Divine Arabesque

The Influence of Poe, Wagner, and Baudelaire on Debussy's Modernist Aesthetics

Matthew Brown (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

648 Seiten

2026
Indiana University Press (Verlag)
9780253074560 (ISBN)

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The arabesque, a crucial component of nineteenth-century aesthetics characterized by recurring patterns of interlocking geometric and floral ornamentation, was found in a wide range of forms of artistic expression and played a pivotal role in the music of Claude Debussy. Divine Arabesque explores the arabesque in Debussy's music and reveals its profound influence on his musical repertoire and on the works of other Symbolist artists and writers.
Taking as his starting point a discussion of the short manifesto Debussy published in "La Revue blanche" in 1901, author Matthew Brown embarks on a thorough and comprehensive analysis of Debussy's works across all phases of his career and genres—from his early songs and piano pieces to mature orchestral compositions and late works. Along the way, Brown unveils the intertextual connections between Debussy's compositions and the works of such Symbolist artists as Edgar Allen Poe, Richard Wagner, Charles Baudelaire, Stéphane Mellarmé, Vaslav Nijinsky, and others.
Featuring a rich collection of music examples and illustrations, Divine Arabesque sheds new light on the full range of Debussy's musical output and establishes his critical role in ushering in the age of Modernism.

Matthew Brown is Professor of Music Theory at the Eastman School of Music. He is author of Debussy Redux: The Impact of His Music on Popular Culture (IUP, 2011), (with Th. Emil Homerin) Ariane & Bluebeard: From Fairy Tale to Comic Book Opera (IUP, 2022), and (with Robert W. Wason) Heinrich Schenker's Conception of Harmony.

Acknowledgments
I: Preliminaries
Introduction: Debussy's Concept of the Musical Arabesque
1. Arabesques, Moresques, and Grotesques
II: Decoration and Counterpoint
2. Debussy's Première Arabesque and the Legacy of J. S. Bach
3. Exoticism, Escapism, and Ennui
4. Prélude à 'L'Après-midi d'un faune'
III: Part and Whole
5. "A Premeditated Design"
6. La Mer and the Case of the Missing Fanfares
7. Bitten by the Tarantella: Debussy and Self-Generating Form
IV: Borrowing and Self-Generation
8. Pelléas et Mélisande, Arabesques, and Texts within Texts
9. Fake Beards and False Moustaches
10. Jeux: Poetry as Dance
V: Emotions and Images
11. "Les miroirs ternis"
12. Debussy's Cinematic Obsessions
13. Arabesques as Confessions
Conclusions: Coming Full Circle
Bibliography
Index

Erscheint lt. Verlag	31.3.2026
Zusatzinfo	64 b&w illus., 13 b&w tables, 474 printed music items
Verlagsort	Bloomington, IN
Sprache	englisch
Maße	216 x 279 mm
Themenwelt	Kunst / Musik / Theater ► Musik ► Klassik / Oper / Musical
	Kunst / Musik / Theater ► Musik ► Musiktheorie / Musiklehre
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte
ISBN-13	9780253074560 / 9780253074560
Zustand	Neuware