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Working with High-Risk Youth
This fully revised and expanded second edition focusses on high-risk youth whose struggles include neglect and abuse, alcohol and drug abuse, the risk of being exploited, mental health issues, and the inability to self-regulate and trust. This is a population of youth that government child welfare services and community agencies struggle to serve adequately. The focus has traditionally been on punishment interventions and demanding compliance, but experience and research shows that they can be better served through relationship-based practice incorporating harm reduction principles, resiliency and strength-based approaches, community collaboration, and an understanding that these youth typically come from experiences of early trauma impacting their brain development and their ability to form attachments. With new material on attachment, trauma and brain development, shame, how to end relationships, boundaries, and societal divisions, this book gives an overview of the Get Connected practice framework and philosophy which has been successfully used in Canada, and has drawn interest from New Zealand, Australia, and the USA. This second edition provides an expanded list of strategies for engaging and working with the most disconnected, challenging, and troubled youth in society. It will be required reading for all agency service providers, community outreach workers, youth workers, group home workers, probation officers, foster parents, adoptive parents, service navigators, counsellors, addictions workers, mental health workers, teachers, youth group leaders, and youth pastors/advisors in religious settings, and camp counsellors.
Peter Smyth, MSW, RSW, MSM, was the Specialist for High Risk Youth Services, overseeing the High Risk Youth Initiative with Alberta Children’ s Services Edmonton Region, where he worked for 32 years. He developed a practice framework and philosophy incorporating non-traditional intervention methods to better meet the needs of complex, troubled and street-involved youth populations. The first edition of his book, High Risk Youth: A Relationship-Based Practice Framework, was released in 2017. He has written book chapters and articles about issues confronting youth. He provides consultation, training and workshops on engaging and working with youth. Peter is currently a senior interventionist at the Organization for the Prevention of Violence, Evolve Program, in Edmonton. Peter is a sessional instructor and at the MacEwan University School of Social Work. In 2020, Peter received the Canada Governor General Meritorious Service Medal (Civil Division) for his work with youth.
Working with High-Risk Youth
A Relationship-Based Practice Framework
Peter Smyth
Designed cover image: Photo courtesy of Peter Smyth
Second edition published 2024 by Routledge
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© 2024 Peter Smyth
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First Edition Published Routledge 2017
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ISBN: 978-1-032-41956-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-41948-0 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-36056-8 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003360568
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This book is dedicated to all of the workers who commit to making this world a better and safer place for those who grew up believing the opposite through no fault of their own.
2.1 Foster care/adoption breakdown cycle among children that have experienced early childhood trauma
3.1 Sections of the brain
10.1 Boundaries Continuum
5.1 Contrast between traditional and harm reduction approaches to casework with high-risk youth
Acknowledgements
It is rewarding to have the opportunity to complete this second edition, but as always, it does not happen without people helping and supporting the process. My daughter Kiara Smyth was up for a second round of editing and was joined by my other daughter, Jenna Smyth, and by my daughter-in-law Cassie Smyth a dream team for editing, content review, and formatting. This was a huge task in a short time so I cannot thank them enough! I very much appreciated the ongoing support of my wife, Cheryl, who did so much extra for me when I was pre-occupied for so many evenings and weekends working on this book. Thanks to all family members for the ongoing support, encouragement, and patience. I have so much appreciation for Alysha Hollar for consulting on key areas of the book, and admiration for Willow Couture for sharing her personal story with her actual name. They both have expressed wanting to contribute to helping workers better understand what was for them meaningful help and support. Without their words, there would be gaps in this book.
Again, I thank my friend and colleague, Arlene Eaton-Erickson, who has been part of the Get Connected practice framework from the very beginning in 1999, who remains passionate as ever in doing better for the youth, and who continues to make me a better social worker. Thanks for the conversations, your ideas, and for always making me think. Thanks to Heather Peddle who is now overseeing the High Risk Youth Initiative (HRYI) in Edmonton, Alberta (Treaty Six territory). You are brilliant. Much gratitude to my former bosses, Pat Hagemann and Kelly Zahara, for tirelessly supporting the HRYI, always being there for me, and hiring Heather! I am very grateful to my current colleague, Laura Stolte, for her wisdom, insights, and time she has shared to dive into conversations on practice, ethics, and boundaries, particularly navigating the topic of love in practice. Also, many thanks to Larisa Jeffares who got me thinking about this area of the work, as love has always been a
natural part of her practice. I am blessed with all the connections I maintain with so many good people who are committed to their youth and do brilliant work. Thank you to Dr Michael Ungar whose incredible work on resiliency continues to be significant in working with this population of youth. Your words and wisdom have made me a better social worker.
Most importantly, I continue to be indebted to all of the youth who took the risk of allowing me and others into their world. You have no idea how much you all contributed to this book. Being able to contribute in a small way to the Youth in Care Chronicles: Reflections on Growing Up in the Child Welfare System (2020) book was an honour. The editorial team of Penny Fraser, Cody Murrell, Megan Mierau, Dorothy Badry, Teresa Tucker-Wright, and Erin Leveque put so much love and care into that project. The youth who contributed their stories provide many heartbreaking, difficult, and inspiring lessons. Their words also add much to this second edition. Special thanks to contributor Shay Grundberg who courageously shares her story in the social work classes I teach.
Preface
The second edition of this book is timely as there have been some tough times since the first edition was published in 2017. Of course, there were the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns starting in 2020 in many countries, which increased stress, loneliness, and mental health struggles for so many people, but particularly for those that were already on the margins of society, for “the disconnected,” and for those who have far more risk factors in their lives than protective factors. Society has also been more divided, with media reporting on an increase in hate-motived violence, and the spread of misinformation and conspiracy theories. It appears there is a need for black and white answers to complex problems resulting in less critical thinking about the problems in our communities. The result is possibly a decrease in compassion and an increase in punishment-based interventions and pathologizing of individuals that have experienced early childhood trauma and a lack of relationships, and who are feeling helpless and hopeless at times, through no fault of their own.
The first edition ended in hope as there had been a noticeable shift from punitive interventions to relationship-based practice. There was an understanding of trauma-informed and strength-based practices, and harm reduction was being seen as a viable approach to working with youth in particular, even in government. However, since then there have been too many examples of these concepts being spoken but not turned into actual practice. There are still too many examples of workers being inflexible, demanding compliance, withholding services and resources from those in need, and/or being worried about having to work harder than their service participants. Despite these continued obstacles the Get Connected practice framework is not an experiment or fad, and youth have not stopped needing healthy adults in their lives. This framework is a vital way of doing work with a very challenging population of highrisk youth. They are still struggling and there are, unfortunately, increasingly more children and youth trying to cope with trauma and
who have very complex needs at a younger age. Nevertheless, I kept the positive title of the concluding chapter (“Conclusion and the Reason for Optimism”) given the simple fact that I remain optimistic. There are good workers doing good work and many youth feel supported, have more belief in themselves, and see hope for their futures. A vast majority of people in society are still able to think outside of themselves and are compassionate to those struggling in life. However, we all have to renew our efforts and build more momentum to effectively work with the youth. This Get Connected framework had its roots in 1999, but it remains very relevant into 2023 and beyond.
