debussy and the octatonic

Debussy and the Octatonic

Allen Forte

Music Analysis, Vol. 10, No. 1/2. (Mar. - Jul., 1991), pp. 125-169.

Stable URL:

http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0262-5245%28199103%2F07%2910%3A1%2F2%3C125%3ADATO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-G

Music Analysis is currently published by Blackwell Publishing.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available athttp://www.jstor.org/about/terms.html. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtainedprior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content inthe JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.

Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained athttp://www.jstor.org/journals/black.html.

Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printedpage of such transmission.

JSTOR is an independent not-for-profit organization dedicated to and preserving a digital archive of scholarly journals. Formore information regarding JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

http://www.jstor.orgTue May 1 18:29:17 2007

http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0262-5245%28199103%2F07%2910%3A1%2F2%3C125%3ADATO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-G

http://www.jstor.org/about/terms.html

http://www.jstor.org/journals/black.html

ALLEN FORTE

DEBUSSY AND THE OCTATONIC

To Wallace Bern,

In a somewhat caustic letter to Henri Gauthier-Villars dated 10 October 1896 Debussy wrote:

[The Pre'lude a 'l'apres-midi d'un faune'] also demonstrates a disdain for the 'constructional knowhow' which is a burden upon our finest intellects. Then again, it has no respect for tonality! Rather it's in a mode which is intended to contain all the nuances - I can give you a perfectly logical demonstration of all this.'

Some six years earlier, in his well-known conversation with Ernest Guiraud, the composer had proclaimed: 'The tonal scale must be enriched by other scale^.'^ In today's theoretical environment we can better interpret those laconic comments, as well as others in the Guiraud conversation, as they relate to specific features of Debussy's music - thanks to the work of Richard S. park^.^ As its title indicates, the present study focuses on one feature of the music, its octatonic component, a topic Parks introduced and one that warrants further investigation in an attempt to answer certain basic questions - for example: How widespread is the octatonic across Debussy's complete oeuvre? When does the octatonic element first appear in the music, and what is the nature of its modes of occurrence? Is there a detectable change in the composer's orientation towards the octatonic sphere? What might be the aesthetic significance of the octatonic in Debussy's musical thought? And, finally, what is the historical origin of the octatonic in the composer's music?4 T o those ends the article consists of three parts: an introduction to certain basic theoretical aspects of the topic, a discussion of a series of musical examples drawn from Debussy's oeuvre and a historical postscript.

The term 'octatonic', introduced by Arthur Berge~-,~ has become standard

--

ALLEN FORTE

in contemporary writings. With reference to the music of Stravinsky, Pieter C. van den Toorn has documented its special properties in great detail,6 and recent studies have treated its occurrence in music of the nineteenth ~ e n t u r y . ~In the present essay, the term refers not only to the octatonic scale, but also and more generally to any subset of that scale that contains from three to seven notes. The ordered or scalar forms of the scale are shown in Ex. 1:

Ex. 1 Linear Segments of the Octatonic Scale

gI?.;kF .---&E-;--tL--. -=-I-. -:3j?+E+K

7 -

Ex. 2 Forms of the Octatonic Scale

Call I 1 n s ,

8_--YzZk=P*

DEBUSSY AND T H E OCTATONIC

Because in considering Debussy's use of the octatonic it will be essential to distinguish between ordered and unordered segments (subsets) of the octatonic collection, the legend on Ex. 1 identifies the ordered segments according to a system of lexical designations often used in contemporary studies of non-traditional pitch s t r ~ c t u r e . ~

As is evident from Ex. 1, the ordered segments represent the seven set classes 7-3 1, 6-213, 6-223, 5-10, 4-3, 4-10 and 3-2.9 Note that the same result obtains both in the '1-2' and in the '2-1' ordering, which are related as cyclical permutations. All other subsets of 8-28 are formed with a gap in the ordered scale. Table 1 lists the subsets, both ordered and unordered, of 8-28 in its Collection I11 form, while Ex. 2 gives the three forms of the octatonic scale, using van den Toorn's designations, Coll. I, Coll. I1 and Coll. I I I . 'These labels will appear frequently on the musical examples in this article, abbreviated to CI, CII and CIII. Because heptad 7-31 is the only type of seven-note set within octatonic 8-28, when it occurs in a piece it will be regarded as surrogate for the full octatonic collection.

Table 1

Subsets of Octatonic 8-28

Ordered Unordered Unordered Unordered

The distinction between ordered and unordered subsets of octatonic 8- 28 enables an important interpretation to be made. If one of the 'ordered' set classes appears in a work it seems likely that Debussy had in mind the octatonic scale as a fixed referential collection. If one of the unordered set classes appears, we can assume another, perhaps contextual and basically more harmonic, origin. Remarkably, both modes of occurrence are amply represented in the composer's oeuvre."

While the musical modes of occurrence of ordered octatonic collections are relatively simple, those of unordered collections are not, since, for example, an octatonic hexachord can be formed by combining two or more smaller sets in a great variety of ways. It is possible to generalize about those possibilities, of course, in terms of partitions - non-duplicative sets that produce a hexachord - and combinations - intersecting sets that yield a hexachord. For example, no combination of two of their triadic subsets will

MUSIC ANAL.YSIS 10: 1-2, 199 1 127

ALLEN FORTE

exhaust 6-27 or 6-213. More interesting are combinations of two harmonies - especially more familiar ones - that result in an octatonic hexachord. A famous example is the Coronation Chord from Musorgsky's Boris Godunov, which is formed by Ab' and D7 chords.12 Another famous instance is hexachord 6-27 at the beginning of Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms, a combination of Bb7and G7.

Perhaps more characteristic of Debussy's use of combinations that result in octatonic formations, in particular, are triads that offend norms of traditional progression. For example, two major triads a minor third apart create 5-32 - as in bs 14-15 of 'Recueillement' and bs 29-30 of Feuilles mortes. And 6-249 is formed by the join of a minor and major triad whose roots are a minor third apart (Feuilles mortes, b.32). Additional examples appear below.

In connection with what I have called combinations, it is important to recognize Debussy's procedure of grouping two chords together, often as a repeated succession, to form a composite harmony. This is the form in which short-term octatonic passages often appear in his early music and is a consistent stylistic feature of his entire oeuvre.

In his octatonic usage, to what extent does Debussy appear to have been interested in the symmetric aspect of the octatonic universe, in the sense, for example, that Stravinsky was?'' We can approach this question by observing that, although the complete octatonic collection 8-28 is ultra- symmetric, not all of its subsets possess symmetric properties. Among the hexachords, for example, one (and only one) is not inversionally symmetric. Five of the hexachords possess that property (for one value of the transposition operator t), while 6-27 is the exception. It is precisely 6- 27 that appears very often in the octatonic portions of the composer's music, compared to the other hexachords.14 This is not to say that he was uninterested in symmetries of various kinds, but merely to suggest that he was not exclusively interested in them.15 Indeed, the musical evidence shows that he was clearly interested in symmetric pitch formations, many of which involved smaller symmetric pitch-class sets such as the ultra- symmetric (and octatonic) tetrachords 4-9 and 4-25, both of which feature the basic symmetric interval, the tritone. Unlike his predecessors Liszt and Wagner, however, he did not often allow the diminished-seventh chord 4- 28, the ultimate tetrachordal symmetry, to occupy the limelight.

Debussy's general interest in symmetry is perhaps nowhere more evident than in his fondness for hexachord 6-30, a maverick collection unique among the fifty hexachord classes. It is one of only three hexachords that contain three tritones, and, of these, it is the only octatonic hexachord. Because the possibility of a tritonal partitioning of 6- 30 is therefore immanent, it is interesting to consider the instances in which Debussy either utilises this arrangement in his music in a direct way or strongly suggests it.

With the exception of the hexachords of the 'Z' type, the question of


complementation with respect to the subsets of octatonic collection 8-28 is straightforward: complements of any of the other subsets are also subsets of 8-28.16 This means that complements of four of the six hexachordal classes represented as subsets of the octatonic, viz., 6-242 (complement of 6-213), 6-245 (6-223), 6-228 (6-249) and 6-229 (6-250) lie outside the octatonic domain. Is this an important consideration with respect to Debussy's music? The answer is yes: there are many instances in which complements of the octatonic 2-hexachords occur in significant 'non-tonal' roles, suggesting that the composer associated them - perhaps on the basis of interval content - with the octatonic collection proper. For example, in b.9 of the Prelude to Act I1 of PeZZias et Milisande hexachord 6- 228 (6-249) is prominent.li Parks includes these complement-related hexachords in his octatonic genus, thus acknowledging the important roles they play in the octatonic portions of Debussy's music.18 While I do not disagree with this strategy, I feel it is always important to evaluate the context in which these 'marginal' octatonic hexachords occur and, more important, to consider the ways in which they impinge upon the octatonic and other harmonies in a given stretch of music (Ex. 15 below, from La Mer, is especially instructive in this regard).

I now wish to introduce an issue that is of considerable importance to the analysis of the octatonic component in Debussy's music. Formulated as a question, it is: given, say, an 'octatonic' hexachord - for example, 6- 249 - on what basis can one claim, unequivocally, that it is a member of a particular octatonic collection? The answer, of course, invokes analytical context as the major criterion. If 6-249 occurs in the music within 7-31, which, it will be recalled, is the only class of heptad represented within the full octatonic collection, or, better, within 8-28 itself, its octatonic membership is unchallengeable. If it does not, careful consideration must be given to the other relations it establishes or suggests. It is in this area that the beautifully expressive subtlety of Debussy's music achieves its harmonic zenith - the 'nuances' to which the composer referred in his conversation with his teacher, Guiraud, quoted above.

