Fin de Siecle
End of a Century
End of an Era
Late 19th Century & early 20th
• Cultural center of Europe is Paris.
• Conflict between the German-Italian style of
music & the French style.
• Eventually the French tradition would become
more important & influence music in Europe.
• The musical culture of Europe was closely
connected to other arts, particularly painting &
literature.
• Impressionism had not only changed the art
world but it would influence music too.
• Impressionist artists sought to capture the
visual impression of their subject matter.
• They were concerned with the way light
played on an object.
• Mood & atmosphere became important in their
works; nature was their inspiration.
• Symbolist poets also influenced music.
• These poets experimented with rhythm,
sound, & the clustering of images to suggest
moods or emotions.
• Fin de siecle music & art were characterized
by experimentation & change.
Characteristics
• Emphasized mood & atmosphere
• Nature is main source of inspiration
• Fragile & decorative beauty
• Sensuous tone colors
• Subdued atmosphere
• Elegance & refinement
(It cast off the more pompous, heavy, & serious
quality of the German tradition that was heard
in the works of Wagner.)
Claude Debussy
1862-1918
“In an age when airplanes fly in the sky, music
cannot stay the same.”
• Debussy studied at the Paris Conservatory
where he received traditional training in late
romantic style.
• He used much of this in his early works, but
eventually rejected much of what he was
taught.
• He rejected the strict tonality of the Germanic
tradition
• According the Debussy the primary goal of
music was to give pleasure & to appeal to the
senses.
Debussy’s Style
• His music is considered to be program music
(not that it tries to tell a story though.)
• Music tries to create a mood or atmosphere to
correspond to the subject.
• He was the first European composer to break
with the old system of tonality.
• His music is organized around sound patterns.
• Spacing of notes were all the same, so the
music was not in any specific key.
Main influences were
Chopin & Liszt
Mussorgsky
Exotic influences of the music of the South Sea
Islands (Bali & Java.)
Literature, particularly the symbolist poet
Stephane Mallarme
 Sound & rhythmic patterns of the French
language.
Debussy’s Works
NO symphonies or concertos
Wrote mostly for piano; his early works are nonImpressionistic
Piano works include
• Clair de lune (“Moonlight”) written in 1890
• Suite Bergamasque (1893)
• Pour le Piano (1901) piano suite
Orchestral works include
• Prelude a l’apres-midi d’un faune (1894)
“Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun”
• Nocturnes (3; 1894)
– Nuages (Clouds)
– Fetes (Festivals)
– Sirenes (Sirens; from Greek mythology)
• La Mer (The Sea; 1905)
These are called “symphonic sketches.”
String Quartet/chamber music
• 1893: Quartet in G Minor for strings
Opera (1)
• Pelleas et Melisande
Incidental music & art songs from poems.
First to incorporate titles.
Prelude a l’apres-midi d’un Faune
“Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun”
• Based on a poem by Mallarme
• Debussy’s first orchestral work
• Choice of instruments (small group)
– 3 flutes
– 2 oboes
– English horn
– 2 clarinets
– 2 bassoons
• This wind group would play the main melody
• Brasses
– 4 horns
• 2 harps
• 1 pair of tiny cymbals
• Full strings (muted & divided)
The Sound
‫ ﺦ‬The opening theme is a sensuous melody (solo
flute); this melody would be heard throughout
the piece in various transformations.
‫ ﺺ‬In general, the piece has a delicate,
restrained, dreamlike quality; relaxed, vague
rhythmic movement w/out a strong beat.
‫ ﻍ‬There is a sense of floating on a gentle summer
breeze.
‫ ﻖ‬The music is to describe the dreamy afternoon
of a faun (similar to the Greek satyrs.)
‫ ﻺ‬Satyrs & fauns have human torsos with
the body of a goat below the waist.
‫ﻂ‬The faun dreams of 2 nymphs, female woodland
spirits, he had seen earlier in the day.
‫ ﺳ‬He can’t remember if he carried them off to his
lair or was it just a dream…..so he drifts off to
sleep again.
It’s the impression that is important, not a literal
interpretation of the poem.