For this second edition, the chapters have been reviewed and refined, as more has been learned, the research and literature has expanded, and there continues to be much to learn from the youth. There is a new chapter discussing transitions for youth as well as addressing the critical need for proper and meaningful goodbyes with the youth. This is an area of high importance but has, in general, been handled very poorly in practice, risking gains that have been made with the youth. Two strategies have also been added, one on the need to be predictable and consistent and the other connected to the goodbye theme as a segue into the new chapter. In addition, there is the idea of a special day for youth who are particularly hard to engage or who do not feel worthy of help. An area that was also expanded upon in the chapter on boundaries is navigating love in the work with youth. Workers and students from different professions are talking about love more frequently, and navigating how to acknowledge “professional love” ,or “social love” : if failing to do so, are we being dishonest and denying the youth something they need? Love has been a taboo subject, but there are signs that workers are more open to starting conversations about this aspect of practice, which is a good thing. Also included in the chapter on boundaries and ethics is the introduction of the boundaries continuum giving workers a guide to explore where they might fit in relation to their work with youth. It demonstrates that boundaries can be flexible within the relationship-building safe negotiation zone, but they can also be too restrictive, preventing engagement; can involve boundary crossings which can cause harm; and can cross a line into boundary violations which shatters trust and can have criminal consequences. While helpful for being mindful and reflective in practice, it can also be used as an assessment or supervision tool.
Other areas discussed in more depth include how shame is felt by youth and how this is a barrier to forming relationships, why connection is critical, the attachment concept of a worker being a secure base for youth in care; how inflexible approaches to addictions is not only poor practice but has ethical implications as well; and a comparison of harm
Preface xvii
reduction and traditional approaches to working with high-risk youth. There is more gender inclusive language (less he/she, her/him and more their/they/them ). The term Aboriginal is replaced with Indigenous to refer to the first peoples of Canada. Some of the discussion questions at the end of the chapters have been changed and new questions added, including the scenarios for the harm reduction chapter.
There are more stories about youth and quotations from youth that help guide us as we are thinking about our practice with the high-risk youth population. Many of these come from a book released in 2020 called Youth in Care Chronicles: Reflections on Growing Up in the Child Welfare System. Very personal stories were contributed by youth about the experiences of being raised in care, so tapping into this wisdom made all kinds of sense.
Since the first edition, I have continued to question why systems, decision makers, leaders, and workers still hang on to punitive and behaviour modi fication approaches when so many experts in attachment, trauma, and brain development continue to decry the futility of these methods, especially with this high-risk population. Dr Stewart Ablon (2018) muses, “I think it is because authority figures don’t know how else to think about it” (p. 33). I hope this second edition will continue to give ideas and answers to steer away from these traditional default methods that youth continue to tell us are not relevant or helpful in supporting long-term changes in their lives. This is not to suggest that this book has all of the answers, but, the goal is to start conversations about practice and to allow workers to take risks, as we often ask our youth to do. Practice evolves and learning never stops. This book is a contribution to that endeavor.
1 Introduction
The Get Connected practice framework
“I can make it on my own…don’t need no one else” I know you think it’ s safer to be by yourself
“Leave me in my darkness; this is the way I want to be Protected by my walls, I’ll survive you ’ll see ” You won ’t take the chance of again being rejected It’ s safer being lonely than it is to be connected1
A worker in British Columbia’ s child protection system who was put in a position of trust with former foster children was accused of steering some of them away from stable, loving homes and onto the streets. The youth said Robert Riley Saunders used joint bank accounts to take more than $460,000 of government aid for himself when it was meant to fund their care including rent or shelter allowance, clothing, and food (Paradis, 2022; Proctor, 2020). Of the 102 youth who were defrauded, 85 were Indigenous, leading the Government of British Columbia to acknowledge the systemic racism within the Ministry of Child and Family Development. Many of the youth from Saunders’ caseload ended up homeless, being physically and sexually abused, and struggling with addictions. Saunders used fake credentials when working for the Ministry for 22 years. He was defrauding the youth for 17 of those years (2001 to 2018). Saunders had been warned about “ aconflict of fiduciary interest” and performance reviews noted disinterest or lack of appropriate sensitivity to Indigenous culture and history (Proctor, 2020, para. 11). A remorseful Saunders received a five-year jail sentence in 2021, and the youth who were under the care of Saunders were eligible to receive up to $250,000 each; a $15,000,000 payout for the BC government (Paradis, 2022; Proctor, 2020). The insidious nature of this crime was how Saunders blamed the youth for the missing money. Don’t kids in care lie? Don’t they live in the moment and waste their money? Given the level of systemic racism, and that Saunders was able to get away with this, who is going to
DOI: 10.4324/9781003360568-1
believe a youth , particularly an Indigenous youth, relating a story that a non-Indigenous worker is stealing their money? A foster father bawled after learning Saunders was the actual liar, not his foster son. He said that this betrayal is incalculable (Proctor, 2020).
The damage goes deep. This is a population that typically struggles with trust; their instinct is to push away rather than allow someone to get close to them and risk further emotional harm. Saunders likely reinforced to these youth that adults and people in authority cannot be trusted and should not be trusted. Their willingness to let a person that wants to help them into their world will be severely limited and it is going to take a lot of work, patience, and understanding if anyone is going to reverse the damage done to them. If their experiences that resulted in coming into care in the first place chartered a difficult path for these youth, the selfish acts of Saunders quite possibly shattered their capacity to connect to anyone, possibly for life.
Another tragic narrative that is relevant to the subject matter of this book comes from journalist Darcy Henton who tells the story of Christopher Crane, age 19 and a member of a gang at Maskwacis Cree Nation, 2 near Edmonton, Alberta. In 2008, Crane fi redthe gunina drunken drive-by shooting. A stray bullet found an innocent toddler, Asia Saddleback. The child survived but for the rest of her life will have to live with this trauma, as well as a bullet that is lodged in her spine and the scars from her surgery.
Crane also had to survive trauma in his childhood, and he will have to live with those scars for the rest of his life as well. Henton (2010) reported that Crane never really had a father, and his stepfather died a violent death. His mother who struggled with addictions abandoned him, and his grandfather who helped raise him was charged with sexually assaulting young girls. He bounced around from his mother to various relatives and along the way was physically, sexually and verbally abused. By age 11 he was smoking marijuana regularly. He dropped out of school in grade 7 as he felt no one cared whether or not he attended. He lived in poverty, had no family support, no education, and no job prospects. Crane’ s mother died in a car accident in December 2009, while he was in jail.
Earlier, his mother had described her son to a psychologist as “always angry. ” The psychologist further told the court that Crane was “moody, sad, and despondent,” and added that he thought the teenager has been exposed to trauma as he showed post-traumatic symptoms (Henton, 2010, para. 9). The psychologist testi fied that “violence was never far from this man…He saw it and he partook in it” (Henton, 2010, para. 14). Crane had been taking medications for anxiety for most of his life.
Crane had had a common-law spouse since he was 14 and they had a son. He had been violent toward his spouse. However, the psychologist did not see Crane as decidedly anti-social, but rather as immature and rebellious. While he was seen to be a moderate risk for re-offending, much of this depended on whether he could wean himself off alcohol and drugs, which he had used to self-medicate his anxiety and depression. Other barriers to Crane, throughout his life, were undiagnosed vision and hearing problems. According to a psychologist, he possibly had organic brain damage, as well as limited comprehension skills and a limited vocabulary.
Henton (2010) asks whether Crane can be saved, or should be saved. After such a tragic start, can Crane turn his life around? Since his mother was buried, he has apologized for his actions and vowed to be a better father to his son. He has hopes and dreams, but the psychologist said that whether he has the ability to see a positive future remains to be seen. He has dropped his gang colours and Crane said he was never into being a gang member and never really played the role. He told the judge, “I am not what people think I am” (Henton, 2010, para. 24).
It is unclear if Crane knew who he was at all. While not excusing his role in the shooting, he had no one to trust, or look out for him, and was abused and abandoned by the very people who should have been keeping him safe. He tuned out at age 11 and drifted. Perhaps it can be different now, but who does he turn to? Can he emerge from his dark, unsafe world, or is he destined to be the next generation in his family whose troubles are too overwhelming and consuming?
