MENC: The National Association for Music Education

Debussy and the Crisis of Tonality

Author(s): Roland Nadeau
Source: Music Educators Journal, Vol. 66, No. 1 (Sep., 1979), pp. 69-73
Published by: Sage Publications, Inc. on behalf of MENC: The National Association for
Music Education
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3395721
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Debussy and the Crisis
of Tonality

aa pursued-both fr ee a
.,a. r&.*. ,.cluding several composers of un-

t I , t I ent' iethis century,

.~r,o aethtiepeiece, by:que no long erappears as

.]^;.,\eral
.. J' 9 ?: f: , .c, , > /but
: <*tf resulting
p--rol.per definitnfrom his rbroadened
of tonaliv oati to a ipli-
;?.1:e1#, ~a, aencing sex ic, dtw iecent mse is.
Y . h', .s-, ?m takablvegenius, havesystem-

^*pi ^_ *fitefK?^. eroue twentieth -century music mye mesf

.~\.Ci 1 r iV ',.r14 fr
':':^-: ; , ~ .: ,tiken associatn of t he ter or tcality with of
toan ofa is mentyu , o lon raicapears and' exon otic mued as tonally to

^ly ^\ * ^ tai
^v1^,' With t^he excep, ~Fsoat on e r fi tyo eal,is
cation ofbomairtk, in-th
tonality, is becomag in-
aWt tonaity e broadest sense of the word." o e mis
4.1 sondatcontempralr styl es of
,.9 -,.~ c --.'~!_. '' :. tsocntl codtion of Btonai r, minc
.. " ered msthe major music movemand ot
f'. V * iFc*i ^majFor/minor kfisystem leads to muddled think-s
; \ *,a \ ^.e9w : .^; .j J such. Instead, the crucial imp
^3 \: ^tfiiEs - 111_; ; Debussy's harmonic breahrou h,

f'K'^y.^^^^^^^^ 'Sr reasingly apparent.

$:'~ , *"? ^=;:? iS,$i ^SA. :ta'. en' assatonality w th tchk ega nd the rot s.

' \ * ( nThe author is professor of music at North-

\ \: *t*^i eastern Uniersity in Boston. This article is
N' V' abstraced from his forthcoming book, De-
*** ' bussy: The Crisis of Tonality, to be published
*\ 1 \ ~ by Northeastern Uniersity Press in 1980.