Table 2

Octatonic Hexachords and Their Heptadal Supersets

Hexachord Heptadal Supersets 6-2 13 7-4, 7-31, 7-238 6-223 7-8, 7-31, 7-34, 7-236 6-27 7-10, 7-16, 7-25, 7-31, 7-32 6-30 7-19, 7-28, 7-31 6-249 7-2 12, 7-22, 7-26, 7-3 1 6-250 7-2 18, 7-29, 7-3 1 6-242 7-10, 7-16, 7-19

ALLEN FORTE

T o dramatize this situation, Table 2 lists the heptadal supersets of each of the octatonic hexachords, including their complements. As is evident, in addition to octatonic 7-3 1 there are at least two possible heptadal supersets in each case, and the choices in the case of 6-27 are particularly generous. What happens when we place these hexachords and their heptadal supersets against the pitch-class set genera grid in order to reveal their deeper affiliations and thus reduce complexity to manageable dimension^?'^

Table 3

PC Set Genera Matrix for Octatonic Hexachords and Their Heptadal Supersets


Status Quotient Indices

.232: G3 (diminished)

.152: G9 (atonal-tonal)

.145: G I (atonal)

.138: G6 (semichroma), G7 (chroma-dia), G12 (dia-tonal)

.136: G2 (whole-tone)

.043: G5 (chroma)

.030: G8 (atonal)

.028: G l 1 (dia)

.020: G4 (augmented), G I 0 (atonal-tonal)

Table 3 is a two-dimensional matrix, with a column for each genus labelled Gx, where x is the number associated with the particular genus. In the leftmost column are listed the pentads (hexads) and hexachords of the octatonic collection. Each pentad also represents its heptadal complement, which bears the same alphanumeric name following the hyphen. Row entries for each set specify Genus membership. Thus, pentad 5-4 (and hexad 7-4) belong to Genera 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7 and 8.

By the rules of genera interpretation Genus 3, the 'diminished' genus, predominates: it enjoys the greatest 'status quotient' and every set in the matrix belongs to it, as the column under G3 demonstrates.'This means that, even though octatonic hexachords can occur within heptads other than octatonic 7-31, all those heptads belong to the genus that includes many (but not all) of the octatonic sets encountered in Debussy's music. Among those heptads is 7-34 (together with its complement, the 'ninth chord', 5-34) and 7-3215-32, formations which might otherwise be regarded as remote from the octatonic, but whose congruence with members of the octatonic sphere is reflected in many passages in Debussy's music. See, for instance, Ex. 13 (for 7-34) and Ex. 15 (for 7-32).

Perhaps even more revealing of octatonic connections is the genera matrix displayed in Table 4. In this representation, the sets of the octatonic collection itself are distributed over the twelve genera, with rather extraordinary results. Here again Genus 3 predominates, but not in the overpowering way shown in Table 4, although all the pentads and all the hexachords belong to it. There are two reasons for this. First, certain trichords and tetrachords belong to only one genus each: 3-5, 3-8, 3-10, 4- 3, 4-9, 4-10, 4-17, 4-25 and 4-26. All these are, of course, subsets of the octatonic set, but the rules of genus formation, which transcend affiliations with individual and - in terms of the genera - isolated collections determine membership in genera other than the diminished genus, Genus 3. What this means is that certain 'octatonic' harmonies belong primarily to harmonic spheres that are not usually regarded as octatonic. For example, 4-17 belongs to the hybrid 'atonal-tonal' genus, Genus 9, and only to that genus. Thus, these nine trichords and tetrachords may serve to

ALLEN FORTE

Table 4

Octatonic Pitch-Class Set Genera Matrix

Status Quotient Indices

.126: G3 (diminished)

.090: G9 (atonal-tonal)

.086: G1 (atonal)

.084: G2 (whole-tone)

MUSIC: ANALYSIS 10: 1-2, 199 1


.082: G6 (semichroma), G7 (chroma-dia), G12 (dia-tonal)

.009: G5 (chroma), G l 1 (dia)

.006: G 8 (atonal), G I 0 (atonal-tonal)

link surface octatonic features with remote harmonic areas - and that is exactly what occurs in many of Debussy's works. Much more could be said on this topic, of course, but the main point I wish to make before completing this introductory material is that the octatonic is more than an accessory feature in Debussy's music. It has fundamental links with the other harmonic spheres which are so characteristic of his harmonic genius and may, indeed, be regarded as a core referential pitch collection, in specific terms of the genera interconnections just discussed. Among the related topics that it is not possible to address in this context is the issue of traditional tonal determinants vis-a-vis the octatonic, a topic which recent authors have examined quite extensively from different points of view and one that requires special treatment in the case of Debussy." I shall, however, touch upon this matter as the occasion arises in connection with the analytical examples below, while giving primary attention to ways in which the octatonic component operates in the music.

Eleven bars after the beginning of Debussy's early song 'I1 dort encore' (Ex. 3a), as the voice completes the first line of the poem, we hear an octatonic passage that underlies the next two lines. The pitch content here comprises the entire octatonic collection, Coll. 11, excluding neighbour and passing notes as defined by the prevailing harmony. Example 3b, an analytical graph, shows the melodic components of this octatonic passage: the descant delineates a form of hexachord 6-249 against which the bass projects pentad 5-10, an ordered linear segment of the octatonic scale, spanning the tritone from F#to C. Here the octatonic is in the service of a single functional harmony, V, in which the descant connects the initial D# in b. 11 with the final B in b. 16, the end of the vocal phrase. On this and on all the musical examples, the legend consists of pitch-class set names followed by colons followed by the notes of the set in ordinary letter-name form enclosed in square brackets.

It is remarkable that this song was composed when Debussy was eighteen years old, since there is no evidence that he would have had extensive contact with any of the manifestly octatonic music composed before that time (1880), a topic to which I shall return below. Moreover, like many of the other early songs, 'I1 dort encore' exhibits a noteworthy degree of sophistication and originality, of which the octatonic feature is only one t ~ k e n . ' ~ At this stage, the octatonic music is circumscribed by diatonic harmony, namely dominant, reflecting a dependence upon

MUSIC ANALYSIS 10: 1-2, 199 1 133

ALLEN FORTE

Ex. 3a 'I1 dort encore' (Banville), 1880-2, bs 1 1-1 6

From Sept Poemes de Banvtlle, ed. James Briscoe. Reproduced by permission of the Societe des Editions Jobert.

Ex. 3b 'I1 dort encore', graph

MUSIC ANALYSIS 10: 1-2, 199 1


tonality which will eventually vanish. (See Appendix, entries 7, 9, 17, 20, 45, 49, 50 and 110.)

Example 4a shows the opening of another beautiful early song, with a striking chromatic change in the second bar. Indeed, chromaticism pervades the harmony of the first eight bars, the last four of which set the first line of the poem. Even in this early music we find a formal feature of much of the later music: the harmonic changes form groups of three bars, with the third bar in each case serving as the first of the next group. The effect of this is to combine the individual chords into a larger formation, as shown in Ex. 4b. There bs 1 and 2 project hexachord 6-229, an octatonic harmony by complementation (of 6-Z50), while the next group (bs 3-5)

Ex. 4a 'Beau soir' (Bourget), 1880, bs 1-4

Ex. 4b 'Beau soir', bs 1-4 (condensed)


ALLEN FORTE

comprises octatonic hexachord 6-249 and has a distinctly Wagnerian flavour in its arrangement of major and minor triads with roots a minor third apart. Repeated groupings of this type, which will be called octatonic blocks, are very characteristic of the composer's later usage. (See Appendix, entries 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 18, 29, 33, 42, 46, 62, 72 and 109.)

In bs 29-30 of Ex. 5 - again from one of the extraordinary early songs -the composer introduces an octatonic passage as a digression from or expansion on a functional harmonic progression: 11-V-I. This harmonically closed group sums to hexachord 6-30 (a special octatonic hexachord, as discussed above), which features a tritonal bass motion as its final gesture, just before the bass resumes its normal function, postponed from b.28, by moving to the dominant.

The music in this excerpt foreshadows a more extended treatment of the octatonic, however. With the omission of the appoggiaturas and passing notes in the descant, the first two bars (bs 27-8) combine with the following octatonic passage to complete a form of 7-3 1 which extends from b.27 to the beginning of b.30. Thus the complete octatonic 8-28 is represented by its unequivocal surrogate heptad.

Bar 30 itself, at which point the octatonic passage resolves back into the diatonic frame, deserves a bit more attention, for the join of the octatonic C7and the dominant sonority (V)creates a special hexachord, 6-21, which is one of the three 'almost whole-tone' hexachords featured in the composer's later music. And the change of harmonic domain - from

Ex. 5 'Fleur des bles' (Girod), 1880, bs 27-32 (condensed)

--


octatonic to whole-tone - at this juncture foreshadows the beautiful and novel formal-idiomatic fluctuations so characteristic of the later music, in particular, the orchestral works. (See Appendix, entries 24, 39, 43, 54, 55, 60, 65, 67, 78, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 101, 102, 103, 104, 106, 107.)

In the cantata L'enfant prodigue, which earned Debussy the Grand Prix de Rome, the composer, perhaps as a matter of discretion, did not develop the octatonic fields of the earlier songs, but, typically, he did not always follow convention either. Thus near the beginning of the work we find strong traces of the octatonic, beginning with the cadence on a C triad with added sixth (4-26, an octatonic tetrachord) in b.3. The accented diminished-seventh chord at the beginning of b.4 introduces the poignant recitative 'Douleur involontaire! Efforts superflus!' (Unwitting sorrow! Unavailing efforts!), providing a concrete example of a general propensity: the octatonic space is often reserved for the most moving or unexpected textual-poetic expressions, both in the songs and in the dramatic works -notably in Pelle'as et Me'lisande.

These tentative octatonic traces (Ex. 6), most incisively signalled by the diminished-seventh chord in b.4, develop into a fully-fledged octatonic passage by the end of the recitative on aZ (b.7), a note which connects registrally back to the top of the C added-sixth tonic chord in b.3, helping to unify the passage, which, in its entirety, is based upon hexachord 6-27 of Coll. 111, here formed as a combination of tetrachords 4-26 and 4-28. At

Ex. 6 L'enfant prodigue (Guinand), 1884, bs 3-7

-----. - - - ~ ~ - --.- J - J ! - / " ~ .r i d

b 0 I Vl l of D major

MUSIC ANAI<YSIS 10: 1-2, 199 1

ALLEN FORTE

the same time, as indicated on Ex. 6, tonal-harmonic functions are operative across the octatonic 'foreground'. In this interpretation, the diminished-seventh chord plus a2 may be construed as a dominant of the upcoming D major triad in b.7; the octatonic passage therefore remains well under the control of the basic diatonic structure, as in the previous examples. (See Appendix, entries 5, 22, 23, 36, 58, 63, 68, 76, 87, 90, 93, 108 and 110.)

The extraordinarily beautiful and complex song 'L'ombre des arbres' demonstrates Debussy's developing predilection for certain octatonic sonorities, and, even more important from the musical standpoint, exhibits the tension between octatonic and diatonic-tonal domains that will become a major harmonic-stylistic feature of his later music. It should be pointed out here that the 'experimental' music of Debussy's formative years invariably occurs in the songs, while the early piano pieces are both much more conservative and noticeably bereft of octatonic fields.

Although the song has a key signature of seven sharps and ends in C# major, four of the seven sharps are cancelled by accidentals in the first two bars. As shown in Ex. 7a (in which doublings have been simplified), the diatonic-tonal structure comprises the end points of the progression, from I with added sixth in b. 1 to V9in b.6. The 1+6 of b.4 merges, however, with the octatonic structure, a complete statement of 8-28 in its Coll. I mani-festation. Indeed, the only note that does not fit this large harmony is eP in b.2, a passing note. With the arrival on V9 in b.6, the octatonic music -actually an octatonic block - ends. Specifically, it is the single note d#' which terminates the octatonic hegemony. Other features of this brief passage presage the later music of the composer. For example, the slowly moving bass twice projects the tritone-related pitches C# and G; then, in bs

Ex. 7a 'L'ombre des arbres' (Verlaine), 1885-7, bs 1-6 (condensed)



5 and 6, the bass descends through B and E to reach the cadential dominant bass, the low GI, traversing the octatonic pentad 5-32. This linear event foreshadows many such that will appear in music soon to be created by the composer, the Prdlude a 'l'apris-midi d'un faune' perhaps being the most significant first instance.

Another important aspect of the passage is the relation between bs 1 and 2. Bar 2 is an unordered transposition of b . l by tritone, as a result of which only two notes are held in common, B and E#, between the two 5-25 harmonies, forming an axis of symmetry, so that these balanced harmonies suggest an underlying correspondence to the poetic assonance of the opening balanced text phrase, 'L'ombre des arbres'.

Was Debussy conscious of the octatonic presence in this passage? Perhaps additional evidence in the form of the vocal line will suggest an appropriate answer. Example 7b displays the vocal line of bs 2-6, a setting of the first two lines of the poem. In its entirety, the voice part here projects 7-31 of Coll. I, hence is completely integrated with the piano accompaniment. Missing from the voice part is the tonic pitch C ,which is reserved for its key-defining function in the piano part. On Ex. 7k asterisks mark the crucial deployment in the vocal line of the axial notes B and E# (F), which join bs 1 and 2, as discussed above, and provide an early instance of the composer's fondness for the expressive use of the tritone. (See Appendix, entries 2, 28 and 84.)

Ex. 7b 'L'ombre des arbres', voice, bs 2-6

However 'conscious' Debussy may have been of the octatonic collection and its special attributes, he created it most often from familiar materials, notably triads and seventh chords, especially the dominant seventh and its inversion, pitch-class set 4-27. Example 8 illustrates one of the processes. It begins with an octatonic block, a projection of hexachord 6-249. From the diatonic-tonal standpoint, the group of three chords can be read as the result of a 'neighbour-note' embellishment of the dominant triad in which every voice except the bass moves by step. From the octatonic standpoint,

ALLEN FORTE

we read a triadic partitioning of the hexachord (6-249) by two forms of 3- 11 related by inversion and transposition. The term partitioning here is construed in the usual sense, since there are no common notes between the two triads. The second group, which begins in b.6, departs from the tonic triad and forms non-symmetric octatonic hexachord 6-27, first by appending a 'G major triad' and then by introducing the passing note e#' to create a pseudo-dominant-seventh chord. This passage, the first example involving two referential forms of the octatonic, Coll. I1 and Coll. I, here under the control of a single diatonic harmony, namely V, foreshadows a later development: the octatonic cycle, shown in Exs 1 1, 12 and elsewhere. These cycles, which are either partial (alternating two forms) or complete (alternating all three forms), verify the presence of the octatonic as underlying harmonic structure just as does the literal occurrence either of 8-28 or of its surrogate, 7-31. (See Appendix, entries 17, 21, 22, 3 1, 34, 51, 56, 71, 77, 86, 87 and 97.)

Ex. 8 'La mer est plus belle que les cathedrales' (Verlaine), 1891, bs 3-1 1 (condensed)

Perhaps because it is somewhat concealed, the octatonic content of the beginning of the famous work shown in Ex. 9 has proved elusive. Contemporary scholars familiar with octatonic music should, however, hear the two 'dominant-seventh' woodwind chords in bs 4 and 5 at the end of the flute solo as strongly octatonic in character. In fact, they form hexachord 6-249 of Coll. I, familiar to the reader from Exs 3b, 4b and 8. Reducing out the direct chromatic unaccented passing notes, which are almost invariably 'foreground' decoration in Debussy's music, Ex. 9b reveals the melodic progression that underlies the opening of the flute solo: octatonic pentad 5-10, an ordered scalar form from Coll. I. The two seventh chords at the end of Ex. 9 form 6-249, as noted above, and that hexachord also belongs to Coll. I. Thus, the thematic statement establishes three major harmonic domains and, in a definite sense, constitutes a microcosm of the elaborate work to follow: the octatonic 5-10, the whole- tone tetrachord 4-21: [G, A, B, C#], the diatonic pentad 5-27, which

140 MUSIC ANALYSIS 10: 1-2, 199 1

DEBCSSY AND THE OCTATONIC

Ex. 9 Prdlude a l'apris-midi d'un faune, 1892-4, bs 1-4

represents E major, the key of the work, and finally 6-249, a return to Coll. I of the beginning of the flute solo. Indeed, combining the opening flute gesture's 5-10 and the two seventh chords in bs 4 and 5 (6-249) yields 8-28, the complete Coll. I. (See Appendix, entries 15, 46, 47, 48 and 62.)

Example 10 summarizes b.14 of the introduction to Act I of Pellias et Milisande. 'The whole-tone component of the music (4-25) is associated with LMelisande throughout, while the upper-voice diatonic trichord (3-7) designates Pelleas." Remarkably, the total configuration is pentad 5-28, a member of octatonic Coll. I. It is perhaps worthwhile noting that of the three whole-tone tetrachords (4-21, 4-24 and 4-25) only 4-25 can also be octatonic, as here. Thus in this passage Debussy combines whole-tone and diatonic elements under the auspices of the octatonic. Often in complex ways all three harmonic domains are highly charged with dramatic significance.

The music shown in Ex. 11 sets Melisande's first appearance on stage and Golaud's discovery of her. It begins with her indeterminate ('lost') whole-tone melody, with its clear reference to 4-25 of b.14 of the introduction (Ex. 10) through the pitches Bb, Ab and E, and continues with the two enigmatic trichords above the sustained E in b.2 of Ex. 11. As Langham Smith has pointed out, these chords are associated with the

MUSIC ANAI-YSIS 10: 1-2, 199 1 141

ALLEN FORTE

Ex. 10 Pell.4as et Me'lisande, 1 892- 1 902, VS 1 (condensed)

character of Melisande throughout the opera.24 More germane to the present study is the harmonic background of the entire opening passage, consisting of the melodic fragment and the two chords. These components sum to octatonic hexachord 6-27 of Coll. I, the form of the octatonic first presented in b. 14 of the Introduction (Ex. 10). The trichords above the sustained E in b.3 of Ex. 9 are, in order, 3-7 and 3-8, referring to Golaud and Melisande respectively. In b.4 of Ex. 11 Golaud begins to sing. He intones C , carried over from Melisande's trichord, 3-8 ('J'entends pleurer . . . th e two half-diminished sevenths (summing to 6-27) interrupt, and he continues to sing, with an arpeggiation upward to B on the downbeat of b.6, outlining the second of the two half-diminished- seventh chords; that is, as he sees Melisande indistinctly, he sings her music. With Golaud's arrival on B in b.5, the two half-diminished chords are played again by the orchestra, this time transposed, so that the octatonic collection is now Coll. 11, a partial octatonic cycle. In this circumstance, the first of the chords is a rearrangement of the notes of the Tristan chord, with its traditional connotation of fatal passion.25

The entire excerpt shown in Ex. 11 is pure octatonic - no embellishing notes, as in Ex. 9 and other earlier examples. Diatonic tonality is momentarily suspended, to be reasserted in b.8 (VS5) with the appearance of the D minor triad. At that point the join of octatonic and diatonic is perfect, since the A of the D minor triad completes 7-31 of Coll. I1 (See Appendix, entries 1, 14, 16, 19, 21, 31, 34, 44, 56, 64, 77, 86, 90, 97, 98 and 99.)

The octatonic pervades Debussy's opera, and the composer avails himself of all three forms, fragments of which he constructs in remarkably varied ways. Example 12 shows two transpositions of 6-249 as a composite of vertical triads, in the disposition shown in Exs 4 and 8. The first of these hexachords belongs to Coll. 111, the second to Coll. I, thus forming a

142 MUSIC ANALYSIS 10: 1-2, 199 1


Ex. 1 1 Pelldas et Mdlisande, VS5

Ex. 12 Pelldas et Mdlisande, V S 105

partial octatonic cycle. Passages in his later music cycle through all three forms of the octatonic, a procedure which I believe to be a unique hallmark

MUSIC ANALYSIS 10: 1-2, 199 1 143

ALLEN FORTE

of Debussy's octatonic usage. (See Appendix, entries 52, 57 and 87.) Example 13 shows the famous beginning of Nuages. In agreement with

Parks, I understand this remarkable beginning as a contrapuntal two-voice structure in which the upper voice is essentially diatonic (with some odd chromatics in b.3), while the lower part is essentially chroma ti^.^^ In its entirety the upper voice is an instance of heptad 7-34, to which reference was made above, a harmony which synthesizes diatonic, octatonic and whole-tone elements. In its manifestation here, diatonic and octatonic elements predominate: the first two bars present diatonic 4-1 1 (reflecting the B minor key signature), while the third bar shifts into octatonic Coll. I to present pentad 5-10.

Ex. 13 -Nuages (Nocturnes), 1897-9, bs 1-4

The introductory theme contains a number of additional significant configurations, articulated by metre, such as the group defined by the first three crotchets, ultra-diatonic tetrachord 4-23." As suggested above, the lower voice of the theme differs markedly from the upper. With the exception of the dyad B-C#, it presents a closed chromatic pattern. Simple direct chromaticism, however, is not the basic structure of the lower voice of this theme. The distinction between stemmed and unstemmed notes on Ex. 13 represents the result of a reduction in accordance with a single rule: direct chromatic passing and neighbour notes on weak metrical pulses are regarded as decorative and therefore deprived of stems.2a In this way the reduction reveals the underlying octatonic harmony: hexachord 6-223 from Coll. I, the octatonic form to which 5-10 in the upper voice of b.3 belongs. The embellished octatonic substructure in this opening invites comparison with that in the opening of Prklude a 'I'apris-midi d'un faune' (Ex. 9). (See Appendix, entries 12, 15, 32, 37, 47 and 70.)

