Temporal Disruptions in Debussy and Ravel's Programmatic Sonatas

DOI: 10.1111/musa.12140 ANDREW AZIZ T D  D’  R’ P S Theories of sonata form articulated over a period of two hundred years have primarily echoed a standard formal template based on harmonic and/or thematic dimensions.1 Because most have focused on High Classical repertoire – especially Beethoven – they do not address the evolution of the sonata concept into the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries.2 Recent studies differ on whether High Classical forms are fundamentally surface driven (Caplin 1998) or cadence driven (Hepokoski and Darcy 2006), though the taxonomy introduced in their work serves as a foundation for interpreting music in the forthcoming century and beyond. This paper shows that fin-de-siècle French sonatas, while in dialogue with their eighteenth- and nineteenth-century counterparts, blur salient features of the form in novel ways; in particular, I illustrate temporal disruptions that create fissures in the inherent thematic linearity of sonata form. Narrative approaches provide a valuable framework for analysing opaque formal structures. Rebecca Leydon proposes that such models are one way to account for such reconstructions, as they ‘implicitly acknowledge an anthropomorphic element in the listening process’ as a ‘schematic arrangement of knowledge already possessed by the perceiver […] is used to predict and classify information’ (1997, p. 37). Furthermore, James Hepokoski and Warren Darcy acknowledge that their Sonata Theory is, in many respects, a narrative theory of sonata form, because a central component of the sonata genre is its ‘built-in teleological drive – [and by] pushing forward to accomplish a generically predetermined goal […] the sonata invites an interpretation as a musically narrative genre’ (2006, p. 51). Their idea is that narrative may be understood in ‘exclusively musical terms’, since a sonata is a ‘metaphorical representation of a perfect human action’ (p. 52). Yet, beyond the existence of a sonata rotation – an ‘ordered thematic succession’ (p. 611) – fin-de-siècle French sonatas do not rhetorically emphasise the same formal markers as their Classical and Romantic predecessors. Rather, the music is enriched by formal effects that call into question the music’s linearity and temporality; this is often the result of an evolving conception of tonal organisation. Therefore, such gnomic formal procedures call for tools that supplement the current taxonomy. Part I of this article introduces the main categories of temporal disruption in Debussy and Ravel. I consider several case studies in their string quartets (1893 and 1903, respectively) and Ravel’s Sonatine (1903–5), as well as in works Music Analysis, 00/0 (2021) © 2021 The Authors. Music Analysis © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA 1 2 ANDREW AZIZ by their stylistic forebears, including Franck’s Violin Sonata and Saint-Saëns’s Piano Trio No. 2. I then develop a set of listening strategies to discern sonata form in works by Debussy and Ravel with programmatic or subjective, rather than abstract or generic, titles (e.g. ‘sonata’) that contain temporal incongruities. I approach these pieces through the lens of listener expectation: because the titles of programmatic works do not imply sonata forms, such works paint their sonata pictures, as it were, on a blank canvas. As such, the role of the work’s opening section (‘exposition’) is to introduce a rotation of thematic modules. To account for the assortment of formal incongruities in these works, I propose categories for two types of temporal disruptions in Debussy and Ravel, respectively. For Debussy, I introduce a formal paradigm called the aborted rondo-sonata, which binds two non-adjacent thematic groups between expositional and developmental sections. In Ravel, I codify a ‘neutral’ formal function called resetting of the formal compass (RFC), a virtuosic flourish that washes away one’s sense of formal perception; RFC also helps us to reconsider the perception of arch forms, in which themes are reprised in a retrograde manner. In Part II, I apply these tools to two selections by Debussy (L’Isle joyeuse and En blanc et noir) and three by Ravel (Jeux d’eau, as well as ‘Ondine’ and ‘Scarbo’ from Gaspard de la nuit).3 Incorporating the new concepts relies on the existence and preservation of the following bedrock musical features: (1) the establishment of well-defined thematic modules (such as P, TR and S); (2) the principle of rotational form as rhetorically suggested by the music; (3) the role of William Caplin’s formal functions and the notion of ‘beginning’, ‘middle’ and ‘end’; and (4) the application of Janet Schmalfeldt’s process of becoming – especially retrospective reinterpretation – in ways that capture the thematic unfolding of these works.4 One must also acknowledge that contemporaneous sonata theories investigate primarily Austro-Germanic forms not explicitly designed for early twentieth-century French repertoire, especially since such models rely on thematic and harmonic expectations – most explicitly, perhaps, in the determination of specific cadential arrivals (e.g., MC, EEC) – which are often blurred or absent within these French works. In the nineteenth century, however, French sonatas reveal a tradition that is meagre at best. In the decades preceding the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71), and with the subsequent establishment of the Sociéte Nationale de Musique, William S. Newman (1983, p. 463) identifies a ‘conspicuously (low) ebb’ for French sonata composition, and none of these contributions filtered into the Conservatoire’s curriculum. The earliest French conceptions of the sonata – including eventual fin-de-siècle characteristics of form (such as the swapping of expositional themes in a recapitulation) – appear in Reicha’s Traité de haute composition musicale (1824); one finds such ‘reverse recapitulations’ in works by Cherubini (1803) and Reicha’s pupil Berlioz (1834 and 1838).5 With this conception in mind, it is crucial not to view such ‘deformations’ as a pejorative. As Julian Horton describes them, the models of Marx, Czerny, © 2021 The Authors. Music Analysis © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd Music Analysis, 00/0 (2021) TEMPORAL DISRUPTIONS IN DEBUSSY AND RAVEL 3 Reicha and others are ‘not reducible to one general formula’ (2005, p. 7), and nineteenth-century (and fin-de-siècle) sonata models are dialectical, as they ‘simultaneously acknowledge and supersede the high-classical model’ (ibid., p. 12).6 For example, fin-de-siècle repertoire is less reliant on the tonicdominant axis in major (and the tonic-mediant axis in minor), yet tonal duality is still a common attribute. Furthermore, despite possessing obscured cadential articulations and tonal relationships, these works contain distinct formal functions and thematic zones, preparing the listener for explicit temporal misdirection. Most important, it is only through a primarily linear backdrop that such temporal manipulations manifest rhetorically; as such, the formal narrative – while locally askew – is ultimately clear, even if only retrospectively. Their inherent comprehensibility, and dialogue with prevailing models, is vital to my investigation. I. Background, Fin-de-Siècle Case Studies and Defining New Terms Approaches to Debussy and Ravel The works by Debussy and Ravel which I will discuss manipulate formal time by generating fissures at the musical surface, though these disruptions function against a prevailing cohesive backdrop. Many theorists have explored the issue of musical discontinuity (e.g. Cone 1962, Kramer 1978 and 1988, Hasty 1986, Wheeldon 1997 and Rehding 1998),7 in sum raising two significant questions: Can two non-linear events convey implication and realisation? And even if they can, will listeners perceive them as such? Kramer remarks that ‘the entire edifice of Western music had been built on the assumption that one event leads to another, that there is implication in music’; he also claims that this sensation is ‘artificial’ and involves a ‘conflict between how the music uses time and how a contemporary listener understands time’ (1978, p. 178).8 Mark McFarland has hypothesised that Stravinsky’s techniques in Symphonies of Wind Instruments (dedicated to the memory of Debussy) were influenced by Debussy’s Préludes (in turn, influenced by Petrushka).9 Kramer juxtaposes Debussy and Stravinsky in his book The Time of Music: ‘With composers such as Debussy and Stravinsky, we first encounter true harmonic stasis: no longer the tension-laden pedal points of Bach but rather segments of musical time that are stationary and have no implication to move ahead’ (1988, pp. 42–3). Furthermore, Debussy’s use of cinematic techniques, particularly his fascination with the filmic ones of the fade and the splice, is well documented by Kramer and also by Leydon (1997 and 2001). Jann Pasler, in her essay on Jeux, declares that ‘Debussy understood the creative process to involve both the juxtaposition of contrasting ideas, as in the shots of a film, as well as the constant engendering of new ideas out of previous ones’ (1982, p. 75);10 as I will show, these applications resonate strongly in En blanc et noir. This apparent continuity amongst discontinuity is echoed by Christopher Hasty, who argues that ‘there is no bare “now” of the onset of the Music Analysis, 00/0 (2021) © 2021 The Authors. Music Analysis © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd 4 ANDREW AZIZ tone divorced from what precedes and follows it’ (1986, p. 61). This notion underscores that even fractures at the musical surface are the outgrowth of an underlying process. Furthermore, Debussy and Ravel’s music manipulates one’s sense of past and present. About Marcel Proust’s À la recherche du temps perdu, perhaps the most influential literary manifestation of the fin-de-siècle French aesthetic, Edward Lockspeiser observes: ‘Proust, like Debussy, was concerned to throw into relief and to enrich the present moment. All the literary and musical analyses of Proust and Wagner, all their psychology, ultimately recognize, and in fact derive from, the supremacy of pleasure in the present moment, and an expression of this pleasure’ (1962, vol. 2, p. 92). Lawrence Zbikowski describes how the protagonist, Charles Swann, experiences the fictional composer Vinteuil’s violin sonata for the first time: ‘Swann’s first impressions of Vinteuil’s sonata are vague and unformed, his mind simultaneously struggling with and savoring the ineffability of the music. But then, with the aid of memory, patterns emerge. Although these are incomplete and subject to revision, they offer him a way to make sense of the music, even as it continues to play’ (2002, p. 3). Through Proust’s novel, Michael Puri explores the concept of memory in the context of the fin de siècle, especially in Ravel’s Sonatine. For Puri, the invocation of memory means ‘the past becomes