another one I saw on Messiaen's modes of limited transposition. Maybe that idea was inspired, in part, by hearing Debussy's use of the whole tone scale in C.
There’s a clear link there.
Fascinating. Love these videos. Thank you.
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Debussy is definitely my favorite composer.
Excellent
@@MusicMattersGB Thanks for the amazing content!
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Great! thank you
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The whole tone scale works very well for such a style, and renders itself perfectly to the French language. French speakers get more results by asking for something indirectly than they do directly.
It is also interesting to note that in this composition and some of his other similar piano works, Debussy places the title at the very end of the piece. The reason may be is that he doesn't want to create a predefined image of what the title may infer according to the music that will follow. This too, is also indirect way of telling a story. The listener must allow his mind to "paint the picture" of what he hears, without giving the surprise away at the beginning.
Absolutely
Not to my knowledge
Thank you so much
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Great explanation. It grabs your attention, hold on what's this.
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As the composers gets older, the more horizons they explore and cover. I always pretty bummed out that their latter works adds more and more pages to play like from ten pages to hundred pages long.Its ridiculous but challeging and fascinating.
It’s fascinating to see how composers develop
well explained
Thanks
Yes I love Debussy.
Wonderful
really good stuff. I'd love to hear you discuss the middle section!
Another day….!
Thank you. Yes, I also find this quite interesting,
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Modes of limited transposition! Good stuff. Did you know that the chromatic harp has two sets of strings tuned in whole-note scales a semi-tone apart? Beyond me how anyone learns to play it. Beautiful inspiring performance of the Debussy.
Thanks
Not sure if this is a joke or not 😅 two whole-tone scales a semi tone apart is standard 12tone. Guitar frets technically are the same thing; every other note is a note in the same whole time scale
😀
@@YeahBoy1019 No it is not a joke. The chromatic harp has two sets of strings, one for the right hand and one for the left hand. They are tuned in whole tone scales a semitone apart.
It might have something to do with alternating picking hands between notes.
Great lesson, thanks for sharing.
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very good !
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Very well explained! 👍
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Thanks for the good lesson!
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We all love it in the debussy.
😀
If you think of it as C, and Bb, you get two whole tone scales that relate directly to the Circle Of Fifths.
Whole tone scales starting on C and Bb would give you the same whole tone scale. One starting on C and another starting on B would give you both the possible transpositions.
Great video :D. Do you plan making one for Ravel's style? This would be great :).
We could do Ravel
@@MusicMattersGB This would ne great :). Maybe you could analyse the hypnotic beginning of une barque sur l'ocean one of my favorite pieces by Ravel or maybe Ondine :). Thanks!
excellent, thank you.
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I’m here because I like King Crimson and Debussy, both using the whole tone scales.
Brilliant
Super!!
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Cool!!!
😀
It’s the intro to So What!
😀
The seismically influential New York pop genius Laura Nyro was very influenced by Debussy, and she saw music in colors. The best example is probably her incredibly beautiful song Upstairs by a Chinese Lamp (1970) - gorgeous melodies, evocative, moody, space, exotica, etc.
Interesting
Great video! Love the sound of the whole tone scale. Always makes me think of the video game Majoras Mask. If u want to see some cool whole tone imagery look into that games artwork
Interesting thought.
i loved this video!!
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I would love to have you do an analysis of the composition style of Frederick Delius.
Okay
Very interesting thank you.
Thanks for your support.
Django Reindhart composed a song that has that exact same Debussy progression and for the life of me I couldn't figure it out and now...here is the explanation.
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Never mind the whole tone scale, we can’t even find diminished chords in music anymore. How did our pallet ever become so bland... sad 😢
That’s certainly true in some styles.
@@Civilizashum 😂
The Bew C is my favorite composer
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Probably my favorite composer and my favorite time period.
This is also the beginning of jazz…
Arpeggiating the whole tone scale we get stacked major 3rds which was often used by Charlie Parker and Miles Davis and I’m sure many others.
Would love to see more Debussy videos.
Thank you.
