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Matt Joyner

MUSC 2416-299
May 3, 2017
Revised Term Paper

Pellas et Mlisande
An Overview of Claude Debussys Only Completed Opera

Claude Debussy, a renowned French late-Romantic era composer, gained his fame

through many genres of music. Within this span of genre, Debussy only completed one opera,

Pellas et Mlisande (1902). The opera falls in the era correlating with the fin-de-sicle style,

characterized by ambiguity in harmony, the washing out of tonality, and the use of symbolist

plots. This term paper will investigate the symbolism used in the opera, along with a providing a

brief reception history. It will also dive into the relationship that Debussy had with the librettist

for Pellas et Mlisande, Maurice Maeterlinck, the inspiration that Debussy gained, and more

specifically, it will explore how the opera stands in a post-Wagnerian society.

To complete this analysis, I will use a variety of primary and secondary sources. My

primary sources will be useful for an accurate depiction of how the opera was received along

with providing insight from a letter written by Debussy on his thoughts and purpose for

composing Pellas et Mlisande. Secondary sources will be used to investigate Debussys

background in music along with serving as the main source of harmonic and symbolic analysis.

Claude Debussy and His Style

Claude Debussy was born in a suburb of Paris to a middle-class family.1 When he was

ten, he began studying at the Paris Conservatoire as a pianist, then as a composer.2 Later in life,

Debussy won the Prix de Rome, a scholarship for talented arts students, in 1884, which led him

to Italy where he stayed for two years.3

1 J. Peter Burkholder, A History of Western Music, 9th ed. (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2014), p. 792.
2 Burkholder, A History of, p. 792.
3 Burkholder, 792.
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As a mature musician, Debussy began to compose and critique a lot of music.4 Debussy formed

a very unique and an internationally-amalgamated style. Debussy is credited with continuing the

French tradition for sensibility, taste, and restraint under the influence of his mentor, Emmanuel

Chabrier.5 He utilized Russian styles gleaned from Russian composers, Rimsky-Korsakov and

Mussorgsky. Debussy is also known for using medieval techniques, such as parallel organum,

and eastern music genres, such as Javanese gamelan music and Chinese and Japanese melodies.6

Typical of the fin-de-sicle (a brief era at the turn of the twentieth century) style of music,

Debussy used exotic scales; such as whole-tone, octatonic, and pentatonic scales; as a method to

wash out tonality.7 Also typical of this period was the use of the leitmotif. A more detailed

look will be provided later on how Debussy used the leitmotif in Pellas et Mlisande.

The Genesis of Pellas et Mlisande

Debussy attended a performance of Maurice Maeterlincks play, Pellas et Mlisande, in May

1893, and fell in love with the plot and the symbolism surrounding the characters that is buried

deep within the text.8 The libretto, itself, was published in May 1892. A revision was made in

1898, and yet another was published in Maeterlincks Thtre (1901-1902), a three-volume

collection of his plays.9 Debussy began composing utilizing all three of these revisions,10 with the

4 Ibid, p. 792.
5 Ibid, 791.
6 Ibid, 791.
7 Ibid, 791.
8 Victor Lederer, Debussy: The Quiet Revolutionary (New York: Amadeus Press, 2007), p. 43.
9 David Grayson, The Libretto of Debussys Pelleas et Melisande, Music & Letters 66, no. 1 (Jan 1985), p. 34.
10 Ibid, 34.

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first draft of this music-drama being completed in August 1895.11 However, Debussy continued

to revise it until its premiere in 1902.12

The plot of the opera resembles that of Wagners Tristan und Isolde. Prince Golaud is lost in a

forest, and comes across Mlisande, who is weeping beside a fountain. Although Golaud is

betrothed to another, he takes Mlisande to be his wife. Golauds half-brother, Pellas meets

Mlisande, and they become enamored with one another. Golaud, now envious, plots to send

Pellas away, but instead murders him and wounds Mlisande. In the conclusion, Mlisande

ultimately dies after giving birth to Golauds son.13 The plot is not so different from that of

nineteenth-century opera, but the symbolic undertones are that of a fin-de-sicle opera.

