Set work: Nuages - Debussy

• Musical Words


  • Impressionism
  • Modal
  • Topic
  • Ternary form
  • Pentatonic
  • Rotational form
  • Tremolando
  • Theme
  • Harmonics
  • Octotonic
  • Parallel harmonies
  • Whole-tone
  • Reharmonisation
  • Polytonal
• Nuages


  Premiered 1900 in Paris by the Lamoureux Orchestra under Camille Chevilliard
• Nuages was inspired by the sight of clouds over the River Seine, at Place de la Concorde in Paris
• Nuages was inspired by "Nocturnes' by James Abbot McNeill Whistler (impressionist paintings)
• Nuages


  • Ambiguous ternary/rotational form
  • B tonal centre
  • Octatonic
  • Polytonality
  • Modality
• Structure of Nuages


  1. Ternary form: A (bars 1-63) B (bars 64-79) A' (bars 80-102)

  2. Rotational form: Rotation 1 (bars 1-10), Rotation 2 (bars 11-28), Rotation 3 (bars 29-56), Rotation 4 (bars 57-93), Rotation 5 (bars 94-102)
• Nuages was composed in 1899
• Nuages is a French impressionism piece
• Texture in Nuages

  • Chordal texture - Theme A (bars 1-4)
  • Melody and accompaniment - e.g. bars 21-29
  • Call and response - e.g. bars 21-29, between the cor anglais, horns and strings
  • Two-part texture - e.g. bars 33-42
  • Countermelody - e.g bars 33-35 clarinets, oboe and bassons
• Sonority in Nuages


  • Two flutes, two oboes, cor anglais, two clarinets, three bassoons, four horns, two timpani, strings, harp
  • Strings muted for most of piece
  • Use of cor anglais for Theme B
  • Pizzicato - e.g. double bass, bars 15-16
  • Tremolando 'sur la touche' - strings e.g. bars 80-90
  • Harmonics - 1st violin, bars 86-87
  • Drum rolls - timpani, bars 88-90
• Melody and Harmony in Nuages

  • Alternation between main themes: Theme A and Theme B
  • Colouristic, non-functional harmony
  • Frequent extended harmonies - bar 15 (Bb9), bars 17-18 (G11)
  • Harmonic sequences - bars 33-36
  • Whole-tone chords - bar 62
  • Parallel extended harmonics - bars 61-13 Theme A, dominant 7ths in 3rd inversion
  • Reharmonisation of theme B - bars 80-93
  • No resolution at the end of the piece
• Tempo, metre and rhythm in Nuages

  • Moderate tempo (Modéré) - slows at the end of the piece from bar 93 (Plus lent, Encore plus lent)
  • Theme A is in 6/4 but sounds like it could be in 3/2
  • Theme B has contrasting metre-c
  • Theme A has distinctive crotchet ostinato rhythms
• Dynamics in Nuages


  • Mostly soft-p/pp
  • Use of crescendos and diminuendos - especially the long crescendo at bars 39-41