Debussy's Late Style

by Marianne Wheeldon

Debussy's Late Style explores Claude Debussy's musical responses to World War I. This period of composition encompasses the duration of the war and the last four years of Debussy's life. The works that emerged during this time reflect both wartime events and the composer's self-conscious desire to define his own musical legacy as he felt his life nearing its end. Debussy's complete wartime compositions comprise a small but significant body of works, some little known and some now acknowledged to be among the masterpieces of his career. These include the Berceuse héroïque, En Blanc et noir, the Douze Études, the "Noël des enfants qui n'ont plus de maisons," and the three instrumental sonatas (the Cello Sonata; the Sonata for Flute, Viola, and Harp; and the Violin Sonata). Through music analysis, musicology, and cultural history, this study offers interpretive readings of Debussy's late works, focusing in particular on how they reflect the unique cultural milieu of wartime Paris.

184 pages, Hardcover

First published November 12, 2008

Reviews

[William Mego · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book accomplishes what it sets out to do, but it often relies on outside sources to make a metaphysical point, and where it delves into the musicality of it, relies on very pedestrian standard analysis to make the comparisons. The usage of a specific series of triads between a late work and the work of somebody else is interesting and all, but I'd much rather have seen more comparisons between his middle and late works. Most disappointingly of all, a fair amount of space is spent looking at his string quartet, which is excellent, but not really "late" and while space is spent on the Violin and Cello Sonatas, the Flute, Viola, Harp Sonata is missing, and very very little time spent dwelling on the possibilities of the 3 unfinished sonatas which would have followed it. The time spent on the Etudes was excellent, however.