present either by continuing smoothly into it or breaking into it at a particular moment’ (2011, p. 15). Proust himself distinguished between ‘voluntary’ and ‘involuntary’ memory,11 the latter preceded by a sensation (e.g. ‘shock’) rather than by an intellectual effort, since the subject makes no conscious attempt to recall the past. As a result, involuntary memory has a greater impact on the subjective present (ibid., p. 16). Michael Klein (2007) summarises the quality of timelessness in Debussy as a lack of linear coherence between musical blocks, resulting in constant reorientation. The paucity of tonal implication in Debussy undermines the assumption that formal perception of a sonata or any other piece depends on the recollection of previous events within the piece; as a result, one loses track of one’s place within the form. Klein’s concise summary of Henri Bergson’s view on this matter lays the foundation for an appropriate analysis of Debussy. According to Bergson (1946), one cannot perceive time in the same linear way in which one perceives space. Paradoxically, while the present is dynamic and the past is static, to grasp the present, every successive event must become part of the past (Klein 2007, p. 44). Bergson therefore sees past and present as mutually exclusive spheres, as synopsised by Klein: ‘Past and present represent differences in kind: the present is perception and the site of becoming; the past is memory and the site of inaction’ (ibid., p. 44). In Debussy, when the sense of becoming dissipates amid the prevailing harmonic stasis, the present unfolds infinitely, with no apparent relation to the past. Steven Rings takes these ideas even further in his 2008 article by creating a Proustian narrative of Debussy’s prelude Des pas sur la neige. Given the incongruity of time and space, he observes, the clarity of the work is © 2021 The Authors. Music Analysis © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd Music Analysis, 00/0 (2021) TEMPORAL DISRUPTIONS IN DEBUSSY AND RAVEL 5 apparent only upon analytical reflection, a concept paradoxically opposed to the ‘memorylessness’ of Debussy. But if ‘all new information is the present’ and ‘the present is unending’, how can anyone access the past? On this point, both Klein and Rings cite moments of ‘apotheosis’ and ‘crux’ in similar claims about distinct passages in Debussy.12 According to Klein, ‘The return of Theme 6 announces that the music at last has a memory, which borrows from the present its unique ability to act. And that action gives time back to itself. The apotheosis with its pedals and thunderous textures both exemplifies and celebrates time as an eternal moment’ (2007, p. 47). And Rings states: ‘The Proustian narrator’s memory finally comes flooding back in all its fullness in an instant […]. The memories are of events with temporal extension, but they arrive in a moment of no temporal extension’ (2008, p. 203). The perspectives articulated by these scholars provide a solid foundation for the novel approaches to form introduced in the following sections. I first consider an original concept – the parachute cadence – which sets the stage for the temporal disruptions introduced the next two sections, the aborted rondo-sonata and resetting of the formal compass. The Parachute Cadence and Formal Blurring in Debussy, Franck and Ravel Newman provides an overview of the developing trends within the French sonata genre, citing the violin sonatas of Fauré (1875), Saint-Saëns (1885) and Franck (1886) as the most popular sonatas at the newly founded Société Nationale. He suggests that ‘the tonal outlines created by Saint-Saëns and Fauré suggest premeditated organization whereas Franck’s outline seems more haphazard. […] In other words, Franck seems to modulate to new keys more for their surprise value than their larger function in any “grand cadence”’ (1983, p. 521). Regarding phrase rhythm, he characterises Franck’s as the least progressive, but his characteristic harmony is the most advanced (extended chromaticism and consonant ninth chords), and his melodic style possesses ‘surging, continuous, lyrical flow’, in contrast to the Classically oriented Saint-Saëns (ibid., p. 523).13 In his Violin Sonata, Franck instils a persistent four-bar hypermeter (in particular in bars 1–24); but the metrical regularity of his exposition shifts the focus from thematic modules to tracking ephemeral harmonic centres – including C# major, E major, F# major and B major – before finally settling on E major (bar 31). Bars 5–8 comprise the first four bars of a presentation (2 + 2); the hypermeter generates a roller coaster that encompasses an extended continuation, with brief stopping points (not cadences) every four bars. As the music prepares a climactic cadence in E major, the hypermetric pacing changes from four bars to three, with three bars of a V7 /B pedal (bars 25–27) to three bars of a V7 /E pedal (bars 28–30), followed by an authentic cadence at bars 30–31 (Ex. 1).14 At bar 31, it is unclear whether there is an MC or an EEC, as it is possible that the provisional TR has ‘become’ S (TR ⇒ S), though without a full commitment Music Analysis, 00/0 (2021) © 2021 The Authors. Music Analysis © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd 6 ANDREW AZIZ Ex. 1 Franck, Violin Sonata in A major, i: authentic cadence at bars 30–31 to either zone.15 I call this type of juncture a parachute cadence; the music’s continuous momentum has blurred the formal position of the ultimate arrival point, analogous to the aimless trajectory of a parachute. Exiting the parachute, bar 31 can initiate either S or C, followed by a tour of keys: E major, F# minor and C# minor (not shown) function as either a continuation of the exposition or a self-contained development section. The atemporal quality of this cadence sets the stage for similar phenomena in Debussy and Ravel, first in the former’s String Quartet, which I consider in tandem with several of his programmatic orchestral works. Opening with a bluster, Debussy’s quartet introduces a defiant G-Phrygian (significantly, three-flat) outburst, comprising a four-bar compound basic idea immediately followed by a repetition of this idea; by bar 12, the theme fizzles – short of a cadential articulation, the music dissolves into silence. It is unclear whether bar 13, a gust of semiquavers, is the continuation of the primary theme (a P2 module) or an independent transition. The passage, which accentuates the dominant harmony, contains elements of a tightly knit structure (bars 15–16 are a repetition of bars 13–14) after which the entire four-bar sequence modulates to V/Eb, delivering a repetition of the (previously suggested) primary theme in Eb at bar 27. One can conclude that bars 13–26 do not constitute a transition © 2021 The Authors. Music Analysis © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd Music Analysis, 00/0 (2021) TEMPORAL DISRUPTIONS IN DEBUSSY AND RAVEL 7 Ex. 2 Debussy, String Quartet, i: bars 10–16 Ex. 3 Debussy, String Quartet, i: bars 26–28 but instead continue P; bar 27 implies the beginning of a consequent within an expanded periodic structure (Ex. 3).16 Debussy employs a similar strategy in the exposition of his orchestral programmatic work ‘Par les rues et par les chemins’, from Ibéria (Ex. 4). The sevillana theme establishes a grand antecedent–consequent that contains a ‘motto’ (bars 1–6) and ‘theme’.17 The grand consequent of ‘Par les rues’, unlike that of the Quartet, does not begin in a new key; rather, it begins in the tonic (G major) and ends with a final proclamation of A major, the II key (as we will see, Debussy uses II quite often as a key of repose amongst the works in this essay). Moreover, despite the modulation, this consequent does not initiate a transition. Music Analysis, 00/0 (2021) © 2021 The Authors. Music Analysis © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd 8 ANDREW AZIZ Ex. 4 Debussy, Ibéria, i: motto and Theme (bars 1–13) Ex. 5 Debussy, Ibéria, i: transition (bar 98, a Tempo) Instead, the onset of an unstable transition (a Tempo, Ex. 5) abandons functional tonality while continuing to develop motives established by the sevillana theme.18 Soon afterwards, the next thematic area, S, is marked by shifts in tempo (Meno mosso poco a poco), harmony (octatonic, with a haunting E pedal) and asymmetrical rhythmic and ostinato patterns. The trance of this prevailing E pedal finally ceases at the conclusion of the exposition, with a D pedal peeking through the harmonic wilderness (Ex. 6), establishing for the first time a I–V © 2021 The Authors. Music Analysis © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd Music Analysis, 00/0 (2021) TEMPORAL DISRUPTIONS IN DEBUSSY AND RAVEL 9 Ex. 6 Debussy, Ibéria, i: onset of D pedal (bars 166–174) polarity between the tonic (G) and dominant (D) scale degrees – a traditional tonal marker within sonata expositions. While ‘Par les rues’ only subtly alludes to this I–V polarity, it is transparently on display in ‘Fêtes’, the second of the Nocturnes (A → E major).19 Also owing to this I–V formula within its initial section, Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune (in E major) closes its ‘exposition’ in the key of V (B major).20 Armed with several companion works, we can now return to the first movement of the Quartet. The transition, initiated at bar 27, articulates the opening theme in VI (Eb major); like bar 13, bar 39 undergoes a rhythmic and textural acceleration, though this time with triplets, articulating the dominant of Eb minor (in fact, a standing-on-the-dominant) with continuous triplets. After taking a tonal turn in bar 47, the music drives forward assertively. It is harmonically fitting that, as the tempo ignites, the tonal centre climbs incrementally by a semitone, articulating the dominant of E minor and mimicking a phonograph performing at a too-fast tempo.21 Alas, bar 60 marks a parachute cadence, as, once the dust settles, one has difficulty determining where the music has landed: Is it at a medial caesura, at the end of the exposition entirely or at some point in between? As in the Franck example, the parachute concept beckons the process of becoming, as the TR may ‘become’ S and obfuscate our destination. Despite this sudden pause, an ‘isthmus’ – the pitch A – links bars 60 and 61, generating continuity at an otherwise discontinuous event (Ex. 7).22 It is useful to consider how Ravel compositionally reacted – within his own Quartet – to Debussy’s formal innovations. While Debussy’s opening twelve bars comprise a sentential structure, Ravel’s opening gambit constructs a tightly knit rounded binary (bars 1–8, 9–16 and 17–23); also, both excerpts end with Music Analysis, 00/0 (2021) © 2021 The Authors. Music Analysis © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd 10 ANDREW AZIZ Ex. 7 Debussy, String Quartet, i: bars 58–65 a conspicuously ‘open’ ending. Ravel then sculpts a half-cadential arrival at bar 21, highly suggestive of an early medial caesura, labelled