Clair De Lune

Clair De Lune is French for 'Moonlight'. Debussy's song, Clair De Lune is inspired by the moonlight. A lot of impressionistic music was about looking at something and imagining what it would sound like. The song itself is very beautiful, elegant but somehow still blurred. I advise you to listen and read at the same time.

The song is in Db major and in 9/8 timing. This time signature is an unusual time signature and isn't used very often in music. The first dynamic mark that we see is pianissimo, and that means very quiet.  The first note we hear is in the bass, which is actually treble because it makes it easier to read, but for clarification, I will call it bass to differentiate. It contrasts the high notes, but still sounds good. This is called parallelism within music. It was a tool that many impressionist composers used. We have a marking in the first bar that means 'muted'. Debussy wanted the beginning of the song to be quiet so it progresses in bar fifteen to more. This makes it sound like it louder and like the song is coming together in a way. In the sixth bar the second treble is turned back into a bass.

Debussy liked to use trebles in the bass and vice versa, because it made it easier to read, other than the super high notes in bass. This was a little confusing, well it confused me, but once I reminded myself that it was for an actual reason and not because Debussy just felt like putting this here because it looks cool, I got the hang of reading it and it wasn't much of an issue.

Most of the notes are being played with an accent, this means to play them harder so they come out louder and more prominent. There are also some accidentals being played in the first couple bars.

In bar eight things start to get a little more interesting and difficult to read. There are more notes that swing into each other. The accents are still present from bar eight. The next few notes are quavers, they are half a beat, they have been used here so they sound a little quicker and more can be fitted into one bar. In bar nine the bass turns into a treble again and stays this way for a few more bars.

Overall, I think this song is very beautiful, I also think that Debussy was a fantastic composer and I am happy I chose him to study. He was a very talented man and I enjoy his work very much.

I hope that anyone who reads these posts learned something.

Goodnight all :)