Claude Debussy’s “Reflets dans l’eau” (“Reflections in the Water”) opens with a reaching three-note motif (consisting of A♭, F, and E♭), which is explored in the rest of the movement
Impressions of light reflecting off of water are extremely prevalent through the use of rapid arpeggios and shimmering waves of sound. Instead of developing full musical ideas, Debussy wrote glimpses of melodic statements and climaxes to create that “never-quite-there” feeling of a reflection in water.
The ending of this movement is one of Debussy’s best moments. After a build-up beginning at 3:00, the sound fizzles out via whole-tone scales (a type of scale consisting of only whole steps, 3:56) into some lush chords.
Notice how Debussy uses both extremes of the keyboard. The left hand plays super low bass while the right hand plays high treble; the two combined create a sense of vast space.
The opening theme returns at 4:57, but the real coda begins at 5:36: a pattern of alternating low and high chords calling on motifs explored earlier in the piece lead to one final statement of the three-note theme.
Of this movement, Debussy felt it captured “the most recent discoveries of harmonic chemistry”; he was really pushing the boundaries in composition to create something that would leave a lasting impression.
Here is the music:
