Debussy, Ravel & Dutilleux

Description

The string quartets of Debussy, Ravel and Dutilleux Is there such a thing as typically French music? Can the compositions of Debussy, Ravel and Dutilleux be compared on that level? Debussys attitude to an alchimie sonore and his conviction that discipline should be sought in freedom and not in the formulas of a failed philosophy is not exclusively French. Debussy fought against the rigid rules of French academicism. Nevertheless, it is especially this struggle as well as a passion for the alchemy of sound, whether French or otherwise that unites Debussy, Ravel and Dutilleux and their works. Not only was each of these composers fascinated by the phenomenon of sound, but also by the many technical possibilities to mould tones into sounds without using hackneyed formulas. Discipline in freedom or freedom in discipline. In fact, that is as far as Debussy and Ravel can be compared. Still, the works of Boulez as well as those of Dutilleux later connect the two facets of a synthesis, Debussys anti-classicism on the one hand and Ravels classicism on the other….