rather the ways in which a pentatonic sensibility intersects
with musical closure within that “diatonic framework” and
subsequently resonates throughout the musical structure.
Meanwhile, Kopp’s contrasting of La fille with Pagodes, as
justified as it is for many reasons, can be seen, in one respect
anyway, as another misplaced invocation of the sunset/sunrise
dichotomy. Beneath Pagodes’ somewhat intractable pentatonic
figuration lies a slow-moving bass, the progress of
which provides an instructive contrast with La fille vis-à-vis
the foregoing analysis. Notwithstanding the thoroughgoing
pentatonicism that permeates virtually every measure of
Pagodes, the bass progresses in an altogether straightforward
fashion, presenting 3–2–1 descents (the prototypical Urlinie
succession) throughout. (Example 37 gives a rhythmic reduction.35)
The placement of these descents—at the end of