Society for Music Theory Pitch Organization in Debussy: Unordered Sets in "Brouillards" Author(s): Richard S. Parks Source: Music Theory Spectrum, Vol. 2 (Spring, 1980), pp. 119-134 Published by: University of California Press on behalf of the Society for Music Theory Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/746183 Accessed: 11/10/2008 17:23 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the 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 at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ucal. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1995 to build trusted digital archives for scholarship. We work with the scholarly community to preserve their work and the materials they rely upon, and to build a common research platform that promotes the discovery and use of these resources. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. University of California Press and Society for Music Theory are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Music Theory Spectrum. http://www.jstor.org Pitch Organizationin Debussy: Unordered Sets in "Brouillards" by RichardS. Parks This paperresults from a broadand ongoing investigationinto such as E. Robert Schmitz's essays on the piano pieces.4 All the naureof pitch organizationin the music of ClaudeDebussy.' share a common tendency to characterize Debussy's music It seeks primarilyto uncoverinformation about the relationships throughthe apparatusof harmonictheory5 so that, for example, between pitch resourcesand compositionalprocesses appliedto one finds reference to such things as "modal progressions," them in a single work by Debussy and, secondarily, to demon- "added-note" and "dominant-eleventh" chords, "parallel stratethat certain concepts of pitch-settheory may find advanta- chord-successions," and "unresolveddissonances." Elements geous applicationin his music. which do not fall within the confines of harmonictheory were A great many studies of Debussy's music appearto have had, describedand labeled in ways which sought to categorize them as their general objective, the intent of characterizingpitch as foreign to thattheory, but nonethelesswithin the purviewof a elements thought to be significant in ways which would (1) more general speculative theory which could embrace, as pos- permitcomparison with similar elements found throughouthis sibilities for pitch resources, elements found in the music of work, (2) identify fairly precisely, pitch and intervalliccharac- popular, folk, and non-Western cultures. "Pentatonic," teristicsof these elements which the analystsconsidered impor- "whole-tone" and "gypsy" scales have been cited as "exotic" tant, and(3) suggest connectionswith other, earliercomposers. infusions into Debussy's otherwisefamiliar vocabulary of pitch I refer to the work of authorssuch as Rene Lenormand2and resources. Br/iliou's essay on pentatonicismtypifies this ap- LaurenceDavid Berman,3as well as less theory-orientedworks proach.6 4E. RobertSchmitz, The Piano Worksof Claude Debussy (1950; reprinted., 'Researchfor this studywas assistedby a grantfrom Wayne StateUniversity. New York: Dover Publications, 1966). 2Ren6 A Lenormand, Study of Twentieth-CenturyHarmony, translatedby 5Theterm "harmonictheory" refershere to the corpusof treatises,texts, and HerbertAntcliffe (1915; reprinted., New York: Da Capo Press, 1976). Lenor- essays-in all its diversity-which purportsto deal primarilywith music from mand's so far as I the earliest monographis, know, attemptto examine compre- the so-called periodof commonpractice, by definingand seeking meaningin the and hensively systematicallythe aspect of harmonyin Debussy's music and to natureof chords and their contexts in that repertory. link features deemed innovative with the practices of his predecessors. 6ConstantinBrAiliou, "Pentatony in Debussy's Music," in Studia Memoriae 3LaurenceDavid "The Evolutionof Tonal Berman, Thinkingin the Music of Belae Bartok Sacra, 3d edition (London: Boosey and Hawkes, 1959). pp. Claude Debussy," 2 vols. (doctoral dissertation, Harvard, 1965). 351-98. 