Impressionism
In Painting and Music
What is Impressionism?
• art capturing the image of an object as
someone would see it if they just caught a
glimpse
• major movement & genre of the Romantic
Period
– first in painting
– later in music
Impressionist painting
• work produced between about 1867 and
1886
• by a group of artists who shared a set of
related approaches and techniques.
• characteristics of Impressionism was an
attempt to
– accurately, & objectively record visual reality in
effects of light and color.
What is Impressionist Music?
• no clean, hard outlines or edges or shapes in
the paintings nor in the music.
• The sounds were "painted" using richly
colored harmonies.
When is Impressionist Music?
• 1885 – 1910
• Defined as: two different harmonies at once.
– creates fuzzy harmonies. Traditional harmonic
progressions are clean and straight forward.
• Think of music written in two different keys at the
same time.
An example is Debussy’s piano piece, “La Puerta Del
Vina.” The right hand plays in one key while the left
hand plays in another. Together they create:
bitonality.
An example of Bitonality
• Take a lot of notes & pile them up, one on top
of another. You will get some interesting
sounds. Listen to Claude Debussy’s “Claire de
Lune.”
• Also called the “church modes,” they are
special scales that have been around for a
long time.
• Utilized by composers until about the time of
the Renaissance.
• A wonderful piece by Claude Debussy based
entirely from the modes is “Fetes” (Festival).
The Dorian mode is one of the scales that are
used (see the next slide).
Examples of the Modes
• Composers like Maurice Ravel borrowed ideas
from places like Spain, Asian, Greece and Jazz
in America to “paint,” colors of sound in their
music.
• “Bolero,” is an an excellent example of this
new “exotic” sound.
• Ravel’s Piece “Albarado del Gracioso.”
• Penta meaning 5. These are scales with just 5
notes.
• This age old scale is often used and associated
with the music of China and the Native
American Indians.
• Debussy’s “Girl With the Flaxen Hair,” is an
excellent example of a piece utilizing the 5tone scale.
The Pentatonic Scales
• This is a scale with no half steps.
• Listen to “L'isle joyeuse,” (Island of Pleasure)
by Claude Debussy.