

The music of Claude Debussy will leave you breathless. These techniques marked a departure from conventional musical writing styles of the era and helped bring about a new era of modern classical music. He also experimented with modal scales, creating at times an ethereal atmosphere.įinally, Debussy’s exploration with tonality extended into his use of note clusters, whole tone scales as well as pentatonic scales to explore complex relationships between tone color and harmonic structure. He also added syncopation to his melodies to lend them a more exotic sound.ĭebussy altered the traditional use of harmony, creating a sense of tonal flux in which he constantly shifted between key signatures and non-traditional chord progressions. He used off-beat accents and displaced downbeats to create a sense of flow and ambiguity. His use of rhythm, harmony, and tonality was especially groundbreaking.ĭebussy used rhythm to introduce new structures that alternated between metric regularity and metric freedom. Innovative Use of Rhythm, Harmony and TonalityĬlaude Debussy was an innovative figure in music who changed the landscape of modern classical music. As a result, his work has been praised for being able to effectively capture beauty and intensity through sound alone. He also employed unorthodox scales such as whole-tone and pentatonic scales which created unique musical textures that had never been heard before.ĭebussy’s music has been described as an experience that captures many sensations such as sadness, nostalgia, excitement, anticipation and more. His use of leitmotifs and chromaticism injected emotion into his pieces while still maintaining their structural integrity.

He was adept at blending different musical styles like those of other French composers with those of Wagner or Chopin. By age eleven, he had enrolled in the conservatory of music in Paris, where he excelled in multiple instruments and composition.ĭebussy’s works incorporated a remarkable range of sounds-from tinkling bells to rolling thunder-and he is credited with introducing new approaches to harmony, rhythm, texture, and form. Born in 1862, Debussy was an extraordinarily gifted child and started playing the piano at age seven. Earlier, they released Original Music from The Sea Within (2018) and Bring It to Our Senses (2017).Claude Debussy was a French composer and music critic who was at the forefront of the impressionist movement in music. It is the third album that Voetvolk releases on Rotkat Records. Piano Works Debussy is a co-production by Voetvolk and Claire Chevallier. Together, they seek the space between the notes in the compositions of Debussy. It is a duet between dancer Lisbeth Gruwez and pianist Claire Chevallier. The CD was released on the occasion of the performance Piano Works Debussy by the dance company Voetvolk. With the warm, woody and harmonic sound of her Erard piano from 1920, the pianist brings the work of Claude Debussy back to life in an inimitable way. Chevallier thus pays tribute to Debussy as a rebel and challenger among the steady composers, dwelling on his different periods. She exposes the great contrasts in Debussy's piano textures, ranging from a very rich sound in his Estampes to the finesse of his Elégie. With Piano Works Debussy, the French pianist Claire Chevallier places the work of Claude Debussy in a new light: modern and enormously diverse.