120 MusicTheory Spectrum Such characterizationsare valid and useful as far as they go, an attempt to identify some of the sources of cohrence and and they may have been of vital importanceto musicianscloser economy from a perspectivenot so stronglyreferenced to earlier to Debussy's time, who were grapplingwith the novelty of his tonal music. One encounters certain sounds over and over in sound spectrum, trying to place it within their experiential Debussy's music, in many kinds of contexts, and so it seems musical world.7There is a limitationto this approachhowever, reasonableto adopt an approachwhich facilitatesidentification as it suggests an arbitrary quality about the composer's of, and distinctions between, similar and dissimilar sound- process-as thoughhe simply absorbedall these 'devices" and constructs. poured forth a confusion of harmonic and tonal distortions, While identificationof differences between dissimilar ele- contradictionsand exoticisms, which need only to be properly ments is not normallyproblematical, the question often arises identified and labeled to be understood.Such a view is incom- whether such elements also share common features (which patible with this author's perceptionof the composer's works might help to explainhow they contributeto a listener's sense of whom they impress, overall, as coherent, logical and highly coherence in a work, even as they manifest its diversity). One organized:as exhibiting economy and selectivity in their pitch may also wonder whether, and to what extent, elements which resources. Besides, they sound profoundlydifferent from the appear to be similarare in fact dissimilarwith regardto features repertoryof Debussy's antecessors, despite the fact that, taken which delimit sound-color.Pitch-set theory provides some use- out of context, a large proportionof the sound-elementsof his ful concepts and proceduresfor coping with these problems. pieces are familiar as constituentsof earlier music. It may be useful to state certainmethodological assumptions Not all analyticalstudies of Debussy's music are classifiable which influencethis author'sway of hearing.First, it is assumed with those described above. Studies by Herbert Eimert8and that economy of means is an importantconstituent in a work of Robert Moevs9 are less concerned with "devices" and tonal art;the less "things" a piece is "about," the moreeasily it may features, and reveal more aboutmotivic or what might be called be processed by the listener and the greater its coherence. cellular aspects of organization. Schnebel's study of "Brouil- Second, great works of musical art, while economical, often lards" reveals an interestin relationshipsbetween pitch organi- display a high degree of complexity in the utilizationof their zation, the acousticalcharacteristics of the piano, and timbre. 0 limited pitch resources. Thirdly, pitch organization-though it My study follows a less traditionalapproach and resultsfrom is not the only aspect of a composition nor, indeed, necessarily the most significant aspect-is more importantand may be emphasizedin analysis, even thoughit cannotbe separatedfrom 7The "message" of Lenormand's treatise is that Debussy's music was other but not thathis innovationsconsisted of the mannerand aspects. "new," altogethernew; This from a listener's of view rather extent to which his pitch resourceswere used, but thatthe resourcesthemselves study proceeds point may be traced to earlier practice. from that of the composer. Any speculation regarding 8HerbertEimert, "Debussy's 'Jeux,' "translated by Leo Black, Die Reihe, Debussy's motivations and intentions always originates from no. 5 (1961), 3-20. this perspective. 9Robert Moevs, "Intervallic Proceduresin Debussy: 'Serenade' from the Sonata for Cello and Piano, 1915," Perspectives of New Music, 8 (1969), 82-101. l?Dieter Schnebel, " 'Brouillards'--Tendencies in Debussy," Die Reihe, no. 6 (1964), 33-39. Pitch Organizationin Debussy 121 1. Some definitions and assumptionswhich obtainfor this anal- NormalOrder." 13 A set-formmay appearin eitherascending or ysis may be summarizedbriefly as follows. descending order, whichever arrangementmeets the criteriaof Octave equivalence is assumed throughout,so that the term Best Normal Order. Sets which carrythe same label but which "set" is used to mean "pitch-class set" and, in turn,pitch-class appearin opposite order (i.e. one ascending, one descending) set refers to a group of pitch classes. are inversionally equivalent. Integernotation, in which the twelve pitches of the tempered The selection process by which one decides what shall be chromatic scale are numberedin ascending order (with C=O, considered an analytical object is necessarily subjective. In C-sharp=1, . B=1 1) will be employed frequently. Intervals general, for this analysis, pitches have been groupedas entities will often (though