Example 14 displays the notation for the english horn solo passage that follows the introductory music shown in Ex. 13. In this section 7-31 of octatonic Coll. I, which had been concealed in the contrapuntal mists of

144 MUSIC ANALYSIS 10: 1-2, 199 1


the opening duet, unfolds without decoration step by step. At first it is represented only by the major third G-B (clarinets and bassoons). The english horn tetrachord 4-3 then creates a total sonority of 6-223, a transposition up 6 semitones of the form shown in Ex. 13. As the melody descends from f' to B, to delineate 5-10 in its ordered form, no new notes are introduced. Two, however, are highlighted, namely F in b.7 (bassoons) and bass B (timpani), while the major third G-B remains fixed. In b.9 the strings introduce a single new pitch, GI, and this completes 7-31 as [By C#, D, E, F, G, GI], a self-contained octatonic block within which there is a single centric pitch, B. The connection back to the introductory music at R1 + 5 is effected in the simplest and most direct way: the centric pitch B remains to become the headnote of the lower counterpoint, while G# moves to F#of the upper counterpoint. (See Appendix, entries 2, 12, 15, 25, 32, 37, 47, 48, 61, 96, 74, 85, 92, 94 and 95.)

Ex. 14 Nuages, bs 5-1 1


ALLEN FORTE

Example 15, from La Mer, presents a more elaborate deployment within the octatonic space and, to an extent, reflects certain earlier practices of the composer, notably the use of sets that are octatonic by complementation. In the present instance, the set is 6-228, the complement of 6-249, which is a subset of 8-28 (see note 17). Because 6-228 is complement-related to 6-249 it has the same total interval content as that hexachord and, therefore, with respect to that property, may be regarded as equivalent to it. Hexachord 6-228 spans the first two bars of the passage. It then continues in the next two bars (bs 8-9), transposed up seven semitones, in the inner voices, formed as a combination of two inversionally-related 4- 27s, the first (vertical) a dominant-seventh type, the second a half-diminished seventh. This particular combination forges another strong association with the octatonic counterpart of 6-228, its complement, 6- 249, for the latter can also be formed as a combination of 4-27s after inversion followed by transposition at the same level, namely, 0.29

Ex. 15 De l'aube a midi sur la mer (La Mer), 1903-5, RO + 6 - Rl + 2 (compressed)



At this point (b.3 of Ex. 15), the pedal B in the descant becomes the headnote of the descending thematic tetrachord 4-1 0, which is passed from voice to voice, eventually arriving in the bass register, where the initial dyad B-A is detached and repeated to depict a swell-like rocking motion. The total pitch complex at the beginning of the passage, however, is obviously not octatonic 7-31. But it is a closely related set and one which occurs often in Debussy's music, namely, 7-32.30 In bs 9-10 the texture thins out radically, leaving only the thematic tetrachord 4- 10 (strings), C in english horn and Trumpets in F, and low B in double bass. This set, 5-10, is (obviously) common to both 7-32 and 7-31, specifically, to 7-31 of Coll. 11. And that heptad materializes in due course, at the end of the passage with the appearance of D and F, the first notes in the new emerging theme in english horn and trumpets (not shown).

In earlier examples, we saw how octatonic elements were integrated with diatonic and whole-tone materials. In Ex. 15 we see how the composer incorporates components that are purely octatonic with those that are octatonic by complementation (hexachord 6-228 in this case) and in the process creates a large non-octatonic, essentially atonal structure, 7- 32. It is in passages such as this that we hear Debussy's connection with many of the other, younger experimentalists of his era, such as Stravinsky, Bartok, Schoenberg and Berg. By an accident of chronology, completion of La Mer coincides with that of another monument of early twentieth- century music, Rchard Strauss's Salome, a work which also contains many octatonic feature^.^' (See Appendix, entries 26, 27, 38, 40, 51, 59, 66, 69, 73, 75, 84 and 88.)

The octatonic set is everywhere in the music of the two volumes of preludes for the piano, almost always occurring at climactic moments in the music or in pre-cadential locations. Example 16b illustrates the latter circumstance: the penultimate music of one of the most beautiful of the preludes. Example 16a provides a thematic orientation, showing the second phrase of the two-phrase theme of bs 1 and 2. The pentad is 5-32 from Coll. 111, which is the prevailing octatonic collection in the piece. The octatonic thematic figure bears a very specific relation to the tonality of the work: it contains the tonic A major triad, with which the prelude ends.

In the penultimate passage, Ex. 16b, an octatonic block, the 5-32 thematic figure is first (b.49) transformed by reordering while the total pitch-class content remains the same. Specifically, the reordering is a cyclic permutation, one effect of which is to bring the pitches of the tonic A triad into adjacency as the first three notes. With the second transformation of the thematic figure (b.50) cff' changes to c', a voice-leading change very characteristic of Debussy's highly refined melodic procedure^.'^ The figure, now an instance of 5-28, remains within octatonic Coll. 111. As but one instance of the extraordinarily subtle motivic detail often involved in clos- ing passages, I point out that the change from Cft to C refers to the semitone transposition of the subject in b.27, shown in Ex. 16c, which, in

ALLEN FORTE

Ex. 16a Les sons et les parfums . . . (Prdludes l), 19 10, b.2

" w I-PqCY.E.F# .A.Bbl Clll

Ex. 16b Les sons et les parfums . . . ,bs 49-50

, ,. IE,F#.C,A.Bb,C,CUI Clll

Ex. 16c Les sons et les parfums . . . ,b.27

turn, relates to the larger-scale form of the piece. (See Appendix, entries 24, 30, 43, 53, 54, 55, 60, 65, 67, 78, 79, 80, 81, 101, 102, 103 and 106.)

At the end of the antipenultimate section of Ondine (Ex. 17) the upper voice and bass arpeggiate downwards through the diminished-seventh chord 4-28, often a token of octatonic activity.33 Each note of the

MUSIC ANALYSIS 10: 1-2, 199 1 148


diminished seventh is the top of a pillar-like hexachord, as shown in condensed form in Ex. 17. Directly below each top note on the upper stave is trichord 3-5, a sonic hallmark of this piece that first enters in the musical-pictorial Ondine figure in b.4. The labels on Ex. 17 indicate, however, that the passage is not entirely octatonic, but, rather, a mixture of octatonic and diatonic, for the hexachord 6-33 is familiar in diatonic tonal music as the lower hexachord of the ascending melodic minor scale. In each case the vertical 6-33 differs by only one note from a form of 6-27 (an instance of the voice-leading transformation mentioned in connection with Ex. 16b). It is not difficult to hear this change, for, in accordance with the regularity of the progression, it occurs in the upper voice on the middle stave. If, for example, the note in that location in the second chord had been el instead of f', the chord would have been 6-22 - and the lower trichord would then have been another form of the motivic 3-5, just as it is in the first chord (6-27) - thus, again, a unary voice-leading trans-formation, once removed (see note 32). On the downbeat of b.53, 6-27 returns in its original pitch configuration (an octave lower). Thus this progression represents an amalgamation of octatonic and diatonic components and is yet another manifestation of a basic dichotomy in the piece: the opposition of diatonic and octatonic-atonal materials. It also represents a reversal of the relation between the two domains that we saw in the earlier illustrations (Exs 3-8), where the octatonic occurred under diatonic-tonal auspices. (See Appendix, entries 5, 23, 35, 58, 63, 68, 76 and 103.)

Ex. 17 Ondzne (Preludes 10, 1912- 13, bs 49-5 1 (condensed)

MUSIC AXALdYSIS 10: 1-2, 199 1

ALLEN FORTE

Although Jeux contains pitch structures other than octatonic, the octatonic component is prominent at crucial moments in the music. The passage shown in Ex. 18a, which represents the music just before the climax of the entire piece, is a case in point. The climax itself is based on Coll. 111, but the music in the passage under consideration is a complete and very systematic expression of Coll. 11. Of the four voices involved, the bass seems at first to be the most independent, in the sense that its connection to the other parts is not immediately obvious. Over the first four bars the bass presents two forms of octatonic pentad 5-19 from Coll. 11, the second an ordered transposition of the first by six semitones. At the end of the bass line (bs 5-6) this pattern is broken as the bass states

Ex. 18a Jeux, 1912, R73-R73 + 6

Ex. 18b Jeux, R73-R73 + 6

6 )o.~r.til.,A1.,P,CCl~~ 6-3@:IT,Gb.Ab,B.V.CI CII CII

mailto:6-3@:IT,Gb.Ab,B.V.CI


octatonic 4-10. Because of the tritone transposition of 5-19, its two forms share four notes, constituting super-symmetric tetrachord 4-9: [ a , A, D, EL], and, as a further consequence, the total pitch content of the bass reduces to a form of ultra-symmetric octatonic hexachord 6-30, discussed above in general terms.

Perhaps the most remarkable feature of this passage derives from the replication of bass hexachord 6-30 in each of the other voices. Both soprano and alto project the same total form of 6-30, viz., [F, (3,a,B, C, Dl, which is a transposition of the bass form by minor third (producing maximum invariance after the tritone transposition). The tenor voice doubles the alto in simplified form, without the decorative lower neighbour notes. It is the relation between alto and soprano that is most extraordinary here - perhaps a musical pun on the dramatic situation - for the alto moves in parallel tritones with the soprano, so that 6-30 is formed again over each two-bar span, as shown in Ex. 18b.

Here, in this very late and complex work by Debussy, we find an octatonic block without audible means of traditional tonal support. The relations that come automatically with the complete octatonic progression now fulfil the traditional requirements of unity, variety, direction and closure. (See Appendix, entries 11, 13, 41, 9 1 and 105.)

Perhaps with a certain degree of octatonic irony, Debussy dedicated the last of the late three pieces for two pianos, amusingly entitled 'En blanc et noir', to Stravinsky, who had dedicated his Zvezdoliki (Le roi des &toiles, 19 12) to Debussy and would later dedicate to him his Symphonies of Wind Instruments, a posthumous tribute, to be sure. Whatever the biographical circumstances, the surface of this piece, with its highly contrasting, block- like arrangement, clearly intends to evoke a sonic reference to Stravinsky's music. Example 19a shows the first three blocks, each a bar in length. Simple reduction of the first bar, by a rule that excludes chromatic passing notes, reveals the underlying formation to consist of two conjoined transpositionally related forms of octatonic tetrachord 4-12 that sum to hexachord 6-27 of Coll. I. Example 19b provides a rhythmic repre-sentation of this reduction. The second block changes the octatonic orientation to Coll. I11 and changes the hexachordal type as well. Now we hear a form of 6-223, which, it will be recalled, is one of the two 'linear' forms of 8-28, presented as a vertical and set off by a fermata and apostrophe from the block that follows it. The third block, an incipient Stravinskian ostinato figure, remains within Coll. 111, presenting pentad 5- 10 to complete 7-3 1.

