Debussy's Gamelans How to Naturalize Nature

Written by François Ribac (1961-2024), this book explores Claude Debussy's encounter with Javanese gamelan at the 1889 Paris Exposition Universelle and reveals how Western music participated in constructing modern categories of "nature" and cultural differenceThrough detailed analysis of the Exposition's colonial villages and musical performances, Ribac demonstrates how extra-European sounds were aestheticized and naturalized into the French musical canon. Rather than treating Debussy's gamelan influences as mere stylistic borrowing, the study exposes the broader cosmogonic processes through which musical impressionism emerged as a sonic rendering of nature. Readers gain fresh insights into how performance and spectacle shaped modern epistemologies, while discovering the deep connections between musical practice and the formation of colonial modernity. The interdisciplinary approach combines close listening with critical historiography, revealing music's active role in naturalizing cultural hierarchies and consolidating Western cultural identity. Written for scholars and advanced graduate students in musicology, sound studies, sociology of culture, performance studies, cultural history, postcolonial studies, environmental humanities, science and technology studies, and anthropology of the arts. Translated by Kate McNaughton and with a preface by Loïc Riom.