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32: Impressionism and Extended Tonality
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32.1: Impressionism
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Impressionism is associated with Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel in France, Ottorino Respighi in Italy, Charles Tomlinson Griffes in America, and Frederick Delius in England. We will focus on just three techniques found in the music of Debussy and Ravel: (1) the use of modes, (2) the use of upper extensions above the 7th in chord construction in tertian harmonies (9ths, 11ths, and 13ths, which we saw in the chapter on jazz), and (3) parallelism, also known as “planing.”
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32.2: Pandiatonicism
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Pandiatonicism refers to the use of all diatonic notes without the need for scale degrees or harmonies to progress or function tonally (V doesn’t need to progress to I, 7^ doesn’t need to resolve to 8^ , etc.). One often hears it as a wash of notes from the major scale, or as chords made of non-traditional combinations of notes from a major scale, often with at least one interval of a 2nd in a chord voicing.
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32.3: Quartal, Quintal, and Secundal Harmony
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Quartal harmony refers to chords stacked entirely (or mostly) in fourths. Quintal harmony refers to chords stacked entirely (or mostly) in fifths. Secundal harmony refers to chords stacked entirely (or mostly) in seconds. Contrast these concepts with the tertian (stacked in thirds) harmony we’ve encountered in the majority of this text. Alternative methods of stacking chords became more common after 1900 as composers sought ways to innovate and break with the past.
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32.4: Polychords
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A polychord typically consists of two triads sounding simultaneously. A polychord could also consist of two seventh chords, or a seventh chord and triad. Additionally, a polychord could conceivably consist of more than two triads or seventh chords, since the prefix “poly” means “many.”
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32.5: Practice Exercises
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