Bars 4-6 closely resemble the first three bars, so that we perceive the three successive blocks to coalesce into a larger three-bar unit (itself a block); Ex. 19c, excluding b.6, which breaks out of the octatonic sphere, shows this. Now, however, 6-27 in b.4 belongs to Coll. 11. But b.5, an expression of 5-31, returns to Coll. 111, and, when combined with b.2 (Ex. 19a) completes that collection to form 8-28. Octatonic cycles of this type,

ALLEN FORTE

Ex. 19a En blanc et noir 111, 19 15, bs 1-3

Ex. 19b En blanc et noir 111,b. 1 (reduced)

Ex. 19c En blanc et noir 111, bs 4-5

I CII Ir 271~.~,~,~b,r,rfiCII 5-31 IC.#,E,G,A,H~J



which we first saw in Ex. 8, are often found in the later music. Perhaps the prelude Brouillards provides the example of largest scale.34 (See Appendix, entries 1, 14, 16, 19, 21, 31, 34, 36, 44, 56, 64, 70, 77, 86, 89, 97, 98, 99 and 100.)

In these few extracts from Debussy's music it has not been possible to show the location of the octatonic material in each work as a whole. A general observation therefore seems in order. Octatonic sections almost always occur either at or near the beginning of the work (Exs 3a, 4a, 7a, 8, 9, 13, 14, 19a), in transitions (Exs 10, 15), at moments of climax or special tension (Exs 5, 6, 1 1, 17, 18a) and at or near the end (Ex. 16b). That is, they are never relegated to extensional or developmental functions or appended to basic formal units, but are always prominently positioned in the music, which is clearly in accordance with the fundamental role they play across the composer's harmonic spectrum. It seems clear - to me, at least -- that the octatonic in Debussy's music always connotes the sublime, the exalted, in contrast to the whole-tone, which represents the indeterminate, and in opposition to the diatonic, which seems always to be a means of expressing the world of the immediate and pictorial.

The purpose of this concluding section is to consider some of the historical evidence that might point to an answer to the question of the influences upon Debussy that caused him to adopt octatonic modalities as part of his array of compositional resources. What distinguishes Debussy's octatonic usage from that of most of his predecessors (with the notable exception of Liszt) is the occurrence throughout his music of both ordered segments of the octatonic scale and unordered subsets." Debussy also often involves harmonies that are complement-related to the octatonic - from the theoretical standpoint, not an extension usually included in studies of the octatonic. With these observations in mind, I now provide a brief guided tour of the octatonic landscape. I exclude from this panorama Franz Schubert and Debussy's beloved Frederic Chopin, both composers of an experimental bent, but not, I believe, involved with the octatonic in a deeper technical sense that would relate their music to Debussy's. Let us consider, first, three non-Russian composers.

Remarkably enough, there are octatonic passages in the music of Berlioz, which, I believe, have gone ~nnot iced .~ ' His Symphonie fantastique (composed when he was eighteen, the same age at which Debussy began serious artistic production) provides two examples. The first of these occurs at the very beginning of movement V of the work ('Songe d'une nuit de sabbat'). Upper strings, muted, pianissimmo and tremolo, play a huge diminished-seventh sonority, followed by cello and basses with a thrice-stated ordered octatonic pentad, 5-10, beginning on A# and

MUSIC ANAI-YSIS 10: 1-2, 199 1 153

ALLEN FORTE

traversing the tritone to E, which is reinforced by timpani. Taken altogether, the harmony in bs 1 and 2 is octatonic 6-27 (Coll. I). In b.3 of this introductory Larghetto passage the total sonority is none other than hexad 7-32 (see Ex. 15 and discussion), an extension of 6-27 by one note, F#, which places 6-27 in a non-octatonic context. The music of b.4, however, is a full statement of 8-28, in its Coll. I form, with chromatic passing notes, culminating on a chord above bass G, which combines with the diminished-seventh chord that follows in b.6 to form 6-228 (6- 249). Bars 12-15 repeat the opening music at a semitone transposition, ending on an A major triad in b. 16, the first firm tonal landmark thus far. Thus the opening of the movement is fundamentally octatonic in orientation, with the diminished-seventh chord and ordered 8-28 as basic structures.

Perhaps the most famous 'experimental' passage in the Symphonie fantastique is the one cited by Schumann in movement IVY where a Db major triad is followed by a G minor triad.?' However startling this succession may have appeared to Schumann, it is even more remarkable when taken in its complete context. Example 20, a condensation of the progression that begins from the tonic G minor triad in b. 152 and extends to b. 161, gives a relatively complete picture, one that we can now view through our octatonic spectacles to reveal a total sonority of 7-31 from Coll. I, within which the DL major triad/G minor triad combination emerges as octatonic hexachord 6-250. Only with the arrival of the German sixth harmony does the passage resume a normative tonal profile. In the course of the progression there is only one brief departure from the underlying octatonic structure, the semitone embellishing motion to the F# minor triad, marked by an asterisk.

Ex. 20 Berlioz Symphonie fantastique IVY 1830, bs 152-6 1 (condensed)

MUSIC ANALYSIS 10: 1-2, 1991


Another familiar passage from Berlioz's music is the Invocation a la nature, Scene XVI from La Damnation de Faust, sometimes cited as an example of extreme chromaticism in the composer's music.38 The introductory bars are, however, not simply 'chromatic', but octatonic, spanning the large-scale progression from tonic C# minor to subdominant F#minor, as shown in Ex. 2 1.

Ex. 21 Berlioz La damnation de Faust, Sc. XVI: Invocation a la nature, 1845-6, bs 1-9

I,; I v 6-r2Y~FIY.TB.G#.CI.L#,I>I (6.250)

The music of this introduction revolves through the octatonic universe, much as we saw in the Debussian cycles, for instance, in Exs 8 and 19. What could be more appropriate to the pantheistic programme that composer has embodied in the music of this extraordinary scene? The entire passage is, in fact, closed harmonically, in the sense that the final octatonic hexachord, 6-229, is the complement of the first one, 6-Z50. It is, of course, not the literal complement, but a transposition of the literal complement which retains four notes in common with 6-Z50, precisely the notes of the dominant seventh of F# minor. Symmetries abound: for

MUSIC ANALYSIS 10: 1-2, 199 1 155

ALLEN FORTE

example, the bass outlines C#-B&A-F#, a form of octatonic tetrachord 4-1 7. The correspondences between this structure and those in many of the Debussy examples above is, I believe, striking, and although the evidence is circumstantial it is ~ompe l l i ng .~~

Because of the present uncertain state of Liszt chronology, it is not possible to make definitive statements that involve precision dating.40 Give or take a few years, it seems likely, however, that Liszt was conversant with the octatonic collection in the early 1830s. The Harmonies poe'tiques et religieuses has been cited and discussed briefly in the literature as an instance; the tone poem Hdroi'de fundbre, begun in the 1830s, according to Liszt's own testimony in the preface to the score, is probably another, since the opening music (bs 1-7) is clearly octatonic." In both cases the octatonic appears in the form of unordered segments of 8-28.

In the absence of more convincing evidence both the Berlioz and Liszt precedents cannot be regarded as direct influences upon Debussy, although it goes without saying that he knew their music. How deeply he studied them is another matter.42 The situation with respect to Wagner, however, is considerably clearer in the general case. Robin Holloway has documented and discussed in detail the many correspondences between Wagnerian and Debussian passages, leaving little doubt about the (often very specific) parallels." But neither Holloway nor any other scholar, to my knowledge, has yet addressed the issue of the octatonic connection between Wagner and Debussy. This is, in fact, a double-edged question, since we know little about the octatonic component in Wagner's music, in the first place." But to the octatonic sleuth, Holloway's musical excerpts are informative and suggestive. In addition to the Tristan chord quotations he cites (which are everywhere in Debussy's music, especially and obviously wherever there is an extramusical erotic programme), Holloway quotes many passages, a number of which are from Parsifal, Debussy's fa~ourite.~' A case in point is his Ex. 3, which includes the music from Pelldas displayed as Ex. 11 in the present study. Holloway compares this, aptly, with the music in Parsifal, VS215, bs 6-12. The entire Wagner excerpt is based upon octatonic hexachord 6-27, a combination of two forms of 5-31, identical with respect to pitch class to the music in the last bar of Ex. 11 above.46

Among the Russians, Musorgsky clearly exerted the greatest influence upon Debussy, as we know in part from his critical writings and frequent expressions of admiration, especially with reference to The Nursey and Boris God~nov.~' But in this case, even more than in the case of Wagner, we have some direct musical evidence, namely quotations, to support an octatonic intersection. I cite just two examples, although there are undoubtedly more to be found in Debussy's music, especially in Pelle'as. Both examples can be interpreted as puns on the famous Coronation Chord from Boris Godunov, a form of octatonic hexachord 6-30, which plays various and significant motivic roles in the opera." The first is from the prelude Ce qu'a vu le vent de l'ouest (Book I), shown as Ex. 22.

156 MUSIC ANALYSIS 10: 1-2, 199 1


Ex. 22 Ce qu'a vu le vent de l'ouest (Pre'ludes I), 19 10, bs 1-5 (condensed)

This piece begins with a massive arpeggiation of the D7 chord, summarized as the vertical in Ex. 22. Eb enters at the top of the arpeggio followed by the grace notes Ab and a,completing 6-30 in a form which is pitch-class equivalent to the Coronation Chord in its first manifestation in Boris Godunov, the famous D71Abi combination at the beginning of Scene 2 of the Prologue. From this extraordinary quotation we might guess that what the west wind saw was a considerable stretch of Russian octatonic countryside! The second instance may be found in bs 25-9 of the prelude Ge'ne'ral Lavine - eccentric (Book 11). The quotation, which again is pitch-class specific, occurs in the context of Coll. I11 and culminates on the striking 5-31s in bs 31 and 32, which complete 7-31 of Coll. 111. And, of course, there are the many occurrences of 6-30 in Debussy's octatonic music (Exs 5, 17 above; see also Appendix, entries 1 1, 13, 39, 4 1, 83, 9 1 and 105).