Debussys Purposes for Composing Pellas et Mlisande

Debussy actively strived to not be overly influenced by the works of Wagner, and began finding

his own compositional style through experimenting with piano music compositions, Prelude to

The Afternoon of a Faun, and through this opera.14 Maeterlincks libretto presented itself as

an antithesis to Wagners Gesamtkunstwerk, a term used to describe a piece that is inclusive of

all art forms.15 Because of this antithesis, Debussys choice to set the libretto to music inevitably

became a reaction to Wagners Tristan und Isolde.16 He once stated that I have tried to prove

[through this opera] that when people sing they can remain human and natural, without ever

having to look like fools or enigmas.17 Debussy also strived to prove that leitmotifs could be

11 Lederer, Debussy, p. 43.


12 Ibid, p. 41.
13 Ibid, p. 44-5.
14 Burkholder, A History of, 792.
15 Lydia Goehr, Radical Modernism and the Failure of Style: Philosophical Reflections on Maeterlinck-
Debussys Pellas et Mlisande, Representations 74, no 1 (2001), p. 59.
16 Burkholder, A History of, 796.
17 Weiss, Opera, p. 264.

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used in a more effective way, and successfully did so. More on this will be elaborated in a later

section.

Following the production of the opera, Debussy constantly defended the philosophy

behind his composition. In one instance he stated, My conception of dramatic art is different.

According to mine, music begins where speech fails.18 In another conversation, Debussy stated

that The drama of Pellas which, despite its atmosphere of dreams, contains much more

humanity than so-called real-life documents seemed to suit my intention admirably. It has an

evocative language whose sensitivity could find its extension in music and in orchestral

setting.19 Indeed, the language of his opera was evocative, most specifically evocative of

symbolism which seeped through the pores of this opera.

Compositional Techniques Used in Pellas et Mlisande

Debussy uses various techniques in Pellas et Mlisande to give a sense of atmosphere and

mood for the opera. Debussy often used modal harmonies and manipulated timbres to give a

specific color and mood to a scene.20 He also uses a very fluent recitative that was suitable and

flowed along with the French language.21 Above all, Debussy utilized the compositional

technique of leitmotifs in his opera.

The Leitmotif

In the wake of Wagners music, the leitmotiv, a technique where a brief harmonic or melodic

motif indicates a person, a stigma, or other notion, became a popular composition technique, and

18 Bernard Williams, On Opera (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006), p. 14.
19 Roger Nichols, Claude Debussy: Pellas et Mlisande (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989), p. 32.
20 Burkholder, A History of, p. 796.
21 Ibid, p. 796.

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Debussy used it grudgingly. In Pellas et Mlisande, two examples of such technique can be

found in the opening act. Debussy introduces a forest theme, using a pentatonic scale, and a

fate theme, which uses the whole-tone scale.22 Moreover, the main characters of the drama;

Golaud, Mlisande, and Pellas; all had leitmotifs.23

Debussy strongly opposes using leitmotifs in the way that Wagner did, most commonly referring

to his music drama Tristan und Isolde. Debussy stated that in Pellas et Mlisande, characters

are not subjected to the slavery of the leitmotif, as a blind man is the slave of his poodle or of

his clarinet!...24 Debussy argues that, in contrast with Wagner, the motifs that he utilizes never

change. For instance, the leitmotif used for Mlisande remains the same throughout the entire

opera.25 In the way Debussy modified the leitmotif, the technique served the purpose of setting

the mood rather than as announcements or foreshadowing that one would expect every time its

character appeared or situation comes up, as Wagner did.26

The Use of Symbolism

Pellas et Mlisande comes from the peak years of symbolist poetry.27 In symbolist poetry,

symbols are objects that represent something else, typically concepts. For instance, water is

often used to represent death, or sometimes life to signify a new beginning or a refreshing. This

example was used frequently by both Maeterlinck and Debussy in Pellas et Mlisande.28

Golaud was a prime source of symbolism in the opera. This is apparent from his first words, I

22 Elliot Antokoletz, Musical Symbolism in the Operas of Debussy and Bartk (New York: Oxford University
Press, 2004), p. 62.
23 Carl Dahlhaus, Nineteenth-Century Music (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989), p. 350.
24 Piero Weiss, Opera: A History in Documents (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), p. 264.
25 Weiss, Opera, p. 264.
26 Lederer, Debussy, p. 45.
27 Lederer, Debussy, p. 44.
28 Ibid, p. 44.

