Level 5 · Course 36
Debussy and Ravel Harmony: Impressionism in Depth
Whole-tone scale, planing, polychords, neoclassical modality — the two opposing logics of French impressionism.
🌊
Pause Culture · Static harmony and precursor impressionism
Erik Satie (1866–1925)
Satie invented 'furniture music' (1920) — music meant to blend with ambient noise, like a sonic piece of furniture. At its premiere, the audience politely sat and listened. An outr…
💡
À retenir : Music can exist without tension or resolution — harmonic colour is an end in itself.
Debussy's impressionist harmony
Debussy dissolved the classical tonal system not by rejecting it, but by circumventing it. He replaced harmonic functions (T/SD/D) with sound colours — a chord no longer has a role, it has a texture. Tension-resolution gives way to atmosphere.
Fundamental principle: In Debussy, harmonic progression follows the melody and the sonic image — not functional logic. Analysing Debussy using T/SD/D functions is like applying chess rules to dice. The analytical framework is inappropriate.
5 characteristic harmonic techniques
Whole-tone scale
6 whole tones with no semitone — C–D–E–F#–G#–A#
Total floating: without a leading tone, no note pulls toward the next. All chords are augmented.
Octatonic scale (tone-semitone)
8 notes alternating tone and semitone — C–D–Eb–F–F#–Ab–A–B
Ambiguous, symmetrical colour — tonality is impossible to establish (the scale repeats at a minor third).
Planing (parallel homorhythm)
All voices move in the same rhythm with the same chord type transposed
The chord moves as a sound block — parallel fifths are intentional, creating the characteristic sliding effect.
Long pedal point
Stationary bass (held note) while the harmony changes freely above
Temporal suspension — harmonic time stops in the bass. Medieval technique (organum) reinvented.
Medieval open fifths
Root + fifth chord with no third — neither major nor minor
Archaic, timeless purity, evoking plainchant and bells (La Cathédrale Engloutie).
How to analyse an impressionist piece
1
Identify the source scale
Whole-tone (6 whole tones), octatonic (tone-semitone), pentatonic, or church mode?
2
Spot the texture technique
Planing? Pedal point? Open fifths? Parallel homorhythm?
3
Analyse chord colour
Chord quality, extensions present, register. No harmonic function.
4
Observe register and dynamics
Colour changes often come from register and volume, not chord progressions.
Classic mistake: Looking for V→I cadences in Debussy. Debussy systematically avoids them — it is the very principle of his aesthetic. The Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun (110 bars) contains no classical dominant-tonic cadence. The harmony 'floats' without ever resolving.