Join the WQXR Active Listening Challenge. Every weekday at 11am we’ll be playing a piece of music just for you! Yes, we like it… but we want to know how this piece of music makes you (or your students) feel.
While you listen: write a poem, share a story, draw a character, create a scene, make a sculpture, draw a comic strip, or record a dance or musical performance and email it to us at listeningchallenge@wqxr.org. Who knows! We may even use your photos or audio on our website, social media or broadcasts.
Download our Listening Compass to help you focus.
Arabesque No. 1 in E by Claude Debussy
“Arabesque No. 1 in E” was written by the French composer Claude Debussy, sometime between 1888 and 1891, when he was only in his twenties! Some of you may think that twenty is really, reaaaalllly old—but trust me, Debussy was still just a young man when he wrote this mature piece for piano.
What makes this piece sound so mature is its impressionistic style. Impressionism is an artistic movement that originated in painters like Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. It emphasizes the overall feeling and atmosphere created by a work of art, rather than the individual lines or notes that make up the whole. In music, this translates to soft textures and an overwhelming emotional effect. How does this piece affect you?
INTERESTING FACT:
An arabesque is a composition that emulates the natural curve present in Arabic architecture. In both architecture and music, these curves are meant to bring us back to the Earth and closer to our environments. Debussy wrote, “that was the age of the ‘wonderful arabesque' when music was subject to the laws of beauty inscribed in the movements of Nature herself.” This is the perfect song to prepare for Earth Day!
COMPARE AND CONTRAST:
Have you heard of Alicia Keys? She’s a modern R&B/pop singer, having written songs like “No One,” “Girl on Fire,” and “Empire State of Mind.”
Well, she also wrote a song which samples—or uses a part of—“Arabesque No. 1 in E.” Listen for the piano playing in the background, and try to follow Debussy’s composition under Keys’ singing. How does Keys make it her own? What is the same? What is different? How does this classical piece working with modern R&B make you feel?
Read, listen, and learn more here:
You’ve definitely heard Debussy’s “Clair de Lune.” But have you heard “La Mer”?
Do you want to know more about the Impressionist painters? Check this out.
Here’s a funny story about Debussy, a saxophone, and determination.
You can find all past Listening Challenges here. Thank you for sending in your responses to the previous Listening Challenges—keep 'em coming!
-Sophie Ewh