Estampes, L.100 (Woodcuts) is an Impressionist piano solo by Claude Debussy. It was finished in 1903. The piece consists of three parts: The Impressionist movement in music is a movement in music loosely set between the late nineteenth century, up to the middle of the twentieth century. ... Achille-Claude Debussy (IPA ) (August 22, 1862 – March 25, 1918) was a French composer. ... 1903 (MCMIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ...

1. Pagodes (Pagodas) - approx. 6 minutes.
2. Soirée dans Grenade (Evening in Granada) - approx. 5½ minutes.
3. Jardins sous la pluie (Gardens in the Rain) - approx. 3 minutes.^[1]

The piece evokes images of different locations. Pagodes makes extensive use of pentatonic scales and mimics Gamelan percussion to suggest Asia.^[1] In music, a pentatonic scale is a scale with five notes per octave. ... Gamelan - Indonesian Embassy in Canberra A gamelan is a kind of musical ensemble of Indonesian origin typically featuring metallophones, xylophones, drums, and gongs. ... Percussion instruments are played by being struck, shaken, rubbed or scraped. ...

Soirée dans Grenade uses the Arabic scale and mimics guitar strumming to evoke images of Granada, Spain. At the time of its writing, Debussy's only personal experience with the country was a few hours spent in San Sebastián^[1]. Despite this, Spanish composer Manuel de Falla said of Soirée "There is not even one measure of this music borrowed from the Spanish folklore, and yet the entire composition in its most minute details, conveys admirably Spain.^[2]" In music, the Arabic scale is arrived at by either: Raising the seventh of the Jewish scale Raising the seventh and third of the Phrygian mode Lowering the sixth and second of a major scale The sequence of steps comprising the Arabic scale is: half – augmented – half – whole – half – augmented... A strum is the act of brushing ones fingers over (strumming) the strings of a string instrument such as a guitar. ... Granada (Arabic: غرناطة) is a city and the capital of the province of Granada, in the autonomous region of Andalusia, Spain. ... San Sebastián de los Reyes (usually called Sanse) is a city of the Comunidad de Madrid (Spain). ... Manuel de Falla y Matheu (November 23, 1876 – November 14, 1946) was a Spanish composer of classical music. ...

Jardins sous la pluie describes a garden in Debussy's native France during an increasingly violent rainstorm. It makes use of the French Folk melodies Nous n'irons plus aux bois (We'll Not Return to the Woods) and Dodo, l'enfant do (Sleep, Child, Sleep)^[1]. Chromatic, whole tone, major and minor scales are used in this movement. Folk music, in the original sense of the term, is music by and for the common people. ... The chromatic scale is the scale that contains all twelve pitches of the Western tempered scale. ... In music, a whole tone scale (set form 6-35, 02468t) is a scale in which each note is separated from its neighbors by the interval of a whole step. ... In music theory, the major scale (or major mode) is one of the diatonic scales. ... A minor scale in musical theory is a diatonic scale whose third scale degree is an interval of a minor third above the tonic. ...

References

1. ^ ^a b c d Hinson, Maurice. Preface to Estampes by Claude Debussy. Van Nuys, CA: Alfred Publishing Co., Inc., 1993.
2. ^ Schmitz, Robert E. The Piano Works of Claude Debussy. New York: Duyell, Sloan and Pearce Publishers, 1950. pp 85-86.