Final answer:
Debussy's treatment of melody is characterized by fluidity, expressiveness, and a lack of structural constraints. He utilized whole-tone and pentatonic scales, chromaticism, and asymmetrical phrase structures to create melodies with an ambiguous, dream-like quality that emphasizes color and texture.
Step-by-step explanation:
Characteristics of Debussy's Melody Treatment
The melody in Debussy's music is characterized by its fluidity and expressiveness. Debussy often constructed melodies that wander in a free-flowing manner, devoid of the strict structural constraints typical of the music of previous periods. His treatment of melody is marked by the use of whole-tone and pentatonic scales, giving his music an ambiguous, dream-like quality. Debussy's approach to melody is impressionistic, creating moods and atmospheres rather than definitive themes. This technique is reflective of his focus on timbre and atmospheric effect over traditional melody-driven composition.
Melodies in Debussy's works are often elusive and fleeting, emphasizing color and texture as much as, if not more than, the melodic line itself. He also incorporates chromaticism, adding shades of tonal color that make melodies feel more spontaneous and less predictable. Importantly, Debussy avoided the repetitive and conclusive phrases characteristic of classical melody, instead using asymmetrical phrase structures that do not always follow expected patterns. These innovative methods helped to dissolve the sense that the melody is moving toward a certain goal or conclusion, which is a hallmark of traditional tonal music.