Author Description

Following The Premiere Of Pelléas Et Mélisande In 1902, Debussy's Supporters, Attempting To Explain The Opera's Novelty, Turned Away From A Music Aesthetics That Gave Primacy To Inner Emotion And Toward An Aesthetics Oriented Instead Toward Listening, Sensation And The Materiality Of Sound. Over The Following Decade, Critics Jean Marnold And Louis Laloy, Drawing From A Wide Swath Of Early-20th-century Intellectual Culture That Included Empirical Psychology And Post-helmholtzian Acoustics, Were Particularly Influential As Defenders Of The Ostensibly Scientifically Valid Nature Of Debussy's Innovations As Well As His Historical Importance. This Text Examines The Decline Of Debussysme As Standards Of Aesthetic Value Shifted Toward The Abstract And Universal. Alexandra Kieffer. Previously Issued In Print: 2019. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.