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Who Is Debussy Want To Immitate Gamelan Music?

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As shown as the below score, the bottom line acting as a similar role to gong in Gamelan music, a sustaining bass note. The middle is the counter melody while the top plays the nuclear- melody. What’s special here is the pentatonic melody. If Debussy wanted to imitate Gamelan music, he wouldn’t use pentatonic scale; instead, he might use those two traditional Gamelan scales, slendro and pelog. This was not the first time he used pentatonic scale, he had used it in an orchestral piece, Printemps in 1887. The tonality throughout the composition is undefined because he had a principle of composing music, which is pleasing to the ear rather than some “rule” of traditional harmonic theories. In 1890 Debussy's professor at the Paris Conservatory commented on Debussy's use of parallel chords in the following way: "I am not saying that what you do isn't beautiful, but it's theoretically absurd." Debussy simply replied: "There is no theory. You have merely to listen. Pleasure is the law."18 As a result, Debussy’s harmonies were colourful and various, as well as his uses of unique and exotic scales, he was simply guided towards his ears and aesthetics in music. …show more content…

After understanding and listening to Gamelan, especially Javanese music, it somehow influences me to play the melody line with a gentle and light staccato. Gentle doesn’t mean that we soften the staccato effect and make it more legato, with the help of pedal, we should be able to create a fast, light and percussive staccato in octaves which sounds like

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