MC1 by Sigrun Heinzelmann in her dissertation (Ex. 8). On the assumption that bar 23 is a declined MC, she concludes that the section at bar 24 initiates a transitional (TR) passage or the first rung of a trimodular block (TMB1 ). The music at bar 24 is altogether different from that of bars 1–23, harmonically, texturally, rhythmically and metrically; the running semiquavers hark back to the same juncture (bars 12–13; see again Ex. 2) in Debussy’s Quartet, where one cannot tell whether bar 13 is yet in the transition, since it occurs ‘too early’. Taken in isolation, the respective passages serve to provide contrast to their opening phrases, but to what end? Debussy’s transitional semiquaver passage inexorably leads back to the opening material at bar 27, the real transition. In contrast, Ravel’s passage concludes with an Allegro (bar 39) followed by a half cadence in D minor/Aeolian at bar 44 – a more pronounced medial caesura than at bar 21 – and an unambiguous secondary theme shortly afterward (Ex. 9). The works analysed in this section offer just a snapshot of Debussy and Ravel’s engagement with the sonata genre early in their careers. In the expositions of their string quartets, we saw a collection of formal blurring techniques, ranging from retrospective reinterpretation to parachute cadences, formal ‘isthmuses’ and unpredictable tonal trajectories. To supplement the analytical toolbox, the following sections introduce explicit terms to describe temporal disruptions in Debussy and Ravel, tapping into the intuition enumerated in the first section. © 2021 The Authors. Music Analysis © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd Music Analysis, 00/0 (2021) TEMPORAL DISRUPTIONS IN DEBUSSY AND RAVEL 11 Ex. 8 Heinzelmann’s analysis of Ravel’s String Quartet, i (2008, p. 320) Temporal Disruption and Memory within an Aborted Rondo-Sonata in Debussy The aborted rondo-sonata in Debussy showcases an elision of two formal paradigms. This process occurs in two stages: 1. Within a thematic rotation, a modulation is prepared (often with a medial caesura) only to sidestep the new tonal or thematic area with a disparate thematic module that breaks the rotation. Once the rotation aborts, a brief retransition furnishes a restatement of the opening theme, establishing a dialogue with rondo form. 2. At a later point, the initial rotation resumes its tonal or thematic process, as the rondo goes ‘back in time’ to bind with the expositional rotation – the development ‘becomes’ the exposition; this point is called a ‘postexpositional breakthrough’. Music Analysis, 00/0 (2021) © 2021 The Authors. Music Analysis © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd 12 ANDREW AZIZ Ex. 9 Ravel, String Quartet, i: bars 33–46 Similar approaches are applied by both Seth Monahan (2007) and Hepokoski (1992) with respect to works by Mahler (the finale of Symphony No. 6) and Strauss (Don Juan), respectively. Monahan argues that, in the Mahler, S is ‘cadentially derailed’ and thus does not deliver a normative EEC. Then, shortly after the developmental block begins (bar 229), a full-voiced S2 breaks in without warning (bar 288) and begins to reply almost exactly as it had in the exposition, preserving both key and phrase structure (2007, p. 65). After the S-zone in the exposition aborts, the resumption sets them ‘on a problematic path with their refusal to acknowledge that the exposition is even over’ (ibid.). In the Strauss tone poem, Hepokoski claims that ‘the actual musical logic of Don Juan is best described as a process by which what initially appears to unfold as a rondo © 2021 The Authors. Music Analysis © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd Music Analysis, 00/0 (2021) TEMPORAL DISRUPTIONS IN DEBUSSY AND RAVEL 13 Fig. 1 Saint-Saëns, Piano Trio No. 2: form chart deformation is conceptually recast, toward the end, as a sonata deformation’ (1992, p. 150). Hepokoski interprets that the Heldenthema, first appearing on the dominant of C major (bar 315), is recast as a Durchbruch in E major (bar 510); the reappearance of this theme suggests ‘above all a jettisoning of the rondo’ (ibid., p. 160).23 The following analysis of Saint-Saëns’s Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor illustrates the aborted rondo-sonata paradigm (Fig. 1). Case Study: the First Movement of Saint-Saëns’s Piano Trio No. 2 Following an expanded antecedent-consequent phrase in the initial key of E minor (bars 1–24), the transition of the Piano Trio pivots to the unlikely key of F major (or bII) via a C major, then C augmented triad (bars 31–34). The movement briefly settles in this unexpected key, inserting a theme that one would likely perceive to be S (denoted by Sexp ). Almost immediately, however (perhaps having realised its ‘wrong-key’ quality), in bar 45, F major shifts down a semitone to E major. From a narrative perspective, the music is reset, yielding a restatement of the primary theme at bar 59. It is unclear whether this new section is the beginning of the development, a rondo reprise, or more unlikely, a recapitulation (Hepokoski and Darcy’s Type 1 sonata).24 Following a truncated reprise of P, TR is recycled in B minor (v). This key comes to a sudden halt at bar 73, giving way to V/G in preparation for an unlikely event – S as it might have occurred in the exposition, had G been the modulatory goal (denoted as Sdev ) in the form chart. This post-expositional breakthrough forces one to reconsider whether the original exposition is still under way, despite the primary theme reprise at bar 59. While it is nearly impossible to perceive bars 59–72 as ‘expositional’, the G major section (bars 79–95) calls into question the function of bars 59–95 as developmental. Bar 96 assumes the role of the ‘real development’ with a frenetic cycle of keys and instrumental virtuosity (C minor, Ab minor and B minor). Following this cycle, the section rapidly gains momentum toward re-establishing tonic – and a potential recapitulation. The brevity of bars 96–119 (is this really long enough to be the development?), however, reopens the option that bar 59 was, in fact, developmental. Music Analysis, 00/0 (2021) © 2021 The Authors. Music Analysis © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd 14 ANDREW AZIZ The primary theme (bar 120) suggests an arrival of the recapitulation, but even this is not confirmed until the antecedent-consequent pair (first established in bars 3–24) and transition (bar 25) reprise at bars 120 and 141, respectively. This rotational schema retrospectively solidifies the form of the entire sonata, suggesting that the space of bars 59–95 is flexibly developmental, even if it houses the G major Durchbruch. Once the recapitulation is under way, Sexp (bars 41–44) – set initially in F major – is recast in G major (bars 156–159), achieving even more ‘expositional’ fulfilment at this late stage of the movement. Also like the exposition, this sojourn into G major is corrected to E major (bar 160). Thus, the recapitulation contains both reminiscence of an earlier tonal process and confirmation of an expected event – tonic major. In Part II, the analyses of En blanc et noir and L’Isle joyeuse below exemplify the concept of the aborted rondo-sonata. In both works, the exposition is interrupted and re-routed into a reprise of the opening thematic area; the breakthrough successfully resumes (and completes) a process begun in the exposition. Figs 3 and 4 supply form charts for these two pieces. A ‘Neutral’ Formal Function: Resetting of the Formal Compass (RFC) Several works by Ravel showcase a formal event I call resetting of the formal compass (RFC). Because the titles of programmatic works do not imply sonata forms, such works paint their sonata pictures on a blank canvas. And because Ravel tends to underplay or even bypass cadential arrivals, formal orientation may elude the listener, as Ravel’s continuous thematic unfolding, lacking clear cadences, gives the music a ‘lost’ or ‘confused’ character. To re-establish formal orientation, Ravel resets the formal compass, at which point the listener regains formal memory. In this way, the music invites a formal function beyond Caplin’s three possibilities of ‘beginning’, ‘middle’ and ‘end’, serving instead neutrally to wash away the memory of antecedent events. This neutral function of this temporal disruption permits any music whatsoever to follow, as the listener’s expectations have been suspended accordingly. Thus, the parachute cadence previously seen in Franck and Debussy serves as a forebear. Regarding the concept of memory, I carefully distinguish between RFC and the aborted rondo-sonata paradigm of the previous section; in the Debussy examples a process is interrupted and ultimately resumed at a future stage, a two-step process. By contrast, RFC serves as a perceptual and formal Etch-A-Sketch – a juncture of hypnosis – after which the listener experiences a commensurate Proustian epiphany. To create this sensation, Ravel generally employs symmetrical collections (often the octatonic scale) with triadic sonorities and keyboard virtuosity.25 Once the compass is reset, the listener may resume formal consciousness. Furthermore, I argue against the arch-form interpretations endorsed by Roy Howat (2000, p. 80): although this term depicts thematic units as reversed or permutated in some other way, it fails to represent © 2021 The Authors. Music Analysis © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd Music Analysis, 00/0 (2021) TEMPORAL DISRUPTIONS IN DEBUSSY AND RAVEL 15 Fig. 2 Pure ‘arch form’ how these units unfold phenomenologically. Even if thematic areas appear in retrograde, this observation alone is analytically insufficient; it is perceptibly challenging to hear a rotation in reverse, especially once an exposition has posited a forward-vectored thematic order of primary, transition and secondary zones. RFC, by considering rhetorical and functional dimensions, supplements the formal narrative beyond mere thematic geography. I will withhold a more incisive critique of arch form until Part II, but Fig. 2 includes a hypothetical recapitulation in the purest form of thematic retrograde. Based on the figure, it is clear that the final appearance of S, TR and P is in reverse order of the original rotation. Therein lies a fundamental issue of perception: At what point does this thematic reversal achieve perceptibility as initiating a recapitulation? And are there thematic events in between each module to facilitate this ‘upstream’ thematic progression? In Part II, RFC plays a vital role in staging these reversals of fortune. Case Study: the Finale of Ravel’s Sonatine The third movement of Ravel’s Sonatine is in the key of F# minor (with strong Dorian inflection), ultimately unfolding as a Hepokoski and Darcy Type 2 sonata.26 After the exposition introduces a complete rotation (P–TR–S–C), the first part of the development section attempts the beginning of P, but it is engulfed by the octatonic collection and becomes ‘lost’ and ‘confused’ in its search for an additional thematic module. This section immediately leads to an instance of S articulating the tonic of B minor – a perfect fifth below the original centre of F# – disqualifying its status as a tonal resolution in the Type 2 sense; yet, this passage almost certainly functions as a ‘false’ tonal resolution. Of course, the work need not necessarily proceed on a Type 2 trajectory. Ultimately, however, it does. Using the primary theme group almost exclusively, the remainder of the development delivers the ‘real’ tonal resolution on the dominant of F# minor, reprising the expositional S (previously V/A). In this example, Ravel uses the octatonic collection to re-route our sense of time and, crucially, suspend any subsequent formal expectations. Still, formal memory is restored with the disoriented S theme, which requires further attention. This presumptive appearance of S ultimately foreshadows the correct S, delivering our Type 2. Music Analysis, 00/0 (2021) © 2021 The Authors. Music Analysis © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd 16 ANDREW AZIZ Fig. 3 Debussy, En blanc et noir, i: form chart II. Five Analyses Aborted Rondo-Sonata: Debussy, En blanc et noir My first example of the aborted rondo-sonata, En blanc et noir, demonstrates Debussy’s penchant for filmic techniques such as the fade and the splice.27 The opening section – designated as P – contains a flurry of triadic triplet figures in the right hands of both piano parts (bars 1–12), creating dissonant counterpoint. A new thematic group begins at bar 21 and continues through to bar 36; in it, the triplet figure is abandoned in favour of a continuous quaver pattern against crotchets. After briefly alluding to the whole-tone collection, bars 30–36 imply V/D – the major subtonic – signalling perhaps the end of a transition, or the bridge into a potential S; a precedent for such a tonal move appears in ‘Par les rues’. Texturally, the right hand of piano 1 establishes an undulating ostinato figure, while the left hand contains sustained octaves, of which the final one is, rather inscrutably, an F#. At the beginning of bar 37, Debussy fades in the musical topic of an awkward mazurka (marked ‘Scherzando’ in the score and ‘X’ in the form chart) comprising disparate dotted rhythms and accent patterns (Ex. 13). Because bar 37 sounds like a non sequitur to bars 30–36, I assert that the initial rotation has been aborted, creating a temporal disruption. Bridging this disruption, however, is the lingering F# from bar 36, serving as an isthmus (as seen in Debussy’s String Quartet): one section fades into the next. This event invokes a phenomenon that Keith Waters observes in Debussy’s Reflets dans l’eau, where the preservation of particular harmonic or melodic events across formal divisions creates an overlap (2012, [p. 11]). Waters describes this effect as ‘analogous to a dissolve technique in film editing, in which one image gradually shifts into another’ (ibid., [p. 12]). After the bursts of dotted rhythms and accents pass, a short retransition (bars 45–48) delivers the opening theme (bar 49), completing the first stage of the formal journey. The triplet motion of the theme almost immediately segues into a new key (Bb major), ultimately landing in the ‘all-black’ key of Gb major, as suggested by the title of the composition. Then, following Bb major and Gb major, the music fades back into the dominant of D major at bar 73, introducing the same musical setting as bar 29 – a persistent quaver pattern over a dominant harmony – and resuming the process interrupted at bar 36. At this moment, the presumptive development goes back in time, so to speak, and becomes the once© 2021 The Authors. Music Analysis © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd Music Analysis, 00/0 (2021) TEMPORAL DISRUPTIONS IN DEBUSSY AND RAVEL 17 Ex. 10 Ravel, Sonatine, iii: octatonic digression in development (RFC), bars 72–94 concluded exposition; then bars 73–82 prepare S in D major at bar 83 (Ex. 14). The choice of D major – the major supertonic – for this section is curious, as was the implication of D major (V/D) in the initial section. A logical hypothesis is that using the key of V/V, one that we previously observed in ‘Par les rues’, as a tonic is intentionally overshooting a normative dominant key (as we will also see in L’Isle joyeuse). Divorced from a C major context, however, the D major tonality does not seem nearly as disjunct; its placement in the ‘development’ is quite logical as the consequent of an equally subdivided octave (Bb–Gb–D). The ‘real’ development section begins at bar 103. It contains all of the thematic units presented thus far: the primary theme (in triplets), the transition (in quavers), the ‘mazurka’ theme (X), and a brief allusion to the recently Music Analysis, 00/0 (2021) © 2021 The Authors. Music Analysis © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd 18 ANDREW AZIZ Ex. 11 Ravel, Sonatine, iii: ‘false’ tonal resolution, bars 95–97 Ex. 12 Ravel, Sonatine, iii: ‘real’ tonal resolution, bars 140–142 concluded S. Bar 117 recomposes X in the ‘black’ key of F# major, ironically set within the affect of TR – subdued with a steady quaver pulse. To complete the ensemble of thematic units, bars 135–143 and 144–145 comprise P and S, respectively, although the latter, this time presented in a ‘brilliant’ style, is suddenly arrested in bar 146 in order to avoid the majestic S in F# major. Perhaps realising that this breakthrough should be reserved for C major, the music splices to a whisper, instead articulating the dominant of F# (Ex. 15). The music then fades back into the mazurka motive – the same material that initiated the first interruption at bar 37 – in the distant key of Bb minor; several bars later (bar 170), a retransition drives forwards to deliver the final initiation of P in C major (bar 194). Bar 211 presents the ultimate victory of C over F# major, the breakthrough at which point S – erroneously featured in the ‘brilliant’ style at bar 144 – is restored in the key of C (Ex. 16). The remainder of the work carries out the same process as the exposition: S withdraws, only to reappear after the final instance of the primary theme. Alas, in the first part of the En blanc et noir trilogy, C major wins. Aborted Rondo-Sonata: Debussy, L’Isle joyeuse One of the main theoretical elements in L’Isle joyeuse is the interaction of the diatonic collection with acoustic, octatonic and whole-tone collections (Fig. 4).28 While Debussy moves fluidly from one collection to another via common tones, he never abandons the axis of tonality – the perfect fifth with its tonic and dominant scale degrees – that ultimately governs the form. The opening passages significantly fail to get off the ground, as the prevailing pedal © 2021 The Authors. Music Analysis © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd Music Analysis, 00/0 (2021) TEMPORAL DISRUPTIONS IN DEBUSSY AND RAVEL 19 Ex. 13 Debussy, En blanc et noir, i: aborted rotation, bars 24–41 A (and E) continuously superimposes a tonic function; a P2 occurs in bars 21– 27, re-invoking the whole-tone collection. It is not until bar 28 that the meter is transformed (into 3/8), and the music takes off in the manner of a transition. Then, in bar 36, the A major tonic is finally abandoned in favour of B major, II – the secondary region also achieved in En blanc et noir. Almost immediately, L’Isle joyeuse, like En blanc et noir rapidly retreats from its initial sojourn into the key of II. G major and Bb major are interspersed Music Analysis, 00/0 (2021) © 2021 The Authors. Music Analysis © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd 20 ANDREW AZIZ Ex. 14 Debussy, En blanc et noir, i: breakthrough no. 1 (bar 83) between instances of B (bars 40 and 48, respectively), followed by a reprise of the introduction – initiated by a C# major triad (bar 52). This C# is the natural consequence of a minor-third cycle that restores the piece’s introduction, though this arrival aborts a hypothetical modulatory process to the dominant (E) © 2021 The Authors. Music Analysis © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd Music Analysis, 00/0 (2021) TEMPORAL DISRUPTIONS IN DEBUSSY AND RAVEL 21 Ex. 15 Debussy, En blanc et noir, i: S interrupted in development (bar 146) Music Analysis, 00/0 (2021) © 2021 The Authors. Music Analysis © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd 22 ANDREW AZIZ Ex. 16 Debussy, En blanc et noir, i: breakthrough no. 2, bars 211–226 Fig. 4 Debussy, L’Isle joyeuse: form chart © 2021 The Authors. Music Analysis © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd Music Analysis, 00/0 (2021) TEMPORAL DISRUPTIONS IN DEBUSSY AND RAVEL 23 Ex. 17 Debussy, L’Isle joyeuse: aborted rotation, reboot, bars 32–55 signalled by B (V/V); moreover, this reboot of the opening is in dialogue with rondo form (Ex. 17).29 What follows from this phenomenon? Like En blanc et noir, L’Isle joyeuse abandons its attempt at a restart, morphing into a codetta (bars 64–66), and the real Isle joyeuse theme (denoted by ‘X’) – a paradise of diatonicism – abandons Music Analysis, 00/0 (2021) © 2021 The Authors. Music Analysis © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd 24 ANDREW AZIZ Ex. 18 Debussy, L’Isle joyeuse: breakthrough (bar 99) collections contained in the first sixty-six bars. This evolution suggests that bar 66 punctuates the conclusion of an expository section which failed to find repose in a new key, and thus suddenly ends; bar 67 – indicated by the thematic symbol X – is a new entity, unrelated to anything preceding it. As Klein notes, D# is the most significant pitch, as the characteristic D# of an A Lydian collection suggests the potential for a functional leading tone: ‘Only in bar 94 does D# urge us forward as the bass moves to F# while the surrounding tones complete a V/V chord. Here D# discharges its conventional role because the harmony has changed around it. By bar 99, D# has brought the music to the dominant, and the harmonic journey of L’Isle joyeuse is on its way at last’ (2007, p. 35). By delivering the D#, the music awakens from its respite; our E major finally manifests in bars 95–98, with bar 99 providing the first authentic cadence in E (Ex. 18). This juncture is a resumption and completion of the formal process initiated by the earlier B major, V/V (bar 36) – the first instance of a functional D#, highlighting the very key relationship (A–E) which, to this point, had been expressed only as a simultaneity. We can take the analysis one step further: because bar 99 elides into the beginning of the development section, one may retrospectively conclude that our X theme was S the entire time, establishing a previously opaque sonata rotation and successfully jettisoning rondo form. As in its counterpart En blanc et noir, L’Isle joyeuse’s initial attempt at an S zone is aborted in favour of a rondo; © 2021 The Authors. Music Analysis © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd Music Analysis, 00/0 (2021) TEMPORAL DISRUPTIONS IN DEBUSSY AND RAVEL 25 Ex. 19 Debussy, L’Isle joyeuse: last statement of S, X theme, ‘apotheosis’ (bar 220) Fig. 5 Ravel, Jeux d’eau: form chart then, upon the appearance of the D# in bar 95, formal memory is reopened, and sonata space is resumed. The S/X theme, however, marks its territory, as the piece remains in 3/8 for the duration – even at the recapitulation at bar 160. As in En blanc et noir, the recapitulation in L’Isle joyeuse is truncated significantly. The prevailing A pedal is reduced to twenty-five bars (bars 160– 185) of 3/8 time, dissolving into a frenzy of keys that unfold the whole-tone collection (C#, bar 186; Eb bar 200 and F, bar 208). At bar 220 we return to the S/X theme, and all of its diatonic merriment, per Klein’s ‘apotheosis’ (Ex. 19). Finally, coda space presents the whole-tone introduction with a subposed A (bars 244–251), with the final cadence punctuating the A–E tonic-dominant axis. RFC: Ravel, Jeux d’eau As the composer explained, Jeux d’eau, inspired by the sound of water and the musical sounds made by fountains, cascades, and streams, is based on Music Analysis, 00/0 (2021) © 2021 The Authors. Music Analysis © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd 26 ANDREW AZIZ two themes, like the first movement of a sonata, without however submitting to the classical tonal scheme’ (Orenstein 1990, p. 30). Steven Baur calls Jeux d’eau a ‘straightforward sonata form’, highlighting the way in which symmetrical collections ‘saturate the musical surface’ (1999, p. 566); this cadenza-like infusion of non-diatonic scales interacts with the ‘re-ordered recapitulation [that disguises] formal outlines and often [suggests] an element of arch form’ (Howat 2000, p. 80). The application of RFC will resist this arch-form interpretation and instead account for the ‘creative malice’ at the point of recapitulation (Zank 2009, p. 53). The first eighteen bars display a parallel period of 6 + 12, forming a grand antecedent and consequent. While the first phrase veers into a whole-tone universe, the second phrase pianistically highlights an open fifth, C#–G#; the prolongation of this static harmony over a space of five bars signals the end of the period. At first hearing, the consequent phrase appears to pose as a dissolving TR, yet bar 19 – and its harp-like standing-on-the-dominant in the tonic key – does not answer the bell with S; instead, this is TR, with all of bars 1–18 retrospectively comprising P. E major finally evaporates within a second transitional five-bar block (bars 24–28), in which an Eb dominant seventh morphs into an Eb major seventh and forges yet another piano flourish both to balance the earlier harmony and to provide the clearest articulations of thematic boundary points. Thus, if bars 1–18 make up P (albeit retrospectively) and bars 19–28 make up TR, bar 29 initiates a de facto S (and bar 28 the MC). Although it appears that bar 29 bears little relation to the conclusion of its TR counterpoint, Eb is actually the dominant of the dominant of S’s apparent centre (C#), lending the notion of a tonal overshoot. Typical of Ravel’s style, the S zone does not initiate formal closure or participate in a precise cadence; instead, the phrase from bars 29–35 is ‘linked’ by the segment in bars 36–37 to the beginning of the development (bar 38).30 The development section immediately gains energy, climaxing at bar 48, followed by a pentatonic flourish; this is an RFC, successfully extinguishing the energy that precedes it (Ex. 20) and creating a temporal disruption. As Steven Zank notes (2009, p. 53), the recapitulation might immediately have followed this flourish, but it does not occur until bar 62. In its place is a sequence filled with S residues (bars 51–61), including a subposed G# in the bass, from which the music is unable to break free (Zank’s ‘creative malice’, ibid.). Though Howat claims that the material at 57 is a ‘veiled recapitulation’ (2009, p. 48), I characterise it as a recapitulation ‘anticipation’ (see Fig. 5). At bar 62, the opening theme anticlimactically reprises with the subposed G# (ˆ3 in E major), creating a Phrygian/G# minor inflection (in contrast to the Ionian one at the outset). This pitch helps to establish a contrasting tonal region, as it is plausible that G# was ‘promised’, but previously unrealised, by bars 24– 28 of the transition (V/G#). Whatever the reason for the G#, it undermines the effect of the recapitulation as a reprise due to its elision with the developmental ‘prefix’ of 51–61, as well as its tonal/modal disorientation owing to its bass © 2021 The Authors. Music Analysis © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd Music Analysis, 00/0 (2021) TEMPORAL DISRUPTIONS IN DEBUSSY AND RAVEL 27 Ex. 20 Ravel, Jeux d’eau: RFC no. 1 (bar 48) configuration. Since the recapitulation has been ostensibly ‘infected’ (by the subposed G#),31 the phrase structure of the exposition fails to recur (instead morphing into a frenzied state of Fortspinnung), and the music continues to search for an escape from whatever is creating the dysfunction. The escape occurs at bar 72 with an octatonic flourish (Ex. 21).32 Music Analysis, 00/0 (2021) © 2021 The Authors. Music Analysis © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd 28 ANDREW AZIZ Ex. 21 Ravel, Jeux d’eau: RFC no. 2 in recapitulation (bar 72) With this pair of F# and C major triads, Ravel successfully resets the formal compass with a memoryless buffer – a temporary hypnotic state through which the listener cannot accurately predict which thematic event will come next. Immediately following the RFC, we once again hear remnants of S, in an attempt to restore order (bars 73–76). Thus, the only thematic group remaining is TR, and this event occurs in the very next bar (77); the function of TR transforms from something that carried us from the primary theme (exposition) to something instead that restores the tonic. Therefore, one should not claim that thematic groups have been swapped or inverted, as this arch-form explanation is a post hoc observation of thematic order and counters the logic of a forwardlooking rotational schema. Rather, the swapped order of expositional themes (S in bar 73 and TR in bar 78) in the recapitulation results from the formal reset; once all of the thematic modules have been restored, the work finds its logical conclusion. RFC: Ravel, ‘Ondine’ As with Jeux d’eau, writers have avoided labelling Ravel’s ‘Ondine’ as a traditional sonata, instead generally resorting to ad hoc methods. Norma Pohl’s early dissertation on Gaspard de la nuit omits any mention of the genre: ‘There is no sense of sectionalism; once the themes are stated, they do not return in any fixed order, nor are they always varied and developed in their entirety’ (1978, © 2021 The Authors. Music Analysis © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd Music Analysis, 00/0 (2021) TEMPORAL DISRUPTIONS IN DEBUSSY AND RAVEL 29 Fig. 6 Ravel, ‘Ondine’: form chart pp. 17–18). Howat, however, admits such a possibility: ‘“Ondine”, really a sonata form by stealth, conceals its outlines by closely interlinking its themes, virtually reversing their final order of return, and dovetailing the development section into both exposition and the recapitulation’ (2000, p. 82).33 At various points, I interpret that Bertrand’s poem intersects with formal junctures in the music: most of the opening section is an expository monologue by the title character Ondine, a water nymph attempting to seduce the narrator; C# major is the main oceanic state. Bertrand’s ‘Ondine’, trans. Wright (Bertrand 1994, p. 61) ‘Listen! Listen! It is I; it is Ondine, who lightly brushes with water drops the resonant diamond-shaped panes of your window, lit by the dull rays of the moon; and here, in her silk dress, is the lady of the manor, who muses from her balcony on the beautiful starry night and on the lovely sleeping lake. ‘Each wave is an Ondine swimming in the current; each current is a pathway winding towards my palace; and my palace is built fluidly, in the depths of the lake, in the triangle of fire, earth, and water. ‘Listen! Listen! My father whips the croaking water with a green alder branch; and my sisters caress with arms of foam the cool islands of grasses, of water lilies, and of gladiola, or tease the decaying bearded willow, fishing with a line!’ After murmuring her song, she begged me to receive her ring on my finger, and be an Ondine’s husband and to visit her palace with her and to become the king of the lakes. And when I told her that I loved a mortal, sullen and vexed, she shed a few tears, burst into laughter, and vanished in a sudden shower that streamed white trickles down my blue stained glass windows. As shown in Fig. 6, the expositional rotation contains three central thematic zones: P, TR and S, all of which are cleverly interlinked, both harmonically and motivically. Bars 2–13 (P; Ex. 22a) comprise an antecedent-consequent pair of two sentential phrases (1 + 1 + 4), highlighting its distinctive underlying rhythm of 2 + 3 + 3; bars 15–16 dovetail as both a codetta to P and the initiating gambit Music Analysis, 00/0 (2021) © 2021 The Authors. Music Analysis © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd 30 ANDREW AZIZ Ex. 22 Ravel, ‘Ondine’ (a) P theme (b) P-var (development) theme of TR, which then catapults into new arpeggiated motives and harmonic motion to a cadence in the dominant key (G# major). Bar 22 – marked by a ppp and the outer reaches of the piano – is a point of repose, immediately followed by S; S then reprises the underlying ostinato rhythm of P, featuring a dominant pedal (V/G#) before sagging back to G# by bar 30. As noted by Howat, the opening of the development section (Ex. 22b) dovetails with the expositional closing section (C), confirming the dominant key of G#. Though it considerably resembles P, its distinctive four-note descending © 2021 The Authors. Music Analysis © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd Music Analysis, 00/0 (2021) TEMPORAL DISRUPTIONS IN DEBUSSY AND RAVEL 31 Ex. 23 Ravel, ‘Ondine’: RFC no. 1 (bar 66) gesture instead invites a classification as ‘Pvar’; bar 38 begins to cycle through different key areas and fragments of both P and Pvar (in fact, unfolding a cycle of thirds, F#–Eb–C–A, for the next twenty bars).34 The incessant search for repose leads the music to break out of its search for renewal via a sudden, bombastic unfolding of the whole-tone collection (bars 66–67), harmonised triadically (Ex. 23). This climactic stretch, an RFC, maps well onto the plot of Bertrand’s poem: the point at which Ondine is fervently imploring the object of her affection (the narrator) to join her in her underwater castle. Following this ardent plea, the music becomes frozen in time, waiting for an outcome: first through remnants of the opening material harmonised by G#ø7 (bar 68), then through a wash of C diatonicism that displays TR (bar 72) and finally by a secondary