Proceedings of the 2025 4th International Conference on Science Education and Art Appreciation (SEAA 2025)

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The Gamelan Music Influenced Debussy: Analysing the First Movement of La Mer

Authors
Gan Chen1, *
1Guangxi University for Nationalities, Nanning, Guangxi, China
*Corresponding author. Email: cg2003050922@gmail.com
Corresponding Author
Gan Chen
Available Online 31 July 2025.
DOI
10.2991/978-2-38476-452-5_32How to use a DOI?
Keywords
Gamelan music; Debussy; Symphony; De l’aube à midi sur la mer
Abstract

This article analyses the elements of Gamelan music in the first movement of La Mer, focusing mainly on its rhythmic structure, rich timbral variations and harmonic features. By comparing the similarities between the expressions of Gamelan traditional music and Debussy’s works, the article ultimately summarises the profound influence of Gamelan music on Debussy’s musical style, and investigates the feasibility of cross-cultural exchange on musical development. Through music analysis, it is found that the rhythmic structure in De l’aube à midi sur la mer is obviously influenced by the complex and varied rhythms of Gamelan music, the timbral variations draw on the unique tonal combinations of Gamelan instruments, and the harmonic features fuse the modal characteristics of Gamelan music with Debussy’s personal style. To sum up, through an in-depth analysis of De l’aube à midi sur la mer, this paper not only reveals the important influence of Gamelan music on Debussy’s musical creation, but also explores the revelation and significance of this cross-cultural fusion on the development of music.

Copyright
© 2025 The Author(s)
Open Access
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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Volume Title
Proceedings of the 2025 4th International Conference on Science Education and Art Appreciation (SEAA 2025)
Series
Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research
Publication Date
31 July 2025
ISBN
978-2-38476-452-5
ISSN
2352-5398
DOI
10.2991/978-2-38476-452-5_32How to use a DOI?
Copyright
© 2025 The Author(s)
Open Access
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

Cite this article

risenwbib
TY  - CONF
AU  - Gan Chen
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/07/31
TI  - The Gamelan Music Influenced Debussy: Analysing the First Movement of La Mer
BT  - Proceedings of the 2025 4th International Conference on Science Education and Art Appreciation (SEAA 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 253
EP  - 260
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-452-5_32
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-452-5_32
ID  - Chen2025
ER  -