Jeremy Day-O'Connell has published an article in the same issue of MTS as my proto-backgrounds piece. He makes a comment that resonates with an earlier post here:
For Schenker,the tonic-dominant polarity held an almost mystical primacy: "May the musician always carry in his heart the image of the bass arpeggiation! Let this triangle be sacred to him! Creating, interpreting—may he bear it always in ear and eye!" ([Free Composition] 1979,15). That being said,the leading tone per se was of relatively little importance in Schenker’s mature theory, according to which tonal melody achieves coherence and completion only in a descent through ^2 to the tonic. (245)
His article is a sensitive, historically rich exploration of Debussy's treatment of pentatonic materials and design, with the Prelude La fille aux cheveux de lin as the principal example. Using (of all things) Schenkerian analysis, Day-O'Connell shows the layering and development of ^5-^6 figures and ^5-^6-^8 cadence gestures.
After reading the article through, I thought: over the years, we seem to have done a creditable job of the notes up to ^5, but we are just beginning to get a proper sense of the rest.
Reference:
Day-O'Connell, Jeremy. "Debussy, Pentatonicism, and the Tonal Tradition." Music Theory Spectrum 31/2 (2009): 225–261.
