Temporal shaping of the eastern chants: a case study of the performances of Debussy’s Prélude Canope

IntroductionPrevious research on Debussy’s Préludes has largely focused on harmony and texture, with tempo and rhythm receiving less attention and rarely being supported by quantitative analysis. This study investigates Canope (Préludes, Book II), a work whose impressionistic, Eastern-inspired soundscape is fundamentally shaped by layered tempo and rubato-driven rhythms.MethodsUsing the visualization platform Vmus, we comparatively analyze 15 recordings (1953, 2018) by pianists from French, Russian, Polish, German, and Chinese backgrounds. Macro-level tempo structures and note-to-note inter-onset intervals (IOIs) are examined to capture micro-temporal deviations and phrase-level flexibility, revealing interpretative nuances in rhythmic articulationResultsOur findings indicate that performances of Canope creatively reconstruct the score through temporal elasticity. A dual pattern emerges across both macro-level shaping and micro-rhythmic rubato: shared characteristics aligning with provisional artistic-tradition clusters, alongside individual idiosyncrasies that resist such categorization. Together, these elements shape the realization of Debussy’s Eastern-inspired imagery.DiscussionContemporary trends reveal both cross-school integration and a shift toward personalized artistic expression, with individual deviations acting as sites of innovation and cross-tradition dialogue.