ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses some of the works of the Romantic avant garde through analyses of J. C. Kessler par F. Chopin, Franz Liszt, and Claude Debussy. It focuses on the issues of melodic transformation and large-scale transpositions of subsections by major thirds, a consideration that has already been well documented by modern music theory. The chapter describes how Debussy's applications of system modulations and diatonic and chromatic arrays create, even in a through-composed piece, both a strong sense of unity and consistency of flow and direction. It discusses the third of the three Estampes, "Jardins sous la pluie," which is not as overtly oriental as the other two, but very much more in the style of the "Prelude," the first of the three-movement work Pour le piano. The chapter concludes with a hint at some of the consequences Chopin, Liszt, and Debussy's experiments engendered in the works of the Second Viennese School in the years before World War I.
