Sophomore Theory SIUE: Impressionism

Impressionism

It was a movement in art in general which originated in France between the years of 1870-1880. Some of the crucial factors for impressionism to come along was the innovation of camera, and opening up Japan to west and the rest of the world.

Impressionism in Music.

Impressionism in music was a reaction to the Germanic tradition way of writing music and it was also an attempt to avoid the Wagnerian style of writing. The composers of Impressionism completely re-examined the traditional values of writing music and they created their own technique and style of writing.

Pioneers of Impressionism;

Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)

The music of Debussy in terms of;

1. Form.

In his earlier works Debussy uses all the standard traditional forms like (Sonata form, Rounded Binary, Baroque dances etc)

Later on the formal structure of his music gets much more complicated and he start breaking all the old rules down. His composition like the Preludes for piano contains very complicated forms. The works no longer fall into simple tradition forms, but each movement has a lot of different parts and ideas.

2. Sound/texture/color; Debussy uses different techniques in order to distinguish his sound from all the former composers before him.

_For example in Orchestrating he uses these techniques.

· Impressionistic use of tone color

· new orchestral combinations

· lyrical wind writing

· preference for muted string sounds and "non heroic" brass

· delicate percussive sounds

· extensive use of harp

· soloistic writing

Works like”La Mer” for orchestra is best suited example.

3. The Overall language of Melody and Harmony

importance of melody over harmonic progression and rhythm
harmony as a dimension of melody instead of as accompaniment
use of modes and scales such as the whole-tone and pentatonic
free chromaticism
ambiguous harmonies and tonal centers
mixture of functional and non-functional progressions
rich chords
nonfunctional use of 7th and 9th chords
chord planning
fragmentary melodies

All these techniques can be found in the 2 books of “Images” for solo piano

4. Forms of analysis; The earlier works of Debussy can be analyzed with the traditional ways of analysis (Harmonic progression, intervallic relationships, rhythmic structure) which is used in Romantic and Classical era, this fact can be seen in the Piano trio in G major which was written when he was 18 years old.

Debussy starts to use new techniques in his writing later on in his life and that is what starts to distinguish his work from the older composers of Romantic era. His music could still be analyzed with the traditional way of analysis, but while analyzing we will stumble on new techniques like “Quartal/Quintal” harmonies, “non-functional chords”, use of church modes, use of whole tone scales etc. While analyzing these new techniques needs to be addressed.

5. Basis for organization; Debussy’s “ impressionistic” works are mainly organized depending on certain sounds and colors and feelings. Debussy tries to capture certain moments, certain feelings, certain images through his music.

_For instance his composition “Nuages” composed for orchestra is about clouds and when you listen to the piece you can feel the slow simple motions of groups of clouds in the sky.

_ in the 2^nd movement of Iberia titled “Les parfums de la nuit” in English “the Perfume of the night” the work is about the secnt of nights in Paris.

Musical Techniques of impressionism which later was used by almost all the 20^th century composers including Stravinsky;

1. Quartal/Quintal Harmony; using intervals of Fourths and Fifth instead of the traditional Third “Triad”