This first comprehensive guide to Debussy's only completed opera, Pelléas et Mélisande was written by the leading authorities on French music of the period. As a background to the opera, the authors, together with David Grayson, discuss various aspects of the play. They consider its literary roots, trace its genesis and composition, and illuminate Debussy's compositional strategies. A detailed synopsis of Debussy's musical response to the text forms a central chapter. This is followed by an examination of the symbols and musical motives employed by Debussy as well as an analysis of his themes. The book concludes with a detailed bibliography and a discography.

Musical Symbolism in the Operas of Debussy and Bartók explores the means by which two early 20th century operas - Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande (1902) and Bartók's Duke Bluebeard's Castle (1911) - transformed the harmonic structures of the traditional major/minor scale system into a new musical language. It also looks at how this language reflects the psychodramatic symbolism of the Franco-Belgian poet, Maurice Maeterlinck, and his Hungarian disciple, Béla Balázs. These two operas represent the first significant attempts to establish more profound correspondences between the symbolist dramatic conception and the new musical language. Duke Bluebeard's Castle is based almost exclusively on interactions between pentatonic/diatonic folk modalities and their more abstract symmetrical transformations (including whole-tone, octatonic, and other pitch constructions derived from the system of the interval cycles). The opposition of these two harmonic extremes serve as the basis for dramatic polarity between the characters as real-life beings and as instruments of fate. The book also explores the new musico-dramatic relations within their larger historical, social psychological, philosophical, and aesthetic contexts.

Nearly one hundred years after the death of its composer, the music of Claude Debussy has lost none of its breadth of appeal. With the rare ability to entice listeners on many levels, at its heart lies an engaging simplicity-one which defies traditional analysis and lends mystery to what ultimately is an extremely refined and highly personal approach to composition. Equally fascinating is Debussy's often contradictory personality--at times elusive, but always centered on his devotion to music and his ambition to create a name for himself unlike any other. Author Eric Frederick Jensen provides new insight to the man and the music in this authoritative biography. Although born into poverty, and a failure as a piano student at the Paris Conservatoire, Debussy became the most famous French composer of his day, known for his culture and refinement. His revolutionary music baffled critics but was embraced by audiences. Debussy's scandalous personal life stirred up as much controversy as his music, and his notoriety proved more harmful to his career than the unusual nature of his compositions. Jensen also explores Debussy's relationship to the arts and his career as a music critic. Debussy drew on all of the arts in his development as a composer, including poetry and painting, and his fascination with the arts has often led to his being classified as an Impressionist or Symbolist, two claims which Jensen debunks. One of the finest music critics of his time, Debussy's reviews reveal a great deal not only about his musical taste, but also about what he felt the role and function of music should be. Debussy brings together the most recent biographical research, including a revised catalogue of Debussy's compositions and the first complete edition of his correspondence. With separate, chronological sections on his life and music, Debussy is accessible to the general reader who wishes to focus on his life and personality, while providing detailed discussion of the music to musicians and students.

A comprehensive guide featuring Principal Characters in the opera, Brief Story Synopsis, Story Narrative with Music Highlight Examples, a complete newly translated Libretto with foreign language and english side-by-side, an in depth Commentary and Analysis, selected Discogaphy and Videography, and a Dictionary of Opera and Musical Terms.

The colourful lives of the three divas who made Debussy's Mélisande their own.

Sketches of opera composers, opera synopses, and CD reviews.