T351 Week 1 Notes Fall 2003

Erik Satie (1866-1925)

Sports et divertissments, 1914. Twenty short pieces for piano; illustrations by Charles Martin.
No. 16, "Shooting the Chute" (handout)
[Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944) wrote the following in his treatise entitled "Concerning the spiritual
in art" (1912): "[The] borrowing of methods from one art to another, can only be truly successful
when application of the borrowed materials is not superficial but fundamental. One art must learn
first how another uses its methods, so that the methods may afterwards be applied to the borrower's
art from the beginning, and suitably."]
How might you construct or construe a set of "correspondences" or "analogues" between the different
artistic dimensions of this piece? Identify a musical aspect, a textual aspect, a visual/pictorial aspect, and
a possible general area of connection (common aspects, commonalities) between them? For example:
Musical: D major
Textual:
"strong stomach"
Visual:
viewing position: overview
General:
stability

Claude Debussy (1862-1918), Nocturnes, 1897-99, I, "Nuages" ("Clouds")

Discussion: Debussy, Nocturnes, I, "Nuages" (describe, discuss process, think about significance;
syntax vs. point of view)
1. describe the composers treatment of scalar materials (diatonic, chromatic, octatonic, pentatonic, or
whole-tone) in one section of the piece.
2. describe the composers treatment of sonorities and/or harmonic progressions in a different section
of the piece (i.e., other than that chosen in no. 1). For information on labeling sonorities, see T351,
pp. 28-29.
3. briefly describe (compare & contrast) the musical presentation of the "octatonic" motive of mm. 5,
21, 43, 84 OR the musical presentation of the diatonic/chromatic motive of mm. 1, 11, 57, 94. For
information on the octatonic scale, see T351, p. 9.
4. form, duration, and proportional relationships: give an example of proportional relationships shaped
by summation series and Golden Section relationships. Read T351 pp. 31-32 (Kramer on the Golden
Section in the music of Debussy), and comment on your example in the context of this movement)

Music and early French cinema: musical devices co-emerge with those of cinema
Modes of connection and continuity: Significance of correspondence between objects, images, musical
sounds, colors (French symbolism & music)
French cinema: (for early cinema goers, film editing was conspiucuous!)
Techniques: (what would be their musical analogues?)
dissolve
juxtaposition
direct cut
close-ups
adjustments of film speed and direction
superimpositions and matted images

 double exposure
kinesthetic "shifts"
shot/reverse shot (crosscutting and duplication)
switch-back editing
What are the meanings or significance of particular techniques?: many involve new ways of perceiving
time, and in its relationship with direct experience (reference to past, dream, passage of time, fictional
space, ways of marking an event, utopian visions, etc.). A reconfiguration of narrative time. New
ways and modes of representing time and space.
Contributions of early silent film (see Leydon essay):
montage of shots and perspectives
reconfiguration of narrative time
multiplicity of "viewing views"
Example (Thursday): "A Trip to the Moon" (1902), Georges Mlis

Discussion, Friday, Sept 5:

Ravel (1875-1937), Le Tombeau de Couperin, 1917 (also for orchestra)
Debussy (1862-1918), Sonata for Flute, Viola, and Harp, 1915-16, 1st mvt. Pastorale: Lento, dolce
rubato
Debussy: compositional procedures (give an example):
1. repetition or varied repetition of small units (identify unit & varied repetition)
2. pitch and/or rhythmic ostinato, pedal point, sequence
3. layers of events, overlapped in different ways
4. thickening an element in the texture [parallel chords (planing) and/or repositioning an element
texturally)
5. reharmonization of a melodic idea (extended tertian chords, different scalar materials: be as specific
as you can)
6. other stylistic aspects (see above)
Ravel vs. Debussy: Ravel tends to enrich traditional harmonic vocabulary but remain close to the
constraints of classical practice. In contrast, Debussy employs an "additive" or "mosaic" approach to
formal design. Compare Ravel & Debussy in their treatment of rhythm and meter, texture, melodic line
and motive, phrasing, bass lines, cadences, pitch collections, and formal design:
1. recurring rhythmic motive(s)
2. homophonic textures vs. "polyphonic" textures
3. weak sense of meter vs. metric regularity
4. motivic fragments vs. long melodic lines
5. regular phrase lengths vs. irregular phrase lengths
6. traditional - functional bass lines (diatonic intervals, P4 & P5ths, etc.) vs.
bass lines that emphasize tritone relationships
7. avoidance of traditional cadence formulae vs. use of traditional cadence formulae
8. planing (harmonic parallelism)
9. pitch ostinato
10. diatonic pitch collections vs. whole-tone, or octatonic pitch collections
11 formal design based on the addition of melodic ideas (additive or mosaic design) vs. formal design
based on an older formal model (classical design)
12. What factors contribute to the grouping of sections and subsections in these pieces? How does each
composer achieve and/or treat cadences?

Assignment: Tuesday September 8, 2003

1. 30 pts: Types and modes of connection: Describe 2 passages in Debussy's Sonata for Flute, Viola,
and Harp, 1st mvt. How does each passage connect with preceding and/or subsequent events? How
(or do?) these connections relate to cinematic techniques? What do the types & modes of connection
convey about the temporal experience of the passage in question and/or for the formal configuration
of movement as a whole, e.g., implications for pastorale, for a sonata? [For each passage, describe
elements (5 pts), discuss process, e.g., quality of connection or ordering (5 pts), and comment on
significance for temporal experience (5 pts). You may choose two passages that are similar in some
respect.
2. 20 pts. Write out a particular diatonic (modal), octatonic, pentatonic, or whole-tone scale. Write out
at least five three-note and five four-note sonorities, in different registral spacings, that can be derived
from the scale (collection) you have chosen. Order these sonorities in a way that seems meaningful,
and briefly describe the rationale for your arrangement. Write a melody for your instrument (at least
two "phrases") in the style of Debussy or Ravel using the scalar collection and sonorities chosen.
Explain how it models the composer chosen (relate to pieces studied).