Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Debussy: Ballade slave

Some more gorgeous and soothing music that I've come across: Debussy's Ballade slave (1890) for piano solo. It's the only 'ballade' that Debussy wrote, and it is evident even in this early composition that he had mastered  the art of composing rich, lyrical single movement pieces.

Debussy hated to have his compositions described as "Impressionist," but I don't think the term can really be avoided, as his music almost instinctively evokes in the listener's mind images of Impressionist paintings. Even the harmonic structures are "impressionist" with their parallel chords and the seeming lack of tonality in the moving passages... Indeed, they are the aural equivalent of the out-of-focus painting technique of the period. Both the music and the visual art strove to obscure details/strict harmonics, allowing the audience to appreciate the art's poise and colour and to more directly affect their emotions.

But I digress... technical prose aside, this is, quite simply, beautiful music.


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