
Debussy’s Radical Search for Simplicity - overwhelm
https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2019/01/debussy-stephen-walsh-review/579601/
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WhompingWindows
I love the mixture of pentatonic, modal, tonal, and atonal in the works of
Debussy. He toes the line of modernity with wit, charm, and absolute beauty.
For wit, check out Gradus ad Parnassum, a super bouncy piece in a beginner-
friendly key. For charm, go with Arabesque No 1. Absolute beauty lies in store
in Claire de Lune, yes, but also in The Sunken Cathedral, in the string
quartet, and in the vocal music. He has astonishing creativity, look at his
Preludes, his opera, or his Afternoon of a Faun for that, wow, sheer
creativity.

Debussy (or perhaps Ravel) may be the one composer who most successfully
commanded the widest range of tonal devices, before the modernists like
Stravinsky and Schoenberg pushed tonality to its breaking point/broke it.
Debussy was not the only innovator, as we saw innovation and creativity from
Bach to Mozart, Debussy to Chopin, however I'd argue Debussy was the true
bridge into modernity.

Debussy harmonic analysis:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbjWgfNoO2U](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbjWgfNoO2U)

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ssmmww
To my not-very-well-trained ear, almost all composers before Debussy sound a
little dated, corny, and constrained, and most composers after him - Bartok
and Messiaen being important exceptions! - sound abstract and unmusical.

Debussy's music is at this equilibrium point where the harmonic language is
complex and atonal enough to evoke a spectrum of iridescent colours and
haunting, ambiguous moods inaccessible to traditional common-practice harmony,
but just constrained enough to avoid the descent into hostility and noise.

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3131s
As someone who also enjoys music in this vein, I'd recommend trying Ravel,
Mompou, Janáček, Satie, Delius, Busoni, Milhaud, Fauré, Schubert, Liszt,
Domeniconi, Sibelius, Ligeti, Messiaen, Xenakis, Martinů, and Scriabin among
others I'm forgetting (in roughly decreasing order of likeness). Like you I
don't get much out of most earlier classical music, with the major exception
of Bach, or out of totally atonal stuff either.

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rectang
The one I feel like I'm missing the most from is Mozart. To me Mozart sounds
so trite, mannered, frilly, wimpy and boring. "Deeeeeee deedlee dee dee dee
dee deeeee dee..."

FWIW, my favorite Beethoven pieces are the ones that sound the least classical
in harmonic language -- especially the Waldstein Sonata and Sonatas 30-32.

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becga
Mozart can be hard to get. It's been said he was primarily a composer for
voice no matter the instrument he composed for. His slow pieces are the most
otherwordly.

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curlcntr
Its interesting to see the influence of Debussy through time. For example the
wonderful work of Bill Evans.

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briandear
The opening chords of So What capture this feeling perfectly.

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yesenadam
Apparently those (jazz) guys called the 4ths voicings like in _So What_ 'Ravel
chords'. And the ( _Peace Piece_ -derived) _Flamenco Sketches_ I can't help
but think owes something to the first movement of Mahler's 9th, which even has
the 'down a major 3rd' progression. (C -> Ab in F.S., D -> Bb in the Mahler)

..Speaking of which, I didn't learn until recently that James Brown stole the
'booo-dap' riff from _So What_ for (maybe his greatest song), _Cold Sweat_.
Apparently he wanted a song with horns going 'booo-dap' just like _So
What_..it's even in the same key, almost the same voicing.

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abalone
_Pour le piano_ is to me one of the greatest piano works.

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nateburke
One interesting branch of Debussy's legacy is _spectral music_, e.g.:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6WXzOIsBuQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6WXzOIsBuQ)

