159-626: Cuauhnáhuac is an orchestral composition by the Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas . It exists in three versions, the first for string orchestra, the other two for full orchestra with winds and percussion. The first version takes nearly 15 minutes to perform, while the third lasts only about 11 minutes. In March 1925, Revueltas left Chicago and his wife of five years, Jule Klarasy, who stayed behind with their then three-year-old daughter Carmen. They were divorced in June 1927, by which time Revueltas had accepted
318-515: A Nahuatl word meaning "near the forest" (from quauitl , "tree" and nauac or nahuac , "near"), was the name given by the Tlalhuicas, a people related ethnically to the Aztecs, to the capital of their province of Tlahuican. The name was deformed into Cuernavaca ("cow horn") by the invading Spanish in the 16th century. The Aztec emperor Moctezuma II is said to have had a country palace there, and when he
477-410: A Romantic music repertoire such as the symphonies of Ludwig van Beethoven and Johannes Brahms . The typical orchestra grew in size throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, reaching a peak with the large orchestras of as many as 120 players called for in the works of Richard Wagner and later Gustav Mahler . Orchestras are usually led by a conductor who directs the performance with movements of
636-519: A musical score , which contains all the instrument parts. The conductor uses the score to study the symphony before rehearsals and decide on their interpretation (e.g., tempos, articulation, phrasing, etc.), and to follow the music during rehearsals and concerts, while leading the ensemble. Orchestral musicians play from parts containing just the notated music for their instrument. A small number of symphonies also contain vocal parts (e.g., Beethoven 's Ninth Symphony ). Orchestras also perform overtures ,
795-411: A 1911 interview with Henry Malherbe : I have made mysterious Nature my religion ... When I gaze at a sunset sky and spend hours contemplating its marvellous ever-changing beauty, an extraordinary emotion overwhelms me. Nature in all its vastness is truthfully reflected in my sincere though feeble soul. Around me are the trees stretching up their branches to the skies, the perfumed flowers gladdening
954-625: A brief visit to London, the couple returned to Paris in September, buying a house in a courtyard development off the Avenue du Bois de Boulogne (now Avenue Foch ), Debussy's home for the rest of his life. In October 1905 La mer , Debussy's most substantial orchestral work, was premiered in Paris by the Orchestre Lamoureux under the direction of Camille Chevillard ; the reception was mixed. Some praised
1113-470: A chilly if not hostile reception. Revueltas's Cuauhnáhuac fared better when it was premiered in 1933, due to its less obvious and rather parodic Indianist content. Cuauhnáhuac is regarded as the work with which Revueltas began his most productive compositional phase, a composition which already displays the qualities that define his personal style. It has been described as "a carefully constructed composition showing an inexhaustible melodic imagination and
1272-413: A conductor, although early orchestras did not have one, giving this role to the concertmaster or the harpsichordist playing the continuo . Some modern orchestras also do without conductors , particularly smaller orchestras and those specializing in historically accurate (so-called "period") performances of baroque and earlier music. The most frequently performed repertoire for a symphony orchestra
1431-514: A consensus that faking may be acceptable when a part is not written well for the instrument, but faking "just because you haven't practised" the music is not acceptable. With the advent of the early music movement, smaller orchestras where players worked on execution of works in styles derived from the study of older treatises on playing became common. These include the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment ,
1590-427: A contrary view that the accolade belongs to the ballet score Jeux . The latter failed as a ballet because of what Jann Pasler describes as a banal scenario, and the score was neglected for some years. Recent analysts have found it a link between traditional continuity and thematic growth within a score and the desire to create discontinuity in a way mirrored in later 20th century music. In this piece, Debussy abandoned
1749-412: A deeper sort". In a 2004 study, Mark DeVoto comments that Debussy's early works are harmonically no more adventurous than existing music by Fauré; in a 2007 book about the piano works, Margery Halford observes that Two Arabesques (1888–1891) and "Rêverie" (1890) have "the fluidity and warmth of Debussy's later style" but are not harmonically innovative. Halford cites the popular "Clair de Lune" (1890),
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#17330851268511908-454: A five-act musical play to a text by Gabriele D'Annunzio that took nearly five hours in performance, was not a success, and the music is now more often heard in a concert (or studio) adaptation with narrator, or as an orchestral suite of "Fragments symphoniques". Debussy enlisted the help of André Caplet in orchestrating and arranging the score. Two late stage works, the ballets Khamma (1912) and La boîte à joujoux (1913), were left with
2067-468: A flat in a different arrondissement . On 14 October, five days before their fifth wedding anniversary, Lilly Debussy attempted suicide, shooting herself in the chest with a revolver; she survived, although the bullet remained lodged in her vertebrae for the rest of her life. The ensuing scandal caused Bardac's family to disown her, and Debussy lost many good friends including Dukas and Messager. His relations with Ravel, never close, were exacerbated when
2226-522: A given performance may vary from seventy to over one hundred, depending on the work being played and the venue size. A chamber orchestra (sometimes a concert orchestra ) is a smaller ensemble of not more than about fifty musicians. Orchestras that specialize in the Baroque music of, for example, Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel , or Classical repertoire, such as that of Haydn and Mozart , tend to be smaller than orchestras performing
2385-410: A great blow when another turn in his private life caused a scandal the following year. One of his pupils was Raoul Bardac , son of Emma and her husband, Parisian banker Sigismond Bardac. Raoul introduced his teacher to his mother, to whom Debussy quickly became greatly attracted. She was sophisticated, a brilliant conversationalist, an accomplished singer, and relaxed about marital fidelity, having been
2544-553: A hundred, but the actual number of musicians employed in a particular performance may vary according to the work being played and the size of the venue. A chamber orchestra is usually a smaller ensemble; a major chamber orchestra might employ as many as fifty musicians, but some are much smaller. Concert orchestra is an alternative term, as in the BBC Concert Orchestra and the RTÉ Concert Orchestra . Apart from
2703-507: A job as pianist in the household of Nadezhda von Meck , the patroness of Tchaikovsky . He travelled with her family for the summers of 1880 to 1882, staying at various places in France, Switzerland and Italy, as well as at her home in Moscow. He composed his Piano Trio in G major for von Meck's ensemble, and made a transcription for piano duet of three dances from Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake . At
2862-478: A kind of art, in fact, which seemed to reach out into all aspects of experience". In 1988 the composer and scholar Wilfrid Mellers wrote of Debussy: Because of, rather than in spite of, his preoccupation with chords in themselves, he deprived music of the sense of harmonic progression, broke down three centuries' dominance of harmonic tonality, and showed how the melodic conceptions of tonality typical of primitive folk-music and of medieval music might be relevant to
3021-415: A live performance, could be heard by critics. As recording technologies improved over the 20th and 21st centuries, eventually small errors in a recording could be "fixed" by audio editing or overdubbing . Some older conductors and composers could remember a time when simply "getting through" the music as well as possible was the standard. Combined with the wider audience made possible by recording, this led to
3180-501: A masterful use of counterpoint", and praised for "the extraordinary vitality of all the voices, the striking contrasts of instrumental coloring, and the superposition of different harmonic planes". An especially admired trait is its instinctual quality, which enables Revueltas to invest the music "with fresh compositional intent, a primary character or dislocated cubism which, as collage , arises spontaneously in his work". However, not all reception has been uncritically enthusiastic. When
