128 MusicTheory Spectrum
He likewise scoffed at those who prohibitedthe use of parallel
chords and proposed that tonality should be fully chromatic
and "enriched by other scales."6
Just as Debussy debunked many basic tenets of common-
practice tonality, so he also questioned conventional ap-
proaches to musical form, especially those found in sym-
phonic repertories. In an essay for La Revue blanche (6
March 1901), he dismissed a recent orchestral work by Wit-
kowski, claiming that it provided "only further proof of the
uselessness of the symphony since Beethoven."7 He added:
Mustwe concludethatdespiteso manyattemptsat transformation,
the symphony-in all its elegance and formal order ... -is a thing
of the past?Has not its wornout gilt merelybeen replacedby a
platingof shiningcopper,the shoddyfinishof present-dayorches-
tration?8
Some ten years later, the barbs were no less pointed. Writing
for SIM (1 November 1913), Debussy censured his colleagues
for imitating the stale symphonic forms of Franz Liszt and
Richard Strauss:
6In Debussy's conversationswith his teacher Guiraud, he questioned the
rules prohibitingparallel sonorities, claiming that "there is no theory. You
have merelyto listen. Pleasureis the law." In the same conversationsDebussy
also declared: "Music is neither major nor minor. Minor thirds and major
thirds should be combined, modulation thus becoming more flexible. The
mode is that which one happens to choose at the moment. It is not constant."
These conversationsare translatedin William Austin, ed., Debussy: Prelude
to "The Afternoon of a Faun," Norton Critical Scores (New York: Norton,
1970), 128-31. For a facsimile of Maurice Emanuel's original transcription,
see Leon Vallas, Claude Debussy: His Life and Works, trans. Maire and
Grace O'Brien (London: Oxford University Press, 1933), 84.
7Debussy, La Revue blanche, 1 April 1901, in Lesure, MonsieurCroche,
25; Lesure and Smith, Debussy on Music, 15.
8Lesure,MonsieurCroche, 26; Lesure and Smith, Debussy on Music, 16.
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Is it not our duty ... to try andfindthe symphonicformulaebest
suitedto the audaciousdiscoveriesof our moderntimes, so com-
mittedas theyareto progress?Thecenturyof aeroplaneshasa right
to a musicof its own!9
Besides disdaining textbook formal stereotypes, so Debussy
also praised composers, such as Mussorgsky, whose works
"are impossible to relate to (the) accepted forms-the 'of-
ficial' ones."10
Intentions are one thing, but actualities are often quite
another matter. While Debussy's radical goals are hard to
deny, we may still wonder whether he succeeded in freeing
himself from common-practice tonality and nineteenth-
century formal conventions. Did Debussy really create sym-
phonic forms fit for "the century of aeroplanes"?
Obviously, any answerto this question depends on the way
in which we decide to explain tonality and on the kinds of
analytical priorities we make in assigning formal functions.
Although there are many possible theories of tonality, this
paper will use Schenkerian theory. This decision, however,
requires some explanation. In particular, it contradicts the
prevailing view that Debussy's music cannot be analyzed by
strict Schenkerian paradigms. Surely, Schenker would have
disapproved;he made no secret of his dislike for Debussy's
music. In the preface to his edition of Beethoven's Piano
Sonata in A Major, Op. 101, he complained that the se-
quences of sounds found in impressionistpieces are valuable
as "an acousticphenomenon, but certainlynot as art."1'Else-
9Lesure, Monsieur Croche, 241; Lesure and Smith, Debussy on Music,
297.
'oLesure,MonsieurCroche,29; Lesure and Smith, Debussyon Music, 21.
""Von einer gewissen 'Linie' sprechen heute gern auch die Verfertiger
sogenannterimpressionistischerStiicke. Wo aber, wie in diesen, die Wirkung
erst auf ein Tongerauschhinauslauft(das wie jedes Gerauschnur als akustis-
che Erscheinung, aber noch nicht als Kunst gilt), dort sagt die 'Linie' des
Tongerauschesgewiss nicht mehr die Linien als die steigend, fallend ja auch
in anderenGerauschen(z.B. in Donner, Tischriicken,Wagenrollenusw.) sich