C O U R S E   M O D U L E S
1.	Introduction
2.	Piano Music
3.	Ballet Music
4.	String Quartets
5.	Other Chamber Music
6.	Vocal Music
7.	Comparative Analysis
8.	Orchestration
	Student Research

Thanks for a great semester!

See Blackboard

Quotable

	Art is the most beautiful deception of all.
	– Claude Debussy

Course Description

Analysis of melody, harmony, rhythm, form, style and orchestration in the music of Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel

Course Documents

1. Syllabus (pdf) 
• Course Overview (pdf)
• Daily Schedule (pdf) 
• Links for Students
2. Reading
3. Activities
   
4. Listening/Analysis
• Ballet Music
  
• Comparative Analysis
• Debussy's Preludes
• Digital Anthology
• Explore
• Orchestral Music
  
5. Theory Resources
• Analytical Approaches
  
• Sonata Form
• Style Analysis
• Terms & Concepts
6. Bibliography
7. Special Topics

Projects

1. Midterm Analysis Project (pdf) – Due: Sat., Oct. 26
   
• Proposal (pdf) – Due: Mon., Oct. 11
2. Final Presentation (pdf) 
• Presentation Proposal (pdf) – Due: Mon., Nov. 11
• Consultation Days: Wed., Nov. 13 & Mon., Nov. 18
• Presentation Days: Wed., Nov. 20, Mon., Dec. 2, and Wed., Dec. 4
• Reflections and File Submission (pdf) – Due: Fri., Dec. 6, at 11:59 pm
  

Online Media Resources

1. Barenboim, 5 Minutes on Claude Debussy
2. Belkin, Analysis for Composers
• #24 - Phrase Structure in Ravel's String Quartet {YouTube}
  
3. Boston Symphony Orchestra, Behind the Music
• Debussy's Nocturnes {YouTube}
• Ravel's Daphnis and Chloé {YouTube}
4. Christiansen, Earsense: Debussy & Ravel
5. Classical Notes
• Debussy and Ravel, String Quartets {Classical Notes}
• Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande {Classical Notes}
6. Gjerdingen, Child Composers {YouTube Channel} {Gjerdingen 2020}
• Video 16.1: A Melody Harmonized by Claude Debussy {YouTube}
• Video 16.3: Debussy Knew His Indugio {YouTube}
• Video 16.5: A Harmony Lesson by Claude Debussy {YouTube}
  
• Video 21.4: Ravel's Analysis of Ravel {YouTube}
• Video 21.5: Imagining Sketches and Drafts for Real Pieces (Ravel's Pavane) {YouTube}
7. Howat, Fibonacci and the Golden Section {RoyHowat.com} (Howat 1983)
8. Interlude
• Buja, Remembering Debussy: Le Tombeau de Claude Debussy Premiered in 1921 {Interlude.hk}
9. King & Coulter, The Music Professor {YouTube Channel}
• Is this Debussy's Most Beautiful Piece? {YouTube}
• Ravel's Miraculous Orchestration {YouTube}
• Ravel's Stunning Piano Writing {YouTube}
  
• Ravel's Volcanic Orchestration {YouTube}
• Ravel's Tiny Masterpiece {YouTube}
  
10. London Philharmonic
• Orchestral score animation of the opening of Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune {YouTube}
11. Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gustavo Dudamel
• Sound/Stage, The Fairy Garden from Ravel's Mother Goose {YouTube}
12. Malinowski, Music Animation Machine {Musanim.com}
• DEBUSSY, Images, I. Reflets dans l'eau {YouTube}
• RAVEL, Le Tombeau de Couperin, II. Fugue {YouTube}
13. Martin, Listening In {YouTube Channel}
• Debussy's Clair de lune, deconstructed {YouTube}
• What links [Hokusai's] ‘The Great Wave’ and Debussy’s ‘La Mer’? {YouTube}
• Ravel's Bolero: Did Neurological Damage Lead To Ravel's Masterpiece? {YouTube}
14. Morgan Library & Museum
• Collection in Focus: Ravel's Bolero {YouTube}
15. Musical Times, Portraits of Debussy
16. Philharmonia Orchestra, Esa-Pekka Salonen
• Live from Royal Festival Hall:
• RAVEL, Pavane pour une infante défunte {YouTube}
• City of Light: Paris, 1900-1950 Project {YouTube Playlist}
• Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune (feat. Salonen) {YouTube}
• Esa-Pekka Salonen compares Debussy and Ravel (feat. Salonen) {YouTube}
17. Pianist Magazine
• Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, Piano Lesson on How to Play [Debussy's] 'Clair de lune' [from Suite bergamasque] {YouTube}
18. Rogers
• Resonant Recoveries: French Music and Trauma Between the World Wars {Oxford University Press} (Rogers 2021)
• Musical ‘Magic Words’: Trauma and the Politics of Mourning in Ravel's Le Tombeau de Couperin, Frontispice and La Valse, in Nineteenth-Century Music Review 20 {Cambridge Core} (Rogers 2022)
19. Ross
• The Rest is Noise: Books, articles, and a blog by the music critic of The New Yorker {TheRestIsNoise.com} (Ross 2007)
• The Velvet Revolution of Claude Debussy {New Yorker} (Ross 2018)
20. San Francisco Symphony, Program Note Podcast
• RAVEL, Ma Mère l’Oye {YouTube}
• DEBUSSY, La Mer {YouTube}
  
