ImpressionismIn 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 5-tone scale.

The Pentatonic Scales

• This is a scale with no half steps. • Listen to “L'isle joyeuse,” (Island of Pleasure)

by Claude Debussy.