is Mélisande’s grooming song as she combs her Lady Godiva hair, which tumbles down from her window in the tower as Pelléas drowns in it beneath. Personalities | Claude Debussy | Turn of the Century | Opera Techniques | Symbolism or Impressionism ? | Turn of the Century | Opera ...
(Klod De’-bu-se) 1862–1918 French composer Debussy was one of the father figures of twentieth-century music, often associated with the Impressionist movement. He was not only influential on subsequent French composers such as Ravel and Messiaen, but also on other major European figures, including Stravinsky and Bartók. His early songs experimented with an intimate kind of word-setting, while ...
1862–1918, French Debussy wrote only one opera that has entered the repertoire, but there were many other compositions without which this masterpiece among masterpieces may never have come into being. His lover, the singer Marie-Blanche Vasnier, some years his elder, had deepened his understanding of literature in his early twenties, and his interest in poetry ...
instrument also known as a ‘whip’, in which two hinged, flat-sided pieces of wood are brought together sharply to make a ‘crack’ sound when the slapstick is flicked abruptly. Debussy often requires a large orchestra and the percussion section in his music may contain timpani, drums both large and small, cymbals, tam tams, glockenspiel and xylophone. ...
fingering system. It remains in use in France and Spain, and was the instrument many composers had in mind when writing orchestral music, including Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924), Claude Debussy (1862–1918) and Edward Elgar (1857–1934). Contrabassoon Sounding an octave below the bassoon, the contra- or double bassoon is a conical tube 550 cm (217 in) long. Doubling back on ...
styles of music, and folk elements found their way into art music. The Impressionist movement, inspired by French painters such as Claude Monet, encouraged composers like Claude Debussy (1862–1918) to take the continuing exploration of instrumental colour to a new level. Partly to fulfil these demands, the development of new wind and brass instruments continued, but ...
Cymbals are thin metal discs played by being struck together or placed on a stand (suspended) and hit with sticks or beaters. They are made from beaten metal and so are distinct from crotales or antique cymbals, which are tuned cast metal discs. Turkish and Chinese Cymbals Suspended and crash cymbals used in western orchestral music, rock, pop ...
of German romantic poetry, often grouped together to form song cycles. They were followed by a long line of composers of songs including Brahms, Gustav Mahler (1860–1911), Claude Debussy (1862–1918) and Benjamin Britten (1913–76), who formed a highly successful partnership with the tenor Peter Pears. The combination of voice and piano is also very popular in cabaret and comedy ...
By the early eighteenth century, a harp furnished with pedals had been developed in Bavaria. In this instrument, each of the foot-operated pedals directed a mechanism that could sharpen every string playing notes of the same name. Initially there were five such pedals, controlling C, D, F, G and A. By the end of the ...
diminished significantly by the 1760s, but it experienced a revival in the later nineteenth century, when a new key mechanism enabled its use by Strauss, Mahler, Debussy and even Ligeti. Oboe da Caccia The oboe da caccia was developed around the same time as the oboe d’amore. A tenor oboe, keyed in F and sounding a ...
The concertos of Edward Elgar (1857–1934) and Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904) are the best known, but there are great works from almost every major composer including Shostakovich, Britten, Debussy, Beethoven and of course Bach. The Double Bass There is no standard double-bass design. The instruments commonly used in orchestras are around 115 cm (45 in) high and have ...
Sebastian Bach (1685–1750), Joseph Haydn (1732–1809), Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827), Franz Schubert (1797–1828), Robert Schumann (1810–56), Frédéric François Chopin (1810–49), Franz Liszt (1811–86), Felix Mendelssohn (1809–47), Johannes Brahms (1833–97), Claude Debussy (1862–1918), Maurice Ravel (1875–1937), George Gershwin (1898–1937) and many more. Its foremost practitioners, from Liszt to Ignacy Paderewski (1860–1941) and beyond, were the pop stars of their day. ...
Wagner had first encountered the early thirteenth-century romance Parzivâl by Wolfram von Eschenbach (c. 1170–c. 1220) in 1845 and frequently returned to the subject in the course of the decades that followed, completing the libretto in 1877 and the music in 1882. By now his views had changed, and the text and its imagery are permeated by the Aryan ...
1888–1976 English soprano Teyte started in Paris, where she appeared at the Opéra-Comique. In 1908 she was chosen by Debussy to succeed Mary Garden as Mélisande, a part she sang in England and, though not until 1948, in New York. She sang with the Beecham Opera Company as well as in Chicago and Boston. Introduction | Modern ...
1883–1953 English composer Bax was strongly affected by Richard Strauss, Debussy and Ravel, but the formative influence on him was a Romantic image of Ireland, first encountered through the poetry of W. B. Yeats and reflected in such tone-poems as The Garden of Fand (Fand was the goddess of the Western Sea). His music is passionate (the tone-poem ...
AUTHORITATIVE
An extensive music information resource, bringing together the talents and expertise of a wide range of editors and musicologists, including Stanley Sadie, Charles Wilson, Paul Du Noyer, Tony Byworth, Bob Allen, Howard Mandel, Cliff Douse, William Schafer, John Wilson...
CURATED
Classical, Rock, Blues, Jazz, Country and more. Flame Tree has been making encyclopaedias and guides about music for over 20 years. Now Flame Tree Pro brings together a huge canon of carefully curated information on genres, styles, artists and instruments. It's a perfect tool for study, and entertaining too, a great companion to our music books.
David Bowie
Fantastic new, unofficial biography covers
his life, music, art and movies, with a
sweep of incredible photographs.