Colour, Resonance, and the Awakening of Inner Hearing Claude Debussy did not overthrow harmony. He loosened its chains and allowed it to breathe again. By the end of the nineteenth century, Western harmony had reached extraordinary refinement, yet also a certain exhaustion. The great tonal system that had carried music from Bach through Beethoven and Brahms had grown dense with obligation. Every dissonance demanded explanation. Every dominant insisted on resolution. Every phr