While not all who experience a similar childhood as Crane end up involved such serious violence (Schore, 2003), they often do lead high-risk lifestyles. They are very often intensely angry, trust no one, self-medicate, dissociate, break the law, and often don’t believe that they will ever find hope, let alone achieve their goals. It’ s not that youth coming from such trauma don’t have goals and dreams, but there is a disconnect as most of these youth don’t ever expect their goals will be realized. Given their poor self-worth and the barriers they face in life, goals and dreams tend to remain in the realm of fantasy. The lack of caring they have experienced “marks a youth who has learned to live without hope, to truly believe in his or her guts that he or she is alone and always will be” (Kagan, 2004, p. 47).
A shift in practice
These tragic stories illustrate that high-risk youth do not come out of nowhere. There are circumstances that they have faced through no fault of their own, and they can face further harm once in the child protection
system. How can they possibly see people as trustworthy? Where will they find any sense of value and self-worth when those supposed to be helping them cannot even offer this to them? Of all of the youth who have come into the High Risk Youth Initiative (a child protection initiative within Alberta Children’ s Services, Edmonton Region)3 since its inception in November 2005, all have struggled with family problems from childhood. All of the youth have issues around abandonment and rejection, which psychologist Richard Kagan (2004) calls “the greatest curse ” given “the feeling of being unwanted eats away at his or her inner being” (p. 46). All of the youth struggle, on some level, with building relationships and developing trust. This is not to say all of the youth are, or would be, diagnosed with reactive attachment disorder (RAD), or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) but all do have some level of difficulty in these areas. The problems start very early. Relationship issues faced by the youth are a challenge to overcome, and without appropriate intervention they can chart a destructive journey throughout their whole life (Maté, 2008; National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, 2010a). The vast majority of literature on attachment theory and RAD focuses on the onset of attachment from in utero to 36–60 months (depending on the book or article), and then up to about age 12. Though more has become available recently, there is comparatively little written about how youth and young adults continue to manage with their attachment issues and how this impacts so many areas of their lives. This is surprising given we humans are such social creatures and our survival as a species is dependent on our ability to form and maintain successful relationships with others (National Scienti fic Council on the Developing Child, 2004a; Perry & Szalavitz, 2006), and, further, that we all will have difficulty loving others if we are unable to love ourselves (Szalavitz & Perry, 2010).
As Kagan (2004) notes, attachment to a caring parent means survival. Abandonment, to a young child, means an emotional trauma at minimum, and death at the extreme. By the time an unattached child is an adolescent, they have learned to keep people at a distance and accept they are on their own in the world because one cannot rely on others (Batmanghelidjh, 2006; Howe, 2005; Smyth & Eaton-Erickson, 2009). Their walls are castle thick, and outside of this protective barrier lies a frightening existence. This is a lonely and dark place to be, but a place with which high-risk youth are familiar.
The challenge for all child welfare systems is that traditionally there has been a reliance on punishment interventions to intervene with these children. As this book will show, this has not worked very well and has likely made things worse. A shift in thinking and practice is required. As
Sandra Bloom and Brian Farragher (2013) point out, staff working with traumatized clients (or service participants4) need to avoid their own kneejerk response to punish rather than teach, even though punitive responses make the people in control feel better for a while because they provide a satisfying sense of evening the score. The authors add that “[m]any mental health and social service programs continue to struggle with the idea that punishment works when decades of research shows that it is mostly ineffective and often does more harm than good” (Bloom & Farragher, 2013, p. 149).
Getting connected
Readers will be re-introduced to the Get Connected model of this book which has been incorporated into child welfare and community practice with youth, and high-risk youth in particular, over the past 23+ years. This model is a relationships-based, anti-oppressive practice framework and philosophy. Why youth need to get connected is reinforced by research professor and social worker Brené Brown (2021) who defines and explains connection “ as the energy that exists between people when they feel seen, heard, and valued; when they can give and receive without judgement; and when they derive sustenance and strength from relationship” (p. 169). Connection is in our neurobiology, Brown (2021) reminds us: “This is why our experiences of disconnection are so painful and why chronic disconnection leads to social isolation, loneliness, and feelings of powerlessness” (p. 169). Likewise, in their book, What Happened to You? Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing, Bruce Perry and Oprah Winfrey (2021) see disconnection as a disease and add that disconnection and loneliness in society are playing a major role in increased anxiety, sleep problems, substance use, and depression.
One of our major findings is that in determining someone’ s current mental health, the history of their childhood relational health their connectedness is as important, if not more important than, their history of adversity. And for children and youth experiencing trauma, the best predictor of their current mental health functioning is their current connectedness.
(Perry & Winfrey, 2021, pp. 261–262)
The Get Connected practice framework is the model that informs this book. This model is informed by attachment theory and neuroscience related to how trauma impacts the brain (chapters 2 and 3); it offers approaches to addressing addictions and behaviours through a harm
reduction philosophy ( chapters 4 and 5); it incorporates resiliency and strength-based approaches (chapter 6); and focuses on developing community collaboration opportunities (chapter 7). Drawing from this these areas, building relationships that youth see as meaningful is highlighted before moving into strategies that can facilitate and maintain such connections (chapters 8 and 9). This is followed by a discussion on the importance of maintaining boundaries (chapter 10). The book ends with a reminder to workers of the importance of properly preparing youth for transitions, especially when aging out of the child welfare system, and taking responsibility for saying “goodbye” to their youth in a meaningful way (chapter 11).
A focus of this book will be on how youth cope, or do not cope, when they have no healthy connections to others, but also on how they make their lives work, develop resiliency, create their identities, and strive toward surprisingly mainstream goals in their lives. This book will also go beyond the struggles high-risk youth face because of their early childhood experiences and shattered relationships, to focus on how the child welfare system and indeed other systems, whether government, agency, or community organizations interact with the youth, and how specific groups of youth face particular challenges in their life.
Pulling youth in, not pushing them away
In the western world, the human services field continues to be driven by risk-management (Lonne et al., 2009; Wharf, 2002a), deficit-based, or problem-saturated systems (Lonne et al. 2009; Luckock & Lefevre, 2008; Madsen, 2007; Saleebey, 1997; Ungar 2004). Since the release of the first edition of this book in 2017, and despite the fact that so many workers and organizations now claim to be trauma informed, there remains a desperate need to shed the reliance on punishment-based interventions. Government ministries, in particular, are prone to working in isolation instead of drawing from the wisdom of professionals from other government ministries, non-profit organizations, outreach agencies, and informal supports (Mullaly, 2010; Wharf, 2002a). Interestingly, while workers are in the helping professions or child welfare, to help families and keep children safe they cling to oppressive, punishment orientations based on power and control (Lonne et al., 2009; Luckock & Lefevre, 2008; Strega & Esquao, 2009). This incorporates an outdated “tough love,” “three strikes,” and/or “ zero tolerance” mentality, that arguably might be more effective with children who are secure in their attachments, but which do not work with high-risk youth. Despite the challenges, or perceptions of challenges from an adult point of view, that youth have with the various
systems, they actually do want connections with safe and healthy adults (Siegel, 2013). This has been my own experience over and over. However, instead of drawing them in and showing youth they have value, systems tend to push them away, reinforcing that the world is an unsafe and lonely place, reinforcing that they cannot trust adults.
