ssetti's
_Blessed Damozel_ because, forsooth, he had strayed too far from
established and revered tradition. We Americans may have a distinct
feeling of pride in the knowledge that the music of Debussy, the
strongest note of which is personal freedom--the inherent right of the
artist to express in his own way the promptings of his imagination--was
widely studied and appreciated in this land of the free before it had
begun to have anything like a universal acceptance among the French
themselves.

[Footnote 290: From this comparison we should not wish it to be
understood that Debussy is merely an addition to the standard Romantic
group of Schumann, Chopin, Liszt, etc.; his style, however, is surely
Romantic in the broad sense of the term, _i.e._, highly imaginative
and individual.]

But can any connection with the past be traced in the style of this
remarkable[291] composer, and can we discover any sources, in the
world of nature, from which he has derived the materials for his novel
and fascinating harmonies? When we definitely analyze Debussy's
harmonic scheme, we see that he looks both forward and back. Much of
his original tone coloring is derived from the old church modes such
as the Lydian, the Dorian and the Phrygian; for example, the
mysterious opening chords of his opera, and the following passage from
_La Cathedrale engloutie_.

[Footnote 291: The _tres exceptionnel, tres curieux, tres solitaire
Claude Debussy_ as he has been aptly characterized.]

[Music]

He is also extremely fond of a scale of whole tones, which had been
somewhat anticipated by Liszt and members of the Russian[292] school.
In this the normal perfect 4th and 5th and the major 6th become
augmented, thus producing a very peculiar but alluring harmonic basis.

[Music]

[Footnote 292: The first authentic use being probably by Dargomijsky
in his opera the _Stone Guest_.]

[Music]

[Music: _Reflets dans l'eau_]

Modern composers have been feeling for some time that harmonic scope
was needlessly limited by clinging too closely to the major and minor
diatonic scales; and Brahms, Tchaikowsky and Franck have all
introduced the old modes for special contrasts of color. But no one
has used them so subtly as Debussy. In his music they often take the
place of our customary scales with their deep-rooted harmonic
tendencies and perpetual suggestion of traditional cadences. This
return to the greater flexibility and variety of the old modes is a