mej/september '79 69

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Schoenberg and tonality t6k, Britten, and Prokofiev, works polyphonic textures. The Western
When viewed from an evolution- that in many cases are heavily dis- tonal tradition, however, is larger
ary perspective, the development ofsonant, although within an ex- than its central major/minor mani-
homophony/polyphony, culminat- panded use of tonality. festation in the German tradition.
ing in tonal synthesis at the hands Nontonality was a misadventure There was already superb music
of Debussy and other significant with particularly tragic conse- somewhat outside this tradition by
twentieth-century composers, sheds quences for less successful com- composers such as Berlioz, Chopin,
light on what appears to be a colos-posers in the nontonal idiom. Un- Verdi, and Mussorgsky. Within their
sal misadventure-what Arnold like the originators of the system, styles, exotic and ancient tonal re-
Schoenberg dubbed "pan-tonality,"who were men of genius, many less sources often were explored as
more commonly known as "atonali- talented atonalists lost aesthetic bal- generators of fresh expressions, al-
ty," but more aptly called "non- ance; the system encouraged the ways within the matrix of tonality.
tonality." It was a misadventure be- conceptual side of their art at the Schoenberg, although aware of
cause the technique of nontonal expense of the perceptual. To put it these important currents, entirely
composition has not sustained the more simply, they thought out com- missed their significance for the
hopes of its adherents for a brilliantpositions without feeling them. crisis of twentieth-century music.
future: not only has nontonality As a young composer, he had ex-
Some musicians, quite likely talent-
failed to be generally accepted by ed and inclined to composition, perienced intensely the depleted
the public, but in recent years its have become discouraged and giv- state of major/minor key-based to-
practitioners have greatly declineden up composition altogether in the nality. Along with Richard Strauss,
in influence. The theoretician face of a highly organized system Mahler, Max Reger, and other late
Rudolph Reti speaks of the false ex-they believed to be good but could Romantics, he had inherited from
pectations of the great Schoenbergnot experience perceptually. Wagner the dying embers of the
disciple, Alban Berg: Schoenberg did not lack ability key system. Schoenberg fanned
and inspiration. He was a brilliant these into markedly chromatic yet
This author remembers how some tonal works such as Verkldrte
personality with powerful con-
thirty years ago he was told by Alban victions, possessed of an intensely Nacht, Op. 4 (1899), and Gurrelie-
Berg-and the words still ring in his
ears-that in a few decades "our music
musical mind on the order of gen- der (1900-11). At this point in his
ius. His idealism derived from the creative life, Schoenberg, keenly
will sound as natural and simple as Mo-
zart's sounds today." The decades have German tradition in the line of J. S. aware of the evolutionary nature of
passed and Berg's music has held its Bach, through the Classicists and Western music and the need to go
place but his words have not come early Romantics, and culminating inon but too honest and idealistic to
true. Because his music was from the the music dramas of Wagner and repeat himself further in a tonal
beginning not meant to be like Mozart's the symphonies of Bruckner. This style he felt to be impotent, sought
but was intended to reflect the tense a new direction. His role was to be
historical progression of styles with-
excesses and, in fact, morbidity of our in a single tradition, representing inmessianic: he must provide a solu-
age. This difference in intention is in it-
aggregate one of the greatest collec- tion that would guarantee the fur-
self not a criterion of a greater or lesser ther evolution of a tradition. This
tions of works of art in any era, par-
artistic value or, to be perhaps more
alleled closely the evolution of con- new direction would be ap-
exact, of a greater or lesser artistic mas-
tery. And as for Berg, he managed-and ventional major/minor tonality, proached first through anarchical
from its codification in Rameau's nontonality in works such as Sechs
this points to his greatness-to blend
his and his time's tendency towards ex- time to its richly chromatic and dis-kleine Klavierstiicke, Op. 19 (1911),
cess and conflict with an immanent sonant phase in the late nineteenthand fully realized later in highly
longing for beauty and harmony. In the centurv. controlled nontonal serialism.
music of other composers close to him Schoenberg, a direct heir to thisSynthesis, by definition, necessar-
the negative forces were much less legacy and awed by its magnifi- ily involves the continuation of
challenged.2 cence, reluctantly made certain as- forces from the past tradition.
sumptions about the current state Schoenberg's second assumption
Sartre put it more succinctly: of his own tradition. He assumed was that certain grouped elements
"Schoenberg is farther removed
that tonality had run out and was historically associated with tonal
from the workers than Mozart was
music could continue to operate
incapable of producing new music.
from the peasants."3 The average
without tonality. Schoenberg re-
He thought that a new and different
concertgoer, bombarded for over structural order was needed if the
tained certain grouped elements for
fifty years by the polemics of the Western tradition were to evolve synthesis: the conventional tem-
atonalists and exposed to their mu-
further. This perception was not pered system of twelve chromatic
sic through concerts, radio, and
true. Tonality as a generating prin- pitches, conventional instruments,
recordings, has not grown accus- conventional durational values and
ciple had in fact not died; it was its
tomed to its stridencies. Significant-
application through the major/mi- rhythmic patterns, conventional
ly, the public has accepted many nor key system that had waned.
forms, and polyphonic and homo-
works of other twentieth-century Within the German harmonic con-
phonic textures. These were to be
composers such as Stravinsky, Bar-
vention-Schoenberg's tradition- divorced from tonality, as Schoen-
berg understood it-the evolved
the only fully explored and possibly
2Rudolph Reti, Tonality in Modern Music (Newdepleted tonal resource was that of major/minor key system. Schoen-
York: Collier Books, 1962), p. 90.
the major/minor system of keys
3Jean-Paul Sartre, Situations (New York: Fawcett berg's second assumption was high
Publications Inc., 1965), p. 144. with its attendant homophonic andly questionable. Because tempered