21. Straus, Analyzing Modernist Music {YouTube Channel}
    
• Broken Beauty (Straus 2018)
• DEBUSSY, Preludes, Book 1, II. Voiles {YouTube}
• DEBUSSY, Preludes, Book 2, XII. Feux d'artifice {YouTube}
• RAVEL, Gaspard de la Nuit, II. Le Gibet {YouTube}
  
22. Swingle Singers
• The Swingles - La Cathédrale Engloutie (Debussy Feat. Ward Swingle & John Taylor) {YouTube}
23. Teoria, Web-based analyses by José Rodríguez Alvira
• DEBUSSY, Préludes, Book 1 {Teoria}
• RAVEL, String Quartet in F major, I. Allegro {Teoria}
24. Tonebase Piano {YouTube Channel}
• Asiya Korepanova On Ravel's "Jeux d'eau" {YouTube}
• Boris Giltburg teaches you Ravel's "Alborada del gracioso" [from Miroirs] {YouTube}
• Debussy and Ravel are NOT the Same! (ft. Gwendolyn Mok) {YouTube}
• In Ravel's Ondine, the piano plays YOU (ft. Robert Durso, Ben Laude) [from Gaspard de la nuit] {YouTube}
• Jean-Yves Thibaudet Teaches Debussy's Girl with the Flaxen Hair' [from Préludes, Book I] {YouTube}
• [Norman Krieger] Breaks Down 16 Legendary Pianists' Techniques {YouTube}
• Ravel’s final masterpiece and the wild genius who brought it to life (ft. Gwendolyn Mok) {YouTube}
• The Tonic Podcast {Tonebase.co}
• Episode 4: Debussy and Ravel on the Threshold of the 20th Century {YouTube}

Research Tools

1. FindIt @ UofSC
2. Dictionaries: Harvard Dictionary | Grove/Oxford
3. Articles: JSTOR
4. E-books: Ebook Central | EBSCOhost | Hathi Trust
   
5. Scores: IMSLP; Alexander Street; CPDL
6. Recordings: Naxos | Spotify | YouTube
   

Lists of Works

1. Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
   
• Lesure catalogue (L): WP
  
• Scores: IMSLP
• See also: Durand/Salabert/Eschig; BnF}
  
2. Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
   
• Marnet catalogue (M): WP
• Scores: IMSLP
• See also: Durand/Salabert/Eschig; BnF}
  

Autograph Manuscripts, Sketches, etc. (Selected)

1. Claude Debussy
• Deux Arabesques {BnF}
• La Mer {Sibley; BnF}
• L'Isle joyeuse {BnF}
• Trois Nocturnes, I. Nuages, mm. 1-5 {WP}
  
2. Maurice Ravel
• Bolero {BnF; Morgan Library}
  
• Jeux d'eau {BnF}
• Frontispiece {WP}
  
• La Valse {BnF}
• Sonatine {BnF}
  

BnF - Bibliothèque nationale de France {WP}
IMSLP - International Music Score Library Project {WP}

Music Theory Journals

1. 19th-Century Music {UC Press}
2. College Music Symposium {CMS}
3. Engaging Students: Essays in Music Pedagogy {OSU Libraries}
4. Indiana Theory Review {IU Press}
5. Intégral {Rochester.edu}
6. Journal of Mathematics and Music {Taylor & Francis}
   
7. Journal of Music Theory {JMT; JSTOR}
8. Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy {JMTP}
9. Journal of New Music Research {Taylor & Francis}
10. Music Analysis {Wiley; JSTOR}
11. Perspectives on New Music {Website; JSTOR}
12. Society for Music Theory (SMT)
• Music Theory Online {MTO}
• Music Theory Spectrum {Oxford; JSTOR}
• SMT-V: SMT's Videocast Journal
• SMT-Pod: The Society for Music Theory Podcast
13. Theory and Practice {JSTOR}

Main References

See also: BAIN MUSC 726D Bibliography

DeVoto. Mark. 2004. Debussy and the Veil of Tonality: Essays on His Music. Hillsdale, NY: Pendragon Press. {GB}

Parks, Richard S. 1989. The Music of Claude Debussy. New Haven: Yale University Press. {GB}

Howat, Roy. 1983. Debussy in Proportion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. {GB}

Kaminsky, Peter, ed. 2011. Unmasking Ravel: New Perspectives on the Music. Rochester: University of Rochester Press. {GB; Full text: Ebook Central}

Kelly, Barbara L. 2001. "Ravel, (Joseph) Maurice." Grove Music Online. {Grove}

Lesure, François and Roy Howat. 2001. "Debussy, (Achille-) Claude." Grove Music Online. {Grove}

Mawer, Deborah, ed. 2000. The Cambridge Companion to Ravel. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. {GB; TOC}

Orenstein, Arbie. 1991/1968. Ravel: Man and Musician. Mineola, NY: Dover. {GB}

Pasler, Jan. 2001. "Impressionism." Grove Music Online. {Grove}

Trezise, Simon, ed. 2003. The Cambridge Companion to Debussy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. {GB; TOC}

Tymoczko, Dmitri. 2011. A Geometry of Music: Harmony and Counterpoint in the Extended Common Practice. New York: Oxford University Press. {GB; Full text: Ebook Central}

Zank, Stephen. 2009. Irony and Sound: The Music of Maurice Ravel. Rochester: University of Rochester Press. {GB}