3339-846: A modified member of the horn family, appears in Richard Wagner 's cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen and several other works by Strauss, Igor Stravinsky (as featured in The Rite of Spring ), Béla Bartók , and others; it also has a notably prominent role in Anton Bruckner 's Symphony No. 7 in E ;Major . Cornets appear in Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky 's ballet Swan Lake , Claude Debussy 's La Mer , and several orchestral works by Hector Berlioz . Unless these instruments are played by members "doubling" on another instrument (for example,
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#17330851268513498-564: A more restrained style. He wrote his own poems for the Proses lyriques (1892–1893) but, in the view of the musical scholar Robert Orledge , "his literary talents were not on a par with his musical imagination". The musicologist Jacques-Gabriel Prod'homme wrote that, together with La Demoiselle élue , the Ariettes oubliées and the Cinq poèmes de Charles Baudelaire (1889) show "the new, strange way which
3657-499: A new ballet score, Jeux . That, and the three Images , premiered the following year, were the composer's last orchestral works. Jeux was unfortunate in its timing: two weeks after the premiere, in March 1913, Diaghilev presented the first performance of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring , a sensational event that monopolised discussion in musical circles, and effectively sidelined Jeux along with Fauré's Pénélope , which had opened
3816-522: A particular city or region. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ὀρχήστρα ( orchestra ), the name for the area in front of a stage in ancient Greek theatre reserved for the Greek chorus . In the Baroque era, the size and composition of an orchestra were not standardised. There were large differences in size, instrumentation and playing styles—and therefore in orchestral soundscapes and palettes — between
3975-567: A pedagogic exterior, these 12 pieces explore abstract intervals, or – in the last five – the sonorities and timbres peculiar to the piano." In 1914 Debussy started work on a planned set of six sonatas for various instruments . His fatal illness prevented him from completing the set, but those for cello and piano (1915), flute, viola and harp (1915), and violin and piano (1917 – his last completed work) are all concise, three-movement pieces, more diatonic in nature than some of his other late works. Le Martyre de saint Sébastien (1911), originally
4134-624: A permanent member who is sick. A professional musician who is hired to perform for a single concert is sometimes called a "sub". Some contract musicians may be hired to replace permanent members for the period that the permanent member is on parental leave or disability leave. Historically, major professional orchestras have been mostly or entirely composed of men. The first women members hired in professional orchestras have been harpists . The Vienna Philharmonic , for example, did not accept women to permanent membership until 1997, far later than comparable orchestras (the other orchestras ranked among
4293-415: A pervasive, dissonant polytonality. Some of the motives are diatonic, some are pentatonic, others use the whole-tone scale , while the opening section uses all twelve tones of the chromatic scale. The middle section (b. 165–214) creates a strong contrast with what went before (and will come after) by turning to a tranquil mood and exclusively A-minor pentatonic material. This persistence of a single tonality
4452-598: A printing factory. In 1870, to escape the siege of Paris during the Franco-Prussian War , Debussy's pregnant mother took him and his sister Adèle to their paternal aunt's home in Cannes , where they remained until the following year. During his stay in Cannes, the seven-year-old Debussy had his first piano lessons; his aunt paid for him to study with an Italian musician, Jean Cerutti. Manuel Debussy remained in Paris and joined
4611-460: A prominent civil servant, and much younger than her husband. She soon became Debussy's lover as well as his muse. Whether Vasnier was content to tolerate his wife's affair with the young student or was simply unaware of it is not clear, but he and Debussy remained on excellent terms, and he continued to encourage the composer in his career. At the Conservatoire, Debussy incurred the disapproval of
4770-444: A railway station, and, once inside, would mistake it for a Turkish bath"), conductors (" Nikisch is a unique virtuoso, so much so that his virtuosity seems to make him forget the claims of good taste"), musical politics ("The English actually think that a musician can manage an opera house successfully!"), and audiences ("their almost drugged expression of boredom, indifference and even stupidity"). He later collected his criticisms with
4929-405: A range of different employment arrangements. The most sought-after positions are permanent, tenured positions in the orchestra. Orchestras also hire musicians on contracts, ranging in length from a single concert to a full season or more. Contract performers may be hired for individual concerts when the orchestra is doing an exceptionally large late-Romantic era orchestral work, or to substitute for
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5088-412: A renewed focus on particular star conductors and on a high standard of orchestral execution. The typical symphony orchestra consists of four groups of related musical instruments called the woodwinds , brass , percussion , and strings . Other instruments such as the piano, accordion , and celesta may sometimes be grouped into a fifth section such as a keyboard section or may stand alone, as may
5247-420: A strong percussive background, show the emergence of a personal style of composition. An rudimentary example of superposed harmonic levels occurs at rehearsal 45, where the winds and xylophone play a memorable gentle melody in E ♭ major, accompanied by the cellos in G major. The work is simple in overall form, but complex in the organization of its component sections. It is tripartite in structure, though
5406-601: A superfluous note"; Pierre Boulez observed, "Modern music was awakened by Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune ". Most of the major works for which Debussy is best known were written between the mid-1890s and the mid-1900s. They include the String Quartet (1893), Pelléas et Mélisande (1893–1902), the Nocturnes for Orchestra (1899) and La mer (1903–1905). The suite Pour le piano (1894–1901) is, in Halford's view, one of
5565-636: A teaching post at the College of Music in San Antonio, Texas. There he met Aurora Murguía, the widow of Mexican revolutionary General Francisco Murguía [ es ] , and they soon were living together. Late in 1928, Revueltas received an invitation from Carlos Chávez offering him a position teaching violin and conducting the student Orchestra in the National Conservatory in Mexico City, as well as
5724-437: A term originally applied to the instrumental introduction to an opera. During the early Romantic era, composers such as Beethoven and Mendelssohn began to use the term to refer to independent, self-existing instrumental, programmatic works that presaged genres such as the symphonic poem , a form devised by Franz Liszt in several works that began as dramatic overtures. These were "at first undoubtedly intended to be played at
5883-458: A trend toward donors finding other social causes more compelling. While government funding is less central to American than European orchestras, cuts in such funding are still significant for American ensembles. Finally, the drastic drop in revenues from recording, related to changes in the recording industry itself, began a period of change that has yet to reach its conclusion. U.S. orchestras that have gone into Chapter 11 bankruptcy include
6042-461: A trombone player changing to euphonium or a bassoon player switching to contrabassoon for a certain passage), orchestras typically hire freelance musicians to augment their regular ensemble. The 20th century orchestra was far more flexible than its predecessors. In Beethoven's and Felix Mendelssohn 's time, the orchestra was composed of a fairly standard core of instruments, which was very rarely modified by composers. As time progressed, and as
6201-490: A variety of amateur orchestras: Orchestras play a wide range of repertoire ranging from 17th-century dance suites , 18th century divertimentos to 20th-century film scores and 21st-century symphonies. Orchestras have become synonymous with the symphony , an extended musical composition in Western classical music that typically contains multiple movements which provide contrasting keys and tempos. Symphonies are notated in
6360-540: A view to their publication as a book; it was published after his death as Monsieur Croche, Antidilettante . In January 1902 rehearsals began at the Opéra-Comique for the opening of Pelléas et Mélisande . For three months, Debussy attended rehearsals practically every day. In February there was conflict between Maeterlinck on the one hand and Debussy, Messager and Carré on the other about the casting of Mélisande. Maeterlinck wanted his mistress, Georgette Leblanc , to sing
