Friday, February 2, 2007
A bit more for grad students
Please find, on WebCT under "Materials - Week 05 - Links", a pdf article from 1918 containing Debussy's mocking fictional "interview" with a critic called M. Croche. Read for next class meeting and be prepared to summarize the artistic philosophy that Debussy puts into the mouth of this fictional character. In other words, what can we infer about Debussy's own artistic credo based upon his fictional interview? And what is the significance of the style and mode in which he chooses to present these opinions?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
It was with great fun that I visited “Monsieur Croche, anti-dilettante” again. I wondered when I studied in Paris with Ton de Leew if Monsieur Croche had anything to do with the popular and ever-present grilled ham-and-cheese sandwich upon which I lived on my meager means, called “Croque Monsieur”—if it had anything to do with Debussy’s appropriation of a similar nom-de-plume. Essentially, Debussy was saying that there is a dilettante element to the composer’s audience and acceptance by such. That this is still true can be evidenced in Palm Beach, Florida, where I attended many concerts with an attorney who faithfully went to every one, fell asleep, and then socialized afterwards. Debussy seems to not like “cleverness” and wants to appreciate “unfamiliar music, or the music of tomorrow.” I particularly like his representation of Lalo, who would take Dukas’ sonata over all those of Schumann and Chopin, and his description of Beethoven’s sonatas as being “badly written for the piano.” Debussy seems to align himself with the poets and painters—and a few musicians—“who have tried to clear away the dust of tradition, with the result that they are treated as symbolists or impressionists,” clearly derogatory terms as used in the journalistic trade. Debussy has Monsieur Croche advocate the unique—what a fore-runner of the twentieth-century mentality that was. Debussy seems to want to be unique and free from what we are doing to him in this class—seeing him as a part of his milieu, seeing him as representative of his time in terms of Symbolism and Impressionism and so forth. He apparently sees himself as being unknown and rediscovered in some future time (next-to-last paragraph in the article). Debussy is not unknown to us, but did he want us to rediscover him in some way that shows him a not a part of his milieu?
Post a Comment