Clouds or fog? Demystifying meter, harmony, and structure in Debussy'sNuages

Abstract

Post‐1940 recordings, of Nuages generally perform the written 6/4 meter (3+3 beats) as 3/2 (2+2+2). Metrical ambiguity of this sort, argues the author, distorts the musical structure, since it befogs the work's harmonic and motivic segmentation. Interestingly, it was also rejected by the work's first conductors. The conductor and Debussy intimate, D.‐E. Inghelbrecht, deplored his own inability to track the meter in one of his recordings of the piece. From 1989 to 1998, the author polled several conductors (including Schuller, Boulez, Slatkin, and Epstein) on how they interpreted Nuages’ meter. No consensus resulted. Indeed, there emerged telling contradictions between the respondents’ verbalizations and their reported conducting patterns. And, except for David Epstein, no respondent linked analytical parameters such as motivic structure or harmonic rhythm (which Schuller valorizes in The Compleat Conductor) to their verbalized interpretations. As Part II of this essay shows, however, harmonic rhythm is the very reason why one should articulate the meter as written. Metrical ambiguity in the performance practice of Nuages is examined phenomeno‐logically in Part III. Here the author relates the conventional 3/2 articulation (reflecting the cross rhythm of the parallel fifths/octaves) to the cognitive principles of “common fate” and “fusion” (Tonverschmelzung). More importantly, he suggests practical responses to these phenomena, such as mixed seating of the orchestra and experimental reorchestration. Significantly, Debussy recommended the first in his correspondence and in the Nuages sketch‐score. This research most directly addresses conductors, orchestral musicians, theorists, and cognitive psychologists.

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