6519-440: A week before. In 1915 Debussy underwent one of the earliest colostomy operations. It achieved only a temporary respite, and occasioned him considerable frustration ("There are mornings when the effort of dressing seems like one of the twelve labours of Hercules"). He also had a fierce enemy at this period in the form of Camille Saint-Saëns , who in a letter to Fauré condemned Debussy's En blanc et noir : "It's incredible, and
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6678-436: A wide range of repertoire, including symphonies, opera and ballet overtures , concertos for solo instruments, and pit ensembles for operas, ballets, and some types of musical theatre (e.g., Gilbert and Sullivan operettas ). Amateur orchestras include youth orchestras made up of students from an elementary school, a high school, or a university, and community orchestras; typically they are made up of amateur musicians from
6837-429: A year, succumbing to the diphtheria epidemic of 1919. Mary Garden said, "I honestly don't know if Debussy ever loved anybody really. He loved his music – and perhaps himself. I think he was wrapped up in his genius", but biographers are agreed that whatever his relations with lovers and friends, Debussy was devoted to his daughter. Debussy and Emma Bardac eventually married in 1908, their troubled union enduring for
6996-469: Is La Damoiselle élue , recasting the traditional form for oratorios and cantatas, using a chamber orchestra and a small body of choral tone and using new or long-neglected scales and harmonies. His early mélodies , inspired by Marie Vasnier, are more virtuosic in character than his later works in the genre, with extensive wordless vocalise ; from the Ariettes oubliées (1885–1887) onwards he developed
7155-400: Is Western classical music or opera. However, orchestras are used sometimes in popular music (e.g., to accompany a rock or pop band in a concert), extensively in film music , and increasingly often in video game music . Orchestras are also used in the symphonic metal genre. The term "orchestra" can also be applied to a jazz ensemble, for example in the performance of big-band music. In
7314-417: Is called for in a string section, the section leader invariably plays that part. The section leader (or principal) of a string section is also responsible for determining the bowings, often based on the bowings set out by the concertmaster. In some cases, the principal of a string section may use a slightly different bowing than the concertmaster, to accommodate the requirements of playing their instrument (e.g.,
7473-489: Is not certain that Debussy, who was apt to skip classes, actually attended these. At the Conservatoire, Debussy initially made good progress. Marmontel said of him, "A charming child, a truly artistic temperament; much can be expected of him". Another teacher was less impressed: Émile Durand wrote in a report, "Debussy would be an excellent pupil if he were less sketchy and less cavalier." A year later he described Debussy as "desperately careless". In July 1874 Debussy received
7632-633: Is uncharacteristic for Revueltas's music, and may occur here in order to project more plainly the calmness of the Indian aspect of the work by avoiding complex rhythmic and tonal configurations, in contrast to the mestizo elements of the two outer sections. By 1928, it had become clear that Mexican critics, performers, and the public favoured a musical nationalism based on popular rather than imagined pre-Columbian styles. When Chávez's Indianist ballets El fuego nuevo (1921) and Los cuatro soles (1925) were first performed in 1928 and 1930, respectively, they were given
7791-588: The "Eroica" Symphony arrives to provide not only some harmonic flexibility but also the effect of "choral" brass in the Trio movement. Piccolo , contrabassoon , and trombones add to the triumphal finale of his Symphony No. 5 . A piccolo and a pair of trombones help deliver the effect of storm and sunshine in the Sixth , also known as the Pastoral Symphony . The Ninth asks for a second pair of horns, for reasons similar to
7950-633: The Fantaisie for piano and orchestra, which was heavily based on Franck's music and was eventually withdrawn by Debussy. The Academy chided him for writing music that was "bizarre, incomprehensible and unperformable". Although Debussy's works showed the influence of Jules Massenet , the latter concluded, "He is an enigma". During his years in Rome Debussy composed – not for the Academy – most of his Verlaine cycle, Ariettes oubliées , which made little impact at
8109-623: The London Classical Players under the direction of Sir Roger Norrington and the Academy of Ancient Music under Christopher Hogwood , among others. In the United States, the late 20th century saw a crisis of funding and support for orchestras. The size and cost of a symphony orchestra, compared to the size of the base of supporters, became an issue that struck at the core of the institution. Few orchestras could fill auditoriums, and
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#17330851268518268-1035: The Philadelphia Orchestra (April 2011), and the Louisville Orchestra (December 2010); orchestras that have gone into Chapter 7 bankruptcy and have ceased operations include the Northwest Chamber Orchestra in 2006, the Honolulu Orchestra in March ;2011, the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra in April 2011, and the Syracuse Symphony in June ;2011. The Festival of Orchestras in Orlando, Florida, ceased operations at
8427-598: The Symbolist poetic movement of the later 19th century. A small number of works, including the early La Damoiselle élue and the late Le Martyre de saint Sébastien have important parts for chorus. In his final years, he focused on chamber music, completing three of six planned sonatas for different combinations of instruments . With early influences including Russian and Far Eastern music and works by Chopin , Debussy developed his own style of harmony and orchestral colouring, derided – and unsuccessfully resisted – by much of
8586-457: The Trocadéro , fulfilling his wish to rest "among the trees and the birds"; his wife and daughter are buried with him. In a survey of Debussy's oeuvre shortly after the composer's death, the critic Ernest Newman wrote, "It would be hardly too much to say that Debussy spent a third of his life in the discovery of himself, a third in the free and happy realisation of himself, and the final third in
8745-477: The bassline ), played an important role; the second is a typical classical period orchestra (e.g., early Beethoven along with Mozart and Haydn ), which used a smaller group of performers than a Romantic music orchestra and a fairly standardized instrumentation; the third is typical of an early/mid-Romantic era (e.g., Schubert , Berlioz , Schumann , Brahms ); the fourth is a late-Romantic/early 20th-century orchestra (e.g., Wagner , Mahler , Stravinsky ), to
8904-440: The concert harp and electric and electronic instruments. The orchestra, depending on the size, contains almost all of the standard instruments in each group. In the history of the orchestra, its instrumentation has been expanded over time, often agreed to have been standardized by the classical period and Ludwig van Beethoven 's influence on the classical model. In the 20th and 21st century, new repertory demands expanded
9063-464: The piano , harpsichord , pipe organ , and celesta may sometimes appear in a fifth keyboard section or may stand alone as soloist instruments, as may the concert harp and, for performances of some modern compositions, electronic instruments , and guitars . A full-size Western orchestra may sometimes be called a symphony orchestra or philharmonic orchestra (from Greek phil- , "loving", and "harmony"). The number of musicians employed in
9222-552: The whole-tone scale he had often favoured previously in favour of the octatonic scale with what the Debussy scholar François Lesure describes as its tonal ambiguities. Among the late piano works are two books of Préludes (1909–10, 1911–13), short pieces that depict a wide range of subjects. Lesure comments that they range from the frolics of minstrels at Eastbourne in 1905 and the American acrobat "General Lavine" "to dead leaves and
9381-426: The "Eroica" (four horns has since become standard); Beethoven's use of piccolo, contrabassoon, trombones, and untuned percussion—plus chorus and vocal soloists—in his finale, are his earliest suggestion that the timbral boundaries of the symphony might be expanded. For several decades after his death, symphonic instrumentation was faithful to Beethoven's well-established model, with few exceptions. The invention of
9540-464: The "great unmentionable [topics] of orchestral playing" is " faking ", the process by which an orchestral musician gives the false "... impression of playing every note as written", typically for a very challenging passage that is very high or very fast, while not actually playing the notes that are in the printed music part. An article in The Strad states that all orchestral musicians, even those in
9699-458: The 14 performances in the first run), were loud in their support; the conservative faculty of the Conservatoire tried in vain to stop its students from seeing the opera. The vocal score was published in early May, and the full orchestral score in 1904. In 1903 there was public recognition of Debussy's stature when he was appointed a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur , but his social standing suffered
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#17330851268519858-606: The 19th century is generally attributed to the forces called for by Beethoven after Haydn and Mozart. Beethoven's instrumentation almost always included paired flutes , oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns and trumpets. The exceptions are his Symphony No. 4 , Violin Concerto , and Piano Concerto No. 4 , which each specify a single flute. Beethoven carefully calculated the expansion of this particular timbral "palette" in Symphonies 3, 5, 6, and 9 for an innovative effect. The third horn in
10017-406: The 2000s, all tenured members of a professional orchestra normally audition for positions in the ensemble. Performers typically play one or more solo pieces of the auditionee's choice, such as a movement of a concerto, a solo Bach movement, and a variety of excerpts from the orchestral literature that are advertised in the audition poster (so the auditionees can prepare). The excerpts are typically
10176-505: The 20th century". The composer Olivier Messiaen was fascinated by its "extraordinary harmonic qualities and ... transparent instrumental texture". The opera is composed in what Alan Blyth describes as a sustained and heightened recitative style, with "sensuous, intimate" vocal lines. It influenced composers as different as Stravinsky and Puccini . Orledge describes the Nocturnes as exceptionally varied in texture, "ranging from
10335-675: The Classical era, as composers increasingly sought out financial support from the general public, orchestra concerts were increasingly held in public concert halls , where music lovers could buy tickets to hear the orchestra. Aristocratic patronage of orchestras continued during the Classical era, but this went on alongside public concerts. In the 20th and 21st century, orchestras found a new patron: governments. Many orchestras in North America and Europe receive part of their funding from national, regional level governments (e.g., state governments in
10494-580: The Musorgskian start of 'Nuages', through the approaching brass band procession in 'Fêtes', to the wordless female chorus in 'Sirènes ' ". Orledge considers the last a pre-echo of the marine textures of La mer . Estampes for piano (1903) gives impressions of exotic locations, with further echoes of the gamelan in its pentatonic structures. Debussy believed that since Beethoven, the traditional symphonic form had become formulaic, repetitive and obsolete. The three-part, cyclic symphony by César Franck (1888)
10653-517: The Romantic period saw changes in accepted modification with composers such as Berlioz and Mahler; some composers used multiple harps and sound effect such as the wind machine . During the 20th century, the modern orchestra was generally standardized with the modern instrumentation listed below. Nevertheless, by the mid- to late 20th century, with the development of contemporary classical music , instrumentation could practically be hand-picked by
10812-472: The U.S.) or city governments. These government subsidies make up part of orchestra revenue, along with ticket sales, charitable donations (if the orchestra is registered as a charity) and other fundraising activities. With the invention of successive technologies, including sound recording , radio broadcasting , television broadcasting and Internet-based streaming and downloading of concert videos, orchestras have been able to find new revenue sources. One of
10971-763: The VPO now uses completely screened blind auditions . In 2013, an article in Mother Jones stated that while "[m]any prestigious orchestras have significant female membership — women outnumber men in the New York Philharmonic 's violin section — and several renowned ensembles, including the National Symphony Orchestra , the Detroit Symphony , and the Minnesota Symphony, are led by women violinists",
11130-606: The age of ten to France's leading music college, the Conservatoire de Paris . He originally studied the piano, but found his vocation in innovative composition, despite the disapproval of the Conservatoire's conservative professors. He took many years to develop his mature style, and was nearly 40 when he achieved international fame in 1902 with the only opera he completed, Pelléas et Mélisande . Debussy's orchestral works include Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune (1894), Nocturnes (1897–1899) and Images (1905–1912). His music
11289-460: The assessors at the Conservatoire first applied it, opprobriously, to his early work Printemps . Langham Smith comments that Debussy wrote many piano pieces with titles evocative of nature – "Reflets dans l'eau" (1905), "Les Sons et les parfums tournent dans l'air du soir" (1910) and "Brouillards" (1913) – and suggests that the Impressionist painters' use of brush-strokes and dots is paralleled in
11448-418: The award of deuxième accessit for his performance as soloist in the first movement of Chopin's Second Piano Concerto at the Conservatoire's annual competition. He was a fine pianist and an outstanding sight reader , who could have had a professional career had he wished, but he was only intermittently diligent in his studies. He advanced to premier accessit in 1875 and second prize in 1877, but failed at
11607-410: The case of the first violins, an assistant concertmaster, who often plays a tutti part in addition to replacing the principal in their absence. A section string player plays in unison with the rest of the section, except in the case of divided ( divisi ) parts, where upper and lower parts in the music are often assigned to "outside" (nearer the audience) and "inside" seated players. Where a solo part
11766-416: The classical era, the orchestra became more standardized with a small to medium-sized string section and a core wind section consisting of pairs of oboes, flutes, bassoons and horns, sometimes supplemented by percussion and pairs of clarinets and trumpets. The so-called "standard complement" of doubled winds and brass in the orchestra pioneered in the late 18th century and consolidated during the first half of
11925-802: The committee of the Société Nationale de Musique in 1893. His String Quartet was premiered by the Ysaÿe string quartet at the Société Nationale in the same year. In May 1893 Debussy attended a theatrical event that was of key importance to his later career – the premiere of Maurice Maeterlinck 's play Pelléas et Mélisande , which he immediately determined to turn into an opera. He travelled to Maeterlinck's home in Ghent in November to secure his consent to an operatic adaptation. In February 1894 Debussy completed
12084-498: The common complement of a 2010-era modern orchestra (e.g., Adams , Barber , Aaron Copland , Glass , Penderecki ). Among the instrument groups and within each group of instruments, there is a generally accepted hierarchy. Every instrumental group (or section) has a principal who is generally responsible for leading the group and playing orchestral solos. The violins are divided into two groups, first violin and second violin, with
12243-632: The competitions in 1878 and 1879. These failures made him ineligible to continue in the Conservatoire's piano classes, but he remained a student for harmony, solfège and, later, composition. With Marmontel's help Debussy secured a summer vacation job in 1879 as resident pianist at the Château de Chenonceau , where he rapidly acquired a taste for luxury that was to remain with him all his life. His first compositions date from this period, two settings of poems by Alfred de Musset : "Ballade à la lune" and "Madrid, princesse des Espagnes". The following year he secured
12402-406: The composer (e.g., to add electric instruments such as electric guitar, electronic instruments such as synthesizers, ondes martenot , or trautonium , as well as other non-Western instruments, or other instruments not traditionally used in orchestras including the: bandoneon , free bass accordion , harmonica , jews harp , mandola and water percussion. With this history in mind,
12561-499: The composer. The first version of Cuauhnáhuac was for string orchestra. The second version is unpublished and the scoring unknown. The third, published version is scored for a full orchestra of piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, cor anglais, E ♭ clarinet, 2 B ♭ clarinets, bass clarinet, 3 bassoons, 4 horns, 4 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, percussion (4 players: woodblock, bomba [or bass drum], 2 Indian drums, cymbals, xylophone, 2 tambourines, gong), and strings. "Cuauhnáhuac",
