Charles Frederick Frantz provides a quantitative and qualitative analysis of Debussys music through the lens of Bergsons philosophical perspective of durée, revealing his "revolution" in musical time.
In fin-de-siècle Paris, Debussy was revolutionizing musical time while Bergson was establishing a metaphysics that challenged the notion of measured or spatialized time. Bergson argued that real time or durée could be grasped only through intuition as opposed to analysis. Debussy eschewed analysis of music, declaring that separating it into parts was better left to engineers. Debussys music and Bergsons durée were conceived and imagined in the environs of nature. The cycle of seasons, the gracefulness of a blooming flower, or a gentle breeze all suggest continuity, flow, and uninterrupted rhythm. The time of nature is the time of Debussys music and Bergsons durée. Debussys use of open forms and Golden Sections create a time world of an expanded present, never ceasing. Bergsons perception of real time is ever-changing, bringing the past into the present and open to unforeseen novelty.
This book is intended primarily for scholars in the disciplines of musicology, music theory, and philosophy and can be used as a text for upper-level undergraduate or graduate courses in musicology or music theory.
Introduction
1. Enigmas
2. A Bergson Perspective for the Analysis of Debussys Music
3. Debussy and Bergson in Paris: Perspectives on Spiritualism, Materialism,
Science, and Nature
4. Bergson, Proust, and Debussy: Correspondences and Distinctions
5. La Durée: Intuition, Nature, and Fluidity
6. The Perception of Change: An Indivisible Reality
7. Ondine: The Apparent Paradox of Changeability and Indivisibility
8. Evoking Ancient Memories
9. Humor and the Living
10. Debussys Egypt: Stasis and Mobility in Canope
11. Debussys Music, Bergsons La Durée: The Act of Creation in Painting
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
Charles Frederick Frantz is a guitarist, pianist, and educator. He has over 30 years of teaching experience in music history, theory, piano, and guitar along with a breadth of performance experience that includes concerts at Carnegie Hall and the Philadelphia Academy of Music. He leads the New Jersey Jazz Quartet on guitar and regularly performs as a soloist in piano concerts.
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