Pagodes

• Claude Debussy composes in the impressionist style, which is characterized by the use of chromaticism, harmonic ambiguity, and the use of dissonance.
• Pagodes is descriptive music shown through the titles
• Pentatonic and modal melodies inspired by Eastern music and Western folk elements
• Main Section: Bars 1-32, B Section: Bars 33- 52, A Section (varied): Bars 53- end
• The pianist needs to cross hands to play the notes, written as "main gauche" on the score
• music gradually builds to a fortissimo climax in the B section
• theme from bar 11 played in parallel harmonies in bar 41 played by both hands 2 octaves apart
• dynamics become "encore plus pp" in bar 91
• The instruction at the end is to allow the notes to continue vibrating, until the sound evaporates, by keeping the sustain pedal depressed.
• Melodies are influenced by the pentatonic scale, such as the Javanese slendro scale.
• The melody here is equivalent to what might be played on the metallophones of a gamelan ensemble.
• repeated ostinato theme in bars 3-4
• at bar 7 there is an undulating scalic countermelody in the middle of the texture, repeated at bar 9 and bar 84
• Two new ideas are introduced in bar 11 when the bass note changes to G#: A pentatonic idea using all five notes now is played in octaves in the left hand, while a separate idea closely related to the ostinato motif is played in octaves in the right hand.
• Whole tone scale at the beginning and bar 46, in the left hand.
• Melody dissolves into trills with a slower tempo at bar 50
• rippling ostinato figure starts in demisemiquavers at a high tessitura at bar 78 and as an accompaniment in the middle of the texture at bar 80
• The ‘gong’ sounds as a type of pedal made up of bare 5ths for the first ten bars, when they are replaced by a single low G♯.
• octaves are used to add in extra layers, like when the idea of bar 11 is repeated at bar 19 in octaves at the top of the texture
• Speeds vary during the piece as they do in gamelan music.
• Triplet ostinato figure starts in the left hand using just two pitches, like a slow trill at bar 15
• An oriental-style melody in simple rhythmic style produces cross-rhythms with the left-hand triplets two against three in bar 16.
• two-note syncopated chords at the end of the A section continue as a linking feature
• Chords feature added notes, avoiding straightforward triads and recreating gamelan harmonies.
• The key signature of five sharps suggests B major or G♯ minor but neither key is properly established.
• Debussy is using the black notes of the piano for their pentatonic possibilities.
• B is a tonal centre at the beginning rather than a key.
• The sustaining pedal is held on while the right hand plays triplets in two-part harmony, producing chords of 4ths and 5ths, always avoiding tonal 3rds in bars 24-27