Description
Book SynopsisOne of the most admired qualities of Claude Debussy's music has been its seemingly effortless evocation and assimilation of exotic musical strains. He was the first great European composer to discern the possibilities inherent in the gamelan, the ensemble consisting mainly of tuned percussion instruments that originated in Java. Echoes from the East: The Javanese Gamelan and its Influence on the Music of Claude Debussy argues Debussy''s encounter with the gamelan in 1889 at the Paris Exposition Universelle had a far more profound effect on his work and style than can be grasped by simply looking for passages and pieces in his output that sound Asian or like a gamelan. Kiyoshi Tamagawa recounts Debussy's individual experience with the music of Java and traces its echoes through his entire compositional career. Echoes from the East adds a commentary on the modern-day issue of cultural appropriation and a survey of Debussy's contemporaries and successors who have also attempted to merge t
Trade ReviewThis is an excellent book, seriously researched, beautifully written throughout, and dealing with a subject of enormous interest and relevance. -- Catherine Kautsky, Lawrence University
Table of ContentsChapter One: Before Debussy: Musical exoticism in Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century Europe Chapter Two: Debussy, the Age of Empire, and Cultural Appropriation Chapter Three: Early Musical Influences Chapter Four: Debussy and the Gamelan Chapter Five: Gamelan Techniques and Evocations in Works of the 1890s Chapter Six: Piano Works of 1903-1913 and La mer Chapter Seven: Theater Pieces, 1911-1913 and Final Years, 1914-1917 Chapter Eight: Western Composers and the Gamelan since Debussy, I Chapter Nine: Western Composers and the Gamelan since Debussy, II
