Impressionism in music

Periods and eras of
Western classical music
Early
Medieval c. 500–1400
Renaissance c. 1400–1600
Common practice
Baroque c. 1600–1760
Classical c. 1730–1820
Romantic c. 1780–1910
Impressionist c. 1875–1925
Modern and contemporary
 c. 1890–1975
20th-century (1900–2000)
 c. 1975–present
21st-century (2000–present)

Impressionism in music was a movement among various composers in Western classical music, mainly during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, whose music focuses on suggestion and atmosphere, "conveying the moods and emotions aroused by the subject rather than a detailed tone‐picture".[1] “Impressionism” is a philosophical and aesthetic term borrowed from late 19th century French painting after Monet’s Impression, Sunrise. Musicians were labeled impressionists by analogy to the impressionist painters who use starkly contrasting colors, effect of light on an object blurry foreground and background, flattening perspective to make us focus our attention on the overall impression.[2]

The most prominent in musical impressionism is the use of “color”, or in musical term, timbre, which can be achieved through orchestration, harmonic usage, texture, etc.[3] Other elements of music impressionism involve also new chord combinations, ambiguous tonality, extended harmonies, use of modes and exotic scales, parallel motions, extra-musicality, and evocative titles such as Reflets dans l'eau ("Reflections on the water", 1905), Brouillards ("Mists", 1913) etc.[2]

Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel are two leading figures in impressionism, though Debussy rejected this label (he mentioned in his letter that “imbeciles call ‘impressionism,’ a term employed with the utmost inaccuracy.”).[4] Debussy’s impressionist works typically “evoke a mood, feeling, atmosphere, or scene” by creating musical images through characteristic motifs, harmony, exotic scales (e.g. whole-tone scale, pentatonic scales), instrumental timbre and other elements,[5] whereas Ravel’s impressionist or symbolist works are essentially represented in a more precise and intelligible way.[6] Some impressionist musicians, Debussy and Ravel in particular, are also labeled as symbolist musicians. One trait shared with both aesthetic trends is “a sense of detached observation: rather than expressing deeply felt emotion or telling a story,” as in symbolist poetry, the normal syntax is usually disrupted and individual images that carry the work’s meaning are evoked.[7]

Ernest Fanelli was claimed to have innovated the style in the early 1880s, though his works were unperformed before 1912. The performance of his works in that year led to claims that he was the father of musical Impressionism. Ravel wrote, "this impressionism is certainly very different from that of present-day composers...Mr. Fanelli's impressionism derives more directly from Berlioz." He added that Fanelli's alleged priority does not in any way diminish the achievements of later composers: "the investigations of the young Fanelli could not have diminished those of his colleagues...It is peculiar that these investigations suddenly assume importance because their embryo is discovered in a work written 30 years ago."[8]

Other composers said to have been influenced by Impressionism include Isaac Albéniz, John Alden Carpenter, Frederick Delius, Paul Dukas, Manuel de Falla, Joaquin Turina, Charles Tomlinson Griffes, and Ottorino Respighi.[9] The Finnish composer Jean Sibelius is also associated with impressionism, and his The Swan of Tuonela (1893) predates Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune (regarded as a seminal work of musical impressionism) by a year. The American composer Howard Hanson also borrowed from both Sibelius and impressionism generally in works such as his Second Symphony.[10]

References

  1. ↑ Michael Kennedy, "Impressionism", The Oxford Dictionary of Music, second edition, revised, Joyce Bourne, associate editor (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2006). ISBN 9780198614593.
  2. 1 2 J. Peter Burkholder, Donald Jay Grout and Claude V. Palisca, A History of Western Music, eighth edition (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2010). ISBN 9780393932805.
  3. ↑ Nolan Gasser, "Impressionism". Classical Archives.
  4. ↑ Francois Lesure and Roger Nichols, Debussy Letters (Harvard University Press, 1987). ISBN 9780674194298
  5. ↑ J. Peter Burkholder, Donald Jay Grout and Claude V. Palisca, A History of Western Music, eighth edition (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2010):. ISBN 9780393932805.
  6. ↑ Arbie Orenstein, Ravel: Man and Musician (Dover Publication, 2011):. ISBN 9780486266336.
  7. ↑ J. Peter Burkholder, Donald Jay Grout and Claude V. Palisca, A History of Western Music, eighth edition (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2010):. ISBN 9780393932805.
  8. ↑ Maurice Ravel, A Ravel Reader: Correspondence, Articles, Interviews, compiled and edited by Arbie Orenstein (New York: Columbia University Press, 1990): pp.349–42. ISBN 9780231049627. Unaltered paperback reprint (Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2003), ISBN 9780486430782.
  9. ↑ "Impressionism, in Music", The Columbia Encyclopedia, sixth edition (New York: Columbia University Press, 2007) (Archive copy from 3 April 2009, accessed 25 December 2012).
  10. ↑ Richard Trombley, "Impressionism in Music", Encyclopedia of Music in the 20th Century, edited by Lol Henderson and Lee Stacey (London and Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1999). ISBN 9781579580797; ISBN 9781135929466.

Sources

Further reading

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