04.30.07
Debussy
The more I read Debussy’s thoughts and spend time in Paris the more I become convinced that Debussy and his music depended on time and place.
Thumbnail image below, Debussy with daughter Chouchou outside the house at 24 Courtyard Bois du Bologne, in 1905. Picture taken from display at Debussy Museum, St Germain en-Laye by Anthony Tobin.
Any art is dependent on time and place, on influences and inspiration. But Debussy lived in a unique turning point in history, when art and music really took on new directions. The movement known as DADA, electricity, and the rewards of the industrial revolution were beginning to shape modern life. Railways enabled travel and cars were beginning to take over modern life. Paris was arguably at its pinnacle between 1870-1914, when artists from Europe, Argentina, and the world made Paris the center of artistic ideas and innovation. Motion pictures were first shown in Paris for a paying audience by Louis Lumiere in 1895 and forever changed the notion of time, space, image, and reality. The relation between imagination and reality, something Debussy explore, was in the air in Paris.
The reinterpretation of expression and meaning, the use of the elements of light, line, shape, color, and in the case of music, rhythym pitch and tonality, had far reaching consequences. The seeds of Debussy’s style were apparent even in the early Arabesques. His figuration, planed textures, and even a hint of his tonal (and non-tonal) coloring were implied. As he met more artists, had more varied experiences, and cultivated his inner world of imagination and reflection, his art progressed.
By the time he moved to Ave. Bois du Bologne (Ave Foch in 1905, all he needed was his private garden across from the Park Bois du Bologne and next to a rail line. The noisy avenue was off in the distance, hidden from his study, yet in his consciousness. The birth and life of his daughter Chou-chou was the spark he needed to move his inspiration further, enabling the creation of his most fanciful and abstract works. Works which forever changed the course of the Western Classical Tradition.
Works such as the Preludes Bk II, Images Book II, the Etudes, and the Fall of the House of Usher.
More later.