Therefore, the youth typically r emain marginalized and excluded from mainstream society (Gaetz, 2004; Mullaly, 2007, 2010) and are seen as what Ungar (2006) refers to as “ dangerous, delinquent, deviant or disordered” adolescents (p. 11). This is magni fi ed even more so for Indigenous5 youth, as well as those who may be part of the LGBTQ2S +6 community, immigrant youth, or t hose pregnant and parenting. Such labelling and societal attit udes serve to create more barriers to youth accessing services and to having the opportunity to build safe relationships so they can actually ge t to the place that we, ironically, demand of them in the fi rst place feeling safe, coping, and managing their lives.
The change in practice continues to be slow and painful, but momentum needs to build more than ever with the chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic and the deep divisions and con fl ict in society seen today. There must be more empathy and compassion being brought into working with children, youth and families. This allows for more of a focus on building relationships fi rst and building support teams in partnership with the youth. This is not to say that many workers have not been putting their hearts, souls and minds into their work with children, youth and families, but a relationship-based focus has clearly not yet been fully embraced. Even i n 2022, this theme surfaced once again when Alberta Children ’ s Services introduced the Transition to Adulthood Program (TAP) without consulting the youth or front-line sta ff . According to youth, government caseworkers, and community workers, this resulted in sudden changes that ended long-term relationships with their workers, leaving youth feeling rejected and abandoned by a system that was supposed to be providing care to them. Again, while relationship-based and trauma-informed practice is supported and encouraged in words, the decisions, policies, programs, and actions of systems are not necessarily consistent. Thus, although it feels like the positive shift is gaining momentum, we are reminded there can be regression too, programs and pra ctices that can actually do harm. This second edition book will hopefully contribute to taking this more compassionate model of practice to a tipping point where there can be no regression, and where youth are not harmed simply by being in systems that are supposed to be helping them.
A challenging population
At the risk of presenting this work as child welfare nirvana, I must acknowledge that it comes with challenges as well. Working with high-risk youth is intense and requires a lot of self-awareness and patience. It is not for everyone, as not everyone is cut out for working with youth, let alone those youth whose first words to you may be “fuck you, I don’t need anybody telling me what to do.” My experience is that it may take a while for them to buy in, but if workers are genuine and manage their judgments, and are respectful, good listeners, and able to be vulnerable as we expect of the youth the youth may very well risk engaging in a relationship (Batmanghelidjh, 2006; Brendtro & du Toit, 2005; Herbert, 2007; Lemma, 2010; Luckock & Lefevre, 2008; Ungar, 2004). Experience has demonstrated that when they do buy in, they buy in hard. The youth who are most resistant initially often end up making the most solid connections, perhaps because they put the most energy into the relationship whether negative (initially) or positive (once past the testing phase). However, once they have taken the risk of allowing a healthy adult into their lives, they want contact, and lots of it! Whether face-to-face, texting, social media, or even email, they want connection.
Workers must commit to being available so as not to repeat the youths’ experiences of rejection and abandonment, which can be a juggling act with a caseload of up to 15 high-risk youth.7 With that comes the challenge of finding a work–life balance; the secondary and vicarious traumatization that can result from hearing about the adverse experiences and trauma of so many youth; the fear of a tragic incident given the high-risk lifestyles of the youth; the need to be constantly vigilant about maintaining limits and boundaries, given the youth have typically experienced such profound boundary violations throughout their lives (Perry & Winfrey, 2021; Reamer, 2012); and the struggle of finding a balance between attending to the needs of the youth and maintaining the administrative duties that are part of government systems or community agencies. So, who are these youth that require much attention and provide workers with rewards and challenges? Smyth & Eaton-Erickson (2009) asked the question and defined high-risk:
We refer to high-risk youth as “the disconnected:” They rarely have family to rely on. They rarely have a healthy support network to help guide them…. They live risk-filled lifestyles characterized by such things as drugs, sexual exploitation, violence, living on the streets and family breakdown. They typically have difficulty trusting adults and perceive they are alone in the world…. They are not “at
risk” youth; they are “high-risk youth.” They are not heading in a bad direction or on a path of self-destruction; they are already there …. They are hard to engage, slow to change, test frequently, and challenge one ’ s practice, ethics, and boundaries. Many youth have shared that they expect the relationship with their child welfare worker to be problematic. Despite this we have come to believe that all youth want connection, but attempting to connect with high-risk youth is a risk-filled journey that requires patience.
(p. 119)
I have also learned that this population of youth demonstrates resiliency and has many strengths. This may not be evident if practicing from a deficit-based or problem-saturated perspective (Luckock & Lefevre, 2008; Madsen, 1999, 2007; Saleebey, 1997; Ungar, 2004, 2006, 2015), but does become apparent once efforts have been made to engage the youth in a meaningful way.
However, explaining why a youth is high-risk, as opposed to at-risk, can be problematic. High-risk youth would fall under the umbrella of “hard to serve youth.” While other subgroups can be challenging to serve, they are not necessarily street-involved youth struggling to make safe choices. For example, a 17-year-old on the autism spectrum may also have trouble making connections with others, perhaps is prone to acts of aggression, and has trouble following through with service plans. Indeed, a service provider is faced with challenges, though the youth would not fall under the label of “high-risk youth.” A caregiver may also be challenged in meeting the needs of a youth with severe mental and physical disabilities, but again, while definitely a hard-to-serve youth, he or she is not a high-risk youth. An “at-risk” youth may be making poor choices, as opposed to engaging in a high-risk lifestyle. They might be experimenting with drugs, but not using to escape their painful existence. The at-risk youth might swear at his teacher, but is not packing a knife for protection. They may be couch surfing with friends without telling their parents, but are not engaging in survival sex (trading sex for a place to stay, food, drugs, alcohol, clothes, and/or devices) to avoid sleeping in a dumpster. They may blow off a meeting with a youth mentor, but are not trashing a caregiver ’ s house out of fear they are getting too emotionally close.
As the HRYI serves Edmonton and area (with a population of just over 1.5 million8), it is estimated that in 2022 there are over 250 youth (14–22 years old) that would fit the criteria for “high-risk youth” (see Box 1.1), and who have status9 with the Alberta Children’ s Services, Edmonton Region (Heather Peddle, 10 personal communication, February
27, 2023). In addition, with the emergence of children showing up on the street who are involved in, or being coerced into, high-risk behaviours, and who are very challenging to engage, it is estimated that there are over 50 high-risk children between the ages of 11 and 13 who have government status with this number growing, in particular the number of children being sexually exploited (Heather Peddle, personal communication, February 27, 2023). This concern was identi fied in a position paper, “Younger Youth, Higher Risk,” in 2011 (Eaton-Erickson et al., 2011) and the numbers have continued to grow. Of course, this does not include many more from both age groups that are experiencing similar challenges in their lives but have no child welfare status. However, these youth are likely to be getting some of their basic and emotional needs met through community agencies and outreach services.
Box 1.1 Criteria For High Risk Youth
This definition is intended to be a guide for assessing whether a youth fits the definition of “high-risk youth” which allows for a more intense and relationship-based intervention with the child protection, however, is no condition that they have to meet a certain number of criteria. This is part of an assessment to determine the needs of the youth, also taking into account how disconnected they may be from having supportive people in their lives, and their struggles with being able to form healthy relationships. It can also help determine whether they could benefit from the overall philosophy of the Get Connected model, given their previous challenges with compliance, finding appropriate placements, and avoiding help. While a definition for this specific population, it is recognized that this practice would benefit all youth involved in the child protection system.
The youth has significant attachment issues. There is evidence of the youth having experienced chronic trauma. The youth is below the age of 22*.
The use of drugs and/or alcohol appears to be interfering with day-to-day functioning.
The choices the youth are making may jeopardize their safety (including where they are living and with whom they are associating).
The youth cannot identify a healthy adult in their lives outside of the professional community.
The youth struggles with authority figures and has few, if any, people they can trust in their lives.
