Claude Debussy, a French writer, created a unique work of art called "Clair de Lune," implying moonlight, and the masterpiece was grounded in numerous poem collections “Fetes Galantes”, composed by the artist known as Paul Verlaine (DeVoto, 2019). "Clair de Lune" is a piece filled with creativity. Claude established distinctive patterns in the masterpiece, which give it a sense of smooth rhythm. The notes and tones of the music virtually share an alike frequency through the entire piece, even though there are substantial dissimilarities of tones. Furthermore, the development of scale in the masterpiece is in a systematized manner with low and high frequencies alternating well. Also, the music notes fall and rise correspondingly and then advance to more peaceful or passive tones producing a memorable melody in the piece. In spite of the harmony in the work, at times the music changes to sporadic for instants then shifts back to typical unity. Claude uses dissonance which blends in the music giving a feel of distinctiveness. The principal elements of the song are creatively presented and work harmoniously through Claude’s entire work. The music reveals a light-airy and lyrical mood full of romance (DeVoto, 2019). The romantic mood brings about the second primary elements; an impression of calmness as well as peacefulness.
Debussy’s "Clair de Lune" presents both Dionysian and Apollonian characteristics concerning the changing notes. The music exhibits more features of Apollonian. Claude incorporated great precision and analysis in compositional and structural content of the music to make it Apollonian. "Clair de Lune" captures the interest and attention of the best artists ever recognized. The music is exceptional in a manner that it provides the spectators with a quiet space in which they could meditate and ponder about purpose and life. Also, Claude’s music activates profound emotional sentiments as well as feelings of amorousness. The aroused feelings lead to exciting memories and experiences thus enabling and allowing a person to recall (DeVoto, 2019). In general, the arrangement of ideas of rhythm, harmony, and melody in "Clair de Lune" is impressive and depends on the sound qualities which may be defined basically as Apollonian.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
According to Li and Shan, (2007), the greatest identifiable and critical likeness between impressionism as a movement in music and as an artistic movement is that they both movements aim to arouse a particular feeling or mood the person using the music or the audience. The main consideration concerns the expressions and emotions regarding the song in either category, but not regarding the dimension, for instance, 2 or 3 dimensions, or the sound of the song. Both impressionism as a movement in music and as an artistic movement unlock the soul and mind of the audience, counting profound feelings and moods (Byrnside, 1980). Furthermore, impressionism both as an artistic and musical movement has a modern kind art disobeying the traditional doctrines of their discipline. However, a prevalent difference between impressionism as a movement in music and as an artistic movement is that, unlike musical movement, the artistic movement exemplifies life’s graphic impression as well as its views. Claude stated that “Chords and rules must not hinder or affect musicians, but instead enable the song blend into its prominence and sound” (DeVoto, 2019). The condition implies that it defies customary principles such as Avant-grade type. Also, an artistic movement generates visual expression or a picture, while the musical movement shows emotions and feelings.
References
Byrnside, R. L. (1980). Musical impressionism: the early history of the term. The musical quarterly , 66 (4), 522-537.
DeVoto, M. (2019, April). Claude Debussy’s Clair de lune, by Gurminder Kaur Bhogal. In College Music Symposium (Vol. 59, No. 1, pp. 1-3). College Music Society.
Li, C. T., & Shan, M. K. (2007, September). Emotion-based impressionism slideshow with automatic music accompaniment. In Proceedings of the 15th ACM international conference on Multimedia (pp. 839-842). ACM.
