Analysing Debussy: Tonality, Motivic Sets and the Referential Pitch-Class Specific Collection Author(s): Annie K. Yih Source: Music Analysis, Vol. 19, No. 2 (Jul., 2000), pp. 203-229 Published by: Wiley Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/854428 . Accessed: 16/07/2013 07:39 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Wiley is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Music Analysis. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 143.107.252.213 on Tue, 16 Jul 2013 07:39:40 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions ANNIE K. YIH ANALYSINGDEBUSSY: TONALITY, MOTIVIC SETS AND THE REFERENTIALPITCH-CLASS SPECIFIC COLLECTION It is well known that Debussy rebelled against conventions, that he wrote extensively about his desire to renew musical thought, and that he criticised the direction in which traditional training was leading the musical world. In a letter to Pierre Louys, Debussy wrote: 'tonic and dominant... [have] become empty shadows of use only to stupid children.'l His preference for linear over harmonic considerations is reflected in another letter (written in 1893, the same year he composed the String Quartet), in which he glorified Palestrina's treatment of voices '. crossing with each other to produce something which has never been repeated: harmonyformed out of melodies[emphasis added].'2 Most of his music, particularly that composed around the turn of the century, is characterisedby innovative sonorities (harmonies that are not deployed in a traditional 'tonal' way or that use 'non-functional' extended tertial chords). In the analysis of works that employ diatonicism but that are permeated with prominent 'experimental' sonorities that cannot easily be explained in functional-tonal terms, the issue of tonality is a complex one. In studying Debussy's music composed at the turn of the century, it is easy to assume that the mere presence of tonal elements endows it with unity and coherence. But by assuming tonal elements as basic and relegating other pitch elements to an ornamental role, the importance of prominent innovative sonorities and unconventional voice-leading can be overlooked, forcing them to fit an a priori tonal model. In other words, by positing a hierarchical relationship between diatonicism and chromaticism in this music, one may be blind to the possibility that the so-called 'experimental'features themselves may play a structuralrole. Coherence in Debussy's music, I shall argue, need not be explained exclusively in functional-tonal terms. Debussy's String Quartet ( 1893) is one such work that raises difficult questions for the analyst. Various approaches have been applied to music of this kind. The most common are: 1) modified Schenkerian paradigms and traditional Roman numeral style analysis;3 2) set-theoretic parsing of the harmonic vocabulary in terms of intervallic content;4 and 3) a non-integrative combination of the above.5 But Debussy's Quartet, I argue, does not fit into Music Analysis, 19/ii (2000) 203 t) BlackwellPublishers Ltd. 2000. Publishedby BlackwellPublishers, 108 CowleyRoad, OxfordOX4 1JF, UK This content downloaded from 143.107.252.213 on Tue, 16 Jul 2013 07:39:40 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions e^SkU)_XpiWv= Ut fr) * A_tVlA_ T?fL_4h <^s A Z1<1 s 1 t ,\_ tC-w 4*hWe_Z CW lA):EA fom E _A7?1iS s;A_l gE ?1 ( C __ QA1A_i=l^)>t A* ii t-1_ WA #>b g V P)t> t 1_ f>S 9 AW C (et1 ) t, |* *A | vtt 204 ANNIE K. YIH t t1 A - r C C]lX - tY t t ceS m V EX ? E i0 b I w w v u_ n mu m Ct XQ _ b > 5+ ? tW? \S H i _<1 1_l ) I s . = 8 5sV = _9 \ i n w tL C>,= 0 3 ' = { W) <') g5, > t t _ ts ; 7 (g3Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 2000 Music Analysis, l9/ii (2000) This content downloaded from 143.107.252.213 on Tue, 16 Jul 2013 07:39:40 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions *19) |) - EW 1 *) *_,-E1 * '-E - i * 5 , X *1 t wS V_ ANALYSINGDEBUSSY 205 (; V L Am)mm.E c A. ( \ ( 8 n 1 t1 1_ t1 m) (r) . E .r t. > 1@) (k') --S ' (|)t(E 1t (@) E (|) -t T (m) 111 t ' d' '- A r rxl -^ > 1 f1) (tt W (E (t , MusicAnalysis) 191ii (2000) t BlackwellPublishers Ltd. 2000 This content downloaded from 143.107.252.213 on Tue, 16 Jul 2013 07:39:40 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 206 ANNIE K. YIH any of these paradigms.In this article) I propose an alternativeanalytical framework,one that is based on the concept of transformationsof motives containedin a referentialcollection of pitches. Beforepresenting my theory,however, I shall begin by examiningsome of the problemsinherent in each of the three approacheslisted above.Although Debussy's