Text, melody line, and sentogram: Emotion in selected piano works of Claude Debussy

• Main Author: Meeker, Rachel Elizabeth, 1964-
• Other Authors: Kolosick, J. Timothy
• Language: en_US
• Published: The University of Arizona. 1994
• Subjects: Music.
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10150/278440

This study examines a technique of applying sentic analysis (established by Dr. Manfred Clynes) to selected piano works by Claude Debussy: La fille aux cheveux de lin and Des pas sur la neige. Sentograms for anger, grief, hate, joy, and love were visually compared to line graphs of the melodies and melody inversions to discover similar shapes within the line graph, further referred to as musical sentograms. Analysis results were based on (1) the relationship between melodic direction and sentogram structure and (2) the degree to which musical support was provided for those musical sentograms through phrase structure, dynamic intensity, and texture change. Very few musical sentograms were found to have support within the phrase structure or correspondence between melodic direction, dynamic intensity, and texture intensity. The results question the application technique and the validity of sentic analysis as a useful method of musical analysis for these, and other, works.