Claude Debussy - String Quartet in G Minor (1893)

Claude Debussy

[Claude Debussy in 1908]

(22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer.

Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures associated with Impressionist music, though he himself disliked the term when applied to his compositions.^[3] He was made Chevalier of the Legion of Honour in his native France in 1903.^[4] Debussy was among the most influential composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and his use of non-traditional scales and chromaticism influenced many composers who followed. 

Debussy's music is noted for its sensory content and frequent usage of nontraditional tonalities.^[6] The prominent French literary style of his period was known as Symbolism, and this movement directly inspired Debussy both as a composer and as an active cultural participant.^[7]

 String Quartet in G Minor (1893)

Background

The previous year Debussy had abandoned the opera Rodrigue et Chimène. He planned to write two string quartets, only one of which materialized.

The quartet received its premiere on December 29, 1893 by the Ysaÿe Quartet at the Société Nationale in Paris to mixed reactions.

Analysis

The neutrality of this section is disputed. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until conditions to do so are met. (April 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

The work seems to be influenced by the style of César Franck. The result is a cyclic structure with the four movements connected by thematic material. Other influences include Borodin and Javanese gamelan music.

The quartet is considered^[who?] to be a watershed in the history of chamber music.

Its sensuality and impressionistic tonal shifts make it a piece absolutely of its time and place while, with its cyclic structure, it constitutes a final divorce from the rules of classical harmony and points the way ahead.

"Any sounds in any combination and in any succession are henceforth free to be used in a musical

continuity," Debussy wrote. Pierre Boulez said that Debussy freed chamber music from "rigid structure, frozen rhetoric and rigid aesthetics."

Movements

1. Animé et très décidé
2. Assez vif et bien rythmé
3. Andantino, doucement expressif
4. Très modéré - En animant peu à peu - Très mouvementé et avec passion