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pitch and associated groupings of grasped was that a new synthesis ferent
conventional structural elements was necessary. What he failed to late Ro
were integral to tonality, they could grasp was that a new tonal synthesis sition
not easily be disassociated from the was at hand, its constituent ele- first t
prior generating force. ments coalesced, ripe for the tak- tries-m
Reti has stated, "Now in the ing. This synthesis would reconcile Western conventions. While he
widest sense every kind of tonality ripened chromatic technology with studied and loved Wagner's music
is based on pitches, for tonality is a fresh tonal resources. Claude De- dramas, it is significant that he also
phenomenon creating structural bussy was mainly responsible for experienced and was deeply moved
units by centering a phrase, a groupthis synthesis. by these ancient, exotic musics
or a whole piece on a basic note clearly outside the German-domi-
from which the group usually be- Debussy's synthesis nated Romantic tradition. Later, he
gins, with which it ends and to In his late twenties, Debussy was was to achieve a synthesis that
which the ear relates each part of critically aware of the state of the would bring Wagner-influenced
it."4 Beyond this operant, functional Romantic musical art. He was thor- chromaticism to play on exactly
role of the tonic pitch within a ton- oughly acquainted with the ideas these exotic and ancient music ma-
al field, each pitch is also the focus and music of Wagner and Liszt and terials. Modal diatonicism was fused
of a series of overtones. Because with the French application of their to late nineteenth-century chromatic
the hierarchy of intervals within the theories in the work of Franck, connection and extension.
overtone series parallels the hier-Chausson, and others. He had un-
archy of intervals in conventional dergone thorough training at the Tonality extended
tonal homophony, it is not impos- Paris Conservatoire in conventional It was through the chord that De-
sible to consider the single pitch it- music knowledge and application. bussy gradually discovered the
self as a momentary, microcosmicHe knew the classics, played the pi- structural foundations of his style.
field of harmonic tonality. ano well enough, and excelled at During his student years, within his
Pitchless or near-pitchless com- keyboard improvisation. Superior in early compositions and especially
positions-such as Varese's Ioniza-solfege and score-reading, he had through his improvisations at the
tion-avoid the issue of tonality be- developed a superb ear. Added to piano, Debussy explored extended,
cause tonality obviously cannot his conservatory training were oth- chromatically altered chords based
exist without pitch. And pitched er influences. He had been exposed on the seventh, ninth, eleventh, and
compositions, when they include to Russian music, in part through thirteenth intervals. During a cele-
structural elements radically trans-his trips to Russia with Mme. Meck. brated conversation at the piano
formed (such as when Cage "pre-During his stay in Italy for the Prixwith his teacher Ernest Guiraud,
pares" a piano) need not be tonal. de Rome, he had met Liszt and Debussy played a strange array of
In this case conventional pitch is heard no him play. While there he chords at the keyboard (see Figure
longer of paramount concern; the heard and marvelled at the sacred 1). This group included chromati-
crucial structural element is timbre, music of the sixteenth century, par- cally altered sevenths and ninths
drastically transformed. The issue ticularly
is that of Palestrina and Las- progressing in an unconventional
not whether all pitched composi-sus. Impressionist and post- manner. These rough chordal hap-
tions can exist without tonality; it impressionist
is painting; art nouveau; penings were not part of a compo-
whether or not strictly nontonal but symbolist poetry and prose; irreve- sition, nor were they meant to be.
pitched compositions, using all the rant music voices such as that of What is important is that the young
basic structural elements historically Erik Satie, American popular music,composer had experimented deeply
associated with tonality, are valid. and
It the Parisian music halls; and with extended chords.
becomes increasingly clear from other products of artistic and in- The dialectical interaction of lin-
the Schoenberg legacy that they are tellectual ferment prodded Debussyear and vertical forces in homo-
not. Schoenberg's negation of theto search for creative directions dif- phony before Debussy is most
tonal principle, while appropriating
its articulating elements for new
synthesis, was innately abortive.
What gave meaning to this group of
articulating elements was the a pri-
ori force called tonality. Most non-
^ , I I r I I I I I
(v _ - m C 1 I i t L FiM I I I1
tonal composition was doomed to 'a is_ SAE i- x _ '~ I 1EVW___ ,i 1E a .. x , d ri I-
.........
Frankenstein-like existence: all the ) I I I - -O w

parts were present, but without the

animating principle or soul. Thus
Schoenberg, possessor of a prodi-
gious, original technique, not only
misunderstood the fundamental CM IS
-I_.1
TL f-jK
'a a MII a 4
M.IIiL j a-L i
~ C
character of tonality but the rela-
tionship of tonality to its articulating
elements.
What Schoenberg correctly Figure 1. Debussy played these chords at the piano during a conversat
his teacher Ernest Guiraud. From Edward Lockspeiser's Debussy: His L
4Reti, Tonality in Moder Music, p. 95. Mind(New York: Macmillan Co., 1962), p. 207.