Of the remaining Russians, Rimsky-Korsakov, Scriabin and Stravinsky can be accorded only brief attention. For technical reasons, I do not regard Rimsky as having had a strong influence upon Debussy, in the octatonic sphere at least. The way in which he uses the octatonic, almost always in its 'ordered' form, is quite unlike the French composer's sophisticated and subtle usages.49 Certainly Debussy came to know Rimsky's music ('the old conjuror') both during his Russian excursions (1 881, 1882) and in Paris (1889 and later) and studied some of his scores - for example, Le coq d'or. Although it is virtually certain that Debussy knew about the Russian (octatonic) scale as a constituent of Rimsky's music and perhaps of the music of others, the major influence that Rimsky exerted upon younger composers, including Debussy and Ravel, was in the area of orchestration technique.

The cases of Scriabin and Stravinsky are more complex, although with their births neatly spaced a decade and two decades, respectively, from that of Debussy, one might hope for a correspondingly neat generalization. Given their Russian background, it is hardly daring to suggest that the Russian school of the earlier nineteenth century - Rimsky, in particular -

IMUSIC ANALYSIS 10: 1-2, 199 1 157

ALLEN FORTE

provided the main inspiration for the octatonic element in their music, although, of course, its manifestation assumes quite a different form in each.

There seems to be no evidence of Debussy's interest in Scriabin's music, although Lockspeiser senses a certain 'bond of sympathy' between the two composer^.^^ Moreover, even a superficial comparison of octatonic usage in the music of the two men leads to the conclusion that they have little in common. Scriabin's thorough-going, some might say relentless, octatonicism, with its ordered transpositions of many entire sections (as in the late piano sonatas), differs radically from Debussy's highly selective use of the octatonic and its elegant merger with diatonic and whole-tone harmonic components.

Stravinsky, on the other hand, presents a different and more complex case. While it is widely recognized that the younger composer was clearly influenced by the older in matters of orchestration and rhythm, issues of pitch organization remain unresolved. Of these, the question of octatonic cross-fertilization is perhaps the most accessible. Since common use of unusual techniques might at least provide clues, and while recognizing the need for deeper study of correspondences and non-correspondences, I offer for consideration the single case of octatonic formations obtained by combining dominant-seventh chords or inverted dominant-seventh chords (half-diminished seventh chords) or combinations of inverted dominant- seventh chords. These procedures are, of course, one of the hallmarks of Stravkinsky's compositional method - as in the opening of the Symphony of Psalms (1930) and elsewhere. Debussy, however, was generating octatonic structures in this way as early as 1880 (Ex. 5 ) , but not in the thorough- going way we find in Stravkinsky's major works, beginning with The Firebird (1910).j1 And despite the many occasions on which we find in Debussy's music what van den Toorn has called 'dominant-seventh complexes' in Stravinsky's, they are usually limited in scope - as in bs 3-4 of La terrasse des audiences du clair de lune - or they are secondary results of the combination of other constituents - as in Ex. 11, from Pelle'as.j2 Perhaps the most Stravinsky-like occurrence of a dominant-seventh complex is found at the beginning of the Pre'lude a Y'aprds-midi d'un faune', shown in Ex. 9, where the moving voices project tetrachord 4-3 in a manner remarkably similar to the combination of Bb7and G7chords at the opening of the Symphony of Psalms, where the moving voices also project the same class of tetrachord. We must bear in mind that Stravinsky was ten years old when Debussy began composing Faune, at which time the latter was already completely conversant with his own concept of the octatonic.

I do not find strong evidence that Debussy was influenced by Stravinsky later in his life. The point of most significant contact would have been the year 1912, during which Debussy played the duet score of The Rite of Spring at the piano with its composer, who also gave him the score of Petrouchka. It seems highly unlikely that Debussy, with his own procedures


fully developed at that time, would have adopted harmonic ideas from the two ballets in the second volume of preludes and in the complex music of Jeux, which he began composing about the same time. Certainly there are no obvious and direct correspondences to indicate that that was the case. It is quite possible, on the other hand, that Stravinsky was influenced by the older composer, whose published works he would have had the opportunity to study over a period of many years. Nevertheless, this issue may never be resolved in a satisfactory way, which of course may bring into question its ultimate significance. One thing is clear, however: if Debussy and Stravinsky share a common octatonic ancestor, that individual is Musorgsky.

In connection with the general question of octatonic genetics, it should be emphasized that octatonicism was 'in the air' during the early twentieth century." For example, many constituents of the music of Strauss's Elektra (1 908) can be interpreted effectively within an octatonic context.'%nd the second of Webern's Four Pieces for Violin and Piano (1910) contains melodic strands that are quintessentially octatonic. But the composer closest to Debussy who was involved most actively with the octatonic collection was Debussy's younger countryman, Maurice Ravel, upon

..

whom the composer lavished much acerbic attention." As but one instance of Ravel's sophisticated octatonic usage, I cite bs 19-2 1 of his 19 13 song 'Surgi de la croupe et du bond', from the Trois podmes de Mallarrnd, a partial octatonic cycle in which Coll. I in its full 8-28 form alternates with 7-31 of Coll. 11. The musical manifestations of the two collections are distinct, after the Debussian fashion, and do not result from a direct (ordered) transposition of the material. As in Debussy, at b.22 the music breaks out of the octatonic sphere and into a whole-tone area represented by Scriabin's 'mystic chord', hexachord 6-34.j6

Debussy was not a 'systematic' composer in our contemporary sense. At the same time, he had a very finely tuned harmonic sensitivity and of course a unique compositional talent, one that manifested itself at an early age. These characteristics gave a specific direction to his music from the very outset, a phenomenon which we recognize instinctively whenever we hear one of his compositions, regardless of its period. In that process it seems likely that the early emergence of octatonic features came directly from his keyboard improvisational experiences through experiments with progressions by thirds using chromatic notes within a tonal mode -possibly under the influence of Liszt and Berlioz - for which Ex. 4a above may serve as an early illustration." Later on, probably influenced by the music of Musorgsky and Wagner, he gained a more comprehensive grasp of the octatonic harmonic sphere - always, of course, supported by his intuitive musical predilections and always given musical shape in a remarkable variety of ways, some of which are illustrated in the examples for this article.

It is to be hoped that as our understanding of the role of the octatonic in

MUSIC ANALYSIS 10: 1-2, 199 1 159

ALLEN FORTE

Debussy's music develops, the utility of the time-honoured expression 'chromaticism', with its underlying dichotomy, diatonic-chromatic, will lessen proportionally and will ultimately be replaced by more effective explanatory procedures.

NOTES

1. Debussy Letters, ed. Fran~ois Lesure and Roger Nichols (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1987), p.84.

2. Quoted in Edward Lockspeiser, Debussy: His Life and Mind, 2 vols (New York: Macmillan, 1965), Vol. 1, p.206.

3. Richard S. Parks, The Music of Claude Debussy (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983). Parks was the first to write about the octatonic aspect of Debussy's music. See 'Pitch Organization in Debussy: Unordered Sets in "Brouillards"', Music Theo y Spectrum, Vol. 2 (1 980), pp. 1 19-34.

4. Parks, Music of Debussy, deals with the octatonic set in connection with theoretical 'genera' he establishes, showing, for example, how octatonic music relates to diatonic and whole-tone passages. He is only peripherally concerned with the preceding questions.

5. Arthur Berger, 'Problems of Pitch Organization in Stravinsky', Perspectives of New Music, Vol. 2 (1963), pp.11-42. There are, in fact, fifteen eight-note collections that share some of the special properties of the octatonic collection, for example, symmetry. None, however, is as exhaustively symmetric. The octatonic collection as scale is one of Messaien's 'Modes of Limited Transposition': see Olivier Messiaen, Le Technique de mon langage musical (Paris: Le Duc, 1946).

6. Pieter C. van den Toorn, The Music of Igor Stravinsky (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983).

7. See Allen Forte, 'Liszt's Experimental Music and Music of the Early Twentieth Century', 19th-Centuy Music, Vol. 10 (1987), pp.209-28, and 'Musorgsky as Modernist: The Phantasmic Episode in Boris Godunov', Music Analysis, Vol. 9 (1990), pp.3-45; Richard Taruskin, 'Chernomor to Kashchei: Harmonic Sorcery; or, Stravinsky's "Angle"', Journal of the American Musicological Society, Vol. 38 (1985), pp.72- 142.

8. See Allen Forte, The Structure of Atonal Music (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1973).

9. Owing to the undetected machinations of an extra-terrestrial presence in the author's study, he blithely proclaimed in an earlier article that '. . . neither 6-223 nor 4-12 is an "ordered" subset of 8-28'. See Forte, 'Musorgsky' p.40. The foregoing list provides the obvious correction.

10. See van den Toorn, Music of Stravinsky, pp.50- 1. 11. As part of the research for this article, the author assembled a collection of

138 separate examples of octatonic passages in Debussy's music from 1880 onwards. Some of these are listed in the Appendix below.


12. See Forte, 'Musorgsky'. 13. Outside the octatonic orbit, one o f the harmonies commonly associated with

Debussy's music is the ninth chord, 5-34, which is inversionally symmetric, as is, o f course, its complement, 7-34, also a major component o f Debussy's harmonic vocabulary and a feature o f the music o f Bartok and other Eastern European composers - to the extent that Hungarian writers o f ten refer to it as the heptatonia seconda. Pentad 5-34 was discussed extensively b y early commentators o n Debussy's music, perhaps because it was easily recognized and just as easily accommodated b y the prevailing theoretical climate. See Rene Lenormand, A Study of Modem Harmony, trans. Herbert Antcliffe (London, n.d.; original French version published 19 15).

14. T h i s comment does not reflect a statistical analysis, but is based upon study o f the large number o f excerpts mentioned in note 1 1 , some o f which are listed i n the Appendix.

15. For an extended mathematical treatment o f inversional symmetry, see J. Randall Wheaton, ' T h e Diatonic Potential o f the Strange Sets: Theoretical Tenets and Structural Meaning in Gustav Mahler's Der Abschied' (Diss., Yale University, 1988).

16. Hexachords with the designation 'Z ' following the hyphen in the set name cannot be transformed into equivalent pitch-class representations b y ordinary transposition or inversion, unlike the non-Z hexachords.

17. T h i s hexachord (6 -228) is the basic harmony o f one o f the most famous o f Wagner's leitmotives, the 'Schicksal' motive o f Der Ring des Nibelungen.

