The music of Claude Debussy and Richard Strauss demonstrates the movement away from the conventional tonal system through the use of extended tonality to shape their distinctive musical styles. The development of Debussy’s departure from nineteenth-century formal models is demonstrated in Prelude a l’apres midi d’un Faune (Brown 131). Strauss establishes his mastery over the synthesis of chromatic tonality and motivic manipulation in his opera, Salome. After their defeat to Germany in the Franco-Prussian war, France began to seek independence from the imposing German canon of music (Tyre 173).
Dance music led to the refined taste and restraint that permeated French modernist styles, as composers were driven by a desire to recrate the beauty and pleasure through melody and extended tonalities. In opposition to the popular rhetorical intensity and drama characterised by the German Wagnerian approach to harmony, Debussy worked with the French ideals of sensibility and restraint in order to develop a musical style focused on pleasure and beauty of sound (Ross 44-45).
In contrast to Debussy’s approach to music, Strauss continued the Wagnerian approach using the wide variety of tone colours and contrasting styles available to him in order to give personality to his characters, articulate their emotions and create a sense of drama (Ford 20) Strauss achieves unity and coherence through the use of leitmotivs, the Wagnerian idea of associating particular keys, melodies and harmonies with particular characters and events. Prelude a l’apres midi d’un Faune, as Debussy wrote, “has no respect for tonality!
Rather, it’s in a mode which is intended to contain all the nuances… ” (Brown 130). The main flute theme is presented in bars 1-30 in E major, beginning on a C sharp (see Ex. 1). Ex. 1. Debussy, Prelude a l’apres midi d’un Faune, bars 1-4. Although the first 30 bars are in E major, the tonic does not appear until bar 13 and the key is not properly established until bars 21-26. The ambiguity of key is furthered by the use of seventh chords on A sharp, B flat and D in bars 4-12 to prepare the tonic (see Ex. 2). Ex. 2. Debussy, Prelude a l’apres midi d’un Faune, bars 4-12.
Clearly, this reflects Debussy’s shift from the formal structure of functional harmony of the nineteenth century to colouristic successions. The highly chromatic nature of the opening phrase alternates between the two poles of C sharp and G natural, which is the interval of the augmented fourth, or tritone (see Ex. 3). Ex. 3. Debussy, Prelude a l’apres midi d’un Faune, bars 1-2. The tritone, which contradicts the concept of diatonic tonality, is used as Debussy’s basic structural principle in Prelude a l’apres midi d’un Faune.
The opening melody establishes a brief sense of E major in bar 3 but resolves to the dominant seventh of E flat major in bar 5 (see Ex. 4). This progression is extremely unusual and demonstrates the tritone relationship of the root of the dominant seventh chord B flat, and E major. Ex. 4. Debussy, Prelude a l’apres midi d’un Faune, bars 5-7. Debussy uses the whole tone scale frequently in Prelude a l’apres midi d’un Faune, showing Russian influences (Stark 31). In bar 32, the clarinet has a whole tone scale ascending and descending from E natural to E sharp (see Ex. ). The flute repeats this passage in bar 33. Ex. 5. Debussy, Prelude a l’apres midi d’un Faune, bars 32-33. The “non-functional” tonalities within Prelude a l’apres midi d’un Faune serve a purely colouristic purpose as Debussy attempts to recreate the events occurring within the Mallarme’s symbolist poem (Ross 46). On the other hand, Strauss uses “non-functional” tonalities to express the macabre nature of Salome (Kramer 269-270). He amplifies traditional senses of dissonances to create a sound world approaching atonality or polytonality.
This is emphasized through reinforcing a traditional diminished seventh chord with embellishing chord tones with trills, building additional triads from existing chord tones and building melodic material from intervals present in the diminished seventh (see Ex. 6). Ex. 6. Strauss, Salome, Scene 4 “Dance of the Seven Veils” Within the diminished seventh chord is the interval of a tritone, the basis of Debussy’s Prelude a l’apres midi d’un Faune (Bernstein 243). However, Strauss manipulates the tritone to create an intense sense of dissonance rather than for colouristic purposes.
Although he manipulates dissonances, Strauss adheres to fairly traditional harmonies to render the process of resolution straightforward, allowing jarring juxtaposition of extreme dissonance and total, pure consonance. Strauss makes use of chromatic surrounding as a structure to link the tonic of C sharp minor to its chromatic neighbours (Boulay 7). This is seen in quickly emphasized triads where a c sharp major triad is followed by D minor and C minor triads (see Ex. 7).
Ex. 7. Strauss, Salome, 5 bars after r. n. 360 The aria of Salome and Jochanaan in the third scene is highly chromatic at times, but remains tonal, despite tonal direction remaining ambiguous. Rather than a lack of cadential definitions of tonal centres, there is many cadences which establish foreign tonal centres. The first motive of Jochanaan’s appearance moves from C major to B major through the enharmonic relationship of the dominant seventh chord on G, chord five of C, as a German sixth chord in the key of B (see Ex. 8). Frequently, Strauss uses semi-tonally related keys to rapidly change motivic character. Ex. . Strauss, Salome, Scene 3 Strauss’ manipulation of extended tonality is shown under Salome’s words “Seine Augen sind vor allem das Schrecklichste Sie sind wie die schwarzen Hohlen, wo die Drachen hausen! “. The chord (E flat, G, B flat and D flat), reached through chromatic voice leading, is an example of a pentachordal combination chord with the Fsharp in the bass.
It contains a combination of three notes from a G diminished chord and two notes from a F sharp diminished chord (see Ex. 9). The following chord shows a hexachordal sonority when the A is added (see Ex. ). Further hexachordal sonority is created with the held C sharp, G and A sharp combined with B sharp, D sharp and F sharp (see Ex. 9). This chromatic tonality is used to create a specific sound to accompany Salome specifically. While this music is tonal in its large-scale organisation, the ambiguous tonal detours are in the same vein as Debussy’s manipulations of harmonic structure. Ex. 9. Strauss, Salome, Scene 3 “Seine Augen sind vor allem das Schrecklichste. Sie sind wie die schwarzen Hohlen, wo die Drachen hausen! ”
The investigation of Prelude a l’apres midi d’un Faune and Salome reveals the surface similarities in which Strauss and Debussy treat extended tonality. However, on a fundamental level, the use of non-functional tonality is very different in both works. Debussy’s impressionistic style of using harmonies for colouristic purposes counteracts the Strauss’ use of consonance to contrast the dissonances within his work. These two movements away from the traditional tonal system represent the contrast between German romantic and French impressionist music.