mej/september '79 71

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 clearly manifested within the so- ninth, eleventh, and thirteenth mony, broadening it tremendously
prano/bass polarity. Although the chords; each additional non-chord
to accommodate a variety of tonal
bass was often made up from chord tone above the foundational triad materials beyond major/minor. He
roots, it also had to articulate a rea- became frozen into the chordal did this by refuting the absolute
sonably interesting melodic con- mass, the entire chord then beingneed for the resolution of dissonant
tour, functioning at once as support considered dissonant. Dissonant ex- chords and, by extension, the need
for the main line above and as its tended chords, most often domi- for the resolution of dissonant in-
counter line. The development of nant in function, normally resolvedtervals. He used all possible chro-
the theory of chord inversion was into a consonant triad. At the last matic and diatonic harmonic inter-
an accommodation to the necessity stages of the evolution of extendedvals, not as consonances or
of the bass not only to support but chords, in the music of Wagner in dissonances, but as part of a graded
also to achieve melodic interest as particular, chords such as the ninth hierarchy of vertical tensions sub-
well. The theory of "good" or and eleventh no longer always re- servient only to generating chord
"bad" chordal progressions or in- solved; their tension was either sus- roots within a broadened field of
tervallic successions arises out of a pended or led in turn to other tonality.
necessary polarity of distinctly me-chordal tensions. Tense intervals in Debussy are
lodic soprano and bass lines. The implications for the future ofspared the absolute necessity to re-
Within conventional homophonytonality were crucial. Because chor- solve to relaxed intervals. Harmonic
the role of dissonance is plain. dal tensions in Wagner's music, es- tensions in his scores sometimes do
Since theorists had designated thepecially those of dominant function, resolve to consonances, or rather,
common triad as the consonant often did not resolve convention- to other less tense intervals. How-
chord in homophony, only the in-ally, the principle of tonic hege- ever, just as often they do not re-
tervals of the octave, perfect fifth, mony within the major/minor tonalsolve at all, moving to equally tense
and major and minor thirds (and system was greatly weakened; Wag- intervals, to tenser intervals, or sim-
their inversions) could be con- ner's endless chromatic modulation ply dissolving (see Figure 2). It is
sonant. Other intervals were desig- taxed the ear's ability to retain the this elimination of the fixed need
nated as dissonant, needing resolu- sense of a single, overriding tonic. for chordal or intervallic resolution,
tion to consonances. Each tone Certain composers within the fol- this open-ended chordal concept
causing dissonance was considered lowing generation, notably Schoen- resulting in the free play of any
a non-chord tone and designatedberg, by felt that Wagner's harmonic chromatic interval above a root, that
terms such as "passing tone," "re- process had exhausted the creative makes up the chromatic homo-
turning tone," and "suspension."force of tonality. phony of Debussy's mature style. It
The greater use of dissonance from It was at this point that Debussy uses dissonance not, as many today
period to period as a result of the struck his new direction. He devel- still believe, as part of the process
dialectic of linear/vertical forces led
oped a chromatic, homophonic of tonality's destruction but to ex-
to gradual normalization of seventh, style that would retain tonic hege- pand and extend its scope.

, -0k 'o. As Tres vif / A

I

y,J ' 7 bbbb f{ ~

. D bbbb .,,' ... X. C i rYf
, retenu -_ . . a tempo

( - \bbb 21321

P m.ld. dim.molto
' * . . M. .

Figure 2. An example of Debuss

ludes, book 1, no. 9 [1910], Bro
chromatically altered thirteenth
triad in close position over a B-f
in measure 46 resolves to an A m
47) does not resolve; it simply dis

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 When Debussy discovered that in tonal composition. On the contrary, When new instruments will allow me to

a context of tonality the power of a the originality of Debussy's music write music as I conceive it, the move-
securely anchored, deep root established the obligation for those ment of sound-masses, of shifting
after him to find their own direc- planes, will be clearly perceived in my
would allow for any selection from
work, taking the place of linear coun-
twelve possible chromatic tones tions. Major composers of the early
terpoint.... There will no longer be
above, with each chord or interval twentieth-century mainstream such
the old conception of melody or inter-
open to all options, the way was as Bartok, Stravinsky, Kodaly, and play of melodies. The entire work will
open to entirely new harmonic many others, while not assimilating be a melodic totality. The entire work
combinations. All dissonant ex- his style and aesthetics, derived will flow as a river flows.6
tended chords, with all possible from him important threads for the
In matters of form, Debussy re-
chromatic alterations, were now development of their own harmon-
jected outright all suggestions of
possible, the composer having the ic styles. Bartok has described his
classical directness and symmetry.
option to resolve or not to resolve. debt to Debussy:
Chords now could be used for their
Instead, he desired a spontaneous
[Debussy] restored a feeling for chords music, one that would express the
color as well as for their harmonic
to all musicians. He was as important asimpalpable, transient essence of
function. Because dissonance no Beethoven who revealed to us progres- things. Consistent with this he fa-
longer needed resolution, voice- sive form, and as Bach who introduced
us to the transcendence of counter-
vored an asymmetrical, unpredict-
leading with its primary depen-
point. I always ask myself, could one
able phrase structure and form. His
dence on contrary and oblique mel-
odic motion could be set aside if make a synthesis of these three masters rhythm often flows freely, the bar-
desired. Parallelism of all chords and create a vital contemporary style?5 line seldom showing much influ-
ence, the metrical accentuation of
and all intervals was now possible. Debussy's harmonic innovations
secondary importance.
Since the binding polarity of so- were not his only contribution to
Consequently, besides the pro-
prano/bass and voice-leading in twentieth-century composition, found influence he exercised on
general was no longer of primarythough they were the most crucial.
mainstream composers of the first
concern, Debussy expanded the No major composer can thoroughly
half of the twentieth century by as-
role of various pedal points and os-transform a single element of com-
suring the continuity of the Western
tinato techniques to provide struc- position without drastically altering
tural cohesion. related elements as well. For ex-
tonal tradition, Debussy anticipated
certain later trends in contemporary
Gradually, Debussy began to see ample, Beethoven's transformation
music-the objectified sound
in this grid of chromatic inflection of classical forms into structures of
masses of Varese and Stockhausen;
the solvent for an enlarged tonality dynamic force and power necessi-
the development of new expressive
embracing melodic/harmonic inter-tated a new use of harmony and dy-
timbres through modification of
change, ancient and exotic modes, namics, rhythm, orchestration, and
standard instruments, such as
the whole tone scale, polyharmony,timbre. Every structural element in
Cage's prepared piano or Pend-
pandiatonicism, rootless chords, Debussy's mature style was rejuve-
erecki's string writing; the creation
and so on. Experimentation and in-nated. Chords freed from the abso-
of natural instruments by Harry
novation were not possible withoutlute need to articulate functional Partch and others; new electronic
aesthetic anarchy, because Debussytonal argument were able to exist media; the new exoticism of Mess-
knew that what is valid in any new as colored pitch masses. Similarly,
creative idiom must retain what still the instruments of his orchestra
iaen; and the provisional, just-once
matters in older idioms.
qualities of aleatory works by Cage,
were combined into shimmering
Brown, Feldman, and others. Many
new timbres, important chiefly for
their color. The connection Debus-
of these approaches to composition,
Debussy's influence whatever their value, can be traced
Unlike Schoenberg, Debussy did sy made between chord-as-color
and timbre-as-color in his orches-
at least in part to Debussy's unique
not theorize publicly. There were contributions.
no intimate disciples at his feet; no tral works has been assimilated by
Schoenberg and his followers
school grew up around him. While later generations of composers.
urged the need for a system of
both important and less important Debussy also reexamined melo-
composition that was consciously
composers of the day made use of dy, sometimes referring to it as "the
the more obvious Debussian tech-
and thoroughly nontonal. The mu-
surface of harmony," implying a
sic of Debussy, on the contrary,
niques, there were no procedural oneness of chord and line. This
showed that the tonal principle,
handouts, no doctrines; there was oneness is strikingly apparent in his
when broadened to include materi-
only the evidence of the composi- parallel chord bands: each melodic
als other than major/minor diaton-
tions themselves that showed that pitch surfaces out of each chord,
ics and articulated by new harmon-
new roads lay ahead. His music wasand the chord band as a whole
ic textures, timbres, rhythms, and
a catalyst and a link, pointing to functions solely as thickened melo-
forms, could lead to a wide variety
fresh possibilities for harmony dy. The Debussian fusion of chord
of innovative expressions used for
within a broadened application of and line anticipates by several years
several decades. The debt Western
Western tonality. the experiments of Varese, who, in
There seems to be little founda-
musicians owe to Debussy is thus
1936, said: enormous. i
tion for the belief that Debussy's at-
tenuation of traditional major/mi- 6Elliot Schwartz and Barney Childs, eds., Con-
'Quoted in Peter S. Hansen, An Introduction to temporary Composers on Contemporary Music
nor tonality and his emancipation Twentieth Century Music, third edition (Boston: Al- (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1967), p.
of dissonance led the way to non- lyn and Bacon, Inc., 1971), p. 223. 197.

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