Oriental Otherness Represented in French Chamber Works of the 19th Century: David, Bizet, Saint-Saëns, Debussy

Abstract

The present article aims to reveal the methods used by 19th century French composers when representing Otherness. The concept of Otherness (alterity) was often associated with Orientalism, the representation of foreign cultures offering Western artists the possibility to depict the exoticism of far-away places, or certain behaviours and attitudes that could be subject to criticism in Western circles. Opera provided an extraordinary possibility for such depictions, because music endowed with exotic or strange sonorities was emphasised through the use of visual props (staging, costumes, etc). However, Otherness could be represented solely through sound, in chamber or symphonic works as well, as numerous examples testify. The authors of this paper focused their research on several chamber works of the 19th century, in which the composers aim to create a distinct, strange, or foreign atmosphere purely through music, without the use of visual elements: this Otherness is most often related to the depiction of exotic places, but it can also serve as means of evoking features that are different from the norm.