12720-492: The composer. This too made an impression on him, and its harmonic freedom and non-Teutonic tone colours influenced his own developing musical style. Marie Vasnier ended her liaison with Debussy soon after his final return from Rome, although they remained on good enough terms for him to dedicate to her one more song, "Mandoline", in 1890. Later in 1890 Debussy met Erik Satie , who proved a kindred spirit in his experimental approach to composition. Both were bohemians , enjoying
12879-413: The conductor and the panel to compare the best candidates. Performers may be asked to sight read orchestral music. The final stage of the audition process in some orchestras is a test week , in which the performer plays with the orchestra for a week or two, which allows the conductor and principal players to see if the individual can function well in an actual rehearsal and performance setting. There are
13038-662: The conductor of the theatre orchestra, as he elaborated in his influential work On Conducting . This brought about a revolution in orchestral composition and set the style for orchestral performance for the next eighty years. Wagner's theories re-examined the importance of tempo , dynamics , bowing of string instruments and the role of principals in the orchestra. At the beginning of the 20th century, symphony orchestras were larger, better funded, and better trained than previously; consequently, composers could compose larger and more ambitious works. The works of Gustav Mahler were particularly innovative; in his later symphonies, such as
13197-443: The core orchestral complement, various other instruments are called for occasionally. These include the flugelhorn and cornet . Saxophones and classical guitars, for example, appear in some 19th- through 21st-century scores. While appearing only as featured solo instruments in some works, for example Maurice Ravel 's orchestration of Modest Mussorgsky 's Pictures at an Exhibition and Sergei Rachmaninoff 's Symphonic Dances ,
13356-522: The door of the Institut [de France] must at all costs be barred against a man capable of such atrocities". Saint-Saëns had been a member of the Institut since 1881: Debussy never became one. His health continued to decline; he gave his final concert on 14 September 1917 and became bedridden in early 1918. Debussy died of colon cancer on 25 March 1918 at his home. The First World War was still raging and Paris
13515-436: The double bass, brass, and percussion sections of major orchestras "... are still predominantly male." A 2014 BBC article stated that the "... introduction of 'blind' auditions, where a prospective instrumentalist performs behind a screen so that the judging panel can exercise no gender or racial prejudice, has seen the gender balance of traditionally male-dominated symphony orchestras gradually shift." There are also
13674-400: The double-bass section). Principals of a string section will also lead entrances for their section, typically by lifting the bow before the entrance, to ensure the section plays together. Tutti wind and brass players generally play a unique but non-solo part. Section percussionists play parts assigned to them by the principal percussionist. In modern times, the musicians are usually directed by
13833-549: The emphasis is on the overall impression rather than outline or clarity of detail, as in works by Monet , Pissarro , Renoir and others. Langham Smith writes that the term became transferred to the compositions of Debussy and others which were "concerned with the representation of landscape or natural phenomena, particularly the water and light imagery dear to Impressionists, through subtle textures suffused with instrumental colour". Among painters, Debussy particularly admired Turner , but also drew inspiration from Whistler . With
13992-406: The end of 1880 Debussy, while continuing his studies at the Conservatoire, was engaged as accompanist for Marie Moreau-Sainti's singing class; he took this role for four years. Among the members of the class was Marie Vasnier; Debussy was greatly taken with her, and she inspired him to compose: he wrote 27 songs dedicated to her during their seven-year relationship. She was the wife of Henri Vasnier,
14151-502: The end of March 2011. Claude Debussy ( Achille ) Claude Debussy ( French: [aʃil klod dəbysi] ; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influential composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born to a family of modest means and little cultural involvement, Debussy showed enough musical talent to be admitted at
14310-467: The ending "so incongruous as to turn the whole thing into a joke, amusing enough, but leaving, if not a rather bad taste in the ear, at least an unpleasant sound in the mouth". Orchestra An orchestra ( / ˈ ɔːr k ɪ s t r ə / ; OR -ki-strə ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: Other instruments such as
14469-610: The faculty, particularly his composition teacher, Guiraud, for his failure to follow the orthodox rules of composition then prevailing. Nevertheless, in 1884 Debussy won France's most prestigious musical award, the Prix de Rome , with his cantata L'enfant prodigue . The Prix carried with it a residence at the Villa Medici , the French Academy in Rome , to further the winner's studies. Debussy
14628-530: The first draft of Pelléas and began efforts to get it staged. In May 1898 he made his first contacts with André Messager and Albert Carré , respectively the musical director and general manager of the Opéra-Comique , Paris, about presenting the opera. Debussy abandoned Dupont for her friend Marie-Rosalie Texier, known as "Lilly", whom he married in October 1899, after threatening suicide if she refused him. She
14787-429: The first draft of Act I of his operatic version of Pelléas et Mélisande , and for most of the year worked to complete the work. While still living with Dupont, he had an affair with the singer Thérèse Roger, and in 1894 he announced their engagement. His behaviour was widely condemned; anonymous letters circulated denouncing his treatment of both women, as well as his financial irresponsibility and debts. The engagement
14946-786: The first examples of the mature Debussy as a composer for the piano: "a major landmark ... and an enlargement of the use of piano sonorities". In the String Quartet (1893), the gamelan sonorities Debussy had heard four years earlier are recalled in the pizzicatos and cross-rhythms of the scherzo . Debussy's biographer Edward Lockspeiser comments that this movement shows the composer's rejection of "the traditional dictum that string instruments should be predominantly lyrical". The work influenced Ravel, whose own String Quartet , written ten years later, has noticeably Debussian features. The academic and journalist Stephen Walsh calls Pelléas et Mélisande (begun 1893, staged 1902) "a key work for
15105-417: The first movement. The reviews were sharply divided. Some critics thought the treatment less subtle and less mysterious than his previous works, and even a step backward; others praised its "power and charm", its "extraordinary verve and brilliant fantasy", and its strong colours and definite lines. Of the later orchestral works, Images (1905–1912) is better known than Jeux (1913). The former follows
15264-434: The first systematic treatise on using instrumental sound as an expressive element of music. The next major expansion of symphonic practice came from Richard Wagner 's Bayreuth orchestra, founded to accompany his musical dramas. Wagner's works for the stage were scored with unprecedented scope and complexity: indeed, his score to Das Rheingold calls for six harps . Thus, Wagner envisioned an ever-more-demanding role for
15423-416: The first violin section – commonly called the concertmaster – also plays an important role in leading the musicians. In the Baroque music era (1600–1750), orchestras were often led by the concertmaster, or by a chord-playing musician performing the basso continuo parts on a harpsichord or pipe organ , a tradition that some 20th-century and 21st-century early music ensembles continue. Orchestras play
15582-459: The following year. Like many other composers of the time, Debussy supplemented his income by teaching and writing. For most of 1901 he had a sideline as music critic of La Revue Blanche , adopting the pen name "Monsieur Croche". He expressed trenchant views on composers ("I hate sentimentality – his name is Camille Saint-Saëns "), institutions (on the Paris Opéra: "A stranger would take it for
15741-496: The forces of the Commune ; after its defeat by French government troops in 1871 he was sentenced to four years' imprisonment, of which he only served one year. His fellow Communard prisoners included his friend Charles de Sivry, a musician. Sivry's mother, Antoinette Mauté de Fleurville, gave piano lessons, and at his instigation the young Debussy became one of her pupils. Debussy's talents soon became evident, and in 1872, aged ten, he
