Mathews 1

Kim Mathews

Analysis

Decker

Turned in, 3/4/15

Debussy Summary Assignment

Claude Debussy, a late 19th and early 20th century impressionist composer,

was born on August 22nd, 1862. One of his most famous pieces, titled La cathedrale

engloutie (The Engulfed Cathderale), was first published in 1910 as a piece for solo

piano. It is the tenth prelude in Debussy’s volume consisting of 12 separate piano

preludes. Around the time that this piece was published, Debussy was experiencing

turmoil in his love life: after an affair with a woman that eventually led to his wife’s

attempted suicide, he eventually fled with his new lover, pregnant with his child, to

England. After the birth of Debussy’s only child in 1905, the couple was married in

1908 and settled in Eastbourne, on the southern coast of England. It is here that he

wrote his piece La cathedrale engloutie.1

The title of the piece is very programmatic in its description about what

Debussy was portraying with this piece: an engulfed cathedral. The cathedral in

question is submerged off the coast of the island called Ys. The myth states that Ys,

the most beautiful city in all of Europe, was built below sea level. However, the sea

was kept at bay by a gate, and the King kept the only key. The King’s daughter,

1Lockspeiser, Edward. "Claude Debussy." Encyclopedia Britannica Online.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 12 Nov. 2014. Web. 23 Feb. 2015.
<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/154804/Claude-
Debussy/1766/Late-period>.
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Dahut, one day met red knight, who was no other but the devil. He persuaded her to

take the key and open the gates, and the sea came pouring in to swallow the city.

Dahut, though rescued by her father, was later pushed by him into the roaring

waters and legend says became a mermaid. Debussy’s rendition shows the cathedral

rising from the waters on occasions when the tide is low, with sounds of bells and

organ churning through the waters. It is a traditional impressionistic style piece,

impressionism being a response to German post-romantic era music. This music

was categorized as being very strong and robust, with complex arranging and often

overstated and dramatic sounds.

The piece is organized into a ternary form with three distinctly separate

sections. In terms of a classical sense, it is true that it is not a traditional ternary

form. However, there are still clear divisions between two related out, repeated

sections (A and A’), with a contrasting inner section (B). The first section (A), from

measures 1-47, opens with the primary two motives that are characterized as bells

and organ. This is where the image of the cathedral comes to mind. In this first

section where both motives are present, they are linked through an open key as well

as use of the pentatonic scale and the Ionian mode. The middle (B) provides a

transition section heard from measures 47-71 and fixates around G#. However, it is

less tonally stable than the previous sections, which helps listeners to understand

that it is merely a transition into the next section. Additionally in this section, none

of the main motives are present that were heard in the A section. There is also a

clear key signature marked in the B section (four sharps), we see a tempo change in

measure 47. All of these factors help distinguish it from the A section. The A’ section,
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from measures 77-89 are where the church motives return. The return of these

helps distinguish that we are not only in a new section, but as they are the church

motives returning that this new section is A’ as opposed to C. However, these

motives are changed slightly; while we still have the organ chords present in the

treble voice, the bass voice of the piano now has a much more active ascending and

descending 8th note line, where previously it had sustained with the treble voice.

These ascending and descending is reminiscent of the rise and fall of the sea as the

cathedral is engulfed once more. In this manner, Debussy maintains the idea of the

theme but still allows room for change as the cathedral is enveloped, letting

listeners focus on the idea of a variation rather than an exact restatement.

The main thematic materials, as previously discussed, are present in the

church motives, or the reoccurring bells and organ. Debussy characterizes the bells

through use of the pentatonic scale, creating a sense of vagueness due to the lack of

the half steps within the scale. Factual church bells themselves are tonally

ambiguous, often having no defined chord, melody, harmony or rhythm. The second

motive, that of the organ, is defined throughout the piece through modal scales, or

church modes. In both cases, these musical elements are used in a programmatic

manner to help personify the impression of the cathedral. These sections are also

characterized through use of texture and rhythm: the organ chords, as we might

expect, are fully textured and rhythmically stable. Each new chord can be heard

clearly and without question as it changes. In comparison, the bells are much more

thinly textured and somewhat rhythmically ambiguous, with different chords and

individual notes entering the textures at different times in order to aid the sense of
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ambiguity that bells have. It is very difficult to hear an exact tempo in the bell

sections.

Debussy’s La cathedrale engloutie is a cleverly written piece that, while not

obvious at first, offers a wealth of musical information to study. Its disguised ternary

form establishes a programmatic element to the story he depicts of a sunken

cathedral breaking forth as the sea resides and subsequently rises again, and his

choices in texture, rhythm, modal and scale options all help give rise to that image

additionally. In context, this is a terrific example of motivic development and

traditional impressionistic music.