wash of F# diatonicism that presents S (bar 75). The recapitulation (bar 80) symbolises the inevitable rejection of the narrator as well as my analytical rejection of ‘arch form’; to sustain this interpretation, Howat places modules of the recapitulation beginning at m. 57 (Fig. 7). This reading relies on two separate leaps of faith: one, that it is possible to hear ‘in reverse’; and two, that bars 32 and 45 strongly resemble 66 and 57 respectively, although these correspondences are weak at best. Even though thematic appearances of TR and S (bars 72 and 75) precede P (bar 80), they Music Analysis, 00/0 (2021) © 2021 The Authors. Music Analysis © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd 32 ANDREW AZIZ Fig. 7 Form diagram of ‘Ondine’, reproduced from Howat (2009, p. 48) are the by-product of a formal oceanic shattering within the development proper (RFC at bar 66) which sets the stage for a forward-vectored formal reprise (bar 80 and beyond). Even if there is an argument that the key scheme reprises in an arch-like fashion (swapping C#–G# for G#–C#), bar 66 perpetuates a forward – and not retrograde – thematic sequence (TR and S), immediately followed by the recapitulation. Finally, in order for Ondine to experience closure, she ‘uttered a burst of laughter’ and then vanished; this utterance is musically depicted by a second RFC in bar 88 – an octatonic flourish that restores the music to its original C# major oceanic state in bar 89 (Ex. 24).35 Postlude: ‘Scarbo’ The final analysis excerpts critical moments from the third movement of the Gaspard set, ‘Scarbo’, depicting a mischievous goblin that fiendishly stalks the narrator. Bertrand’s ‘Scarbo’, trans. Wright (Bertrand 1994, p. 124) Oh! How often have I heard and seen him, Scarbo, when at midnight the moon shines in the sky like a silver crown on a blue banner strewn with golden bees. How often have I heard his laughing murmur in the shadow of my alcove and the grating of his nail on the silk curtain of my bed. How often have I seen him come down from the ceiling, pirouetting on one foot and rolling through the room like the spindle fallen from the distaff of a witch. Did I believe he vanished then? The dwarf was growing bigger between the moon and me, like the tower of a Gothic cathedral, a little golden bell swinging on his pointed cap! But soon his body turned blue, diaphanous like candle wax, his face grew pale like the wax of a candle stub – and suddenly he was extinguished. Filled with virtuosity, the G# minor work contains striking accents, repeated notes and a whirlwind of frenetic energy. In the exposition, haunting visages of © 2021 The Authors. Music Analysis © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd Music Analysis, 00/0 (2021) TEMPORAL DISRUPTIONS IN DEBUSSY AND RAVEL 33 Ex. 24 Ravel, ‘Ondine’: RFC no. 2 (bar 88) sound serve as pianistic lightning bolts that span all registers and dynamic levels. A subdued opening is marked by a bewitching three-note motive, a characteristic German sixth chord and seething repeated notes (Ex. 25); the three-note motive eventually comes to a boil and erupts across all registers of the piano. This tempestuous introduction sets the stage for the primary theme (Exs 26 and 27), which retains the mischievous atmosphere set forth by its overture. The primary theme gives way to the transition, comprising two main characteristics: (1) a pedal point and (2) ‘bursts’ of a semiquaver chord immediately followed by a sustained chord; these techniques can be seen in Music Analysis, 00/0 (2021) © 2021 The Authors. Music Analysis © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd 34 ANDREW AZIZ Ex. 25 Ravel, ‘Scarbo’: introduction Ex. 26 Ravel, ‘Scarbo’: undulating passage, opening of primary theme, bars 32–36 Ex. 27 Ravel, ‘Scarbo’: repeated-note passage, primary theme, bars 52–55 Ex. 28 Ravel, ‘Scarbo’: characteristic motives from transition, bars 171–176 Ex. 28. Following the transition (bars 121–213), the music reverts to the repeated-note motives from the primary theme, eventually joined by both the preceding undulating passage (bars 32–36) and the characteristic burst motive from the transition; thus, the section engages a process in which all of the preceding themes are blended and stirred, ultimately reaching a boiling point in C major (Ex. 29). © 2021 The Authors. Music Analysis © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd Music Analysis, 00/0 (2021) TEMPORAL DISRUPTIONS IN DEBUSSY AND RAVEL 35 Ex. 29 Ravel, ‘Scarbo’: expositional climax in C major, bars 365–370 Ex. 30 Ravel, ‘Scarbo’: recapitulation primary theme, ostinato, bars 429–432 Upon reaching a climax, the steam begins to dissipate; a short retransition seamlessly elides back into the opening moments of the work – the haunting, dormant state of the three-note motive, augmented sixth chord and repeated notes; there is no development section as such. Recalling that the introduction gave way to a pianistic eruption, Ravel takes a different turn in the recapitulation, electing not to startle his audience (or, at least, not as much); the characteristic eruption of the piano register is instead buried in the lower registral reaches. The primary theme, as a result, emerges within a hypnotic ppp state, stymied by a persistent ostinato mostly comprising the octatonic collection (Ex. 30). The theme often catapults into a geyser of sound – a trill in the piano’s upper register – only to return to the hypnotic gurgle of persistent octatonicism. In fact, in this instance (and unlike Jeux d’eau), the music needs to be rescued from the octatonic collection, rather than the octatonic doing the rescuing. A resetting of the formal compass thus accomplishes two goals, allowing the music both to shake free of this collection and to proceed to the transition zone. This forward motion occurs with a progression of parallel whole steps slowly squirming up the keyboard, first at a slow tempo and then at an accelerated pace (Ex. 31). By Music Analysis, 00/0 (2021) © 2021 The Authors. Music Analysis © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd 36 ANDREW AZIZ Ex. 31 Ravel, ‘Scarbo’: RFC with parallel seconds figure (bars 447–448 and 459– 462 shown) shifting from the octatonic to the whole-tone collection, the temporal disruption awakens the music from its submerged stupor. Once this passage diffuses and the formal compass is reset, the recapitulation is finally able to proceed to the transition en route to a completion of the sonata process. Unlike the exposition, the recapitulation makes short work of the remaining material; rather than being followed by a lengthy pontification (as in the exposition), the transition streamlines its way directly to the climactic section, this time in the heroic key of B major. Both a semitone down from the ironic C major and the relative major of the insidious G# minor, B major finally allows the narrator to escape the goblin, who – according to the poem – is ‘extinguished’ by the end. This article develops analytical tools that illustrate temporal disruptions in the programmatic works for Debussy and Ravel and reshape traditional modes of sonata analysis. I begin by highlighting instances of parachute cadences and retrospective reinterpretation that permeate fin-de-siècle sonata forms by not only Debussy and Ravel but also their forebears (Franck and Saint-Saëns), who set the stage for French sonata composition at the Société Nationale. In Debussy, a new analytical paradigm is the aborted rondo-sonata, which employs a postexpositional breakthrough following an expositional disruption. In his En blanc et noir, a progression towards a new tonal area in D major (S) is interrupted by a contrasting section, only to be resumed in the so-called development. In L’Isle joyeuse, a reprise of the opening phrases thwarts the attempted modulation; the tonal goal (V), which is also the resumption of the formal process, is reached after the timeless ‘Joyeuse’ theme. In both cases, a rondo form retrospectively morphs into a sonata following the breakthrough. For Ravel, the key analytical tool is RFC. In Jeux d’eau, ‘Ondine’ and ‘Scarbo’, Ravel lays out a series of thematic modules in the exposition; later sections – usually the recapitulation – © 2021 The Authors. Music Analysis © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd Music Analysis, 00/0 (2021) TEMPORAL DISRUPTIONS IN DEBUSSY AND RAVEL 37 contain virtuosic passages analogous to a formal Etch-A-Sketch, reacting to the music’s having become ‘lost’ or ‘confused’; the RFC, as a temporal disruption, serves to restabilise the atmosphere, allowing remaining thematic units to unfold upon a restoration of formal consciousness. Earlier interpretations of Jeux d’eau and ‘Ondine’ suggest that they exhibit arch form; the theory presented here permits an interpretation consistent with a linear, forward-vectored thematic trajectory. Each of these concepts is based on sonata form’s rotational structure, in which temporal fissures disrupt the order of thematic modules by either (1) binding two non-continuous thematic events or (2) neutralising formal function to resume thematic progress. Considering the analyses in tandem, one can build towards a unifying theory of fin-de-siècle French sonata forms. NOTES 1. There are several treatises, including Koch ([1793] 1983), Reicha (1824), Marx ([1847] 1997), Czerny (1848), Schoenberg (1967), Cone (1968), Ratner (1980), Caplin (1998) and Hepokoski and Darcy (2006). 2. Even d’Indy’s treatise (1903) is focused mainly on Beethoven, employing the ‘Hammerklavier’ as an analytical centrepiece. 3. On Debussy and Ravel: Howat (1983) asserts that Debussy’s formal balance principally reflects the natural ratio of the Golden Section; Parks (1989, Ch. 9) bifurcates two formal types, morphological and kinetic; Rodman (1992, p. 61) expands on the work of Parks by comparing Debussy’s development-reprise forms with functional aspects of the sonata-form paradigm as presented by d’Indy and other French theorists and Pomeroy (2003, pp. 156–8) synthesises how Debussy’s tonal practice affects formal processes via tonic-dominant relations, ‘diatonic’ modality, chromaticism, non-functional diatonicism, and chordal syntax. 4. P’, ‘TR’ and ‘S’ will always mean primary theme zone, transitional zone and secondary theme zone, respectively (Hepokoski and Darcy 2006, p. 18). In a ‘two-part’ exposition, the cadence separating TR and S is the ‘medial caesura’ (MC) (ibid.). 