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big sonatas and two concertos. MacDowell’s treatment of the keyboard can hardly be said to be original, but the concertos, and among the shorter pieces the Hexentanz prove to be highly effective. Many of the short pieces, which are grouped together in sets, are charming. On the whole there is little suggestion of a new spirit in the work of this composer of a new land. Now and then he uses negro rhythms, as in the ‘Uncle Remus,’ sometimes he uses Indian motives, as in the ‘Indian Lodge’ of the ‘Woodland Sketches.’ His forms and his style are perhaps more akin to those of Grieg, with whom, indeed, his music will be often compared, than to the earlier Romantics. Unfortunately, however, instead of in a national idiom, he speaks in an intensely personal one. Short phrases and rhythms which are seldom varied seem almost to hamper his music, almost to clog its movement. On the other hand, as in some of the ‘Sea Pieces,’ he writes sometimes in a broad and open style, seeming to shake off the fetters of too intense a mannerism.
Ethelbert Nevin wrote several sets of short pieces, ‘In Arcady,’ ‘Venezia,’ and others, which have at least the charm of simple, sweet melody
Mr. Arthur Foote and Mrs. H. H. A. Beach have shown themselves masters of an effective pianoforte style, a mastery that has on the whole been rare in this country.[41]
FOOTNOTES:
[38] The third hand part was written for one who did not know how to play the piano, and has but one and the same note throughout the piece.
[39] Die Neurussische Klaviermusik. In Die Musik, 1903, No. 8.
[40] Op. cit.
[41] For a detailed discussion of American composers the reader is referred to Volume IV of this series.
CHAPTER X MODERN FRENCH PIANOFORTE MUSIC
Classical traditions: Saint-Saëns, and others; C. V. Alkan César
Franck: his compositions and his style Vincent d’Indy Fauré
The new movement: Debussy and Ravel Debussy’s innovations: new harmonies, scales, overtones, pianoforte technique; his compositions Ravel differentiated; his compositions; Florent Schmitt and Eric Satie Conclusion I
By far the most interesting and generally the most significant developments in pianoforte music since the time of Schumann, Chopin, and Liszt are those which have taken place in France. Not only have the French composers greatly enriched the literature for the instrument with compositions that have a value beyond that which fashion temporarily lends them; they have refreshed it as well with new ideas of harmony, and effects, which if they are not essentially new, are newly extended and applied.
There is still to be observed in France, it is true, a very considerable loyalty in a group of composers to the style of Chopin, or even more, to that of Liszt, and a general dependence upon German ideas of music which have for a century past been so preponderant in the
world as to be considered international. The admirable works of Camille Saint-Saëns are the result of such a loyalty. He is a great master of the pianoforte style, endowed, moreover, with a fine sense of form and a fine imagination. Everything he has written is finished with care, clear-cut and indisputably effective. There is no piece of music more grateful from the point of view of the pianist than the second of his five concertos, that in G minor. This is not only because the treatment of the solo instrument is clear and brilliant, but because the themes are worthy of the treatment and of the broad form which they are made to fill. The writing for the orchestra, moreover, is not less perfect than that for the pianoforte. But inasmuch as the harmonies are a familiar inheritance from the past, and the style an adaptation of an inherited technique, the work signalizes not an advance in music, but the successful maintenance of an already high standard. The spirit of it is less emotional and sentimental than that of other concertos, and more witty and epigrammatic. Hence it holds a special place as well as a high one, from which it is hard to think that any change of fashion will ever remove it.
The short pieces of Cécile Chaminade, Paul Lacombe, François Thomé, Benjamin Godard, and Paul Wachs may be mentioned in passing as having won a measure of success.
But the works of another group or two of French composers show an originality that was at first so startling as to enrage conservative critics. It is owing to them that pianoforte music seems to have entered upon a new course of life. One finds the stirring of new movements in Paris even before the time of Chopin’s arrival there, due very clearly to the French spirit. Berlioz is growing more and more to a huge stature in the eyes of historians. The figure of his countryman and acquaintance, Charles-Valentin Alkan, is more obscure, but he represents the same spirit at work in the special branch of pianoforte music. If his compositions have not had great influence, they none the less give an early example of the working towards independence of a French pianoforte music.
Alkan (1813-88) was admired as a player and as a composer by both Chopin and Liszt, and Bülow still later held him in high esteem. An effort is now under way, encouraged by Isadore Philip, and others, to draw his compositions from the obscurity into which they have fallen. They are surprisingly numerous and in many ways astonishing. They include a great number of transcriptions, of études and of pieces of extraordinary realism. His harmonies and melodies suggest Berlioz, with whom he is being more and more compared. They have often a quality that is in a sense bare. They are unusual without connoting a rich world of the unexplored. They hint rather at a deliberate attack upon the old than at the youth of a new system. The general flow of his harmonies, for example, is familiar. Only now and then does something unusual obtrude itself with a sort of harshness. Notice, for example, the chromatic movement of the doubled inner voice in the cantabile section of the short piece 'Le tambour bat aux champs.’ Notice, too, the strange starkness of harmonies in the paraphrase Super flumina Babylonis.
Technically Alkan stands between Chopin and Liszt, and in this regard his music is very exacting. He demands an equal skill in both hands. Of the three studies published as opus 76, the first is for the left hand alone, with long passages of rapid tremolo like that one finds in the first of Liszt’s Paganini transcriptions. The second is for the right hand alone, demanding an unrestricted movement of the arm in long arpeggios and extremely wide chords. Finally the third is a long piece in unison from beginning to end, far more awkward and more difficult than the last movement of Chopin’s sonata in B-flat minor. The three studies opus 15, Dans le genre pathétique, are veritably huge works. Of these the second, Le vent, is already well known as one of the effective concert pieces of the new era. The first and last have the strange titles of Aime-moi and Morte. Twelve études in minor keys were published as opus 39. One finds again extraordinary titles, such as Rythme molossique, Scherzo diabolico, and Le festin d’Europe. All are exceedingly difficult. Some, like the first, are both startling and interesting as music. There is a more or less famous study in perpetual motion for the right hand which was
given the title Le chemin de fer, extremely rapid, difficult, and effective.
The titles throughout all his music are original. Some are easily understood. ‘The Wind’ and the ‘Railroad’ for instance are fully explained by the music. In fact the realism of the latter does not stop with movement. There is to be heard even the pounding of wheels, the puffing and the whistle of the engine. But what is the meaning of others, of Neige et lave, Ma chère liberté and Ma chère servitude, Salut, cendre du pauvre, Fais dodo and J’étais endormie, mais mon cœur reveillait? On the whole these fantastic titles suggest less the union of music with poetry or self-conscious sentiment than a sort of rational, positive realism. There is little in the music that is vague or sensuous. Most of it is objective rather than imaginative. He has neither the fire of Liszt, nor the emotion of Chopin, and his compositions are both spiritually and technically independent of theirs. He was a terrific worker and he lived apart from men. Marmontel wrote of him with great respect and some affection. Oskar Bie thinks of him as a misanthrope. One can hardly speak of misanthropic music; yet the quality which distinguishes Alkan’s music is something the quality of an implacable irony. It is strong stuff, and is likely to prove more logical in itself than any appreciation or disparagement of it can be made.
