Repetitive Variety and Other Balancing Acts: Debussy's Transcendental Oscillations

Abstract

This article introduces the concept of the transcendental oscillation, in which two chords alternate with one another in a way that transcends traditional tonal practice. This harmonic device appears in a wide variety of settings from Wagner to modern pop music. After discussing some theoretical properties of transcendental oscillations, including their interactions with modality and chromaticism, I analyze transcendental oscillations in the works of Debussy, who made the technique a central component of his style. In Debussy's music, transcendental oscillations may be either intensifying or calming. They are symptomatic of what Sylveline Bourion calls Debussy's "duplication" tendency. As progressions foreign to common practice, they present a novel aspect, but as repetitive progressions, they are easy on the ears. These two central features of transcendental oscillations—their harmonic freshness and their repetitive quality—combine to make them well suited to Debussy's compositional project and attractive to composers to this day.