Lexington Books Echoes from the East: The Javanese Gamelan and its Influence on the Music of Claude Debussy

One of the most admired qualities of Claude Debussy's music has been its seemingly effortless evocation and assimilation of exotic musical strains. He was the first great European composer to discern the possibilities inherent in the gamelan, the ensemble consisting mainly of tuned percussion instruments that originated in Java. Echoes from the East: The Javanese Gamelan and its Influence on the Music of Claude Debussy argues Debussy's encounter with the gamelan in 1889 at the Paris Exposition Universelle had a far more profound effect on his work and style than can be grasped by simply looking for passages and pieces in his output that sound "Asian" or "like a gamelan." Kiyoshi Tamagawa recounts Debussy's individual experience with the music of Java and traces its echoes through his entire compositional career. Echoes from the East adds a commentary on the modern-day issue of cultural appropriation and a survey of Debussy's contemporaries and successors who have also attempted to merge the sounds of the gamelan with their own distinctive musical styles. Review Kiyoshi Tamagawa's study of Claude Debussy's lifelong compositional conversation with the gamelan is a deep appreciation of both the Indonesian ensemble and repertoire and Debussy's fascination with it, which dates back to his encounter with it at 27 years of age at the Paris Exposition of 1889. Tamagawa neither avoids the difficult questions of musical appropriation nor yields to the thou-shalt-nots of certain critical perspectives; instead, this robust and clear-eyed study reaches into the mid-to-late twentieth century, when Debussy's compositional influence was still felt in the works of later, transculturally inclined composers. This is one of a growing number of studies in the area of transcultural music, and will contribute to a more nuanced understanding of such repertoire.--Jonathan D. Bellman, University of Northern ColoradoThis is an excellent book, seriously researched, beautifully written throughout, and dealing with a subject of enormous interest and relevance.--Catherine Kautsky, Lawrence University About the Author Kiyoshi Tamagawa is professor of music at Southwestern University.