18. See Parks, Music of Debussy, p.328. 19. See Allen Forte, 'Pitch-Class Set Genera and the Origin o f Modern Harmonic

Species', Journal of Music Theory, Vo l . 32, pp. 187-270. Th i s article presents a theory o f genera which organizes the universe o f pitch-class sets into related 'families' o n the basis o f chains o f inclusion relations that begin from trichordal 'progenitors'. T h e result is a collection o f twelve genera, each o f which has distinctive intervallic properties reflected i n the informal names assigned t o each. For example, Genus 12 ( G 1 2 ) is called the dia-tonal genus. Its trichordal progenitors are 3-7 (e.g., C-D-F) and 3-1 1 , the common triad. A major purpose o f the system o f genera is to permit close examination o f large-scale harmonic vocabularies, particularly those o f early twentieth-century avant-garde composers.

20. Th i s system differs i n a number o f ways from the genera devised by Parks in his Music of Debussy. It is not m y intention here t o discuss the differences. Suff ice it t o say that Parks's genera enable h im to make many penetrating observations about Debussy's harmonic usage and t o explain his complex formal structures in powerful and informative ways.

21. See, i n particular, Parks, Music of Debussy, pp.22-44, and Arnold Whittall, 'Tonality and the Whole-Tone Scale i n the Music o f Debussy', Music Review, V o l . 36 (1975) , pp.261-71.

22. See James R . Briscoe, 'Debussy d'aprds Debussy: T h e Further Resonance o f T w o Early Melodies', 19th-Centu y Music, Vo l . 5 ( 1 98 l ) , pp. 1 10-16; ' " T o

ALLEN FORTE

Invent New Forms": Debussy's Diane au bois', The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 74 (1990), pp. 131-69.

23. In the absence of a definitive catalogue of motives, the identification here is tentative. For a discussion of leitmotives in the opera, see David A. Grayson, The Genesis of Debussy's Pelleas et Milisande (Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1986), pp.234ff. See also Richard Langham Smith, 'Motives and Symbols', in Roger Nichols and &chard Langham Smith, Claude Debussy: Pelleas et Me'lisande (Cambridge: CUP, 1989), pp. 18- 106.

24. See Langham Smith, 'Motives and Symbols', pp.9 1-2, Ex. 1 1. 25. For an extensive discussion of connections between the two operas see

Carolyn Abbate, 'Tristan in the Composition of Pelleas', 19th-Centuy Music, Vol. 5 (1 98 l), pp. 1 17-4 1.

26. Cf. Parks, Music of Debussy, pp.243-4, Ex. 1 1.2. 27. This tetrachord achieves reincarnation, in pitch and register, in Stravinsky's

The Rite of Spring, 'Mystic Circle of the Adolescents', at R9 1. 28. For the purpose of this essay I have not attempted to formalize rules of

reduction beyond the 'observational' stage based upon my experience with this music, in which direct chromaticism seems always to be in the service of more basic structure.

29. This of course is a post facto analytical observation and is not intended to impute a systematic and 'mechanical' procedure to the composer - who would not have needed it in any event.

30. This set assumes an entirely different shape, but retains its close relation to the octatonic, as the famous chord in the ostinato of the 'Augurs of Spring' (R13) movement in Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. See van den Toorn, Music of Straainsky, pp.107-8. In their prime forms 7-31 and 7-32 differ by only one pitch-class integer.

31. See Tethys Carpenter, 'Tonal and Dramatic Structure', in Richard Strauss: Salome, ed. Derrick Puffett (Cambridge: CUP, 1989), p. 101, where she discusses a chord, reducible to a form of octatonic 5-31, which is associated throughout the opera with Salome.

32. I refer to these as unary voice-leading transformations, since a change of only one note is involved.

33. See Michael L. Friedmann, 'Approaching Debussy's "Ondine"', Cahiers Debussy, Vol. 6 (1982), pp.22-35. In his extensive analysis, Friedmann designates this section (bs 44-53) the development.

34. See Parks, 'Pitch Organization'. 35. T o date, the most extensive published study of the history of octatonicism is

to be found in Taruskin's 'Chernomor to Kashchei'. One major difference in approach with respect to the present study derives from the fact that Taruskin takes the octatonic (ordered) scale to be the basic referential structure. In terms of the primary goal of his article, which is to elucidate Stravinsky's adoption and employment of the octatonic scale, that may have been justifiable, but in terms of the present study of the octatonic in Debussy's music, it would be grossly inadequate, as I trust the musical examples have


demonstrated. Thus, on his p. 100, where Taruskin lists 'triadic material that can be derived from an octatonic scale', I would list twice as many 'triads' and 'sevenths' as he does. See, for example, the entry for 4-27 on Table 1 above.

36. D . Kern Holoman does not mention octatonic features in his recently published study of Berlioz, but he does deal forcefully with the 'experimental' aspect of the music, especially during the 1830s. D. Kern Holoman, Berlioz (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1989), pp.260-6.

37. See Schumann, 'A Symphony by Berlioz', in Hector Berlioz, Fantastic Sjimphony, ed. Edward T. Cone (New York: Norton, 1971), pp.220-48.

38. See Leon B. Plantinga, Romantic Music (New York: Norton, 1984), pp.217-18. For a discussion of the sketches for this music see Kent W. Werth, '"Nature immense", a Sketch from Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust: A New View of the Composer at Work', The Musical Quarterb~, Vol. 74 (1990), pp.57-82. Also D. Kern Holoman, The Creative Process in the Autograph Musical Documents of Hector Berlioz, c. 181 8-1 840 (Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1975), pp. 145-50.

39. The opening of the Scherzo, La Reine Mab, from Berlioz's Romtio et Juliette is another clear instance of octatonic music, presenting the complete Coll. 11, with a striking form of 5-31 created by the entrance of Eb in the first violins in b.3.

40. See, for example, Rena Charnin Mueller, 'Reevaluating the Liszt Chronology: The Case of Anfangs wollt ich fast verzagen', 19th-Centuy Music, Vol. 12 (1988), pp.132-47.

41. See Forte, Liszt's Experimental Music, p.227. Taruskin, 'Chernomor to Kashchei', p. 100, cites the tone poem Ce qu'on entend sur la montagne (1848?) as the first instance, probably because of the occurrence of ordered octatonic scale segments. See note 35.

42. Of course we know that Debussy visited Liszt in Rome, a memorable event in his life, and the many connections between the piano music of Liszt and that of Debussy have been apparent to scholars and listeners for decades. Some hint of a deeper study of some of Liszt's music is given in a letter to Pierre Louys dated 6 December 1900: 'They're playing Liszt's Faust Sjimphonji in the same programme - food and drink for a whole generation of composers, and a lesson in orchestration too' (Lesure and Nichols, Letters, p.117). Debussy once characterized Berlioz as 'the prodigious humbug', nc doubt a back-handed compliment.

43. Robin Holloway, Debussy and Wagner (London: Eulenburg, 1979). 44. A study of the octatonic in Wagner should probably begin with the

leitmotives. For instance, the Grail motive in Parsifal, an instance of 5-31, is a component of many octatonic passages in that opera, such as the Prelude to Act 111.

45. See Edward Lockspeiser, Debussy: His Life and Mind, p.95. The most conspicuous Wagnerian harmonic symbol by far in Debussy's music is the Tristan chord, a harmony that often occurs in an octatonic context in his music. We find an unequivocal citation of it in 'Nuit d'etoiles', composed in

ALLEN FORTE

1880, at which time Debussy had not yet heard the opera in performance, but knew it only from the vocal score.

46. Holloway often seems puzzled by the chromatic music of Wagner and Debussy. Confronted by the music in the two passages and wishing to refine his comparison of the two composers - a pervasive endeavour in his book, in which Wagner ultimately comes out on top - he writes: '. . .Wagner's chords are separated by thematic matter presented in terms of a harmonic progress from the one to the other, whereas in Debussy they simply sound, as such, juxtaposed together without any connection' (Holloway, Debussy and Wagner, p.99, his emphases). Not all of Holloway's comparisons are based upon pitch equivalences, however, as he takes care to point out. A case in point are his Exs 8a and 8b. The former, the music from Pelleas shown in Ex. 12 above, is compared to an excerpt from Gotterdammerung, VS12. The Debussy music is octatonic (6-249 from Coll. 111), while Wagner's is based upon a singular quasi-atonal octad, 8- 19.

47. Robert Godet had lent Debussy a copy of the piano score of Boris Godunov (1874) in 1889, nineteen years before the first performance of the opera in Paris and the year in which he completed three of the highly experimental -and octatonic - Cinq poZmes de Baudelaire. Franqois Lesure and Richard Langham Smith, Debussy on Music (New York, 1977), p.24. In the Revue Blanche, 15 April 1901, Debussy wrote in glowing terms about The Nzirsey, saying, among other things: 'Never before has such a refined sensibility expressed itself with such simple means. . .'. Ibid., p.21. Although the cycle exhibits only tiny traces of the octatonic, it has plenty of other unusual features that would have intrigued Debussy. See Michael Russ, 'The Mysterious Thread in Musorgsky's Nursery', Music Analysis, Vol. 9 (1990), pp.47-65. For a detailed survey of Debussy's contacts with Russian music see Andre Schaeffner, 'Debussy et ses rapports avec la musique russe', in Pierre Souvtchinsky, La Musique Russe (Paris, 1953), pp.95-138. A rare and virtually unknown technical comparison of the music of Musorgsky and Debussy is to be found in Edwin von der Niill, Modeme Harmonik (Leipzig: Kistner & Siegel, 1932), pp.43-72.

48. See Forte, 'Musorgsky'. Perhaps the most famous occurrence of 6-30, in addition to Musorgsky's Coronation Chord, is the combination of C major and F#major triads in the Chez Petrouchka movement of Stravinsky's ballet, the same combination that Debussy used throughout Pelle'as et Milisande. (See Appendix, entry 39.)

49. See Taruskin, 'Chemomor to Kaschei', for a discussion of the development of the octatonic scale in Rimsky-Korsakov's music.

50. Lockspeiser, Debussy: His Life and Mind, Vol. 2, p.136. 51. See van den Toorn, Music of Stravinsky, p. 15. Debussy attended the

performance of The Firebird at its premiere in Paris on 25 June 1910: see Lesure and Nichols, Letters, p.22 1.

52. For an analysis of La terrasse. . . which includes a discussion of the roles of these dominant sevenths see Allen Forte, 'Les ensembles motiviques comme



facteur fondamental d'unite et de contraste', Analyse Musicale, Vol. 16 (1989), pp.23-9; Fred Lerdahl, 'Les relations chromatiques comme moyen d'extension d'une theorie generative de la musique tonale', ibid., pp.54-60.

