Voiles is a

musical composition Musical composition can refer to an Originality, original piece or work of music, either Human voice, vocal or Musical instrument, instrumental, the musical form, structure of a musical piece or to the process of creating or writing a new pie ...

for solo

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

by French composer

Claude Debussy Achille Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionism in music, Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influe ...

that was composed in 1909. It is the second piece in Debussy's first book of préludes, published in 1910. The title may be translated as either ''veils'' or ''sails''; both meanings can be connected to the musical structure (see below). Except for some mild, localized

chromaticism Chromaticism is a compositional technique interspersing the primary diatonic scale, diatonic pitch (music), pitches and chord (music), chords with other pitches of the chromatic scale. In simple terms, within each octave, diatonic music uses o ...

and a short

pentatonic A pentatonic scale is a Scale (music), musical scale with five Musical note, notes per octave, in contrast to heptatonic scales, which have seven notes per octave (such as the major scale and minor scale). Pentatonic scales were developed inde ...

passage, the entire piece uses the

whole-tone scale In music, a whole-tone scale is a scale in which each note is separated from its neighbors by the interval of a whole tone. In twelve-tone equal temperament, there are only two complementary whole-tone scales, both six-note or '' hexatonic'' ...

.. In their published form, the ''Préludes'' have their individual titles printed not at the start, but at the end—and in parentheses.

Musical analysis

The composition studies the

whole-tone In Western music theory, a major second (sometimes also called whole tone or a whole step) is a second spanning two semitones (). A second is a musical interval encompassing two adjacent staff positions (see Interval number for more detail ...

scale intensively, with the exception of a brief six-measure section in the

scale. The structure of the piece follows a variation on ternary (A–B–A′) form."Claude Debussy: Voiles" by Todd Tarantino
/ref> A begins in bar 1; B begins in bar 42; and A′ begins in bar 48. This three-part form is articulated by the dynamic structure: A and A′ have only soft dynamics (piano or softer), while B has a wider dynamic from piano to forte. The B section is also set apart by a faster tempo and increased density of notes. Finally, the A and A′ sections are characterized by a whole-tone scale, while the B section is characterized by the pentatonic scale. The whole-tone scale and the soft dynamics give the A and A′ sections a mysterious and eerie mood. In the B section, the louder dynamics, the faster passage, and the more consonant and familiar pentatonic scale give the listener a break from the eerie tone, allowing a brief moment of clarity. If interpreting the movement in light of "veils", the eerie, mysterious mood of the A section sounds veiled. The clearer, more open sound of the B section generates an impression that the veil is removed, but returns for the A′ section. If one takes "sails" as a possible understanding of the title, that leads to a possible image of a becalmed ship in the A and A′ sections, with the clearer, louder, brighter B section denoting a more open sea and sails full of wind. Generally however, the structure of the piece is difficult to categorise. Some say that the pentatonic section forms the B part but, in truth, it is not clear enough to state it is definitely A–B–A. Others argue that it follows a rounded binary form more than ternary form due to the fact that there is an A part, B part and then another section at the end, concluding all of his ideas.

References

;Attribution *''This article contains information translated from the corresponding article of the German Wikipedia. A list of contributors can be found there at the'
History
''section.''

External links

*
Notes on "Voiles"
on Klavier-noten.de * ,

Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (; 5 January 1920 – 12 June 1995) was an Italian classical pianist. He is considered one of the greatest pianists of the twentieth century. According to ''The New York Times'', he was perhaps the most reclusive, ...

{{Authority control Preludes by Claude Debussy 1910 compositions

Musical analysis

See also

References

External links