Rebecca Remley May 1, 2009

Analysis of Debussys Syrinx

(Can Schenker be used or not?)
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Four necessary conditions of prolongation: 1. Consonance-dissonance condition 2. Scale degree condition 3. Embellishment condition 4. Harmony/voice leading condition Extension of established technique: 1. Horizontalized chords 2. The neighbor-note technique 3. Passing chords 4. Harmonic prolongations
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To know the special scale in which a work is composed may be an aid to our aural impressions, but it neither clarifies the technique nor demonstrates what is happening in the music.
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Joseph N. Strauss, Strauss, "The Problem of Prolongation in Post-tonal Music." Journal of Music Theory 31, (Spring, 1987): 1-21. 2 Adele T. Katz, Challenge to Musical Tradition: a New Concept of Tonality, (1945), 148-293. 3 Katz, 267.

Rebecca Remley May 1, 2009 Beach, David, ed. Aspects of Schenkerian theory. New Haven: Yale UP, 1983. Katz, Adele T. Challenge to Musical Tradition: a New Concept of Tonality. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1945. Lartillot, Olivier. "Automated extraction of motivic patterns and application to the analysis of Debussys Syrinx." First international Conference of the Society for Mathematics and Computation in Music (SMCM). Berlin, Germany. 20 May 2007. Salzer, Felix. Structural Hearing: Tonal Coherence in Music. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1962. Strauss, Joseph N. "The Problem of Prolongation in Post-tonal Music." Journal of Music Theory 31 (Spring, 1987): 1-21.

Rebecca Remley May 1, 2009 I. Background a. 1913 b. For famous flutist Louis Fleurt c. Gabriel Mourey - incidental music to his new three-act dramatic poem - Psyche. d. Debussy, - delayed - a single page of music, an atmospheric soliloquy for solo flute representing, according to the playwright, the last melody that Pan plays before his death. e. The piece, originally titled La flute de Pan, was written in a few days at the end of November 1913 f. first performed in the wings by flutist Louis Fleury during a staging of Psych at the Parisian home of Louis Mors on December 1st. g. Debussy dedicated the score to Fleury, who seems to have taken the honor quite literally, and kept the manuscript to himself for years, playing it on his concerts in France and abroad with great success. h. title of the work was changed to Syrinx - publication in 1927 i. the nymph who was transformed into a reed by her sisters to save her from the lustful pursuit of Pan, who then made a flute from that selfsame reed upon which to pipe away his longing. j. Mourey told Debussy that Syrinx was a real jewel of restrained emotion, of sadness, of plastic beauty, of discreet tenderness and poetry. II. Four necessary conditions of prolongation Joseph Strauss a. Consonance-dissonance condition Based on pitch to determine structural and nonstructural tones. b. Scale degree condition Some type of hierarchy among the consonant harmonies c. Embellishment condition

Rebecca Remley May 1, 2009 Need a consistent model of voice leading to tell an arpeggiation from a passing tone d. Harmony/voice leading condition Need to be able to distinguish motions from within a voice from motions between voices e. Conditions are met in tonal music/most of the time not in posttonal f. Syrinx is tonal, but not in the tradition sense III. Db is the key Pentatonic and whole tone scales.

Extension of established technique Adele Katz: a. Horizontalized chords b. The neighbor-note technique c. Passing chords d. Harmonic prolongations

IV.

Analysis a. Based on Db d. Ms. 11 e. ms. 13 outlines tritone A Eb A f. ms. 14 15 Eb important g. ms. 25 back to theme 29 changes rhythm h. ms. 33 Db B (why B-natural Eb starts pent down to Db long notes are the Bb Beginning pentatonic scale. Theme is presented 8 times Eb is left out none until ms. 8 Bb to Db

b. Chromatic scale ms. 4 c. Dbm7 ms. 5

Rebecca Remley May 1, 2009 From Dbm7

i. Ends on pure whole-tone scale