Wednesday, March 02, 2005

Debussy, "Clair de Lune"

Moonlight, by Debussy. One of the most beautiful pieces of music written, hands down. Yes, one might contemplate casino robbery after every listen, but I doubt that's what Debussy had in mind while composing this piece.
The beauty of this piece comes in his melodic use of modern scales. It is rich in octatonic and pentatonic scale varieties, filling this masterpiece with warm colors and tonalities. Notice the parallelism. GASP! Don't tell Dr. Spiegelberg. I think Debussy was going for beauty of sound. Who cares about part writing anyway? There is a pedal bass that is also prevelant for much of the work, as the right and the melody along. My favorite part of this piece is in the second second section of the piece where the tempo picks up. Debussy does a very good job of building excitement slowing, gradually releasing the tension and returning the ever relaxing A section.
I'm not sure what it is, but there is something about this piece that just makes you float away, to forget about your worldly problems. I always find my self strangely relaxed after listening to this song. Debussy does an excellent job of portraying the peacefulness of a moonlit night sky.

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