C O U R S E   M O D U L E S
1.	Piano Music
2.	Ballet Music
3.	String Quartets
4.	Solo and Other Chamber Music
5.	Vocal Music and Comparative Analyses
	Orchestral Music

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Quotable

	Because music fascinates, excites, and moves us, we want to explain, if only imperfectly, in what ways the events within a particular composition are related to one another and how such relationships shape musical experience.
	– Leonard Meyer

Course Description

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

Prerequisite: Undergraduate tonal harmony and voice leading

Course Documents

1. Syllabus (pdf)
• Daily Schedule
  
• Links for Students
2. Works for Study
• See Daily Schedule
• See also:
• Debussy's Preludes
• Comparative Analyses
• Orchestral Music
3. Recommended Reading
4. Bibliography
5. Special Topics
6. Digital Anthology
7. Theory Resources
   
• Analytical Approaches
• Style Analysis
• Terms & Concepts

Asynchronous Thursday Activities

1. Visualizing Debussy & Ravel (pdf) – Due: Fri., June 23, 11:59 pm
2. Special Topics (pdf) – Due: Fri., June 29, 11:59 pm
3. Final Presentation Self-Reflection (pdf) – Due: Fri., July 7, 11:59 pm

Analysis Projects

1. Debussy Project (pdf) – Due: Fri., June 23, 11:59 pm
• Proposal (pdf) – Due: Wed., June 21, 11:59 pm
2. Ravel Project (pdf) – Due: Sat., July 1, 11:59 pm
• Proposal (pdf) – Due: Wed., June 28, 11:59 pm
3. Final Project
   
• Proposal (pdf) – Due: Mon., July 3, 11:59 pm
• Presentation (pdf) – Wed., July 5, 4:10 pm
• Deliverables – Due: Fri., July 7, 11:59 pm

Online Media Resources

1. Barenboim, 5 Minutes on Claude Debussy
2. Boston Symphony Orchestra, Behind the Music
• Debussy's Nocturnes {YouTube}
• Ravel's Daphnis and Chloé {YouTube}
3. British Library
• Arnold Whittall, Tonality in crisis? How harmony changed in the 20th century {British Library}
• Jane Pritchard, Ballet in Paris in the early 20th century {British Library}
4. Christiansen, Earsense: Debussy & Ravel
5. Howat, Fibonacci and the Golden Section {RoyHowat.com} (Howat 1983)
• See also: Ron Knott, Fibonacci Numbers and The Golden Section in Art, Architecture and Music
6. Gjerdingen, Child Composers {YouTube} (Gjerdingen 2020)
• Video 16.1: A Melody Harmonized 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. Guttman, Classical Notes
• Debussy and Ravel String Quartets {Classical Notes}
• Pelléas et Mélisande {Classical Notes}
8. King & Coulter, The Music Professor {YouTube Channel}
• Is this Debussy's Most Beautiful Piece? {YouTube}
• Maurice Ravel's Miraculous Orchestration {YouTube}
• Maurice Ravel's Volcanic Orchestration {YouTube}
9. London Philharmonic
• Orchestral score animation of the opening of Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune {YouTube}
10. Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gustavo Dudamel
• Sound/Stage, The Fairy Garden from Ravel's Mother Goose {YouTube}
11. Malinowski, Music Animation Machine {Musanim.com}
• DEBUSSY, Images, I. Reflets dans l'eau {YouTube}
• RAVEL, Le Tombeau de Couperin, II. Fugue {YouTube}
12. 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}
13. Morgan Library & Museum
• Collection in Focus: Ravel's Bolero {YouTube}
14. Musical Times, Portraits of Debussy
15. Philharmonia Orchestra, Esa-Pekka Salonen
• Live from Royal Festival Hall:
• Ravel Pavane pour une infante défunte {YouTube}
• City of Light: Paris, 1900-1950 {Films}
• Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune {YouTube}
• Comparing Debussy and Ravel {YouTube}
16. Pianist Magazine
• Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, Piano Lesson on How to Play [Debussy's] 'Clair de lune' {YouTube}
17. 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)
18. Smith College Museum of Art
• Debussy's Paris: Art, Music, & Sounds of the City {Smith}
19. Swingle Singers
• The Swingles - La Cathédrale Engloutie (Debussy Feat. Ward Swingle & John Taylor) {YouTube}
20. Teoria, Web-based analyses by José Rodríguez Alvira
• DEBUSSY, Préludes, Book 1 {Teoria}
• RAVEL, String Quartet in F major, I. Allegro {Teoria}
21. Tonebase Piano {YouTube Channel}
• Boris Giltburg teaches you Ravel's "Alborada del gracioso" [from Miroirs] {YouTube}
• Jean-Yves Thibaudet Teaches Debussy's Girl with the Flaxen Hair' {YouTube}
• In Ravel's Ondine, the piano plays YOU (ft. Robert Durso, Ben Laude) {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 {WP; IMSLP}
2. Maurice Ravel {WP; IMSLP}

Autograph Manuscripts

1. Claude Debussy
• La Mer {Sibley; BnF}
• L'Isle joyeuse {BnF}
2. Maurice Ravel
• Jeux d'eau {BnF}
  
• La Valse {BnF}

BnF - Bibliothèque nationale de France

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}

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

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

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

Ross, Alex. 2018. "The Velvet Revolution of Claude Debussy: How a reclusive Frenchman created some of the most radical, beautiful music of the modern era." The New Yorker (Oct. 22, 2018). {New Yorker}

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