Scholarly Pursuits: Debussy's Sarabande

So I'm starting a little sub-series on this blog, where I will be posting about pieces of music and composers studied in my 20th century music history class.  I've jokingly decided to label it "Scholarly Pursuits"; it's not really a scholarly endeavor, but more an opportunity to record personal reactions to listening and ideas discussed in class.  However...it's for school, right?  That counts as a scholarly effort :)  I'm starting with Debussy's second Sarabande, which is in a set of pieces titled "Pour le Piano".

At the point in his life when writing this Sarabande, Debussy experimented with mixing conventional rules and structure with his new ideas about composing music that focused on pleasure and a state of being.  The Sarabande is a beginning step down this new path:  the convergence of traditional form and tonal expectations with a new style of voice leading.  In years before, motion and development were felt in music through harmonic development and a relationship with the tonic.  Tense digressions and resolutions back to I were the primary expression of emotion.  Debussy didn't wish to get rid of the tonic, but the keys in which he wrote are no longer strongly tonicized because of a lack of leading tone and half step motion.  Motion is no longer created through the means of resolving dissonances and tension in traditional harmonic motion.  Because dissonances are treated as consonances, no firm sense of harmonic resolution is necessary.

Debussy believed music was not "the expression of a feeling, it is the feeling itself."  Perhaps this explains the atmospheric quality of his works, the sense that they simply exist.  Each chord looks neither to its origins or its future, but is heard fully in the moment of its being.  So, if tonality is no longer a driving sense of motion, where does the motion originate?  In listening to the Sarabande, I would say it comes from the rhythm, pacing, and expanse between the voices.  There are definite steps forward and points of arrival, with recovery from climactic moments.

This Sarabande turns my mind to the act of wandering; not aimlessly or listlessly, but rather a constant exploration of something new.  Each turn of the head and opening of the ear bears witness to a new sight and sound, something which excites the senses and creates a desire to move forward and discover more.  This is where the emotion and expression in the music comes from.  As Debussy stated, it is the music.  It is not our personal emotion that drives everything onward, but the need to continue witnessing the music and emotion that exists outside of ourselves as it unfolds before us.

I chose to post these photographs that I took in Basel, Switzerland to try and illustrate something I find powerful about Debussy's works, which is their ability to make you notice more about yourself and your surroundings.  His music creates a story and atmosphere.  Look at these photographs in silence, then look at them while listening (find other recordings, too) to the Sarabande.  How does the story change?  How does your perception of the scene change?  We're assigned listening exercises for class to teach us the importance of actually taking time to experience a piece of music.  By focusing all of our energy on listening (or reading a poem, or looking at a piece of art), we walk away with a heightened sense of awareness.  Suddenly we see, feel, hear, experience more.  And I think this is our ultimate goal as musicians and artists - to strive to experience our surroundings in ever greater depth, to respond and react, and then to share the outcome with others.  It's easy to listen to the Sarabande in passing because it's short and goes by quickly.  The piece encourages us to take time to notice, to observe; it is a beautiful paradox that the simplicity of this experience can make us aware of so much.