53. Even the genealogical lines of Stravinsky's octatonic music are not a matter of general agreement. See Pieter van den Toorn, 'Taruskin's Angle', In Theory Only, Vol. 10 (1987), pp.27-45, and Richard Taruskin, 'Reply to van den Toorn', ibid., pp.47-57.

54. Tethys Carpenter's very fine article on that work does not take the extra step required to bring many of Strauss's motives within the octatonic orbit, but interprets them as referential bitonal sonorities. Tethys Carpenter, 'The Musical Language of Elekta', in Richard Strauss: Elektra, ed. Derrick Puffett, (Cambridge: CUP, 1989), pp.74-106. Just how widespread at the turn of the century were octatonic leanings is indicated by the fact the Verdi brings in an ordered octatonic scale, 7-3 1 of Coll. 11, near the end of his Stabat Muter from the 4 Pezzi Sacri (1 89 8).

55. Among other epithets Debussy bestowed upon his younger rival was 'fakir-cum-enchanter'. See Lesure and Nichols, Letters, p.xix.

56. Debussy and Ravel unwittingly set two of the same poems of Mallarme in the same year, 19 13, as part of short cycles, Debussy entitling his Trois Podmes de Stephane Mallarme'. He did not set 'Surgi de la croupe . . .'. None of the songs are octatonic. See Parks, Music of Debussy, pp.196-9 for a discussion of Debussy's setting of 'Eventail'.

57. For Maurice Emmanuel's account of one of Debussy's public improvisations while a student at the Consenratoire see Lockspeiser, Debussy, Vol. 1, pp.58-9.

APPENDIX

Additional Octatonic Passages in Debussy's Music

1. 1880-2 'Serenade' (Banville) b.3016-27 (CI) 2. 1880-2 'Souhait' (Banville) bs 28-9:7-31 (CI) 3. 1880 'Nuit d'etoiles' (Banville) bs 13-14:6-229 4. 1882 'En sourdine' (Fites galantes I) bs 18-19:6-229

1884 L'Enfant prodigue 5. VS5,bs 3-7:6-27 (CIII) 6. VS9,b.4:6-229 (6-250) 7. VS22,bs 2-6:8-28 (CII)

1885-8 'Spleen' (Ariettes oubliees) 8. bs 3-4:6-228 (6-249) 9. b.11:8-28 (CI)

10. b.23:6-229 (6-Z50) 1885 'Chevaux de bois' (Ariettes oubliees)

11. bs 43-4:6-30 (CII)


ALLEN FORTE

12. 13.

1885 'L'ombre des arbres' (Ariettes oublie'es)

14. 15. 16.

1887-8 La damoiselle e'lue 17. 18. 19. 1887 'C'est l'extase' (Ariettes oubliies)

1887 'La mort des amants' (Cinq poemes de Baudelaire)

20. 21.

1888 'Le balcon' (Cinq podmes de Baudelaire)

22.

1889 'Le jet d'eau' (Cinq podmes de Baudelaire)

23. 24. 25. 1890 Ballade 26. 27. 1890 Danse 28. 189 1 'La mer est plus belle' (Verlaine)

1892-4 Prilude a 'l'apris-midi d'un faune' 29. 30. 31. 32.

1 892 'De greve' (Proses lyriques) 33. 34. 35. 36.

1893-5 Pelle'as et Me'lisande 37. 38. 39. 40. 1893 String Quartet, IV

1983 'De fleurs' (Proses lyriques) 41.

b.60:6-223 (CI) bs 73-4:6-30 (CII)

bs 2-4:6-27 (CI) bs 12-14:5-10 (CI) bs 24-5:6-27 (CI)

R20:6-249 (CII) R20+2:6-229 (6-250) bs 36-9:6-27 (CII)

bs 7-8:8-28 (CII) b.25:6-27 (CI)

bs 56-61 :6-27,6-229,5-3 1 (CI,CII,CIII) and 6-27 (CI1,CIII)

b.67:6-27 (CIII) bs 78-9:7-31 (CIII) bs 4-5:7-31 (CI) bs 35-6:6-228 (6-249) bs 164-7 1 :7-3 1 (CII) b.8:5-32 (CI)

b.17:6-229 (6-250) b.83:5-32 (CIII) bs 100-1:6-27 (CI) bs 108-10:6-223 (CI)

b.9:6-229 (6-250) b. 14:6-27 (CI) b.16:6-27 (CIII) bs 36-7:5-31 (CIII)

VS25,bs 4-5:6-223 (CI) VS55,b.9:6-228 (6-249) VS 130,bs 8-9:6-30 (CIII) R15+7-R15+10:7-31 (CII)

bs 12-15:6-30 (CII)

MUSIC ANALYSIS 10:1-2, 199 1

DEBUSSY A N D T H E O C T A T O N I C

1897-8 'La flilte de pan' (Trois chansons de Bilitis)

43. 1897-8 'Le tombeau des nai'ades' (Trois chansons de Bilitis)

44. 45. 46. 1897-9 Fites (Nocturnes)

1897-9 Nuages (Nocturnes) 47. 48.

1903-5 La Mer 49. Dialogue du vent et de la mer

1903Jardins sous la pluie (Estampes) 50. 51.

1903 Soire'e dans Grenade (Estampes) 52. 53.

1904 Colloque sentimentale (Fites galantes 11)

54. 55. 1904 L'islejoyeuse 56. 1904 'Rondel 11' (Chansons de France) 57. 1904 'La grotte' (Chansons de France) 58. 1905 Mouvement (Images I ) 59. 1905 Re$ets dans l'eau (Images I )

1906-8 Le Coin des enfants 60. The Snow is Dancing

1906-1 1 Imagesfor orchestra 6 1. Ibe'ria II (Les pa$ums . . .)

1907 Images I1 (piano) 62. Cloches a travers les feuilles 63. 1909 Les collines d'Anacapri (Pre'lzides I ) 64. 1909 Des pas sur la neige (Priludes 11)

19 10 Ce qu 'a vu le vent d'Ouest (Priludes I )

65. 66. 19 10 La danse de Puck (Priludes I ) 67. 19 10 La se'rinade interrompue (Pre'ludes I )

19 10 Les sons et les pa$ums tournent duns l'air du soir (Pre'ludes 11)

68.

b.53:6-229 (Z50) and 6-249 (CIII)

bs 17-1 8:7-31 (CIII)

bs 1-3:5-3 1 and 6-27 (CII) b.20:8-28 (CII) b.17:6-249 (CI)

b.13:5-10 (CI) bs 72-3:5-10 (CI)

R43+ 13-R43+14:8-28 (CII)

bs 37-40:8-28 (CII) bs 96-7:7-31 (CII)

b.33:6-249 (CIII) b.67:5-32 (CIII)

b.54-6:7-3 1 (CIII) bs 11-12:7-31 (CIII) b. 15:6-27 (CI) b.9:6-Z49 (CIII) bs 12-1 5:6-27 (CIII) bs 55-6:7-31 (CII)

bs 65-7:7-31 (CIII)

R46+6-R46+11:7-3 1 (CI)

bs 13-17:6-249 (CI) bs 24-7:6-27 (CIII) bs 33-4:6-27 (CI)

bs 9-10:7-3 1 (CIII) bs 82-5:7-31 (CII) bs 112-16:7-31 (CIII)

bs 21-3:6-27 (CIII)

ALLEN FORTE

69. 1911-12 Khamma

70. 71. 72. 73. 74.

19 1 1 Le martyre de Saint Se'bastian 75. 76. 77. 78. 79. 80. 81.

1 9 12- 1 3 Brouillards (Pre'ludes 11) 82. 83. 84.

19 12- 13 Les fe'es sont d'exquises danseuses (Pre'ludes 11)

85. 86. 87. 19 12- 13 Feuilles mortes (Preludes 11) 88. 1 9 12- 13 Feux d'artifce (Pre'ludes 11)

89. 9 0

19 12- 13 Ge'ne'ral Lavine - excentric (Pre'ludes 11)

91. 92. 93. 19 12-1 3 Ondine (Pre'ludes 11)

19 12- 13 La puerta del vino (Pre'ludes 11) 94.

19 12- 13 La terrasse des audiences du clair de lune (Pre'ludes 11)

95. 96.

19 12- 13 Les tierces alternies (Pre'ludes 11) 97. 98. 99.

1912 Jeux 100.

VS l,bs 1 -2:4- 12 (CIII) VS3,bs 1-2:6-249 (CII) VS3,b.6:6-49 (CI) VS4,bs 3-5:7-31 (CII) VS15,bs 7, 9-10:7-31 (CI)

VS 14,b.5:6-228 (6-249) VS23,bs 1-3:6-27 (CIII) VS43,bs 6-10:6-27 (CI) VS46,bs 5-10:7-3 1 (CIII) VS60,bs 5-6:5-28 (CIII) VS66,bs 10-13:7-31 (CIII) VS74,bs 4-6:7-31 (CIII)

b. 1:7-31 (CI, CIII) bs 29-30:6-30 (CII, CIII) bs 32-5:7-31 (CII)

bs 58-66:7-31 (CI) b.67:6-27 (CI) bs 2-3:6-27 (CI, CIII) b.51 :6-228 (6-249) and 6-27 (CIII) bs 71-3:6-27 (CII) bs 90-1 :6-27 (CI,CII,CIII)

bs 25-8:6-30 (CII) bs 54-7:7-31 (CI) b.46-50:6-27 (CIII)

bs 66-74:7-31 (CI)

bs 1-2:7-31 (CI) bs 54-7:7-3 1 (CI)

b.22:6-27 (CI) b.23:6-27 (CIII) b. 13-:6-27 (CII)

R1+5-R+9:6-Z23 (CIII)



101. 102. 103.

19 15 En blanc et noir, I1 104. 105. 106. 107. 19 15 Sonata for cello and piano 108. 19 15 Sonata for flute, viola and harp I

19 15 Douze etudes 109. Pour les agrements 1 10. Pour les 'cinq doigts'

R10-R10+6:7-31 (CIII) R20+9-R20+ 10:7-31 (CIII) R3 1 +7-R3 1+ 1 1 :7-31 (CIII)

bs 5-6:6-30 (CIII) bs 10-1 1:6-30 (CII) bs 15-17:7-31 (CIII) b.37:7-31 (CIII) R3-R3+3:6-27 (CIII)

b.7:6-Z29 (6-Z50) bs 21-7:6-27 (cycle)

MUSIC ANALYSIS 10:1-2, 1991

debussy and the octatonic

Documents

octatonic component

jstor archive

term octatonic

octatonic sphere

octatonic element

jstor transmission

conditions of use

composers music