String Quartetexhibits some features- such as triadsand seventh chords- that can be explainedin termsof tonal function,and althoughit has key signatures defining diatonic pitch content, its tonal clarity is often challenged.Such is alreadythe casein the openingpassage of the Quartet(bars 1-33, Ex. 1). Fromthe preliminaryevidence of Ex. 1, it wouldseem possible to assume the predominanttonality to be G minor. The tonic triad on the downbeatsof all fourbars, the tonicpedal in bars34 andthe appearanceof V63 at bars 13-15 all suggestthe key of G minor.However, the linearpresentation of pitch materialsdoes not support such a clear reading. The consistent presenceof Abthroughout the passage,the diatonicmelody that suggestsEb in bars 17-21, the melodicemphasis of Ebmajor over G bass notes in bars22-5, and the harmonisationof the openingmelody in Eb (beginningin bar 26), all lead to the conclusionthat there may be two tonal centresat work:G, as the tonic of a minor-modecollection, though with a stronglyPhrygian inflection of scale-degree2, Ab;and Eb,as tonic of a diatonicmajor collection. Not only do alternationsbetween these two third-relatedtonal areas (albeit without a strong cadence on either tonic) create an ambiguous environment for a clear monotonalinterpretation, they also signifya polemicalharmonic interpretation of this openingmusic, that is, Ebas VI of G or G as III of Eb.6As the music progresses,it is furthercomplicated by non-tonalpitch elements(whole-tone, atonaland octatonic)that cannot be explainedin terms of traditionaltonal relationships.Furthermore, the key relationshipsacross the four movements arealso difficultto explainusing conventionaltonal theory. Using traditionalRoman numeral notation on a local level, one wouldhave to labelthe chordsas havingnumerous chromatic substitutions or alterednotes (forexample, in the secondchord of the first movement,the dominantseventh withlowered fifth, Ab,and a sub-tonicinstead of the leadingnote, Fuinstead of F:; in bars 12s25, a dominantpedal with a loweredthird, F¢, and lowered fifth,Ab, that occurs in the retransitionto the tonic;or, in bars 12942, wherea loweredsixth, Bb, appearswith a loweredfifth, Ab, over a dominantpedal). This is a ratherclumsy practice.One would also have to ignore the motivic significanceof severalinteresting, if unconventional,sonorities. If G is readas the tonalcentre for the 51rstmovement of the Quartet,then a modifiedSchenkerian analysis may be possible.Ex. 2 illustratessuch a tonal readingin which two occurrencesof a foregroundthird progressionmay be identifiedin the first movement.The last note of the first occurrence,1, becomesan innervoice as the beginningof the secondoccurrence of 3 overlaps (C)Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 2000 MusicAnalysis, l9/ii (2000) This content downloaded from 143.107.252.213 on Tue, 16 Jul 2013 07:39:40 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions ANALYSINGDEBUSSY 207 Ex. 2 Debussy, String Quartet,first movement f 11 1 6-z19 _ _ 620_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Gm: I ?V23, VIV V3; V7/ll ?11 V5; F: 11 Vl VIVI Vl V7/lll I Vl5 122 126 13S 143 161 175 ISI IS3 blus 118 120 as an upper voice at bar 138. The two third progressions, however, are only foreground events for they are not sufficiently supported by motivic and harmonic expansions to constitute an Urlinie.Although it seems on the surface that the first occurrence could be read as a prolongation of 3, or a 3-2 interruption, and thus as part of a 3-2-1 Urliniefor the movement (as are suggested by the use of beams in the graph), such a tonal reading is reductive to a fault, forcing the reading to fit a paradigm.7 The problems of a traditional tonal analysis are obvious in Ex. 2. The long stretches of music appearing in parentheses in the graph (bars 3F60,79-117 and 143-60), as well as other shorter passages, contain sonorities that can only be explained in modified tonal terms. Too much material of critical importance Music Analysis, 19/ii (2000) (C)Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 2000 This content downloaded from 143.107.252.213 on Tue, 16 Jul 2013 07:39:40 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 208 ANNIE K. YIH in the piece is left unaccountedfor by such an analysis. For central to Schenkeriantheory is the organicunity - on background,middleground and foregroundlevels - of similarand mutuallycorroborative melodic diminutions of the fundamentalline, which is itself foundedon membersof the tonic triad. Unity at the middlegroundlevel, in this case, would have to rely on relationshipsthat are not characteristicof tonal theory.