Debussy's 'sneaky Tristan' in his own performance of 'Golliwogg's Cakewalk'?
I don't understand this comment under the piano ROLL recording on Youtube :
User [Henry Baxter]:
Sneaky bit of tristan at 1:10?
Am I right that 'tristan' refers to the Tristan chord?
Even if so, what's sneaky in Debussy's performance?
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It's a little sneakier than that. Here's the score; look for yourself. The passage in question starts at m. 61. Debussy quotes the melody at pitch of the opening measure-and-a-half of the Prelude to Tristan, but he never quite lands on the Tristan chord - there's always something a little off. He repeats it several times, landing a couple of times each on A? minor with added fourth and a minor seventh chord on E? (plus a few more, none of which is the Tristan chord) before dissolving the quotation into cakewalk figuration.
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