Pagodes, from Estampes

A major step forward in East-West artistic relations took place at the 1889 Exposition Universelle in Paris, which included numerous displays of Oriental plastic art as well as a performance by a native drumming ensemble (known as gamelan) from the Pacific island of Java. French composer Claude Debussy was one of many musicians who heard the gamelan ensemble, and it almost immediately translated into a personal quest for Eastern sounds, textures, and themes in his own music. The fruits of Debussy’s labor appear most clearly in the three musical postcards called Estampes (Engravings, published 1903), particularly in the first piece Pagodes (Pagodas). It is, in my opinion, one of the composer’s finest piano works, showing his immaculate skill in painting with musical texture, his simple lyricism, and his meticulous attention to details of rhythm and dynamics. The themes of Pagodes generally use the traditional pentatonic scale of Chinese music, though Debussy expands the accompanying chord progressions to follow Western tonal practice. This is music that breathes a different air, suggesting perfumes and misty mountain peaks as backdrop to the distinctive lines of ancient Chinese religious architecture. As it still carries such evocations, one wonders how novel it must have seemed to the first listeners.

(c) Jason Stell