Claude Debussy's Clair De Lune

Debussy broke the mold so to speak in the 20th century of music by breaking away from the typical German style laid out by composers such as Beethoven as he often explored dreamy and distant sound worlds in an effort to stand out amongst his earlier peers of the classical period. He began to be drawn to the sounds of the pentatonic scales, whole tone scale, and sounds otherwise known in Asia as his music in comparison often contained a rather circular motion which broke away from the formers heroic cadential style of resolution. This breaks his music away as his was more of an ambient and distant much like the impressionist art movement happening at the same time being led by the likes of Monet and Van Gough. The Sunken Cathedral by Debussy exhibits many traits of the new impressionistic forum of 20th century composers as he exhibits many methods to place the listener into a dream-like state using melodic variation and connectivity amongst voice leading in order to achieve a watery type effect. This effect makes the listener feel as if they are floating along with the piece itself as he adds complexities to the music with the slow harmonic variation throughout the piece.

Igor Stravinsky, born in Russia 1882, is widely know as one of the most influential composer of the 20th century. Most notably, his composition The Rite of Spring is considered to be where his innovations in music come into perspective. I will discuss these innovations in detail using The Rite of Spring(The Rite) as a main reference and comparing it to some of his other works.

The son of a composer, Balanchine studied piano from the age of five and had a robust understanding of music.

Jean Laffite was an American patriot, a famous pirate, and, a traitor to all.Laffite has spied for Britain, Spain, and America. Jean betrayed all but America. He was one of the best spies the united states had had at the time. He could hire other people to do his spying instead of risking his own life, but he did it all by himself. Jean Laffite was most likely born in St. Malo, France; most likely between the years 1780-81. And he died between the years of 1824-25. Jean had run away as a kid to join a ship crew. Jean was among the most notorious of the pirates. But, to america, he is known mostly as an American patriot. He helped fight for texas independence. He supplied our troops with men, and also supplied our troops with weapons. He had

I was so nervous for this morning’s competition. Today was the day that I had the chance to show to a judge what I had to offer into the heat of the KMEA Piano Kansas State Competition. The songs that I had practiced over from June to October were mere children’s play compared to others in the group who played pieces like Claire de Lune and the 12 Variations of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (no one in middle school with common sense would choose repertoire made for high schoolers). “Melody, make sure you go over the spots in your songs that you need to work on”, Mom said, shattering my thought process.

In the Tale of Despereaux by Kate Di Camillo, we have a tiny mouse named Despereaux, who overcame all odds by surviving his unusual birth; he’s the last of his mouse litter and the only one to survive, the tiniest mouse anyone has ever seen, and he’s born with his eyes open. With a little light and hope, the book loving mouse turned out to be the hero that saved Princess Pea in the end.

In Edmond Rostand’s play, Cyrano de Bergerac, written in 1897; is a dramatic play about a love triangle within the three characters, Roxane, Christian, and Cyrano. Edmond Rostand illustrates the aspect of appearance and communication throughout the play as it affects the decision made by the characters. In fact, Cyrano de Bergerac was written during the French Renaissance portraying valor and romanticism. The author points out how insecurities and platonic ideals can affect true love, through one’s values and ideals.

Of the original composers we discussed in class, the one that stands out the most for me is Alfred Newman and his music score for The Hunchback of Notre Dame. I have discussed this in an earlier paper, but the music used in the movie and in particular, the scene where Quasimodo is placed on display in the public square and is ridiculed by the villagers is the most memorable. The scene has very little dialogue, save for Quasimodo (Charles Laughton) begging for water. As the villagers mock his cries for help, the music comes in and suddenly captures the scene perfectly as the noise of the crowd fades out.

The place where the officers sent them was isolated. The officers got out of their car and pulled out their rifles and pointed toward the people in the van.

Another example for this imaginative story telling is the fictitious conversation between the imposter Arnauds du Tilh and Martin Guerre. “As a thought-experiment, let us imagine what might have taken place if the heir from Artigat became friends with the golden-tongued peasant from Sajas. […] they exchange confidences. Martin expresses his ambivalence about his patrimony and his wife, perhaps seems to imply to his look-alike “take her.” And Pansette says to himself, “Why not?” In a way, these passages are reminiscent of classical dialogs, in which poets would use dialog as a narrative element to enrich their histories.

The power of music can connect and represent the words that cannot be spoken. Music unites people, nature, or even beliefs. Don’t you desire to reach people using the universal language - music? Film music is without a doubt about touching audience’s minds and evoke people in a certain way. It certainly isn’t around the music or the orchestra or the audience, however, it is the interconnection of all these elements that makes music alive. Being a film composer means that you will be the catalyst to trigger the crowd’s sensations.

Some of the other composers during this period are overpowering in the dynamics, rhythm, and tempo. Debussy’s music is more subtle. The piece of music I chose for the quite approachable is “Afro-American Symphony, IV” by William Still. Still’s work was quite approachable because his music related to so many people because of the subjects he chose. His music had this easy to listen to presence. It was smooth without being complicated by drastic changes. “Still’s music incorporates styles derived from blues and jazz, and his songs, operas, ballets, and symphonic works return again and again to African American subjects and stories.” (Kerman and Tomlinson) Still was able to create a distinct sound and style by taking a mixture of different music. “He 's already amazingly assured in handling orchestral sounds and adept at mingling the idioms of the blues with the unwieldy forces of a full orchestra.” (Morin) The fairly difficult piece of music I chose is “Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta” by Bela Bartok. This piece of music is fairly difficult because of everything that you hear. It can be overpowering because of all the instruments sounding as you are being pulled in a lot of directions during

Setting: The main setting is in the arid country in Arizona. The book explains how it is really dry with not a lot of vegetation. There are spots with water, trees, thick grass, or all of them, but usually it is dry with a bush or cactus here or there. The book never explains when it is but using context clues I would say around the 1980s.

Love can exist as affection, infatuation, obsession, pleasure and in many other ways, as love is abstract. Hence, there is no one single interpretation of love. Love is a theme that has been embedded into language and literature over the centuries, yet due to the ever changing perception of love people continue to search for a universal definition of love. Poems are able to showcase the inner feelings and desires of a poet as well as their own unique views on love. Nevertheless, through poems “La Belle Dame sans Merci” by John Keats, “My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning, “Mother in a Refugee Camp” by Chinua Achebe, “The day is gone, and all its sweets are gone!” by John Keats, “Remember” by Christina Rossetti and “Piano” by D. H. Lawrence, this essay will explore how and why different poets present the theme of love in a variety of ways.

“The Rite of Spring” was certainly the most controversial piece of orchestral music of its time. The piece, composed by the Russian Composer Igor Stravinsky, included a great deal of uncommon musical elements. But was it really that uncommon? The world-changing ballet, “The Rite of Spring” was so controversial when it debuted in 1913, because it completely contradicted the common rhythmic and harmonic languages of the music at the time. The choreography and costumes were a main part of the reason why the audience reacted with negativity and riots. But the fact that Stravinsky’s music used similar melodic, orchestrational, and harmonic techniques of pieces written before, brings up the question: Why did the audience react the way that they did? Stravinsky’s music reflected his early life experiences. Consequently, Stravinsky was not, in fact, the first composer who was “committed” with composing such controversy, so again: were riots necessary? The result of the audience’s reaction caused by the ballet has not happened before.