"Claire de Lune" and "Fast Forward"

When I came home yesterday night, I was exhausted from a long day at school and wanted to do nothing more than dive into my bed for a good sleep. After my shower, I went to sleep, but thoughts about all of my unfinished school work kept me up. I needed something to calm me down, so I decided some orchestral music would be a good idea. In my search for something soothing, I came across a piece entitled “Claire de Lune”. In comparison to marimba music that I listen to when I do homework, “Clair de Lune” instantly put me to sleep because of the dreamy effect the piece had. I liked the piece so much, I listened to it some more when I got up this morning, and began comparing some of the aspects to marimba music.

I began my research of “Clair de Lune” by exploring the origins of the piece. “Clair de Lune” was written in 1890 and published in 1905 by Claude Debussy, a French composer. This piece is considered by many as Debussy’s most famous composition, and he was only twenty-five when the piece was composed. Learning about “Clair de Lune” also inspired me to learn more about the roots of marimba music, so I did some research on my favorite piece, “Fast Forward”. Marimba originated in Zimbabwe, a country in Africa. “Fast Forward” is a composition by a local music teacher Eric Schopmeyer. I began listening to marimba music when I saw his students performing downtown. I bought a copy of their CD and instantly fell in love with the style of music. As I repeatedly listened to “Clair de Lune” and “Fast Forward” I began noticing some elements about both compositions.

Most instrumental pieces are typically composed of scales, a series of notes played in a particular order. “Clair de Lune” appears to be played with a diatonic scale because it uses more than five notes so the possibility of it being pentatonic is eliminated. The notes connected smoothly with one another which also lead me to believe that it was not played in a mode. Applying the same knowledge, I listened for tonal qualities in “Fast Forward”.  At the beginning of “Fast Forward” it was a split third being played repeatedly, but as the song progressed, a wider range of notes were being used. “Fast Forward” used all the notes in the C major scale which led me to the conclusion that it was also played with a diatonic scale. It was easy to pick out the key “Fast Forward” used because marimbas from Zimbabwe only consist of the white keys on the piano.
Bibliography:


"Claude Debussy Biography - life, family, children, wife, school, son, information, born, time, year."Encyclopedia of World Biography. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Apr. 2012. <http://www.notablebiographies.com/De-Du/Debussy-Claude.html>.


"Eric Schopmeyer, Adrienne Leverette, Rebekah Phillips, & Lars Campbell - Books - Dandemutande Catalog." Dandemutande: A resource for Zimbabwean music worldwide. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Apr. 2012. <http://www.dandemutande.org/catalog/?cat=Books&subcat=&artist=ScottTom&