15900-577: The full range of orchestral sounds and timbres during the performance of orthodox Western classical music. The terms symphony orchestra and philharmonic orchestra may be used to distinguish different ensembles from the same locality, such as the London Symphony Orchestra and the London Philharmonic Orchestra . A symphony or philharmonic orchestra will usually have over eighty musicians on its roster, in some cases over
16059-439: The hands and arms, often made easier for the musicians to see by using a short wooden rod known as a conductor's baton . The conductor unifies the orchestra, sets the tempo , and shapes the sound of the ensemble. The conductor also prepares the orchestra by leading rehearsals before the public concert, in which the conductor provides instructions to the musicians on their interpretation of the music being performed. The leader of
16218-543: The head of a programme". In the 1850s the concert overture began to be supplanted by the symphonic poem. Orchestras also play with instrumental soloists in concertos. During concertos, the orchestra plays an accompaniment role to the soloist (e.g., a solo violinist or pianist) and, at times, introduces musical themes or interludes while the soloist is not playing. Orchestras also play during operas, ballets, some musical theatre works and some choral works (both sacred works such as Masses and secular works). In operas and ballets,
16377-445: The influence of Claude Debussy with that of Stravinsky. Like many of Revueltas's single-movement works, it is cast in a tripartite form, in which the atonal opening character returns in the chromatic concluding part. In between comes a contrasting pentatonic middle section. Although it bears the markings of inspiration of Romanticism , its essentially dissonant character, produced by the superposition of different harmonic levels and
16536-553: The instrumentation of the orchestra, resulting in a flexible use of the classical-model instruments and newly developed electric and electronic instruments in various combinations. In the mid 20th century, several attempts were made in Germany and the United States to confine the instrumentation of the symphonic orchestra exclusively to groups of one instrument. In this configuration, the symphonic orchestra consisted entirely of free-reed chromatic accordions which were modified to recreate
16695-400: The latter in mind the composer wrote to the violinist Eugène Ysaÿe in 1894 describing the orchestral Nocturnes as "an experiment in the different combinations that can be obtained from one colour – what a study in grey would be in painting." Debussy strongly objected to the use of the word "Impressionism" for his (or anybody else's) music, but it has continually been attached to him since
16854-570: The latter joined other former friends of Debussy in contributing to a fund to support the deserted Lilly. The Bardacs divorced in May 1905. Finding the hostility in Paris intolerable, Debussy and Emma (now pregnant) went to England. They stayed at the Grand Hotel, Eastbourne in July and August, where Debussy corrected the proofs of his symphonic sketches La mer , celebrating his divorce on 2 August. After
17013-526: The mammoth Symphony No. 8 , Mahler pushes the furthest boundaries of orchestral size, employing large forces. By the late Romantic era, orchestras could support the most enormous forms of symphonic expression, with huge string and brass sections and an expanded range of percussion instruments. With the recording era beginning, the standards of performance were pushed to a new level, because a recorded symphony could be listened to closely and even minor errors in intonation or ensemble, which might not be noticeable in
17172-606: The meadow, the gentle grass-carpeted earth, ... and my hands unconsciously assume an attitude of adoration. In contrast to the "impressionistic" characterisation of Debussy's music, several writers have suggested that he structured at least some of his music on rigorous mathematical lines. In 1983 the pianist and scholar Roy Howat published a book contending that certain of Debussy's works are proportioned using mathematical models, even while using an apparent classical structure such as sonata form . Howat suggests that some of Debussy's pieces can be divided into sections that reflect
17331-604: The mistress and muse of Gabriel Fauré a few years earlier. After despatching Lilly to her parental home at Bichain in Villeneuve-la-Guyard on 15 July 1904, Debussy took Emma away, staying incognito in Jersey and then at Pourville in Normandy. He wrote to his wife on 11 August from Dieppe , telling her that their marriage was over, but still making no mention of Bardac. When he returned to Paris he set up home on his own, taking
17490-445: The most technically challenging parts and solos from the orchestral literature. Orchestral auditions are typically held in front of a panel that includes the conductor, the concertmaster , the principal player of the section for which the auditionee is applying, and possibly other principal players. The most promising candidates from the first round of auditions are invited to return for a second or third round of auditions, which allows
17649-620: The music of Debussy. Although Debussy said that anyone using the term (whether about painting or music) was an imbecile, some Debussy scholars have taken a less absolutist line. Lockspeiser calls La mer "the greatest example of an orchestral Impressionist work", and more recently in The Cambridge Companion to Debussy Nigel Simeone comments, "It does not seem unduly far-fetched to see a parallel in Monet's seascapes". In this context may be placed Debussy's pantheistic eulogy to Nature, in
17808-480: The musical establishment of the day. His works have strongly influenced a wide range of composers including Béla Bartók , Olivier Messiaen , George Benjamin , and the jazz pianist and composer Bill Evans . Debussy died from cancer at his home in Paris at the age of 55 after a composing career of a little more than 30 years. Debussy was born on 22 August 1862 in Saint-Germain-en-Laye , Seine-et-Oise , on
17967-607: The next few years Debussy developed his personal style, without, at this stage, breaking sharply away from French musical traditions. Much of his music from this period is on a small scale, such as the Two Arabesques , Valse romantique , Suite bergamasque , and the first set of Fêtes galantes . Newman remarked that, like Chopin , the Debussy of this period appears as a liberator from Germanic styles of composition – offering instead "an exquisite, pellucid style" capable of conveying "not only gaiety and whimsicality but emotion of
18126-517: The north-west fringes of Paris. He was the eldest of the five children of Manuel-Achille Debussy and his wife, Victorine, née Manoury. Debussy senior ran a china shop and his wife was a seamstress. The shop was unsuccessful, and closed in 1864; the family moved to Paris, first living with Victorine's mother, in Clichy , and, from 1868, in their own apartment in the Rue Saint-Honoré . Manuel worked in
18285-436: The orchestra accompanies the singers and dancers, respectively, and plays overtures and interludes where the melodies played by the orchestra take centre stage. In the Baroque era, orchestras performed in a range of venues, including at the fine houses of aristocrats, in opera halls and in churches. Some wealthy aristocrats had an orchestra in residence at their estate, to entertain them and their guests with performances. During
18444-509: The orchestra can be analysed in five eras: the Baroque era , the Classical era , early/mid- Romantic music era, late-Romantic era and combined Modern/Postmodern eras . The first is a Baroque orchestra (i.e., J.S. Bach , Handel , Vivaldi ), which generally had a smaller number of performers, and in which one or more chord-playing instruments, the basso continuo group (e.g., harpsichord or pipe organ and assorted bass instruments to perform
18603-464: The orchestra gathered [on 28 February 1997] in an extraordinary meeting on the eve of their departure and agreed to admit a woman, Anna Lelkes, as harpist." As of 2013, the orchestra has six female members; one of them, violinist Albena Danailova, became one of the orchestra's concertmasters in 2008, the first woman to hold that position in that orchestra. In 2012, women made up 6% of the orchestra's membership. VPO president Clemens Hellsberg said
18762-644: The orchestra's press secretary wrote that "compensating for the expected leaves of absence" of maternity leave would be a problem. In 1997, the Vienna Philharmonic was "facing protests during a [US] tour" by the National Organization for Women and the International Alliance for Women in Music . Finally, "after being held up to increasing ridicule even in socially conservative Austria, members of
18921-506: The orchestra, the huehuetl (Indian drum) is used as a means of nationalist propaganda. Other instruments in the score are even more nationalistic, but no attention should be paid to them; it is all just anticapitalist agitation". Cuauhnáhuac employs a chromatic and dissonant idiom suggesting the primitivist folk-like style of early Stravinsky . This is achieved through the use of percussive, polyrhythmic relationships, ostinatos, and irregular metric successions. The opening section blends
