University of Wisconsin - Madison
Musical Time-Images: A Study of Narrativity in Debussy’s Late Style
Scholars finding the non-teleological nature of Claude Debussy’s late repertoire elusive under analysis have turned to another artistic medium to inform their study, film. While drawing parallels between compositional and cinematic practices can suggest influences in either direction, such demonstrations often overlook a more fundamental similarity: the ways in which both Debussy’s late works and modern film practices subvert the teleological narrative structures of their respective earlier periods.
This paper reframes the relationship between Debussy’s music and film to suggest that narrative similarities exist at the level of experienced temporality. Using Gilles Deleuze’s concept of time-imageintroduced in Cinema 2, I address the narrative effects of musical return in Debussy’s late sonatas and develop a methodology to approach music that eludes teleologically-biased music-analytical practices. Time-images, the philosopher asserts, “falsif[y] purely ‘chronic’ narrative” and challenge the linear “clock-time” temporality of earlier cinema. Deleuze’s taxonomy of time-imagesigns relates closely to his model of temporality introduced in his earlier writings (Difference and Repetition, Bergonism, and The Logic of Sense), suggesting a deep connection between perception of time and narrative. Using Deleuze’s study of time-image as a model for how to address non-teleological narrativity I find musical return in Debussy’s sonatas suggests a narrativity that repositions the listener in a productive narrative role, redefining music’s temporal capabilities.
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