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Narrative Strategies and Debussy's Late Style

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Narrative Strategies and Debussy's Late Style Narrative Strategies and Debussy's Late Style Rekcca Victoria Leydon Facuity of Music McGill University Decemeber 1996 A thesis subrnitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studîes and Research in paitial Mülment of the requirements for the degree Ph. D. in Music Theory O 1996 by Rebecca V. Leydon National Library Bibliothèque nationale u*m of Canada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bbliographic SeMces sivices bibliographiques 395 Weilington Street 395, nie Wellington OnawaON K1AW OttawaON K1AW Canada Canada The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permettant à la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or sell reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la fome de microfiche/nlm, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts fiom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the outhor's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. Table of Contents Abstract .................................................................................... 3 Résumé ................................... ,... ............................................. 4 Acknowledgments ........................................................................ 6 Chapter 1 . introduction ............................ ..................................... 7 Introduction ...................................................................... 7 " Debussyisrns" ................................................................... 8 Debussy's Euly and Late Styles .......................................... 13 Analytical Approaches to Debussy's Music ................................... 19 Issues of Coherence and Heterogeneity in Music Theory .................... 27 A New Approach to Debussy's Late Style ..................... ... ........ 29 Chapter 2 . Theories of Narrative ....................................................... 39 Introduction ............................ ... ................................... 39 Musical Linguicity and Musical Narrativity .................................. 39 Some Narratologies and their Applications to Music ........................ 49 Cognitive Accounts of Narrative .............................................. 65 Funher Issues in the Application of Narrative Theories to Music .......... 71 Chapter 3. iMusical Narrativitv: Kinds of Stones in Debussv's Late Stvle......... 83 introduction ...................................................................... 83 Cognitive Models for Narrative ............................................. 84 A Continuum of Musical Narrative Strategies ................................ 93 Children's Narratives. Primitivism. and Modernism ........................ 110 Chapter 4. Debussv's Late Style and the Devices of the Earlv Silent Cinema..... 119 Introduction ...................................................................... 119 The Early Cinema .............................................................. 120 Musical Counterparts to Cinematic Devices .................................. 133 Cinema, Symbolism. and Nationalism ....................................... t II Chapter 5 . A Narrative A~~roachto the Analvsis of the "Serenade"from the Celio Sonata. Introduction ..................................~.......................-........... 146 Moevs' Analysis ................................................................. 148 Coherence and Heterogeneity : A Narrative .4 pproac h ....................... 153 Chapter 6 . Surnrnarv and Conclusion ......................... .. ........................ 165 Musical Examples for Chapter 3 ........................................................ 177 musical Examples for Chapter 1 ...................................................... 203 Musical Examples for Chapter 5 ........................................................ 219 B ibliography .........~..................................................................... 246 Abstract Many music scholars share a belief in a deep-seated connection benveen music and language. This belief underlies the exploration of homologies between musical and linguistic structures that have been an important area of snidy withm our field. Ln recent years. however. a number of scholars have been considering larger units of musical sû-~~cture.taking as thei mode1 not the syntactic structure of the sentence. but rather the organizational structure of whole narrative texts. One goal of narntology is to investigate the ways that events experienced separately are comprehended as a unified whole. Because of its attention to the interplay of schema-driven and data-driven perception. narrative theory is suggestive of an approach to the study of the early post-tonal repertoire. music that involves both tond configurations and atonal. "intra-opus" processes. Debussy's late works. which include the Etudes and the three Sonatas. exhibit a distinct style which combines elements of lare nineteenth-century chromaticism with atonal features. innovative formal structures and new pitch resources. This study begins with the assumption that the large-scale tonal structure of most nineteenth-cenniry instrumental music is analogous CO the "plot" of a classical narntive text: in contrast. Debussy's quasi- tond structures represent alternatives to that classical narntive syntax. 1 virw Debussy's innovative musical language as a departure from a prevailing "nimative code." whch is embodied in the works of composers like Wagner. and dominated by notions of tension and resolution. tonal departure and rem. and monumental formal structures. in contrat to this tonal idiom, Debussy's late works exhibit other modes of organization wtiich c6mbe more accurately modeled using alternative story-types. The alternative narrative models I invoke corne out of two main research areas: studies on the development of story-telling ribility in children, and studies of the spatial and temporal relationships exhibited in the early silent cinema Throughout this study 1 attempt to contextualize the array of narntive smtegies manifested in Debussy's music within the general cultural reorientations of the early twentieth century that we idenufy as Modemism. Résumé Plusieurs musicologues sont d'accord à estimer un rapport profond entre la musique et le langage. Cette croyance sous-tend l'exploration d'homologies entre des structures linguistiques et musicales. un domaine de recherche tres important de nos jours. Récemment. un certain nombre de musicologues ont pondéré de plus grands unités de structure. ayant comme modèle l'organization de textes narratifs en entier. et non seulement la structure syntactique de la phrase. Un des buts de la narratologie est de comprendre comment l'on englobe des événements perçus séparément dans un tout unifié. La théorie narrative. de par son intérêt dans l'interaction des perceptions contrôlés par le xhéma ou le data, se dispose bien à l'analyse ciu répertoire post-tonal, une musique qui comprend à la fois des configurations tonales et des processus atonales "intra-opus". Les oeuvres tardives de Debussy. incluant les Etudes et les trois Sonates. exhibent un style distinct, combinant des éléments du chromatisme fin-dix-neuvième-siècle et des éléments atonales, des structures formelles innovatrices et de nouvelles ressources harmoniques. Cette étude part avec l'idée que la macro-structure tonale de la plupart des oeuvres instnunentaies du 19ème siècle est analogique à l'intrigue d'un texte narratif classique: en contraste. les structures quasi-tonales de Debussy offrent une alternative à cette syntaxe narrative classique. Je perçois le langage innovateur de Debussy comme étant une brisure avec le "code narratif' traditionnel. perpétué dans les oeuvres de Wagner (entre autres), et qui est dominé par des notions de tension-résolution. départ et retour de la tonalité. et des structures formelles monumentales- En contraste avec cette idiôrne tonale. les dernières wuvres de Debussy exhibent d'autres modes organizatiomels qui peuvent être modelés d'après des types de narration alternatives. Les modèles de narration alternatives que j'invoque proviennent de deux sphères de recherche: les études du développement chez les enfants de l'art de conter, et des études sur les relations spatiales et temporelles dans les débuts du cinéma muet. A travers cette étude, je vais tenter de mettre dans un contexte culturel du deout XXème siècle (le renouveau de la Modernité). la série de stratégies narratives que I'on retrouve chez Debussy. Acknowledgments This dissertation presents research conducted at McGiIl University under the supervision of Professor Bnan Alegant. whose insights. thoughrful comrnents and great advice continually motivated me to work through challenging issues and to pwsue interesring new directions with this topic. i am grateful for the financial assistance for this project which was provided by a Doctoral Fellowship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and a Principal's Dissertation Fellowship from McGill University. Sincere thanks go to my parents. Leo and Joan Leydon. my sisters Frances, Sara. and Genevieve. and my
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