19080-448: The orchestration incomplete, and were completed by Charles Koechlin and Caplet, respectively. The application of the term "Impressionist" to Debussy and the music he influenced has been much debated, both during his lifetime and since. The analyst Richard Langham Smith writes that Impressionism was originally a term coined to describe a style of late 19th-century French painting , typically scenes suffused with reflected light in which
19239-463: The overriding aesthetic is one of continual change. Although the final section returns to the texture of the first and recapitulates some of its material, this is only used as a background for the introduction of seven new motives, another mestizo melody, and two more ostinatos. Given the amount of new material introduced, it would be more accurate to describe it as an ABC form than an ABA. The simultaneous presentation of different motivic material produces
19398-464: The partial, painful loss of himself". Later commentators have rated some of the late works more highly than Newman and other contemporaries did, but much of the music for which Debussy is best known is from the middle years of his career. The analyst David Cox wrote in 1974 that Debussy, admiring Wagner's attempts to combine all the creative arts, "created a new, instinctive, dreamlike world of music, lyrical and pantheistic, contemplative and objective –
19557-501: The path which it ordains as the only right one. But there is no help for it! I am too enamoured of my freedom, too fond of my own ideas!" Debussy finally composed four pieces that were submitted to the Academy: the symphonic ode Zuleima (based on a text by Heinrich Heine ); the orchestral piece Printemps ; the cantata La Damoiselle élue (1887–1888), the first piece in which the stylistic features of his later music began to emerge; and
19716-446: The piston and rotary valve by Heinrich Stölzel and Friedrich Blühmel , both Silesians , in 1815, was the first in a series of innovations which impacted the orchestra, including the development of modern keywork for the flute by Theobald Boehm and the innovations of Adolphe Sax in the woodwinds, notably the invention of the saxophone. These advances would lead Hector Berlioz to write a landmark book on instrumentation , which were
19875-585: The post of Associate Conductor of Chávez's recently founded Orquesta Sinfónica Mexicana. Revueltas seized the opportunity and early in 1929 he and Aurora moved to Mexico City. It was at this time that Revueltas began composing in earnest, and the manuscript of one of his earliest large-scale compositions, the string-orchestra version of Cuauhnáhuac , is dedicated to Aurora. He would also dedicate his Second String Quartet ( Magueyes ) (1931) to her. As in many other of his compositions, Revueltas composed several versions of Cuauhnáhuac . The first, for string orchestra,
20034-419: The pre-concert tuning and handles musical aspects of orchestra management, such as determining the bowings for the violins or the entire string section. The concertmaster usually sits to the conductor's left, closest to the audience. There is also a principal second violin, a principal viola, a principal cello, and a principal bass. The principal trombone is considered the leader of the low brass section, while
20193-528: The principal trumpet is generally considered the leader of the entire brass section. While the oboe often provides the tuning note for the orchestra (due to a 300-year-old convention), there is generally no designated principal of the woodwind section (though in woodwind ensembles, the flute is often the presumptive leader). Instead, each principal confers with the others as equals in the case of musical differences of opinion. Most sections also have an assistant principal (or co-principal or associate principal), or in
20352-503: The rest of his life. The following year began well, when at Fauré's invitation, Debussy became a member of the governing council of the Conservatoire. His success in London was consolidated in April 1909, when he conducted Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune and the Nocturnes at the Queen's Hall ; in May he was present at the first London production of Pelléas et Mélisande , at Covent Garden . In
20511-566: The role, and was incensed when she was passed over in favour of the Scottish soprano Mary Garden . The opera opened on 30 April 1902, and although the first-night audience was divided between admirers and sceptics, the work quickly became a success. It made Debussy a well-known name in France and abroad; The Times commented that the opera had "provoked more discussion than any work of modern times, excepting, of course, those of Richard Strauss ". The Apaches, led by Ravel (who attended every one of
20670-437: The same café society and struggling to survive financially. In the same year Debussy began a relationship with Gabrielle (Gaby) Dupont, a tailor's daughter from Lisieux ; in July 1893 they began living together. Debussy continued to compose songs, piano pieces and other works, some of which were publicly performed, but his music made only a modest impact, although his fellow composers recognised his potential by electing him to
20829-524: The same year, Debussy was diagnosed with colorectal cancer , from which he was to die nine years later. Debussy's works began to feature increasingly in concert programmes at home and overseas. In 1910 Gustav Mahler conducted the Nocturnes and Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune in New York in successive months. In the same year, visiting Budapest, Debussy commented that his works were better known there than in Paris. In 1912 Sergei Diaghilev commissioned
20988-587: The saxophone is included in other works, such as Ravel's Boléro , Sergei Prokofiev 's Romeo and Juliet Suites 1 and 2 , Vaughan Williams ' Symphonies No. 6 and No. 9 , and William Walton 's Belshazzar's Feast , and many other works as a member of the orchestral ensemble. The euphonium is featured in a few late Romantic and 20th century works , usually playing parts marked "tenor tuba", including Gustav Holst 's The Planets , and Richard Strauss 's Ein Heldenleben . The Wagner tuba ,
21147-431: The score was first published, Henry Cowell found that, though it "bristles with unique and exciting sounds and the whole work has the attractiveness of original genius", he predicted its "scattered" form would prevent it from entering the standard repertory, even if it might often be played as "an amusing novelty". He found the mixture of Central American Indian culture with a European modernistic style "rather awkward", and
21306-413: The second violins playing in lower registers than the first violins, playing an accompaniment part, or harmonizing the melody played by the first violins. The principal first violin is called the concertmaster (or orchestra "leader" in the U.K.) and is not only considered the leader of the string section, but the second-in-command of the entire orchestra, behind only the conductor. The concertmaster leads
21465-467: The sounds and scents of the evening air". En blanc et noir (In white and black, 1915), a three-movement work for two pianos, is a predominantly sombre piece, reflecting the war and national danger. The Études (1915) for piano have divided opinion. Writing soon after Debussy's death, Newman found them laboured – "a strange last chapter in a great artist's life"; Lesure, writing eighty years later, rates them among Debussy's greatest late works: "Behind
21624-424: The third of the four movements of Suite Bergamasque , as a transitional work pointing towards the composer's mature style. Musicians from Debussy's time onwards have regarded Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune (1894) as his first orchestral masterpiece. Newman considered it "completely original in idea, absolutely personal in style, and logical and coherent from first to last, without a superfluous bar or even
21783-519: The time but was successfully republished in 1903 after the composer had become well known. A week after his return to Paris in 1887, Debussy heard the first act of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde at the Concerts Lamoureux , and judged it "decidedly the finest thing I know". In 1888 and 1889 he went to the annual festivals of Wagner's operas at Bayreuth . He responded positively to Wagner's sensuousness, mastery of form, and striking harmonies, and
21942-411: The time-honored season-subscription system became increasingly anachronistic, as more and more listeners would buy tickets on an ad-hoc basis for individual events. Orchestral endowments and — more centrally to the daily operation of American orchestras — orchestral donors have seen investment portfolios shrink, or produce lower yields, reducing the ability of donors to contribute; further, there has been
