Claude Debussy-Part 9

What enchanting vision, wonderfully expressed by Debussy by a precipitate descending series of seventh chords built on the whole tone scale.

In the limited space allotted to these articles I  can only mention briefly some of the other works of Debussy which have become popular, as, for instance, his Sting Quartet, his pianoforte pieces: Jardin sous la pluie, Reflets d'eau, Deux Arabesques, and the song Ariette oubliee, Le Flute de Pan, built on the Lydian mode, and Sa Chevelure, in which we hear the whole tone scale.

Debussy has not classified his works under opera numbers.

Resuming, we find in Debussy's career the following salient points:

The continuous striving after originality which became with him a kind of obsession. It resulted in imparting a decided novelty and bizarrerie to all his creations, but at the same time depriving them of that spontaneity and naturalness which alone can make the work of art enjoyable, unequivocal, intelligible to the majority of the listeners.

He was, as well in his art as in his life, strictly consistent and faithful to his principles. He made concessions neither to tast nor to fashion, nor to narrow mindedness and pedantry. Like his illustrious predecessor, he was a knight "san peur et sans reproche."

The great lessons he tried to obtain from the observation of nature in its most sublime manifestations. "If you will learn to know nature do not listen to second hand reproductions like the Pastoral Symphony, but go directly to the original."

The Etude Magazine February 1921