CËSAR FRANCK II
But Alkan’s music must be taken as the manifestation of an independent spirit, French in its directness, rather than as a source of stimulation or strength to a further development of a distinctly French school of pianoforte music. Such a school first centres about César Franck, who, though he, too, lived in retirement and in an obscurity which the general public did not attempt to penetrate,
exercised a powerful influence on music in Paris. His compositions are relatively few in number. There are but two considerable works for pianoforte alone, and only three more for pianoforte and orchestra. These, however, are of great beauty and two at least are masterpieces in music. These are the ‘Prelude, Chorale and Fugue’ for pianoforte alone, and the Variations Symphoniques for pianoforte and orchestra. The other three, which have elements of greatness but seem to fall short of absolute perfection, are the ‘Prelude, Aria, and Finale’ for pianoforte alone, and two symphonic poems for pianoforte and orchestra suggested by poems of Victor Hugo, Les Eloïdes and Les Djinns.
The ‘Prelude, Chorale and Fugue,’ and the ‘Symphonic Variations’ may be ranked with the symphony, the violin sonata, the string quartet and the pianoforte quintet, and are no less a perfect and in some respects a complete expression of his genius than they. One finds in them the same ceaseless chromatic shiftings and involutions of harmony, the same polyphonic treatment of short phrases, the same structural unity, the same exalted and mystical spirit. In fact this spiritual quality is perhaps nowhere so gloriously expressed as in the Chorale movement for the pianoforte.
As a whole the ‘Prelude, Chorale and Fugue’ is flawless in structure. There is the greatest economy in the use of musical material. The unusual scoring of the opening measures, with the melody note slightly off the beat and the harp-like ornamentation, is the scoring which characterizes the final, tremendous pages of the Fugue. The sections of the Prelude which offer contrast to this opening melody are based upon the subject which later forms the basis of the Fugue. And the magnificent theme and spirit of the following movement, the Chorale, is projected, as it were, into the whole last section of the Fugue. Never, perhaps, was a fugue more splendidly and more fully developed, nor was the force of a work ever so made to grow and to culminate in pages of such majestic and triumphant music.
There is a similar use of material in the ‘Prelude, Aria, and Finale,’ but the result is not quite so flawless. The Prelude, here, in spite of
the suave beauty of its chief theme, is loose and episodic in effect. And it cannot be said that the scoring for the pianoforte is distinguished or animated. The style is either massive or awkward. The most beautiful part of the whole work is perhaps the concluding section of the Aria. The earlier parts of the Aria are skillfully devised, but the scoring is rather heavy and seems more suited to the organ than to the piano. But the melody of this concluding section is of inspired beauty; and as if Franck himself were well aware of its rare and significant worth, the last pages of the stormy Finale bring it back, woven with the chief theme of the Prelude.
Technically both works are extremely difficult. The general breadth of effect, the demand for power and for freedom of the arm, and the use of octaves—these as well as the use of the very high and very low registers of the keyboard—all make evident the rather orchestral idea of the pianoforte which Liszt introduced. Liszt, by the way, was one of the first to recognize the greatness of Franck. But, though Franck was at one time a brilliant pianist and was intended by his father to electrify Europe from the concert stage, he was above all else an organist. His pianoforte style is most evidently very closely allied to the organ style. This is particularly noticeable in the treatment of bass parts, which not only suggest the pedals of the organ but are often impossible for the small hand to play. The octaves for the left hand in the Aria, and even more remarkably those in the Chorale, need not only the independent movement which the organ pedals can add in polyphony, but seem to call for the tone color of the low notes on the organ. Frequently, moreover, as in the second section of the Prelude in the ‘Prelude, Aria, and Finale,’ such wide stretches as the music demands of the hands, as well as the general freedom of polyphonic movement, almost require an instrument with two keyboards.
On the other hand, there are many effects which are brilliantly pianistic. The flowing figures in the Prelude of the ‘Prelude, Chorale and Fugue’ are purely pianistic. The tremendous octave passages in the Finale need the distinct, percussive sound of the pianoforte. And the upper notes of the Chorale melody, both when it is given alone
and when it is combined with the fugue theme, must have a ringing, bell-like quality which only the pianoforte can produce.
The treatment of the pianoforte in those works in which it is supported by the orchestra shows less the influence of the organ style. Generally Franck had in mind the sonority of the organ and the movement of music proper to that instrument. In these works the function of the organ, so to speak, is given to the orchestra; and hence the pianoforte is free of all responsibility but that of adding its own special effects to the mass of sound. These are essentially simple. In the Djinns there is some brilliant rapid work, a few solo passages of agitated character with wide rolling but not elaborate accompaniment figures. In the ‘Symphonic Variations,’ very noticeably a bigger and a finer work, there are solo passages of great breadth, and nearly all the variations make the piano prominent by means of its own effects. There are the passages of detached chords and double notes which seem to tinkle over the first variation, the remarkably wide spacing in the passage which follows, with the suggested movement of inner voices and the occasional touch upon high notes; the flowing figures, with again a suggested richness of inner voices, which pursue their smooth course over the 'cello solo; finally the more brilliant effects towards the end, especially those of the tossing chords, and of the difficult, leaping triplet figures. The pianoforte and orchestra were never more ingeniously combined than in those passages which the pianoforte introduces with a sort of double waltz movement and in which the orchestra subsequently joins with the theme in a decidedly cross rhythm, leaving the solo instrument free to add delicately melodious runs.
The structure of the whole work, moreover, is musically interesting. Though the theme in F-sharp minor, announced simply by the pianoforte after several pages that are more or less introductory, may be regarded as the chief theme, there is another distinct and highly characterized theme—first given fully by the pianoforte in the magnificent solo passage (C-sharp minor) so prominent in these introductory pages. This, as well as the chief theme, is elaborately varied, and is ever and again throughout the work so cleverly
combined with the chief theme, that one must regard the whole ultimately as a series of double variations.
These few works of César Franck are architecturally the most imposing for the pianoforte since the last sonatas of Beethoven; and the ‘Prelude, Chorale and Fugue’ and the ‘Symphonic Variations’ are surely to be numbered among the most valuable compositions from which the pianist may draw his delight. They are very nearly unique in plan and style. The ceaseless shifting of harmonies and interweaving of short phrases will doubtless seem to many manneristic and a little irritating. Then, too, they are, in spite of their breadth and power, mystical, and in that sense, elusive or even baffling. The weight of the organ style rests on them, and they are awkwardly difficult and taxing. Yet in spite of these peculiarities they remain pianoforte music of great dignity, beauty, and nobility.
III
At the basis of the two greatest pianoforte works of César Franck, one discerns a classical foundation. The harmonies, it is true, are Romantic and strange; but the ideals are traditional. In the matter of form there is less a departure from old principles than a further development of them. They present a few new complications of structure; but as far as the pianoforte is concerned they have little new to show in the matter of effect. Their peculiar sonority is that of the organ, and remains not wholly proper to the pianoforte. On the whole, then, the music is easily related to that of Beethoven, of Liszt, and of Wagner. There is no striking departure from that road to which Beethoven may be said to have pointed.
Nor does one find, on the whole, less traditional loyalty in the pianoforte compositions of Franck’s pupil, Vincent d’Indy. These are not numerous. There are only a few sets of short pieces, and but two works of length. The little sonata, opus 9, is in classical form. There are three short waltzes in a set called Helvetia, opus 9; a Serenade, Choral grave, Scherzetto, and Agitato, opus 16, one or two pieces in
classical dance forms, and three little romances in the style of Schumann, opus 30. Of the last the third is a most successful imitation of Schumann, resembling passages from the Kreisleriana in spirit and in technique. None of these short pieces, however, calls for more than mention, except as they all show a clear but not distinguished traditional and simple treatment of the keyboard. There is hardly the harmonic freedom of either Wagner or Franck in them.
