Debussyan Chords

April 22, 2025 [Music]

Symbolism

/ˈsɪmbəlɪz(ə)m/

noun

An artistic and poetic movement or style using symbolic images and indirect suggestion to express mystical ideas, emotions, and states of mind. It originated in late 19th-century France and Belgium, with important figures including Mallarmé, Maeterlinck, Verlaine, Rimbaud, and Redon.

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This harmonic fragment comes from Act III of Debussy’s opera Pelléas et Mélisande (based on Maeterlinck’s 1892 Symbolist play of the same name).

In this scene, Mélisande lets down her hair from the tower — a fairytale trope rendered in harmonies and orchestration so delicate it feels as though, for a fleeting moment, we are allowed to breathe the rarefied air of the immaterial realm.

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From there, I made the little practice study above.

We are moving from a minor 9th chord to a dominant 13th chord (in context functioning as chords ii–V).

A movement that is exhausted (often unmusically!) in the jazz education sphere.

This was a chance for me to undo some of my own ii–V–I-based preconceptions.

i.e. trying my very best to resist saying, thinking, or — worst of all — believing: 'Oh, it's just a ii–V', which would certainly hinder us in our quest to uncover, form a connection with, and represent beauty.

Re-present...

Anyway, the left hand spells out a basic triad in four voices, while the right hand (or harp) pedals the colourful notes — the 9th on the minor chord, which becomes the 13th of the dominant chord.

While it’s initially helpful to work things out ‘theoretically’, I’ve been conscious of really listening to the sound I’m making at the piano on a deep level.

By approaching practice in this way, I believe we can absorb these ideas more as gestures, shapes, and colours in our playing without getting too bogged down in the 'theory'.

Here's a clip of me at the piano, transposing this movement around the twelve keys to attain fluency: