Date of Award


Degree Type


Degree Name

Honors Thesis



First Advisor

James Briscoe


In Claude Debussy's Premiere rapsodie for clarinet and piano, the composer is beyond the realm of "music just for listening", but has become a designer, an architect of musical structure. During the early 1900s, Debussy began to develop a different Paris, France, was a cosmopolitan city in the early 1880s and on into the outlook for his compositions. La mer (1903-1905), a piece for orchestra, begins to exhibit Debussy's new focus on and compositional purpose of design and structure during his late career. The Premiere rapsodie, written from December 1909 to January 1910, is an example of this late compositional style. This thesis will explore the historical context of France from 1880-1910, attempt to discover the influences for a design aspect from the composer's personal life, and complete a detailed analysis of the Premiere rapsodie.

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Music Commons