Thesis (M.M.)--Bowling Green State University, 2009. / Document formatted into pages; contains v, 70 p. : col. ill. Includes bibliographical references.

The subject of this thesis is to present the cycles of the preludes composed by F. Chopin, A. N. Scriabin and C. Debussy and to compare them with each other. 3 sorts of criteria will be chosen for that: 1) non-musical criteria, 2) music theory criteria and 3) will be researched through the analysis of chosen music pieces from the cycles. Their common features and differences will be summarized at the end of the each chapter.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:27:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2004-08-30Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T18:56:14Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 marchetto_lfl_me_ia.pdf: 7290807 bytes, checksum: 97c4d4043c341670b195f82b68942e36 (MD5) / Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP) / Este trabalho tem por objetivo estudar a chanson polifônica francesa, em particular as chansons para coral a cappella, escritas por Claude Debussy e Maurice Ravel, esperando que sirva de subsidio aos regentes corais, ajudando-os a compreender os elementos musicais e literários presentes nestas obras. Através de pesquisa na bibliografia, aborda-se a transformação da chanson ao longo do tempo para, em seguida, contextualiza-la dento da produção musical de C. Debussy e M. Ravel, apontando as principais características de suas linguagens musicais e as influências literárias que as inspiraram. Os dois conjuntos de chansons foram analisados, considerando seus elementos musicais e poéticos. Apesar das diferanças existentes no emprego da textura, da harmonia e da linguagem poética entre as chansons aqui analisadas, conclui-se que o fator comum que permeia estas obras é o uso da sonoridade natual das palavras, às quais se agrega de forma harmoniosa, funcionando como reforço expressivo das idéias e imagens sugeridas nos textos. / The dissertation presents the study of the French poliphonic chanson, particularly those composed by Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. with the purpose of helping choir conductor to better undestand musical and literay elements present in these songs. The evolution of the chanson throught time is approached based on resarch of bibliography. The two sets of poliphonic chansons by Debussy and Ravel have been analyzed, calling attention to their poetical and musical elements. Besides the differencs in the texture, harmony and poetic language between the chansons here studied, it is possible to conclude that what they have in common is the natural sonority of their lyrics, to which music is added harmoniously, as an expressive reinforcemente to idas and images present in the poetic text.

The Six épigraphes antiques represent a cross-section of Debussy's creative output that traces the composer's germ-seed from his original setting of the work in 1901 as incidental music to accompany the recitation of several poems, to the four-hand piano version of 1914, and its consequent reduction for solo piano. What can be gleaned by the methods of derivation from his original sketches to the final, mature works is an understanding of Debussy's use of musical metaphor and his connection to the poetry - the Chansons de Bilitis of Pierre Louÿs. Embedded literary procedures create a new musical expression of the work whereby text and music become integrated. Rather than serving as accompaniment to the poems, the Épigraphes function as the primary vessel for the conveyance of these ancient scenes. Several of Debussy's hallmark symmetrical and structural moulds, such as the whole-tone, chromatic, octatonic, and mirroring techniques reflect the omnipresent symmetry of Classical Greece. Various other artistic creations emanated from the Épigraphes, most significantly the orchestration of Ernest Ansermet in 1939. A look at the techniques used by Ansermet for the augmentation of the piano work serves to extrapolate the multifarious layers relevant in performance. In order to facilitate the four-hand version for solo piano, Debussy used a variety of reductive methods. There are, however, means by which some of the extracted material might be restored to the solo version. Like the late work of many great masters, the Épigraphes are redolent of the tendency so many artists have near the end of their days - to revert back to the purest techniques of their language. The scoring of Debussy's Épigraphes is scaled back, compared to his Préludes (often consisting of three staves of notation), and incorporates leaner textures generated from lapidary motifs which transmit the antique realms evoked by the poetry of Louÿs.

No description available.

The incidental music for Chansons de Bilitis is little known and rarely performed. However, the relegation of this work to the realms of obscurity is highly unjustified. Chansons de Bilitis requires an unusual combination of instruments: two flutes, two harps, and celesta in addition to a reciter. The work is a theater piece in the tradition of melodrama, with spoken text and background music in alternation. Despite the rather unique nature of the work, many of the melodic, textural, and orchestrational devices for which Debussy is noted are evident. The music is throughcomposed; each movement mirrors and emphasizes the meaning and mood of the accompanying poem. Because of the fragmentary nature of the music and its rather subordinate role in the total theater work, the primary emphasis in gaining an appreciation of the value of the work lies in an investigation of its historical background.

This dissertation comparatively examines musical nostalgia, particularly nostalgia for childhood, in video games and post-Romantic classical music. An introductory chapter lays out several key concepts drawn from video games—loops, gameworlds, and role-play—and suggests the correspondences these have in Romantic music and thought. The central chapters offer case studies of pieces by Robert Schumann, Brahms, Debussy, and Ravel, each along with a corresponding concept drawn from video games. Each chapter articulates ways that works by these composers provide analogies for practices in contemporary role-playing and adventure video games and, conversely, suggests that features drawn from those games might illuminate how these pieces create musical meaning out of dwelling on the past or imagining distant places. The central chapters draw video games and classical music more closely together over their course. In an analysis of Schumann’s Kinderszenen, I suggest that Schumann’s music could be conceived as offering the player a form of role-play, allowing its players and listeners to play as an imagined child and gain access to otherwise inaccessible space. Brahms’s works often dwell in the past (and are often analyzed as such), especially when that past is metaphorically conceived as childhood or the classical tradition. I suggest that we might hear Brahms’s music as preoccupied with the “unrevisitable location,” a feature of video games in which certain spaces are visitable only a fixed number of times and therefore charged with melancholy and loss. Debussy’s Children’s Corner extends role-play to an extreme degree, while at the same time suggesting distant, unreachable vistas. In particular, I borrow Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin’s ideas on mediation and Christopher Goetz’s notion of “nostalgic travel” to suggest ways that Debussy’s music incorporates impossible distance into its sound and structure. Video games and classical music converge as much as possible in an analysis of Ravel’s Ma mère l’Oye, which I read alongside Nintendo’s open-world game The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. I suggest that Ravel’s music offers space for its players to explore similar to this video game. In particular, we might hear the music as allowing linear narrative to give way to a freer, open-ended exploration, suggesting the opening of a world. Finally, a concluding chapter examines nostalgia in video games themselves, specifically Undertale, Final Fantasy VII, and Final Fantasy VII Remake, while revisiting elements of the Romantic musical past as they have accrued in the dissertation so far. The argument in this final chapter is that of the dissertation as a whole: that the same desires for fantasy and adventure animate both traditions, and that the two provide meaningful contexts for each other, in ways that studies of the two have until now overlooked.

This study seeks to discover the extent and manner of Debussy's use of the motive in thematic material. A total of 40 melodic examples were analyzed in order to show their relationship to a single motive, a three-note figure having a step-leap relationship. Using eighty-four series of examples, the study shows the melodies analyzed to be 85% motive-derived. The study concludes, therefore, that Images I is a remarkably economical work, using a single three-note motive as a unifying and developmental basis.

The purpose of this thesis is to discuss and give a descriptive analysis of twelve of the twenty-four preludes written by Claude Debussy. This paper also includes a brief history of preludes as well as possible influences upon Debussy and his compositions.

Not available / text