The two long pieces are far more distinctly original. The first of these is a set of three fanciful pieces called Poëmes des Montagnes. The first of these—Le chant des bruyères—is divided into five parts: the song of the heather, or the heath, mists, a touch of Weber, a theme which is to be found in all three movements called La bien-aimée, and finally the song of the heath again, this time in the distance. The second movement is again subdivided, this time into dances amid which la bien-aimée makes a momentary appearance; and in the last movement—Plein-air—one finds a promenade, thoughts of great trees (hêtres et pins) on the side of the mountain, la bien-aimée, a bit of calm before a burst of wind, finally a pair of lovers united. At the beginning and at the end of the series there are a few broken chords, vaguely styled Harmonies, and at the very end again there is a reminiscence of the theme of la bien-aimée.
One cannot but find the whole series closely akin to Schumann. The romanticism is the romanticism of Schumann, carried a step into the open air and among the mountains, of his devotion to which d’Indy has left many a proof in music. The fleeting touch of Weber, and especially that d’Indy should have written Weber’s name over the measure in which it falls, is again characteristic of the composer who introduced Paganini and Chopin into his Carnaval. The identification of a theme with a beloved one is another instance. But even more definite than these tokens of a certain romanticism is the treatment of the piano, and even the nature of much of the thematic material. Le chant des bruyères and La bien-aimée are in the mold of Schumann. The Valse grotesque recalls in rhythm some of the Davidsbündler and the first of these Danses rhythmiques is like parts of the Pantalon and Colombine of the Carnaval.
On the other hand, there is something original and new in the section called Brouillard. The general mistiness of the harmonies, the long holding of the pedals with consequent vague obscurity of sound, and the irregular line of clear points in a sort of melody that is drawn against this inarticulate accompanying murmur, these indicate new ventures in pianoforte style. The rhythmical irregularity of the first of the dances and the irregularity in the form and recurrence of sections are further signs of the advent of something rich and strange. In fact the whole work loses somewhat by the frequent suggestion of bold experiment, and is hardly to be considered equal to the traditional standard of music, as represented by Schumann, nor sufficiently successful to establish a new one. Barring the Brouillard, the treatment of the keyboard lacks distinction.
Far, far different must be the verdict on the Sonata in E, opus 63. Here, though one still finds a classical ideal of form, there are bold, clashing harmonies, and endless complexities of rhythm. The scoring is tremendous, the effect big as an orchestra. The sonata is in three movements, all of which represent the development of one central idea. The first movement, which is preceded by a long and fiery introduction, is made up of a series of variations on this central idea. A subsidiary idea, which, as in the ‘Symphonic Variations’ of Franck, was suggested in the introduction, is woven into the music here and there. The complicated second movement, in 5/4 time, constantly suggests the subsidiary motives of the first; and in the last, which shows the broad plan of the classical sonata form, the theme of the first movement finds a full and glorious expression.
Technically the sonata is extremely difficult. Some of the variations of the first movement, with their trills, recall the pianoforte style of the last Beethoven sonatas, however. The interlocking of the hands in the second movement is in a measure new in effect, though not new in principle. The scoring of the last movement is not free of commonplaces.
On the whole, the sonata may be considered modern in harmonies, melodies, and rhythms, though a more or less classical harmonic
foundation may be detected. The form is obviously a further development of the principles so clearly exemplified in the works of César Franck, which were drawn from Bach and Beethoven. It does not seem unfair to say that the scoring is rather orchestral than distinctively pianistic; so that the sonata may be considered more significant as a contribution to music in general than as one to pianoforte music in particular.
IV
None of the French composers has written more for the pianoforte than Gabriel Fauré. In his music, too, there is a strong element of tradition, though as a harmonist he is perhaps more spontaneously original than d’Indy. He prefers to work in short forms, and he avoids titles of detailed significance. He has written eleven Barcarolles, ten or more Nocturnes, nearly as many Impromptus, a set of eight Preludes, published as opus 103, and a few pieces of nondescript character including dances and romances. The impression made by a glance over the pages of this considerable amount of music is one of great sameness. Fauré’s style is delicate and well adjusted to the keyboard but there is little to observe in it that is strikingly original. Nor do the pieces give proof of much development in technique or in means of expression. There is little trace of the exquisite impressionism of the songs. The pianoforte music is hardly more than pleasing, and is only rarely brilliant.
The well-known second impromptu, in F minor, is perhaps the most interesting and the most original of all his pianoforte pieces. Here is genuine vivacity, piquancy of style, originality of harmony. But the other impromptus and the nocturnes have, in spite of certain modern touches of harmony, a style that is now Mendelssohn, now Schumann. The eleven Barcarolles rock gently over the keyboard, the Valses caprices dance lightly along. All is facile and pleasing salon music, one piece much like the others. The Theme and Variations, opus 73, is interesting and is well known at the
Conservatoire, and the second of the preludes, opus 103, is decidedly effective. The fourth Nocturne is full of poetry. In fact there is poetry in much of his music, but it is on the whole too much in the same vein.
Finally, after mentioning Pierné, for the sake of a set of short pieces in delicate style, Pour mes petits amis, and Emanuel Chabrier for the sake of the Bourrée fantastique, we come to the two men whose work for the piano has enchanted the world: Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. So far as the pianoforte is concerned, theirs is the music which has created a new epoch since the time of Liszt and Chopin, which has signalized the leadership of France in the art of music.
VFor a discussion of the general musical art of Debussy the reader is referred to the third volume of this series. His system of harmony and scales has there been explained. Here we will regard him as a composer for the pianoforte and attempt only a brief analysis of his pianoforte style and an appreciation of a few of his compositions. His pianoforte style has been no little influenced by his conception of harmony which admits chords of the seventh and ninth among the consonances. The pianoforte being essentially a harmonic instrument, composers have spent a great part of their skill in devising rapidly moving figures which would keep its harmonies in vibration. Such harmonies have either constituted a music in themselves, or have furnished a vibrant background behind a melody or an interweaving of several melodies. The shape of the figures has been determined by harmony and the figures have been blended into a general effect by the use of the pedal. One of the most prominent characteristics of Chopin’s style was the intrinsically melodious conformation of many of such figures. Hence there is a suggestion of polyphony in his music; and hence, too, the pedalling of his music must be most delicately and skillfully done.
With Liszt, on the other hand, such figures rarely had this melodious significance. They were founded rather flatly on the notes of chords or on the scale. Hence a mass of notes with little or no individuality. Such we shall find many of Debussy’s figures to be, and it is indeed easy to say that there would have been no Debussy had there been no Liszt. Not only this density, which in the case of Debussy may be more properly called opaqueness, of figures; but also the free use of the arms over the keyboard point to a relation of the style of the one to that of the other. But Debussy’s style is in two features at least sharply differentiated from that of Liszt.
The first of these is owing to his different conception of harmony. Liszt’s harmonies are clearly defined, Debussy’s, by contrast, vague. There are few instances of harmonies in Liszt’s music which are not related to a tonic scale; Debussy’s whole-tone scale has destroyed the relation of major and minor keys, even their definitions. With Liszt the various degrees of the scale suggest their proper harmonies; and as his melody or his bass moves from one to the other of them, the harmonies must change to follow it. The harmonic figures must be constantly moved here and there. Sometimes, as in the first phrase of the Waldesrauschen, they do not change to follow the melody, it is true; but in such a case the melody is so conceived as really to accentuate the notes of the chord on which the accompaniment figure plays. But with Debussy the progress of the melody entails no such change of harmony, or at least no such frequent change. Even if he chooses to conceive a passage as in a clearly defined key, his fondness for the chord of the ninth plays him in good stead. He can keep a ninth chord running up and down the keyboard and still enjoy the proper use of five notes of the scale in melody. And in the case where he is using the whole-tone scale and has consequently thrown his music out of all relation to the traditional system of keys, he is even more free. Therefore, the fingers, not having to find a new position every measure or so, or even twice in a measure, are let free, without hindrance, over a wide range of the keyboard. Furthermore, since having once struck the desired notes within this range the use of the pedal will sustain the vibration a long time, they have not to repeat them over and over again with the distinctness
necessary to establish a new harmony, but touch them lightly, or graze them unevenly. With the result that the sparkle which even in the dense runs of Liszt was created by the more or less distinct sound of indispensable notes, is veiled, and the general effect is one of fluid color.
