So I gave my good ol pal @pizzamanmademedoit a random info dump about why Debussy sounds the way he does as a composer and pianist with my credentials being that I too am a pianist and composer that idolizes Debussy's style, and now I shall share this rant for anyone who would like a brief lecture from someone who has two music degrees and is working a job that definitely doesn't require either of them, and that fact is slowly making me wither away inside:
So Debussy was a Romantic era composer (mid 1800s - early 1900s) who was the epitome of the Impressionist musical style. It's very free flowing with lots of lush, full chords you won't find in as many other composers' styles because it's busier and more dense. Classical era composers didn't use the same complex chords nearly as often, if ever. Composers like Mozart have this very clean, crisp sound to their music because they use simpler chords more effectively, and that classical era (1700s) is what defined a lot of the western music theory that is still used to this day.
It was also a limitation of instruments. Pianos as we know it weren't invented until the 1800s, and so keyboard pieces were primarily written for harpsichord and clavichord. These instruments had the same keyboard as a piano, but the way the insides worked was different and created that different tone. While the piano has soft hammers that strike the strings when you play a key and result in a softer sound, the harpsichord strings were plucked by quills when a key was pressed, creating a brighter, harsher sound. The clean technique of the classical style went a long way in making the harpsichord sound appealing and bright rather than stark and jarring.
The Romantic era is when composers started breaking from the strict form that the classical era had built itself on and having a bit more fun with tempo, rhythm, and harmony. Pieces become more driven by emotion and musicality rather than technique, and the composers take advantage of different things. One of the biggest factors was the introduction of the piano. One thing that made the piano so much more dynamic was that you had volume dynamics. A harpsichord didn't have a lot of range in regards to volume. The strings needed to be plucked with enough force to be sounded, but a piano had so much more range when it came to its dynamics due to the hammers inside, adding significantly more levels to its expression capabilities. There was also the invention of the sustain pedal, which could let notes ring out instead of immediately being muted, and that ringing sound added to this muddy, dreamy quality of the instrument. Beethoven was a late classical era composer (Late 1700s - mid 1800s), and he made sure to take advantage of the piano's capabilities in his later works, especially with pieces like Moonlight Sonata (hehehe Resident Evil reference. Anyways, I digress).
So anyways, by the time we're getting to the end of the romantic era, composers like Chopin, Hanon, etc, had begun stretching the capabilities of harmony and experimenting with the piano. Chopin's Prelude in E minor is a great brief example of the style of piano pieces for Romantic era. There was less emphasis on dance styles and more focus on writing music that evoked emotions. It didn't need a purpose; it simply existed on its own to be enjoyed. It painted a picture of its own accord, and that concept was eventually coined as programmatic music (vs. the absolute music of the classical era, which was music that existed solely as is with no deeper forethought. It was not intended to evoke any sort of image since it often served a purpose as a song for dancing)
By the time we reach the end of the 1800s and get to the 1900s, Debussy is on the scene and writing pieces like Afternoon of a Faun and Clair de Lune. The Impressionist style is also beginning to take over in Europe, especially in countries like France, and emphasising style over form. Loose shapes and depictions with soft water colors (Monet being the prime example) is what begins to form as this new artistic identity, and Debussy turns that style into sound by utilizing the piano to its full capability, but also incorporating even denser harmony than any other composer. Swaths of his pieces are so full and rich, and so when he does move to those simpler triad chords, it feels almost pure and clear with how light they sound in contrast. Arabesque No. 1 has a lot of examples of this contrast, and I think it's why people really remember it's two main sections. Both themes are iconic, and one is richer while the other is so light and soft, building back to that original theme. It's really stunning.
The utilization though of such complex chords though is what really makes his music sound the way it does. The best example of how dense and full his chords could be would be his set of pieces titled Images. I played one of the pieces back during my undergrad, and those chords use almost every finger on your hands. It's intense and incredible.
Anyways, there's a brief lesson for anyone who definitely didn't ask but might like to know more. Thanks for listening to my ramblings. I'm going to go be a glorified receptionist now.