That’s an interesting parallel
Voiles in french, depending on the gender, could also mean veil, which I think is a much better way of thinking of the piece.
Yes. There is discussion about that possibility in various books.
Have you heard of Slominsky's thesaurus of scales and melodic patterns.
Slominsky is interesting on various topics, including pandiatonicism.
Jazz didn't arise from a breakdown in tonality. It embraced Western harmony and spiced it up with swing rhythm and blue notes, at least in the early days.
Completely agree.
Excellent video!!! I love Allan Holdsworth's use of whole tone scale but this is a bit less esoteric.
Good parallel
Thank you very much! Could you possibly record the major third voicings from 8:40 in this video, with the octave bass, and the "constant" Bb as you mentioned? Thank You!
You could hear them on a recording of the piece
(12:03) lindo
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I'm jazz fanatic. So, it's not at all a stretch for me to get into a cat like Debussy. What he does with tonality captivates me. Moreover, he seems to accomplish that ambiguity using tertiary textures. I've heard a few pieces where he uses quartals
Fascinating musical language
If you already know what whole tone scales are and why there are only two of them, you can skip ahead to 7:40 for the excellent explanation of how Debussy uses whole tone scales in Voiles.
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Tritone substitution. Common in jazz
It is
Thank you for your explanation, which I find very clear. Although you spend some words on the musical revolution at the turn of the century, I miss the quintessence of it. Debussy lived at a time when the classical music, based on melodies fitting into a scale or a key was running out of steam and was rapidly replaced by music based on chord progressions. 99,99% of 20th century compositions (Jazz, Pop, Rock, Blues, Folk) are based on chord schemes instead of well fitting into a scale or a key. 20th century music uses the chords more freely than before. Their composers feel free to use chords like C and Fsharp together in one composition (which, on the contrary, you contribute to Debussy, without giving an example of it. Besides, in the given piece this is clearly impossible since in a whole note scale composition both chords are non-existing as you rightfully mention. Only augmented chords are possible. But this aside) Composers of that time, like Gerswin, Ravel and Debussy noted this change in the public interest and tried to do their best to keep their compositions refreshing. Gershwin started to compose Porgy and Bess on a chordscheme-base and his non-chordscheme Rhapsody in F is played far less. Ravel is most famous for his chord.scheme-based Boléro and again his non-scheme-based compositions are almost forgotten compared to the Boléro. And Debussy stayed in the chord-scheme-less compositions, but tried to find it exciting by using a largely unknown whole note scale. This “Voiles” can be seen as one of the many struggles by the 19-20th century composers to compete with the chord-scheme-music, that by that time, was taking the musical scene over like a tsunami.
Many truths there. My reference to C major/ F# major was merely an example of non-functional harmony. We also have to take into account the other significant innovations of the time, such as Serialism and the liberation of all 12 chromatic notes of the scale, Neoclassicism and the reworking of Baroque & Classical ideas in a new harmonic context.
@@MusicMattersGB Quite right. The innovations you mention were some of the numerous historically interesting but largely unsuccessful ways by which some 19th-20th century composers tried to modernize a bygoing era, while slowly but steadily losing ground against for instance jazzbands and ragtime piano players who had found a more widely appealing new way of making modern music, not based on clever and ingenious, scales and intervals but on polyphonic melodies within a repetitive chord scheme, that started a truly revolutionary development that turned out to become the brick and mortar of 99,99% of 20th century music.
That’s certainly true of popular music but, whether or not one likes Serial or Neoclassical music, they grew to become substantial movements in twentieth century music that still make a massive impact today.
@@MusicMattersGB It is just what you call "substantial movements" and "a massive impact". For me as a doctor in early modern history, it is just a footnote. But I respect other opinions as well.
Much depends on where one’s musical life is focused. For others, these would be seen as the mainstream. For me, it’s important to recognise the significance of the various threads in as balanced a way as possible so we don’t end up with too many musicians standing in particular camps.
I consider Debussy, Dukas, & Ravel to be the rainbow composers--very colorful and very beautiful.
Absolutely