A second feature which distinguishes the style of Debussy from that of Liszt is the relative absence in it of the sensationalism of speed. The sort of run we have been discussing, which may be studied in the Reflets dans l’eau, or in Pagodes, is as rapid as Liszt’s runs. But the monotony of it, the lack of change and therefore of emphasized points, reduces the effect of speed. For speed is chiefly appreciable between definite points. In fact the background of Debussy’s music may be compared to mist, while that of Liszt’s is, we might say, more like a curtain of chain mail.
The effect of this prolongation of harmonies by means of the pedal, lightly aided by the fingers, and of this lack of sharp contours is to take from a great part of his music a certain hard substantiality. In other words, recalling what we said of the qualities of sound in the pianoforte in the chapter on Chopin, the sonority of his music is one of after-sounds. Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel, more than any composers before them, have consciously made use of this peculiar quality of the pianoforte.
It is not only their treatment of runs which makes it audible, nor do they depend only upon the after-sounds of notes which have been struck. Holding the dampers off the strings for relatively long spaces allows an almost distinct vibration of overtones or of sympathetic tones to enter into the mass of sound. Both Debussy and Ravel count upon this. The notes they write upon the page are but the starting point of their effects. It is what floats up and away from them that constitutes the background of their music. One finds in the later pieces of Debussy not the old-fashioned indication of the pedal, but such directions as quittez, en laissant vibrer, or laissez vibrer (let the vibrations continue), which must be intended to attract the ear to
after-sounds. He has even invented a notation of such un-substantial sound. Here is an example, from Les collines d’Anacapri:
He will fill up a whole measure with notes that find their reason only in the vague sound of the next measure, as here in La cathédrale engloutie:
Note also that his spacing of chords, and particularly his strange doubling of parts, brings overtones into prominence. One hears not
so much a doubling of parts on the keyboard as an accompanying shadow of sound which is, as it were, cast by them. Witness the choral passages in La cathédrale engloutie, and the treatment of chords in Et la lune descend sur le temple qui fut. Here, at the beginning, one notices too the inclusion within the chord itself of notes which may properly be considered overtones.
It is true that Schumann experimented with sympathetic vibrations and overtones, that the player who would give to Chopin its special charm must have an ear tuned to after-sounds, and that Liszt experimented with many similar effects and really opened the way for a treatment of the pianoforte such as that Debussy and Ravel have perfected. But all earlier experiments were limited by a clear perception of certain harmonic proprieties. A chord was defined by the notes struck in it. But in this music of Debussy and Ravel a chord is not such a restricted thing. It is a potentiality rather than an actuality. It spreads and grows in after-sounds so that its boundaries become vague and merge with other boundaries or cross them. So they have created a pianoforte music that seems almost to have no dependence upon the mechanical levers and hammers, a sort of music liberated from the box, and yet the most subtly and intimately related to the instrument that has been written.
Debussy’s music is by no means all compact of these vague effects. It is often as clear-cut as crystal, having a netteté hard to match in other music for the instrument. Witness for example Les jardins sous la pluie and La sérénade interrompue. In these cases it is plain to see that he is no less aware of the charm latent in the percussive quality of tone in the pianoforte than of that in its peculiar aftersounds. He can be incisive, also, and sharply rhythmical as in La puerta del Vino, or sparkling as in the Feux d’artifice.
Technically, then, Debussy’s pianoforte style seems to have been influenced by a clear perception of the two qualities of sound of which the instrument is capable, and so remarkable has been his revelation of them that one cannot but feel that they come to our ears as fresh discoveries. His ingenuity seems inexhaustible and
always successful. He can be rapid without being sensational, forceful without pounding. Except that an occasional use of chords suggests the organ or some new mysterious wind instrument, his music never departs from the piano, to the spirit of which it gives a new expression. It is extremely difficult to play. It requires the utmost fleetness and lightness of fingers; and also a perfect freedom of the arm, for he seems at times to ask the player to touch all parts of the piano at once. In a measure, however, it may be said of some of his music that it conforms to types as Liszt’s does, and that consequently, compared with Bach and Chopin, it is not so difficult. Nevertheless, by all tokens the music of Debussy, though technically it springs from Liszt, is going to elude the grasp of most fingers even as that of Chopin does. Perhaps it is a spiritual rather than a technical difficulty that stands in the way.
His compositions show signs of a very great development both in his ideals and his means of expression. An early group comprises a Nocturne, a Suite Bergamasque, and another suite called Pour le piano which consists of a Prelude, Sarabande and Toccata. There are signs in nearly all these pieces of originality and some attempted departure from traditional commonplaces. The nocturne is hardly distinguished either in sentiment or in treatment of the piano. Only the section in 7/8 time is interesting. But in the Suite Bergamasque one finds a Passepied and the well-known Clair de lune which hint at the works to come, the former in its piquant scoring and rhythm, the latter in its harmonies and its employment of the lower and higher registers. The Toccata is original in harmony also, and well-scored for the pianoforte. But except in the Clair de lune there is no trace of the delicate impressionism which has made his better known music unique.
This comes out strongly in a second group of pieces in which one may include the L’isle joyeuse, the Estampes and the first series of Images including the Reflets dans l’eau in which he seems to us to reach the height of this middle achievement. L’isle joyeuse is a strange, wild piece, full of his characteristic harmonies, especially those founded upon the whole-tone scale. It is the longest of his
pieces for the pianoforte, and is rather unsatisfactory in structure. Perhaps the monotony of key is to blame—for in spite of passages in whole-tone scales, the whole is very clearly in A major. Yet it must be said that this very sameness of key intensifies the early languor and the later Bacchanalian fury—is intoxicating in itself.
The Estampes (‘Engravings’) are among the best of these middle pieces. A comparison of them with works of an early period, with the two arabesques or even the Suite Bergamasque, shows an extraordinary development in Debussy’s art and a change or a more marked independence in his ideals. There is hardly a trace in the earlier works of the new expansion in pianoforte technique which marks the Pagodes, La soirée dans Grenade, and Jardins sous la pluie. Especially in the first of these pieces the whole range of the keyboard is blended into effects of a new sonority of sevenths and ninths. The second is a study in impressionism, in the combination of a few fragments of melody, harmony and rhythm into a whole of new poetic intensity. In the former his technique, in the latter his procedure, are strange and unfamiliar in pianoforte music, yet wholly successful. Their effectiveness is no doubt largely due to the nature of his material. The motives of the Pagodes are Oriental, those in La soirée both Spanish and Moorish. Perhaps for this reason they sound more exotic than the Jardins sous la pluie, which, in spite of odd blendings of harmony, is essentially more conventional than its two companions in the set. Certainly the Jardins is a wholly poetic and effective piece of keyboard music; but it lacks the originality and the elusive suggestiveness of the Pagodes and of La soirée.
The Reflets dans l’eau is superior to the Hommage à Rameau and the Mouvement, with which it is combined in the first series of Images. Technically it is a masterpiece, and both by the quality of its themes and its perfection of form is fitted to stand as a piece of absolute music of rare beauty. The plan of it is logical rather than impressionistic. It is the development of a single idea, not the combination of suggestive fragments. Hence it seems to stand as the most complete result of the art of which the Pagodes and Les Jardins are representative. In the second series of Images the