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shall never get out of this forest, which symbolized mankind.29 Golauds character is symbolic

of wealthy and powerful men whose power is merely superficial.30 For example, in a scene with

Golaud and Mlisande, Mlisande threatens suicide by drowning while Golaud offers to retrieve

her crown from the pond, exclaiming Yet it would be very easy to get it out.31

According to Elliot Antokoletz, this opera is based on the struggle between human desire and

fate. Debussy uses his exotic scales to be symbolic of such things. Diatonicism is used to

represent the sphere of human desire, whereas the whole-tone scale is used to symbolize the

fatalistic sphere.32 Also, Debussy utilizes silence frequently throughout this opera. Dahlhaus

states, Language is nothing but a thin veil covering the silence that reigns between the

charactersThe key moments in the drama are those of a sudden hush, when we sense the abyss

separating the characters.33

Production and Reception History

Debussy played an active role in the production of his opera, specifically when it came to

casting. Casting was a troublesome task and ultimately played a role in the reception history of

the opera. Maeterlinck hoped to have his mistress cast as Mlisande.34 However, when the role

went to Scottish soprano Mary Garden, Maeterlinck threatened Debussy, renounced the opera,

and began a lifetime of bitter complaints about Debussy and the opera.35 Debussy had lost the

support of his librettist.

29 Ibid, p. 45.
30 Antokoletz, Musical Symbolism, p. 60.
31 Ibid, 60.
32 Ibid, 70.
33 Dahlhaus, Nineteenth-Century Music, p. 350.
34 Lederer, Debussy, p. 43.
35 Ibid, 44.

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Pellas et Mlisande was first performed on the evening of April 30, 1902. The public reaction

was generally one of disappointment.36 Many stated that the work was too thin, shapeless, and

too indefinite.37 Rimsky-Korsakov stated that the harmonic combinations were

incomprehensible, the orchestra lacked body and firmness of texture, [and] the whole was

monotonous.38 During the Rome performance in March 1909, the audience talked loudly and

exchanged sarcastic remarks so much that it became impossible to hear the music.39 The

orchestra counter-demonstrated their acts by wilding cheering the conductor at the conclusion of

the opera.40

Conclusion

Debussys Pellas et Mlisande proved to be nothing more than mediocre. After Pellas et

Mlisande, Debussy worked on several other operas including plots from Edgar Allan Poe stories

and a reactionary opera to Glucks Orfeo ed Euridice.41 He even thought of recomposing Tristan

und Isolde, but the concept never developed.42

Though the opera was performed internationally around the turn of the century, the opera

was not well received. However, the innovative harmonic choices and the modification of

Wagners leitmotif makes for a unique composition. Debussy emphasized the importance of

sound itself as an element of music, found throughout the opera in its utilization of manipulated

36 Williams, On Opera, p. 90.


37 Ibid, p. 90.
38 Ibid, p. 90.
39 Nichols, Claude Debussy, p. 152.
40 Ibid, 152.
41 Lederer, Debussy, p. 41-2.
42 Goehr, Radical Modernism, p. 62.

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timbre and use of silence. This concept would influence later composers such as Varse, Cage,

Crumb, Penderecki, and other postwar composers.43

Debussys aim for Pellas et Mlisande as a reactionary opera to Wagner was well developed

and quite evident. Under heavy criticism, Debussy always retaliated with his philosophy on

musicMusic is intended to convey the inexpressible.44 The symbolism found in the opera

helped the goal to be achieved successfully.

Like Beethovens Fidelio, Debussys opera made its way into the opera repertory as the only of

its composer. The importance of the philosophy of music is perhaps the most vital aspect of the

drama.

43 Burkholder, A History of, p. 796.


44 Williams, On Opera, p. 14.

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Works Cited

Antokoletz, Elliot. Musical Symbolism in the Operas of Debussy and Bartk. New York:
Oxford University Press, 2004.

Burkholder, J. Peter. A History of Western Music, 9th ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company,
2014.

Dahlhaus, Carl. Nineteenth-Century Music. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989.

Goehr, Lydia. Radical Modernism and the Failure of Style: Philosophical Reflections on
Maeterlinck-Debussys Pellas et Mlisande, Representations, Vol. 74, No. 1 (2001):
55-82.

Grayson, David. The Libretto of Debussys Pelleas et Melisande, Music & Letters Vol. 66,
No. 1 (Jan., 1985): 34-50.

Lederer, Victor. Debussy: The Quiet Revolutionary. New York: Amadeus Press, 2007.

Nichols, Roger. Claude Debussy: Pellas et Mlisande. New York: Cambridge University
Press, 1989.

Weiss, Piero. Opera: A History in Documents. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.

Williams, Bernard. On Opera. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.

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