Introduction to Pagodes

INTRODUCTION TO DEBUSSY’S PAGODES

            Claude Debussy’s piece, Pagodes, is an example of impressionist music. This piece is relevant to my investigation because the possible and believed Asian influence of Debussy’s style is reflected highly in this piece, and is one of Debussy’s pieces where the possible influence of traditional Asian music, particularly traditional Japanese music, is most prominent. We can see the tie to traditional Oriental music through Debussy’s use of dissonances, the pentatonic scale, and glissandos at the end of phrases.

            "This piece has three main sections that tends to repeat itself in an interesting structure. The first section, A, stretches from measures 1~32. B, the second section is introduced in measures 33-40 and finally, the third section, C, is played in measures 41-45. Then, the piece repeats these sections in an ABCBA structure followed by transition material and a coda -- creating a macro-structure similar to that of an actual pagoda..." (Vanderburg).

            Here is the link to follow along in this piece as we go further into this investigation of musical links: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lswHSnJ0Rlw