22101-406: The top orchestras, occasionally fake certain passages. One reason that musicians fake is because there are not enough rehearsals. Another factor is the extreme challenges in 20th century and 21st century contemporary pieces; some professionals said "faking" was "necessary in anything from ten to almost ninety per cent of some modern works". Professional players who were interviewed were of
22260-402: The tripartite form established in the Nocturnes and La mer , but differs in employing traditional British and French folk tunes, and in making the central movement, "Ibéria", far longer than the outer ones, and subdividing it into three parts, all inspired by scenes from Spanish life. Although considering Images "the pinnacle of Debussy's achievement as a composer for orchestra", Trezise notes
22419-457: The twentieth century Debussy did not give his works opus numbers , apart from his String Quartet, Op. 10 in G minor (also the only work where the composer's title included a key ). His works were catalogued and indexed by the musicologist François Lesure in 1977 (revised in 2003) and their Lesure number ("L" followed by a number) is sometimes used as a suffix to their title in concert programmes and recordings. Debussy's musical development
22578-626: The various European regions. The Baroque orchestra ranged from smaller orchestras (or ensembles) with one player per part, to larger-scale orchestras with many players per part. Examples of the smaller variety were Bach's orchestras, for example in Koethen, where he had access to an ensemble of up to 18 players. Examples of large-scale Baroque orchestras would include Corelli's orchestra in Rome which ranged between 35 and 80 players for day-to-day performances, being enlarged to 150 players for special occasions. In
22737-404: The work, but Pierre Lalo , critic of Le Temps , hitherto an admirer of Debussy, wrote, "I do not hear, I do not see, I do not smell the sea". In the same month the composer's only child was born at their home. Claude-Emma, affectionately known as "Chouchou", was a musical inspiration to the composer (she was the dedicatee of his Children's Corner suite). She outlived her father by scarcely
22896-470: The world's top five by Gramophone in 2008). The last major orchestra to appoint a woman to a permanent position was the Berlin Philharmonic . In February 1996, the Vienna Philharmonic's principal flute, Dieter Flury , told Westdeutscher Rundfunk that accepting women would be "gambling with the emotional unity ( emotionelle Geschlossenheit ) that this organism currently has". In April 1996,
23055-423: The young musician will hereafter follow". Newman concurred: "There is a good deal of Wagner, especially of Tristan , in the idiom. But the work as a whole is distinctive, and the first in which we get a hint of the Debussy we were to know later – the lover of vague outlines, of half-lights, of mysterious consonances and dissonances of colour, the apostle of languor, the exclusivist in thought and in style." During
23214-420: Was admitted to the Conservatoire de Paris , where he remained a student for the next eleven years. He first joined the piano class of Antoine François Marmontel , and studied solfège with Albert Lavignac and, later, composition with Ernest Guiraud , harmony with Émile Durand , and organ with César Franck . The course included music history and theory studies with Louis-Albert Bourgault-Ducoudray , but it
23373-549: Was affectionate, practical, straightforward, and well liked by Debussy's friends and associates, but he became increasingly irritated by her intellectual limitations and lack of musical sensitivity. The marriage lasted barely five years. From around 1900 Debussy's music became a focus and inspiration for an informal group of innovative young artists, poets, critics, and musicians who began meeting in Paris. They called themselves Les Apaches – roughly "The Hooligans" – to represent their status as "artistic outcasts". The membership
23532-409: Was always staffed entirely by members of the local indigenous elite, all of whom claimed (rightly or wrongly) to be descendants of the elite class of the pre-conquest altepetl . The place has often been described as a "land of eternal spring" or "paradise" by nineteenth- and twentieth-century travelers. Revueltas provided a tongue-in-cheek introduction to the score: "This is a music without tourism. In
23691-665: Was briefly influenced by them, but, unlike some other French composers of his generation, he concluded that there was no future in attempting to adopt and develop Wagner's style. He commented in 1903 that Wagner was "a beautiful sunset that was mistaken for a dawn". In 1889, at the Paris Exposition Universelle , Debussy first heard Javanese gamelan music. The gamelan scales, melodies, rhythms, and ensemble textures appealed to him, and echoes of them are heard in "Pagodes" in his piano suite Estampes . He also attended two concerts of Rimsky-Korsakov 's music, conducted by
23850-469: Was broken off, and several of Debussy's friends and supporters disowned him, including Ernest Chausson , hitherto one of his strongest supporters. In terms of musical recognition, Debussy made a step forward in December 1894, when the symphonic poem Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune , based on Stéphane Mallarmé 's poem, was premiered at a concert of the Société Nationale. The following year he completed
24009-508: Was deposed by the conquistadores , their commander, Hernán Cortés , built a stone palacio on its main square after he had selected Cuernavaca to be an administrative seat for his massive, semiautonomous estate, the Marquisate of the Valley of Oaxaca . Although the town and its surrounding territories became a thriving mercantile area, home to a diverse population, Cuernavaca's municipal government
24168-405: Was fluid, but at various times included Maurice Ravel , Ricardo Viñes , Igor Stravinsky and Manuel de Falla . In the same year the first two of Debussy's three orchestral Nocturnes were first performed. Although they did not make any great impact with the public they were well reviewed by musicians including Paul Dukas , Alfred Bruneau and Pierre de Bréville . The complete set was given
24327-517: Was more to his liking, and its influence can be found in La mer (1905); this uses a quasi-symphonic form, its three sections making up a giant sonata-form movement with, as Orledge observes, a cyclic theme, in the manner of Franck. The central "Jeux de vagues" section has the function of a symphonic development section leading into the final "Dialogue du vent et de la mer", "a powerful essay in orchestral colour and sonority" (Orledge) which reworks themes from
24486-503: Was much more impressed by the music of the 16th-century composers Palestrina and Lassus , which he heard at Santa Maria dell'Anima : "The only church music I will accept". He was often depressed and unable to compose, but he was inspired by Franz Liszt , who visited the students and played for them. In June 1885, Debussy wrote of his desire to follow his own way, saying, "I am sure the Institute would not approve, for, naturally it regards
24645-449: Was slow, and as a student he was adept enough to produce for his teachers at the Conservatoire works that would conform to their conservative precepts. His friend Georges Jean-Aubry commented that Debussy "admirably imitated Massenet's melodic turns of phrase" in the cantata L'enfant prodigue (1884) which won him the Prix de Rome. A more characteristically Debussian work from his early years
24804-524: Was there from January 1885 to March 1887, with three or possibly four absences of several weeks when he returned to France, chiefly to see Marie Vasnier. Initially Debussy found the artistic atmosphere of the Villa Medici stifling, the company boorish, the food bad, and the accommodation "abominable". Neither did he delight in Italian opera, as he found the operas of Donizetti and Verdi not to his taste. He
24963-457: Was to a considerable extent a reaction against Wagner and the German musical tradition. He regarded the classical symphony as obsolete and sought an alternative in his "symphonic sketches", La mer (1903–1905). His piano works include sets of 24 Préludes and 12 Études . Throughout his career he wrote mélodies based on a wide variety of poetry, including his own. He was greatly influenced by
25122-455: Was under German aerial and artillery bombardment . The military situation did not permit the honour of a public funeral with ceremonious graveside orations. The funeral procession made its way through deserted streets to a temporary grave at Père Lachaise Cemetery as the German guns bombarded the city. Debussy's body was reinterred the following year in the small Passy Cemetery sequestered behind
25281-534: Was written in June 1931 during a stay in Cuernavaca , the city from which it derives its name. He then immediately set about rescoring it for full orchestra, in an unpublished version completed later in the same year. In the following year he created the third and final version, completing the new score in December 1932. This last version was premiered on 2 June 1933 by the Orquesta Sinfónica de México, conducted by
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