5. It is noteworthy that Reicha offers a few words on swapping the order of themes in the recapitulation: ‘1. By reversing the order of ideas, i.e. by putting forward what was after; 2. In changing what was loud to “piano”, and vice versa; 3. By removing other parts; 4. By changing the harmonies (accompanying the motives); 5. In slightly varying the melody; 6. Development of ideas can occur, but in a different manner than the “developmental” (first) section’ (‘1. En intervertissant l’ordre des ideés, c’est à dire en mettant avant ce qui était après; 2. En exécutant fort ce que était piano, et vice versa; 3. En disposant autrement les parties; 4. Music Analysis, 00/0 (2021) © 2021 The Authors. Music Analysis © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd 38 ANDREW AZIZ En changeant l’harmonie ou les dessins d’accompagnement; 5. En variant tant soit peu la mélodie; 6. En développant encore un peu les idées, mais d’une manière différente que dans la première section’; Reicha 1824, p. 1163). On the truncation of the recapitulatory second theme, Reicha notes: ‘[Since it is possible that] the second theme is so short or unnoticeable that it merges with accessory ideas – it is necessary to search for it’ (‘La seconde idée mère est par fois si courte, or si peu apparente, qu’elle se confond avec les idées accessoires; ce qu’il faut chercher à éviter’; ibid., p. 1164). These two thoughts may foreshadow French sonata composition over the coming decades, though admittedly ‘reverse recapitulations’ were an anomaly in the French literature, with a few noteworthy exceptions described by Jackson (1997) (e.g. Cherubini in his overture to Anacréon [1803] and Berlioz in Harold in Italy [1834] and the Overture to Benvenuto Cellini [1838]; see p. 148). Jackson also notes the relative dearth of symmetrical form even in the German literature after 1770, though symmetry notably appears in Beethoven and Schubert (ibid.). 6. Furthermore: ‘At least from Carl Czerny’s and A. B. Marx’s work onwards, the theory of sonata form has consistently extracted general principles from selective and culturally restricted evidential samples, to the primary end of establishing what William Weber has called the “pedagogical canon” centred on the Viennese classical triumvirate’ (Horton 2011, p. 45). 7. Wheeldon’s ‘discontinuity’ is different from the ones discussed in subsequent paragraphs, as she refers to the inorganicism in the Cello Sonata: ‘Despite the motivic correspondences that pervade the movement, the material fails to develop or grow, since wholesale repetition does not constitute development’ (1997, p. 163) 8. Debussy famously stated, regarding cinema: ‘There remains, however, one means of renewing the taste for symphonic music among our contemporaries: to apply to pure music the technique of cinematography’ (1988, p. 298). 9. Cone categorises these techniques as stratification, interlock and synthesis (1962, p. 19). See also McFarland (2004, pp. 297 and 318). He also observes: ‘Given Debussy’s attitude toward the cinema and the overwhelming reaction that Petrushka and its latent drobnost made on him, it is clear that both encounters played a role in the development of stratified form in his music’ (ibid., p. 304). 10. Kramer on Debussy’s Jeux: ‘(Jeux) exists in a complex and fascinating temporal world of multiply-directed time that anticipates the still more radical “moment time” of Stravinsky, Messiaen, Stockhausen, and others’ (1988, p. 49). © 2021 The Authors. Music Analysis © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd Music Analysis, 00/0 (2021) TEMPORAL DISRUPTIONS IN DEBUSSY AND RAVEL 39 11. Proust coined the term involuntary memory (souvenir involontaire), sometimes called Proustian memory (see Poulet 1956, pp. 291–322). 12. Klein’s definition of apotheosis is borrowed from Cone (1968, p. 84): ‘a special kind of recapitulation that reveals unexpected harmonic richness and textual excitement in a theme previously presented with a deliberately restricted harmonization and relatively drab accompaniment’; and, according to Rings, ‘We can hear the densely packed crux-moment of bars 21ff. as enacting a Proustian moment bienheureux – a “felicitous moment” in which a memory resurfaces’ (p. 203). 13. Fauré’s lack of proclivity towards explicit cadences is a commonality he holds with Franck: ‘Fauré’s capacity to suspend resolution for increasingly long spans of time troubled his contemporary listeners more than anything else, despite the fact that he accomplished most of his evasions and extensions through traditional means’ (Caballero 2001, pp. 64–5). 14. The impact of harmonic and melodic pacing is germane to many of the works in this article; see Patty (2009). 15. One might first analyse an improbable V:IAC MC (an alteration of Hepokoski and Darcy’s third-level default of V:PAC): ‘If the V:HC is declined or passed by, then in most cases, the only option remaining is the V:PAC MC, which, if placed late in the exposition, can cause difficulties by its being taken for a premature EEC’ (Hepokoski and Darcy 2006, p. 40); moreover, ‘any relatively late V: PAC MC brings with it structural complications and potential ambiguities: is it an MC or is it better regarded as the EEC?’ (ibid., p. 39). 16. This structure implies what Hepokoski and Darcy call a ‘grand antecedentconsequent’ structure in which the consequent – functioning as TR – ‘dissolves’ into a medial caesura (2006, pp. 77–80) 17. Brown (2003, especially pp. 71–8) traces the cultural significance of the sevillana theme. 18. These motives are compiled in Brown (2003, p. 72), very often based upon truncated pieces of the opening theme. The second theme group is the only section that does not have significant traces of the opening tune. 19. The piece sets up a perfectly constructed two-part exposition, described by DeVoto as ‘two outstanding A and B themes’ (2004, p. 21). Brown provides formal parallels between ‘Fêtes’ and ‘Par les rues’, which highlight the truncated recapitulations (labelled as A′ of a ternary form in his diagrams) and loud ‘fanfare’ and ‘outbursts’ in their respective B sections (2003, p. 99). Music Analysis, 00/0 (2021) © 2021 The Authors. Music Analysis © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd 40 ANDREW AZIZ 20. Pomeroy states that Debussy’s ‘most favoured formal design, which he employed with inexhaustible variety, was ternary form’ (2003, p. 163). He cites how modulation to the dominant creates a ‘sonata-like’ exposition incorporating I–V tonal polarity. 21. It is perhaps a coincidence that the first phonograph in France was trademarked the year the Quartet was published (1893); see Chamoux (2015), http://www.archeophone.org/rtf_pdf/Marques_phonographiques_ inpi.pdf [accessed 25 July 2018]. 22. The lyrical gambit in F# minor is immediately sequenced up G (the same incremental modulation by which Eb turns into E leading up to bar 61). Once ‘home’ in G minor, the music – accompanied by the tempo marking ‘1er Mouvt’ – gushes toward development, with tonic serving as the vehicle by which the exposition becomes the developmental ‘pre-core’ in the Schmalfeldt (2011) sense. Thus, the reminiscence of the initial key, theme, and tempo invokes monotonal closure, undermining any firm expositional resolution in a non-tonic key. 23. According to Hepokoski, the Durchbruch – a term applied by Adorno to interpret the music of Mahler – finds its niche in sonata theory as follows: ‘The concept of breakthrough, closely related to the category of peripeteia, or sudden reversal of fortune, involves abandoning or profoundly correcting the originally proposed sonata (the one proposed in the exposition) through the inbreaking of an emphatic, unforeseen idea at some post-expositional point, usually during the space customarily given over to development’ (1992, p. 149). 24. For Hepokoski and Darcy, Type 1 sonatas are ‘those that contain only an exposition and a recapitulation, with no link or only a minimal link between them’ (2006, p. 344). 25. Baur shows that Ravel’s frequent collection of choice is the octatonic scale, often emphasising ‘points of intersection between diatonic and nondiatonic pitch fields’ (1999, pp. 541–2) in progressions governed by both ‘mediant and tritone relationships’, in addition to collections cycling through octatonic nodes that function as harmonic roots (p. 543). Russom (1985) argues that the prevalence of triads within the octatonic scale creates a convenient overlap with traditional tonality. 26. Type 2 sonatas contain two ‘rotations’ of P–TR–S–C; in the second rotation, the S and C themes reprise in tonic, and this S + C block (part 2 of the rotation) is referred to as the tonal resolution, and not a recapitulation that begins on S (Hepokoski and Darcy 2006, pp. 353–4). 27. For previous analyses, see Watson (1978, pp. 332–3), who highlights its fragmented and disjunct nature, and McCalla (2003), who categorises © 2021 The Authors. Music Analysis © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd Music Analysis, 00/0 (2021) TEMPORAL DISRUPTIONS IN DEBUSSY AND RAVEL 41 the movement as a sonata-rondo; for further consideration, see Fulcher (2001), Watkins (2003), Dunsby (2004) and Wheeldon (2009). 28. L’Isle joyeuse is perhaps Debussy’s most frequently analysed composition; see Whittall (1975), Howat (1983), Tymoczko (2004), Brown (2004–5), Klein (2007) and Almén (2008). Tymoczko shows that each collection can be minimally changed when a scale requires only one alteration to generate a new collection within the system (2004, p. 235). This circumstance is defined as ‘maximal interaction’ (ibid., p. 234) 29. In contrast, Rodman believes the ‘recurrence of the introduction and theme 1 in (bars) 52 and 64 produce an arch form within the section implying closure before progressing to the next principal theme (bar 67)’, which ‘obfuscate[s] the thematic process of the sonata template’ (1992, p. 262). I contend that this section does not simply exhibit thematic reversal, but rather a thematic restart – a process that will require resumption at a later point. 30. The elided boundary of these sections invokes the ‘development-reprise’ paradigm of Parks (1989), in which there is no definitive boundary at the conclusion of the exposition. 31. This juncture is analogous to the ‘hostile subposition’ (Heinzelmann 2008, p. 58) of the subdominant scale degree in Ravel’s Piano Trio. 32. Howat calls the C/F# tritone clash in bar 72 a ‘favourite Ravel cocktail’, traceable to Chabrier (2000, p. 77). 33. These ideas are re-articulated in Howat (2009, p. 79); Bhogal characterises the work as possessing a reverse recapitulation (2011, p. 290). 34. According to Howat, ‘Only in retrospect can it be seen that, by bar 47, a characteristic Ravel development section is already underway, and that, in bars 57–65, development turns imperceptibly into recapitulation’ (2000, p. 82). 