Debussy Example

In Paul Roberts book, Images: The Piano Music of Debussy (Amadeus, 1996), there is a nice example of Debussy's use of overtone harmonics in his piano piece ``Reflets dans l'eau.''  Here we quote from Roberts' discussion (pp. 35-36):

In the final two measures [see figure below] the first two notes, A-flat and F, of the opening left-hand motif are concealed within the arpeggiated chord (but marked especially with stresses).  The third note, the dissonant E-flat, is witheld, and instead we achieve the repose of a tonic triad. But it is the subtlety of Debussy's art to make us want what is missing: we will actually hear the E-flat at the edge of our consciousness, for it will have been caught from the preceding resonance ...[see double red arrow in figure]..., primed, as it were, so as to ring as a harmonic of the final bass D-flat.  If the pianist can make the relationship clear between the penultimate measure and the opening motif (which has been tolling constantly since the final recapitulation...[see blue rectangle in figure]), then the listener will be persuaded to complete the phrase, hearing an E-flat as a natural coloring within the final D-flat chord.

The double red arrow points to the E-flat notes referred to above.  The blue rectangle encloses the motif referred to above, and the blue double arrow within it points to E-flat notes.

A good exercise would be the following: 1) assuming that ``the final D-flat chord'' refers to all of the notes within the final two measures, then identify this chord precisely; 2) find the harmonic of the bass D-flat note that corresponds to an E-flat pitch (the smallest numbered harmonic, that is), and verify that one of the notes pointed to by the double red arrow is exactly that pitch.