ROLCAM
Mar 15, 2009, 05:23 PM
Golden ratio mentioned again
Commentary Today, La Mer is widely regarded as one of the greatest orchestral works of the twentieth century[citation needed]. It is a masterpiece of suggestion and subtlety in its rich depiction of the ocean, which combines unusual orchestration with daring impressionistic harmonies. Several authors have claimed that La Mer sounds like nothing before it[citation needed]. The work has proven very influential.
Debussy called La Mer "three symphonic sketches," avoiding the loaded term symphony. Yet the work is sometimes called a symphony; it consists of two powerful outer movements framing a lighter, faster piece which acts as a type of scherzo. But the author Jean Barraque (in "La Mer de Debussy," Analyse musicale 12/3, June 1988,) describes La Mer as the first work to have an "open" form - a devenir sonore or "sonorous becoming... a developmental process in which the very notions of exposition and development coexist in an uninterrupted burst." Simon Tresize, in his book Debussy: La Mer (Cambridge, 1994) notes, however, that "motifs are constantly propagated by derivation from earlier motifs" (p. 52).
Simon Trezise notes that "for much of La Mer, Debussy spurns the more obvious devices associated with the sea, wind, and concomitant storm in favor of his own, highly individual vocabulary" (p. 48-49). Caroline Potter (in "Debussy and Nature" in The Cambridge Companion to Debussy, p. 149) adds that Debussy's depiction of the sea "avoids monotony by using a multitude of water figurations that could be classified as musical onomatopoeia: they evoke the sensation of swaying movement of waves and suggest the pitter-patter of falling droplets of spray" (and so forth), and — significantly — avoid the arpeggiated triads used by Wagner and Schubert to evoke the movement of water.
The author, musicologist and pianist Roy Howatt has observed, in his book Debussy in Proportion, that the formal boundaries of La Mer correspond exactly to the mathematical ratios called The Golden Section. Trezise (p. 53) finds the intrinsic evidence "remarkable," but cautions that no written or reported evidence suggests that Debussy consciously sought such proportions.
Some passages (the 3rd movement for example) may have inspired John Williams for the score he wrote for Jaws.
Commentary Today, La Mer is widely regarded as one of the greatest orchestral works of the twentieth century[citation needed]. It is a masterpiece of suggestion and subtlety in its rich depiction of the ocean, which combines unusual orchestration with daring impressionistic harmonies. Several authors have claimed that La Mer sounds like nothing before it[citation needed]. The work has proven very influential.
Debussy called La Mer "three symphonic sketches," avoiding the loaded term symphony. Yet the work is sometimes called a symphony; it consists of two powerful outer movements framing a lighter, faster piece which acts as a type of scherzo. But the author Jean Barraque (in "La Mer de Debussy," Analyse musicale 12/3, June 1988,) describes La Mer as the first work to have an "open" form - a devenir sonore or "sonorous becoming... a developmental process in which the very notions of exposition and development coexist in an uninterrupted burst." Simon Tresize, in his book Debussy: La Mer (Cambridge, 1994) notes, however, that "motifs are constantly propagated by derivation from earlier motifs" (p. 52).
Simon Trezise notes that "for much of La Mer, Debussy spurns the more obvious devices associated with the sea, wind, and concomitant storm in favor of his own, highly individual vocabulary" (p. 48-49). Caroline Potter (in "Debussy and Nature" in The Cambridge Companion to Debussy, p. 149) adds that Debussy's depiction of the sea "avoids monotony by using a multitude of water figurations that could be classified as musical onomatopoeia: they evoke the sensation of swaying movement of waves and suggest the pitter-patter of falling droplets of spray" (and so forth), and — significantly — avoid the arpeggiated triads used by Wagner and Schubert to evoke the movement of water.
The author, musicologist and pianist Roy Howatt has observed, in his book Debussy in Proportion, that the formal boundaries of La Mer correspond exactly to the mathematical ratios called The Golden Section. Trezise (p. 53) finds the intrinsic evidence "remarkable," but cautions that no written or reported evidence suggests that Debussy consciously sought such proportions.
Some passages (the 3rd movement for example) may have inspired John Williams for the score he wrote for Jaws.