35. One can argue that the D minor recitative is interrupting this ‘wrongkey’ reprise, almost necessitating the RFC that follows it. The tritone relationship between the G# and D anticipates the octatonic setting of the RFC. REFERENCES Almén, Byron, 2008: A Theory of Musical Narrative (Bloomington: Indiana University Press). Baur, Steven, 1999: ‘Ravel’s “Russian” Period: Octatonicism in His Early Works’, Journal of the American Musicological Society, 52/iii, pp. 531–92. Music Analysis, 00/0 (2021) © 2021 The Authors. Music Analysis © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd 42 ANDREW AZIZ Bergson, Henri, 1946: The Creative Mind: an Introduction to Metaphysics (New York: Kensington). Bertrand, Aloysius, 1994: Gaspard de la Nuit: Fantasies in the Manner of Rembrandt and Callot, trans., introd. and notes by John T. Wright (Lanham, MD: University Press of America). Bhogal, Gurminder K., 2011: ‘Not Just a Pretty Surface: Ornament and Metric Complexity in Ravel’s Piano Music’, in Peter Kaminsky (ed.), Unmasking Ravel: New Perspectives on the Music (Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press), pp. 272–305. Brown, Matthew, 2003: Debussy’s Iberia (Oxford: Oxford University Press). , 2004–5: ‘Composing with Prototypes: Charting Debussy’s L’Isle joyeuse’, Intégral, 18–19, pp. 151–88. Caballero, Carlo, 2001: Fauré and French Musical Aesthetics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Caplin, William, 1998: Classical Form: a Theory of Formal Functions for the Instrumental Music of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press). Chamoux, Henri, 2015: ‘Dépôts de marques phonographiques françaises de 1893 a 1040’, http://www.archeophone.org/rtf_pdf/ Marques_phonographiques_inpi.pdf [accessed 25 July 2018]. Cone, Edward T., 1962: ‘Stravinsky: the Progress of a Method’, Perspectives of New Music, 1/i, pp. 18–26. , 1968: Musical Form and Musical Performance (New York: Norton). Czerny, Carl, 1848: School of Practice Composition, 3 vols., trans. John Bishop (London: Robert Cocks). Debussy, Claude, 1988: Debussy on Music: the Critical Writings of the Great French Composer Claude Debussy, trans. and ed. Richard Langham Smith; collected and introduced by François Lesure (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press). DeVoto, Mark, 2004: ‘Harmony in the Chamber Music’, in Deborah Mawer (ed.), Cambridge Companion to Ravel (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp. 97–117. d’Indy, Vincent, 1903: Cours de composition musicale: Deuxième livre (Paris: Durand). Dunsby, Jonathan, 2004: ‘The Poetry of Debussy’s En blanc et noir’, in Craig Ayrey and Mark Everist (eds), Analytical Strategies and Musical Interpretation: Essays on Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Music (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp. 149–68. Fulcher, Jane, 2001: ‘Speaking the Truth to Power: the Dialogic Element in Debussy’s Wartime Compositions’, in Jane Fulcher (ed.), Debussy and His World (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press), pp. 203–32. Hasty, Christopher, 1986: ‘On the Problem of Succession and Continuity in Twentieth-Century Music’, Music Theory Spectrum, 8, pp. 58–74. Heinzelmann, Sigrun, 2008: ‘Sonata Form in Ravel’s Pre-War Chamber Music’ (PhD diss., City University of New York). © 2021 The Authors. Music Analysis © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd Music Analysis, 00/0 (2021) TEMPORAL DISRUPTIONS IN DEBUSSY AND RAVEL 43 Hepokoski, James, 1992: ‘Fiery-Pulsed Libertine or Domestic Hero? Strauss’s Don Juan Reinvestigated’, in Bryan Gilliam (ed.), Richard Strauss: New Perspectives on the Composer and His Work (Durham, NC: Duke University Press), pp. 135–75. Hepokoski, James and Darcy, Warren, 2006: Elements of Sonata Theory (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press). Horton, Julian, 2005: ‘Bruckner’s Symphonies and Sonata Deformation Theory’, Journal of the Society for Musicology in Ireland, 1, pp. 5–17. , 2011: ‘John Field and the Alternative History of Concerto FirstMovement Form’, Music and Letters, 92/i, pp. 43–83. Howat, Roy, 1983: Music and Proportion (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). , 2000: ‘Ravel and the Piano’, in Deborah Mawer (ed.), Cambridge Companion to Ravel (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp. 71–96. , 2009: The Art of French Piano Music: Debussy, Ravel, Fauré, Chabrier (London and New Haven, CT: Yale University Press). Jackson, Timothy L., 1997: ‘The Finale of Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony and Tragic Reversed Sonata Form’, in Timothy L. Jackson and Paul Hawkshaw (eds), Bruckner Studies (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp. 209– 55. Klein, Michael, 2007: ‘Debussy’s L’Isle joyeuse as Territorial Assemblage’, 19thCentury Music, 31/i, pp. 28–52. Koch, Heinrich, [1793]1983: Introductory Essay on Composition: the Mechanical Rules of Melody, Sections 3 and 4, trans. and ed. Nancy Kovaleff Baker (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press). Kramer, Jonathan, 1978: ‘Moment Form in Twentieth-Century Music’, Musical Quarterly, 64/ii, pp. 177–94. , 1988: The Time of Music (New York: Schirmer Books). Leydon, Rebecca, 1997: ‘Narrative Strategies and Debussy’s Late Style’ (PhD diss., McGill University). , 2001: ‘Debussy’s Late Style and the Devices of the Early Silent Cinema’, Music Theory Spectrum, 23/ii, pp. 217–41. Lockspeiser, Edward, 1962: Debussy: His Life and Mind, 2 vols. (London: Cassell). Marx, A. B., [1847]1997: Musical Form in the Age of Beethoven: Selected Writings on Theory and Methods, ed. and trans. Scott Burnham (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). McCalla, James, 2003: Twentieth-Century Chamber Music: Routledge Studies in Musical Genres (London: Routledge). Monahan, Seth, 2007: ‘“Inescapable” Coherence and the Failure of the NovelSymphony in the Finale of Mahler’s Sixth’, 19th-Century Music, 31/i, pp. 53–95. McFarland, Mark, 2004: ‘Debussy: the Origins of a Method’, Journal of Music Theory, 48/ii, pp. 295–324. Music Analysis, 00/0 (2021) © 2021 The Authors. Music Analysis © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd 44 ANDREW AZIZ Newman, William S., 1983: The Sonata since Beethoven (New York: W. W. Norton). Orenstein, Arbie, ed., 1990: A Ravel Reader: Correspondences, Articles, Interviews (New York: Columbia University Press). Parks, Richard, 1989: The Music of Claude Debussy (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press). Pasler, Jann, 1982: ‘Debussy, Jeux: Playing with Time and Form’, 19th-Century Music, 6/i, pp. 60–72. Patty, Austin, 2009: ‘How Harmonic Rhythm and Melodic Pacing Influence Our Experience of Music Climax’, Music Theory Spectrum, 31/ii, pp. 325– 67. Pohl, Norma, 1978: ‘Gaspard de la nuit: a Theoretical and Performance Analysis’ (PhD diss., Washington University). Pomeroy, Boyd, 2003: ‘Debussy’s Tonality: a Formal Perspective’, in Simon Tresize (ed.), Cambridge Companion to Debussy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp. 155–78. Poulet, George, 1956: Studies in Human Time (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Press). Puri, Michael, 2011: Ravel the Decadent: Memory, Sublimation, and Desire (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press). Ratner, Leonard, 1980: Classic Music: Expression, Form and Style (New York: Schirmer Books). Rehding, Alexander, 1998: ‘Towards a “Logic of Discontinuity” in Stravinsky’s Symphonies of Wind Instruments: Hasty, Kramer and Straus Reconsidered’, Music Analysis, 17/i, 39–65. Reicha, Anton, 1824: Traité de haute composition musicale, trans. C. Czerny, 4 vols (Vienna: Diabelli). Rings, Steven, 2008: ‘Mystéres limpides: Time and Transformation in Debussy’s “Des pas sur la neige”’, 19th-Century Music, 32/ii, pp. 178–208. Rodman, Ronald, 1992: ‘Thematic and Tonal Processes in the DevelopmentReprise Forms of Claude Debussy, 1880–1905’ (PhD diss., Indiana University). Russom, Philip Wade, 1985: ‘A Theory of Pitch Organization for the Early Works of Maurice Ravel’ (PhD diss., Yale University). Schmalfeldt, Janet, 2011: In the Process of Becoming: Analytic and Philosophical Perspectives on Form in Early Nineteenth-Century Music (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press). Schoenberg, Arnold, 1967: Fundamentals of Musical Composition, ed. Gerald Strang (London: Faber). Tymoczko, Dmitri, 2004: ‘Scale Networks and Debussy’, Journal of Music Theory, 48/ii, pp. 219–85. Waters, Keith, 2012: ‘Other Good Bridges: Continuity and Debussy’s “Reflets dans l’eau”’, Music Theory Online, 18/iii, https://mtosmt.org/issues/mto.12. 18.3/mto.12.18.3.waters.html [accessed 1 August 2017]. © 2021 The Authors. Music Analysis © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd Music Analysis, 00/0 (2021) TEMPORAL DISRUPTIONS IN DEBUSSY AND RAVEL 45 Watkins, Glenn, 2003: Proof through the Night: Music and the Great War (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press). Watson, Linda Lee, 1978: ‘Debussy: a Programmatic Approach to Form’ (PhD diss., University of Texas at Austin). Wheeldon, Marianne, 1997: ‘Interpreting Discontinuity in the Late Works of Claude Debussy’ (PhD diss., Yale University). , 2009: Debussy’s Late Style (Bloomington: Indiana University Press). Whittall, Arnold, 1975: ‘Tonality and the Whole-Tone Scale in the Music of Debussy’, Music Review, 36, pp. 261–71. Zank, Stephen, 2009: Irony and Sound: the Music of Maurice Ravel (Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press). Zbikowski, Lawrence, 2002: Conceptualizing Music: Cognitive Structure, Theory, and Analysis (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press). NOTE ON THE CONTRIBUTOR ANDREW AZIZ is Associate Professor of Music Theory at San Diego State University. He completed his doctorate at the Eastman School of Music, and he held previous faculty posts at Brown University, Rhode Island College, and Florida State University. His primary research interest is the perception of form in common-practice and fin-de-siècle repertoire. He has presented on these topics and others at many regional, national, and international conferences, and has published articles and reviews in the Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy Online, Music Analysis, Music Theory and Analysis, Music Theory Online, Proceedings of EuroMAC IX, and Sonus. ABSTRACT This article develops analytical tools which illustrate temporal disruptions in the programmatic works for Debussy and Ravel and reshape traditional modes of sonata analysis. In Debussy, a new analytical paradigm, one that invokes his affinity for filmic techniques, is the aborted rondo-sonata, which employs a postexpositional breakthrough following an expositional disruption: a rondo form retrospectively morphs into a sonata following the breakthrough. For Ravel, the key analytical tool is what I call resetting of the formal compass (RFC): virtuosic passages, analogous to a formal Etch-A-Sketch as a reaction to the music having become ‘lost’ or ‘confused’, that restore formal consciousness. Previous scholarship on Ravel suggests the presence of arch form; the current theory permits an interpretation consistent with a linear, forward-vectored thematic trajectory. Each of these concepts is based on sonata form’s rotational structure, in which temporal fissures disrupt the order of thematic modules either by binding two non-continuous thematic events or by neutralising formal function to resume thematic progress. When the analyses in are considered in tandem, they can help to build a unifying theory of fin-de-siècle French sonata forms. Music Analysis, 00/0 (2021) © 2021 The Authors. Music Analysis © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd