Debussy's Late Style [Hardcover]

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 h?ro?que, En Blanc et noir, the Douze ?tudes, the No?l 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.

Debussys Late Style is truly multidimensional as it successfully maps the semiotic goals and cultural terrain of Debussys final works. . . . Wheeldons study is compelling in the way that it assesses Debussys negotiation of his historical and political moment with an acute awareness of historical context, structural strategy, and intertextual correspondences. Her book should open up new avenues of inquiry into the representational goals of Debussys music and the continuous transformation of his postwar reputation.The overarching lesson of Debussys Late Style is that today, especially, we should be delighted but certainly not puzzled by the rich variety of Debussys invention during his last years. 66.2 Dec. 2009

Contents<\>
Acknowledgments

1. Defining Debussy's Late Style
2. Public and Private: The Wartime Occasional Pieces
3. Compositional Personae in the Piano Etudes
4. Les Sonates Cycliques
5. Tombeau de Claude Debussy

Notes
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