Marianne Wheeldon
Florida State University
In 1915, Debussy began work on a series of Six Sonates pour divers instruments, of which three were completed: the Sonata for cello and piano (1915); the Sonatafor flute, viola, and harp (1916), and the Sonata for violin and piano (1917). Debussy's decision to use sonata form in these works is surprising as it seems to represent a reversal of his musical aesthetic of the preceding years. Until the sonatas, both his compositions and the views expressed in his critical writings showed a preference for elasticity of forrn, that is, a freedom from traditional forms.
Of the nine movements, the Prologue of the Cello Sonata stands out for its close adherence to the harmonic and thematic format of sonata form, with eight distinct sections that clearly imitate the functions of introduction, first theme, second theme, development, climax, retransition, recapitulation, and codetta. Yet even with these overwhelming correspondences, the Prologue emphasizes an aesthetic distance from sonata form. The most significant way Debussy establishes this aesthetic difference is by inverting the organic principle of nineteenth-century sonata form. By imitating (and thus invoking) sonata form but then rejecting the organic principles it came to embody, Debussy acknowledges sonata form conventions while simultaneously inverting them. This paper explores anti-organicism in the Prologue of Debussy's Cello Sonata, and identifies the compositional approaches that create anti-organicism amid the many sonata and sonata-fortn references.