A Pitch-Specific Association

This paper explores a peculiar feature of Debussy's musical vocabulary, running through his works from early to late, namely an evident attraction to a certain “complex” of harmonic and contrapuntal habits or routines in conjunction with bass pedal points on G♯/A♭. This pitch-specific association often seems to arise independently of a given piece's larger tonal context, and furthermore, in connection with specific formal contexts and expressive content.

These passages present an intriguing challenge to the analyst in their balance of, or tension between, the evocative resonance of pitch-specific associations and the competing demands of tonal-syntactical coherence in a given tonal-formal context. Although some interesting precedents for this kind of compositional thinking can be found in earlier tonal music of the commonpractice period, it is essentially a twentieth-century phenomenon, enabled by a post-common-practice approach to tonal form.

From the perspective of compositional chronology, this “G♯/A♭ complex” might be thought of as a stream or thread running through many of Debussy's works, from early maturity (the Suite bergamasque, ca. 1890) to new departures in late neoclassicism (the Violin Sonata, 1916–17)—though its most elaborate manifestation comes a little earlier, in the (1915) étude “Pour les sonorités opposées,” which it completely dominates, and within which it finds a final resolution of sorts. Although it seems to be mainly associated with his instrumental works, it also makes an occasional appearance in the vocal music.

Composers’ Tonal Habits

The G♯/A♭ complex represents an intriguing nexus, or coming together of, certain aspects of musical expression with elements of formal design, in turn conjuring a very specific sound world of harmony, counterpoint, and schemas for elaboration, at a singular transposition level. Some relevant historical precedents for such compositional thinking might include: