What is it about?
Debussy's orchestral Nocturnes have long been associated with the painted Nocturnes of J. M. Whistler. But given the complete lack of solid evidence for this link, I argue that it proves far richer to re-interpret the three, subtly unified sections as the product, in part, of his deep and abiding literary interests - notably in his 'favourite' poet, the epochally influential Charles Baudelaire. Reheard against this background, the laborious work on this music precisely through the most tortured phase of the Dreyfus Affair (1897-99) offers new affective and ideological purchase on key moments - from the delicately 'exotic' escape in 'Nuages', to the blazing military march in 'Fêtes', to the seductive, post-Homeric trajectory of 'Sirènes'.
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Why is it important?
This article offers a further pointed challenge to the tired cliché about Debussy as a musical 'painter' (Impressionist or otherwise). By giving new focus to the dimensions of time, texture, and instrumentation, I make good on his own famous 1907 definition of music as 'de couleurs et de temps rythmés' (rhythmicized colours and time). By emphasising the compelling affective questions raised through these same materials (as well as the subtly post-Wagnerian 'games' in the harmony), I also restore a sense of profound human and political sensitivity, in keeping with another of his famous remarks: 'how much has to be discovered, and discarded, before the naked flesh of emotion is reached'. The work thus takes its place as one of the most intricate (if oblique) artistic responses to the 'Affair', most volcanic of all Third Republic political upheavals.
Perspectives
The article took a great deal of labour, through many drafts - and no doubt would have been both leaner and simpler if I were to start it afresh now, with the benefit of much intervening experience. At the same time, some discoveries - e.g. the images from Dreyfus-era caricature, and the Gustave Moreau painting of the 'Sirènes' - emerged rather late in the process, and I am very gratified to see them in print.
Dr David J Code
University of Glasgow
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Debussy, Discourse, Time: Listening for “la modernité” in the Nocturnes, The Musical Quarterly, January 2017, Oxford University Press (OUP),
DOI: 10.1093/musqtl/gdy006.
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