A complex of tendencies: the evolution of the use of the tritone in the music of Wagner, Debussy, and Bartók

© 2014 Katherine Anne HoneybunThis thesis examines the use of the tritone in Richard Wagner’s Prelude to 'Tristan und Isolde', Claude Debussy’s 'Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune', and Béla Bartók’s 'Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta'. The discussion demonstrates how the use of the tritone has changed over the period of the selected repertoire, from 1857 to 1936 and it is argued that the way the tritone is used is significant, displaying a unique ‘complex of tendencies’. The tritone is examined in the chosen works in relation to harmony, melody, orchestration, tonality, and overall structure as well as extra-musical elements. The aim is to demonstrate specific contexts of tritone use, such as the way in which Wagner used the tritone melodically and harmonically at the climax of the Prelude to Tristan und Isolde, or Debussy’s use of the tritone in the opening theme of Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune, where it can be found in conjunction with whole tone scales and harmonic elements that predate common jazz progressions. In relation to Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, Bartók’s tonal organization and use of the tritone is discussed in relation to issues of symmetry and through an analysis of tonal areas and the fugue subject of the first movement. This detailed discussion of the tritone offers a new perspective for examining the set works as well as an understanding of the changing use of dissonance over time and the unique characteristics of the tritone itself. Focussing on the set works, specific examples are used to demonstrate the ways in which the interval of the tritone has been used in increasingly prominent positions in the period under study