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From Traditional to Impressionistic: Musical Language Innovation in Debussys Arabesque No. 1

Mohan Wang

Abstract


Claude Debussy (1862-1918), one of the leading figures of French Impressionism, redefined the aesthetics of late 19th-century music with his innovative musical language and compositional techniques and had a profound and lasting impact on the development of music
throughout the 20th century. As a composer brave enough to break with traditional norms, Debussy created a unique musical style by fusing
Oriental musical elements, Impressionist painting concepts and traditional Western music. Arabesque No. 1 is the early prototype of Impressionist music, which abandons the traditional content-driven music and creatively returns the music to the music itself, placing more emphasis
on the change of sound colour, which is very characteristic of Impressionist music, such as abstraction and obscurity, and occupies an important place in Impressionist music. In this paper, we are going to analyse the sound colour of Arabesques, which is the most important piece of
traditional music in Impressionist music. In this paper, we will analyse the compositional background, musical form of Arabesque No. 1 and
discuss how this work demonstrates Debussy's unique musical language and aesthetic pursuits, as well as its important position in the development of Impressionist music.

Keywords


Debussy; Impressionist Music; Arabesque; Musical Language; Piano

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References


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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.70711/rcha.v3i7.7822

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