Suite bergamasque, Prelude. My comment in note 28: "^5 is implied over the initial I; ^6 is actually given in m. 1!" In the example below, I have shown the parallel place in the reprise. I don't think it is ^6 that Debussy is fixated on but ^2 (or ^9), as the opening of the reprise shows. The subsequent approach to the structural cadence is marked by the interaction of ^6 and this ^2, which eventually overtops its companion and, remarkably, makes a final push to ^3 while ^6 moves through ^7 to ^8. Thus, although there is a strongly expressive ascent, it is not a simple ascending Urlinie ^5 to ^8.
Debussy, Ballade [slave] (1890). My comment in note 28: "in the cadence 9-11 bars from the end, the ascent is actually a doubled inner voice." A traditional Schenkerian analysis of this piece should certainly be possible, but would require considerable effort. By and large, I think I was right about the ascent (see the first example below), but complicating factors are that it isn't clear whether this is the structural cadence, or, to put it a different way, it isn't clear if there is one at all: a page or more of E major "resolves" back into F major but the effect is that of a coda, rather than a reprise -- see the second example below. Finally, the choice of a fundamental tone for this piece would involve quite a bit of "reading into" and would always remain open to challenge.
Debussy, Valse romantique (1890). My comment in note 28: "the ascent is literally the top voice in the structural cadence, but properly an inner voice in the Ursatz." The structural cadence is at the very end -- the only simple cadence to the tonic in the piece -- and I was referring to the four bars marked with an unfolding symbol, from G4 to E5. The primary figure, though, is the uppermost voice: A6 reached dramatically in the first bar of the example, then plenty of attention to ^2 and a decisive conclusion on ^1. The ascent from ^5 to ^8 is very much a secondary feature. As with the Ballade, whether ^3 is the fundamental tone is open to discussion.
