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Debussy, the 'Song Triptych', and fin-de-siècle Visual Culture - Dr David Code

1,522 views · Published 22 August 2012 · 30:10 · Indexed 4 November 2026

Channel: Gresham College · 2012 · Education

Debussy composed eight sets of three songs between 1891 and 1913. Containing almost all the mélodies of these years, the series tracks his development from post-Wagnerian maturity to 'late' style. While we have several fine readings of individual songs, the distinctive 'triptych' form of the Debussyan 'song cycle' has received little analytical attention.

In this lecture, Dr Code takes a fresh look at the various kinds of textual and musical unity on view in this distinctly Debussyan form. He begins with a contextual glance into visual culture of the time, which saw a striking revival of interest in painted and printed triptychs. Then, in testing how such 'painterly' orientation can qualify our sense of multi-part literary and musical form, he outlines an allegorical reading of Debussy's whole series of song triptychs as an evolving response to the pressures of modernist music historiography.

This is a part of the conference, 'Debussy: Text and Ideas', which is available in full on the Gresham College website.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/debussy-text-and-ideas-part-four

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website.
http://www.gresham.ac.uk

Debussy, the 'Song Triptych', and fin-de-siècle Visual Culture - Dr David Code

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