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Impressionism in music was a movement among various composers in Westernclassical music (mainly during the late 19th and early 20th centuries) whose music focuses on mood 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 afterMonet'sImpression, Sunrise. Composers 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, etc. to make the observer focus their attention on the overall impression.[2]
The most prominent feature in musical Impressionism is the use of "color", or in musical terms,timbre, which can be achieved throughorchestration, harmonic usage, texture, etc.[3] Other elements of musical Impressionism also involve new chord combinations,ambiguous tonality,extended harmonies, use ofmodes and exotic scales,parallel motion,extra-musicality, and evocative titles such as “Reflets dans l'eau”(“Reflections on the water”), “Brouillards” (“Mists”), etc.[2]
Claude Debussy andMaurice Ravel are two leading figures in Impressionism, though Debussy rejected this label (in a 1908 letter toJacques Durand he wrote "imbeciles call [what I am trying to write inImages] 'impressionism', a term employed with the utmost inaccuracy, especially by art critics who use it as a label to stick onTurner, the finest creator of mystery in the whole of art!"[4]) and Ravel displayed discomfort with it, at one point claiming that it could not be adequately applied to music at all.[5] 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 and pentatonic scales), instrumental timbre, large unresolved chords (e.g., 9ths, 11ths, 13ths), parallel motion, ambiguous tonality, extreme chromaticism, heavy use of the piano pedals, and other elements.[2] “The perception of Debussy’s compositional language as decidedly post-romantic/Impressionistic—nuanced, understated, and subtle—is firmly solidified among today’s musicians and well-informed audiences."[6] Some Impressionist composers, Debussy and Ravel in particular, are also labeled assymbolist composers. One trait shared with both aesthetic trends is "a sense of detached observation: rather than expressing deeply felt emotion or telling a story"; as insymbolist poetry, the normal syntax is usually disrupted and individual images that carry the work's meaning are evoked.[2]
In 1912, the French composerErnest Fanelli (1860–1917) received significant attention and coverage in the Parisian press following a performance of asymphonic poem he wrote in 1886, titledThèbes,[7] incorporating elements associated with Impressionism, such asextended chords andwhole-tone scales.[8] Ravel was unimpressed by Fanelli's novelties, maintaining that these were already utilized by past composers such asFranz Liszt.[9]: 36 He also opined that Fanelli's Impressionism stemmed fromHector Berlioz rather than Liszt or Russian composers.[10]
Other composers linked to Impressionism includeLili Boulanger,[11][12]Isaac Albéniz,[13]Frederick Delius,[14]Paul Dukas,[13]Alexander Scriabin,[15]Manuel de Falla,[13]John Alden Carpenter,[13]Ottorino Respighi,Albert Roussel,Karol Szymanowski,Charles Tomlinson Griffes, andFederico Mompou.[13] The Finnish composerJean Sibelius is also associated with Impressionism,[14] and histone poemThe Swan of Tuonela (1893) predates Debussy'sPrélude à l'après-midi d'un faune (regarded as a seminal work of musical Impressionism) by a year.[14] The American composerHoward Hanson also borrowed from both Sibelius and Impressionism generally in works such as hisSecond Symphony.[14]
One of the most important tools of musical Impressionism was the tensionless harmony. Thedissonance of chords was not resolved, but was used as timbre. These chords were often shifted parallel. In the melodic field the whole tone scale, the pentatonic andmodal scales were used. The melodics were characterized by their circular melodic movements. The timbre became the stylistic device of Impressionism instead of concise themes or other traditional forms.[16][better source needed]
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