Abstract
I take Steve Larson’s article “What Makes a Good Bridge” (2003) as a launching point to explore the idea of musical bridges in works of Debussy. My focus is on musical processes that enhance continuity across formal sections, phrases, subphrases, or harmonic regions. The first two excerpts, from “La cathédrale engloutie” (from Préludes, Book 1) and Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune, create melodic bridging structures through pattern completion or phrase linkage. I then turn to Debussy’s solo piano work “Reflets dans l’eau” (from Images, Book 1) and show how Debussy links the formal sections of the ABACA small rondo. Here formal overlaps arise by the continuation of motivic or harmonic events across formal boundaries. Finally, I consider the above ideas in light of the Debussy critical tradition that privileges aesthetic values of circularity, discontinuity, and stasis
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