Realism and Impressionism

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Realism and Impressionism

• The Beginnings of Modernism

2
Realism

• As the 19th century wears on, the pace quickens.
  Turmoil
• and flux increase as Europes population leaves
  in droves
• for other corners of the globe. Business and
  industry
• continue their technological and industrial
  revolution and
• industrial revolution, and individual workers
  strive for
• greater rights and rewards. Nationalism rises,
  and science
• explodes. Philosophy and psychology take fire and
  influence the arts, where reactions against
  Romanticism turn particularly modernist.

3
Emigration

• During the 18th and 19th centuries 70 million
  people emigrated from Europe
• to other continents, mostly North America, but
  also Siberia, Latin America
• and Australia. By 1900 the total European
  population outside Europe
• numbered approximately 560 million and
  represented more than 1/3 of the
• worlds entire population. Not all countries
  participated in this migration
• equally. France, which had adopted birth control
  practices, barely
• reproduced at replacement level, but the
  declining death rate, which
• resulted from better medicine and other factors,
  allowed Frances population
• to grow. Nevertheless, it contributed very little
  to the emigration movement.
• The populations of most other European countries,
  on the other hand,
• exploded and lead to migration on a massive
  scale. In the mid 19th century,
• Ireland was contributing nearly half of the
  immigrants to the United States,
• and in 4 consecutive waves (1850, 1870, 1885,
  1910) 13 million Scots left
• their native lands with 2/3 of them coming to the
  U.S. 6 million Germans left
• (most for the U.S.) and 2 million Scandinavians
  did the same. 16 million
• Italians left Italy in 1913 alone. Central and
  Eastern Europeans contributed
• more than 9 million people to the waves of
  emigration. By the end of the 19th
• century, Europeans had literally populated the
  globe.

4
Business and Industry

• During the 19th century, industrial civilization
  changed from a
• system of production based on coal and iron to
  one based on the
• technology of electricity, internal combustion
  engine, and the
• chemistry of synthetic materials. The turning
  point came in the
• 1890s when technological development boomed.
• An overview of industrial and technological
  development can be
• broken into 3 periods
• 1. Began in Britain in the late 18th century and
  by the first half of the 19th century had moved
  to France, Belgium, Switzerland, and the U.S.
  However, with the exception of the U.S., the
  industrial explosion in these countries had
  slowed after the 1860s. The U.S. share of the
  world industrial output had climbed from 23 to 36
  percent.

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Business and Industry

• 2. Occurred between 1840-1873 and witnessed the
  first real world boom in railway construction and
  widespread industrialization of the remainder of
  Europe, particularly Germany, where a great
  economic transformation took Germany to a
  position as the worlds 2nd largest industrial
  producer by the end of the century.
• 3. Came at the end of the 19th century and
  encompassed Russia, the Scandinavian countries,
  Italy, parts of Eastern Europe, and Japan. By
  1913, Europe and North America represented 82 of
  the worlds industrial production.

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Business and Industry

• The world began to see huge corporations with
  multi-functional hierarchical structures. Some
  companies retained a family structure, but others
  moved toward a managerial model, with
  decision-making placed in the hands of salaried
  executives, and at the same time, the concept of
  marketing networks created more and more mergers
  and larger and larger corporations. In addition,
  the marketplace experienced a dynamic increase in
  new business centered on new products that
  emerged from new technologies---for example,
  automobiles, bicycles, the cinema, and later,
  airplanes.

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Workers and Socialism

• Among the major results of industrialization were
  
• the growth of the working class, the development
• of its organizational forms and its links to
  other
• elements in society who were unwilling to
  integrate
• with the bourgeois society. The organization of
  the
• working class came in three spurts
• 1. From 18641893, witnessed powerful popular
  movements and mass strikes. During this time, the
  International Working Mens Association (IWMA)
  and the socialist International were formed.

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Workers and Socialism

• 2. Occurred between 1893-1905. saw the rise of
  trade unions and the emergence of nation-states
  of political parties.
• 3. Occurred from 1905 until the beginning of
  W.W.I included a general expansion of labor and
  socialist movements.
• The IWMA was founded in London in 1864 and drew
  much
• support across Europe. It was originally
  intended to be a
• worldwide workers party through which workers
  could have a
• sense of solidarity in struggles to improve
  their conditions.
• The movement split in 1869 with the followers of
  Karl Marx
• going one direction and the others, known as the
  anti-
• authoritarian faction going in another. Within
  20 years, the
• movement had splintered into nation groups so
  that different
• forms of action and militancy could not develop
  according to a
• single model. The movement polarized around 2
  centers
• unions and political parties.

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Workers and Socialism

• The organization of the second International
  in1889-1891 (a
• loose federation of organizations) was socialist
  in nature.
• According to its agenda, an individual had to
  work for the
• collective ownership of the means of production
  and to
• recognize the need for political and
  parliamentary actions.
• Strikes became their weapon, but by the beginning
  of the 19th
• century, the labor movement in Europe proved
  relatively
• impotent in the face of rising nationalism and
  imperialism, its
• center being the German Reich.

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The German Reich

• Unlike the rest of Europe, Germany remained a
  series of independent states
• under individual rule. On January 18, 1871, 25
  German states, including 3
• city-states, joined together to create a unified
  German Reich with William I,
• King of Prussia, as Kaiser. It was an
  authoritarian state whose government
• was not responsible to the parliament. It held a
  conservative business class
• and domination of the civil service by a powerful
  military. Bismarck, the
• prime minister of the Reich, was a Prussian and
  he began a Kulturkampf
• (campaign for secularization) which attacked
  Catholics, expelled the Jesuits
• and placed controls on the Roman clergy. However,
  because such a
• campaign also alarmed the protestants, it did not
  succeed. After 2
• assassination attempts on the Kaiser, Bismarck
  instituted anti-socialist laws.
• Despite the crash of the Viennese stock market,
  German industrial growth
• continued and heavy industry became more
  concentrated. The country
• became more urban and population grew.
  Agriculture was modernized and
• Germany, practicing a form of capitalism, became
  the 2nd most powerful
• nation on earth.

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The German Reich

• Bismarcks foreign policy sought to consolidate
  Germanys
• position in Europe by forging a set of
  contradictory treaties. By
• 1882, the Triple Alliance among Germany,
  Austria-Hungary and
• Italy was formed. In 1888, Kaiser William II
  began his search for
• Germanys place in the sun however, socialist
  influence
• increased and in 1912, the Social Democratic
  Party (SPD)
• became the largest group in the Reichstag. Its
  major objectives
• included universal suffrage in those areas of
  Germany where 3
• classes (aristocracy, bourgeoisie and workers)
  still existed. They
• used demonstrations and strikes to accomplish
  this. This demand
• proved to be an important point in the SPDs
  acceptance of
• Germanys entrance into WWI. The Great War was
  expected to
• last for 3 or 4 months and be over by Christmas.
  It wasnt.

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Scientific Explosion

• A lot happened in science in the last quarter of
  the
• 19th century and the first decade of the 20th
• century.
• Model of an atom was built describing the
  movements of electrons within an atom and this
  allowed for remarkable results in spectroscopy of
  gaseous matter and X-ray physics
• Discovery of X-rays
• Discovery of superconductivity
• Science of genetics formed
• Bacteriology was begun

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Philosophy and Psychology

• Friedrich NietzscheGerman philosopher
• whose ideas attacked religion and women
• Sigmund Freud---(Austrian) developed
• psychoanalysis---the probing of the human
  unconscious---in the world of dreams

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Romanticism

• Does not glorify the past.
• Seeks the truth.
• Finds beauty in the commonplace.
• Focuses on the conditions of the working class.
• Represented everyday scenes the way they really
  looked.
• Artists to know Gustave Courbet, Edouard Manet
  and Rosa Bonheur

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Visual Arts

• The style referred to as realism ran through the
  1840s, 1850s and 1860s and its central figure
  was Gustave Courbet (1819-1877) Courbet was
  influenced by Corot in the way he played with
  light on surfaces, however, unlike Corot, his aim
  was to make an objective and unprejudiced record
  of the customs, ideas and appearances of French
  society. The Stone Breakers was the first
  painting to display his philosophy to the
  fullest.
• A social realist, Courbet was more intent on a
  social message than on the reaction of his
  viewers. Therefore, his work is less dramatic and
  nostalgic than that of others.

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Gustave Courbet
The Stone Breakers Courbet painted two men as he
had seen them working beside a road. The work is
life size and while it seems objective, it makes
a sharp comment on the tedium and laborious
nature of the task.
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• Burial at Ornans
• In this painting, Courbet was criticized for
  showing a lack of reverence and respect. Both
  works (this one
• and The Stone Breakers) depart radically from the
  more-controlled, idealized pictures of both the
• Neoclassical and the Romantic schools of thought
  they portray the life and emotions not of
  aristocrats but
• of humble peasants, and they do so with a
  realistic urgency. Such images of everyday life,
  characterized by a
• powerful naturalism and boldly portrayed, cast
  him as a revolutionary socialist. A friend of
  many writers
• and philosophers of his day, he became the leader
  of the new school of Realism, which in time
  prevailed
• over other contemporary movements. His audacity
  and disrespect for authority was notorious. In
  1865 his
• series depicting storms at sea astounded the art
  world and opened the way for Impressionism.

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• The Grain Sifters
• Courbet painted normal people on a monumental
  scale that had previously been reserved for
  heroic or Biblical figures
• He was also criticized for using his friends as
  models

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The Stormy Sea or The Wave
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Jean-Francois Millet

• Millet was one of a group of painters called the
  Barbizon
• School, which focused upon a realistic-romantic
  vision of
• landscape and typically used peasants as its
  subject matter.
• The Barbizon did not support socialism, but it
  did applaud
• the honest, simple life and work on the land as
  contrasted
• to the bourgeois life. In Millets Woman Baking
  Bread, these
• themes are apparent and the peasant emerges as a
  heroic
• figure. The vantage point plays a part here since
  we see the
• peasant women from slightly below giving her an
  added
• height and dominance to emphasize her grandeur.

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• Woman Baking Bread

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• The Gleaners

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Edouard Manet (1832-83)

• Manet was more concerned with HOW to paint,
  instead of WHAT to paint. He strove to paint
  only what the eye can see.
• Manet is responsible for bridging the gap between
  Realism and Impressionism
• Sometimes he used models, but dressed them
  appropriately and let them pose naturally.
  Manets painting, Dejeuner sur lherbe, shocked
  the public when it was first shown at the Salon
  des Refuses in 1863. In this county setting, we
  see people that are real and identifiable
  (Manets model, his brother and the sculptor
  Leehof). There is apparent immorality going on as
  we see what appears to be a naked frolic in
  Paris park outraged the public and the critics.
  If he had chosen nymphs and satyrs, he would not
  have received criticism, but by having reality in
  a mythical setting, and a nude women sitting with
  clothed men, it proved unsettling for the public.

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Dejeuner sur lherbe (The Picnic)
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A Bar at the Folies-Bergère
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"Le Chemin de Fer" (The Railroad)
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Rosa Bonheur

• Rosa Bonheur showed a preference for portraying
  animals. She as well-known and respected during
  her lifetime and was the first woman made an
  officer in the Legion of Honor. History
  recognizes few females from this period, but Rosa
  Bonheur established herself as the foremost
  animalier, or animal painter, linked with
  landscape painting and the Realist tradition. 
  Through contacts, exhibitions, and reproductions
  spread worldwide, Rosa Bonheurs work was well
  known throughout Europe and America.  Her unusual
  ways attracted considerable public attention and
  she harnessed this interest throughout her life
  and established a position, commercially and
  artistically, for her work, becoming one of the
  most original figures of the 19th century

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• While Bonheurs work was widely acclaimed, it was
  generally difficult for women to sell their art
  up until this point in time.
• There were, however, several methods which were
  used by many female artists to sell their art
  work
• Sell to other women.
• Have a male friend or relative pass work off as
  his own.
• Sell work anonymously.

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Couching Lion
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Plowing in the Nivernais
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This is probably Bonheurs most famous painting.
The Horse Fair
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Realism and Theatre

• A conscious movement toward realism in the
  theatre
• emerged around the middle of the 19th century.
• Dramatic literature strove for truthful
  portrayal.
• Thus, everyday life, with which the playwright
  was
• directly familiar, became the subject matter of
  drama.
• In realistic theatre the characters talk and act
  as people in ordinary life do. This was not
  always
• a pleasant dramatic experience and some
  play-goers
• complained that the theatre was turning into a
  sewer
• or tavern. Playwrights countered the criticism
  by
• saying that the way to avoid such ugly depictions
  on
• stage was to change society.

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Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906)

• From Norway
• Ibsen built powerful problem-dramas around
  carefully selected detail and plausible
  character-to-action motivations. His
  plays usually bring to conclusion, events
  that began well in the past,
  with thorough explanations.
• Ibsens concern for detail carried
  to the scenery and
  costumes as well and his plays contain detailed
  descriptions of settings and properties, all
  of which are essential to the action.
• The content of many of Ibsens plays was
  controversial and most deal with questions
  about moral and social issues that remain
  difficult today.
• Ibsens most famous play, A Dolls House, is a
  great example of a typical Realism play.
• He is considered to be the father of modern
  drama.

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George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)
Irish Although his career overlapped the 19th and
20th centuries he embodied the spirit of 19th
century Realism. This artist, witty and
brilliant, was above all a humanitarian and
although many Victorians considered him a heretic
and a subversive because of his devotion to
socialism, his faith lay in humanity and its
infinite potential. Of all the English
dramatists, many people feel that Shaw ranks as
the greatest playwright next to Shakespeare

• Irish

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George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

• Shaws plays deal with the unexpected and they
  often
• appear contradictory and inconsistent in
  characterization
• and structure. His favorite device was to build
  up a
• pompous notion and then destroy it. For example,
  in Man
• and Superman, when a respectable Victorian family
  learns
• that their daughter is pregnant, they react with
  predictable
• indignation. A character who appears to speak for
  the
• playwright comes to the girls defense, attacking
  the
• familys hypocrisy and defending the girl. She
  however,
• explodes in anger, not against her family, but
  against her
• defender. She had been secretly married all the
  time and, as
• the most respectable of the lot, she condemns
  her
• defenders (and possibly the audiences)
  freethinking.
• The chief theme in Shaws plays is that society
  must protect and develop the individual rights of
  each person.

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George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

• Shaw opposed the doctrine, art for arts sake
  and
• he insisted that art should have a purpose. He
• believed that plays made better vehicles for
  social
• messages than speeches or pamphlets. Although
• each play usually has a character who acts as the
  
• playwrights mouthpiece, Shaw does more than
• sermonize. His characters probe the depths of the
  
• human condition, often discovering themselves
• through some life-like crisis.

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Late Realism

• Realism now included a great deal more than its
  19th century definition had allowed. It included
  more theatrical staging devices such as
  fragmented settings and many more nonrealistic
  literary and presentational techniques such as
  symbolism. As far as the theatre was concerned,
  stage realism and the realism of everyday life
  had parted company.

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Tennessee Williams (1912-83)

• Tennessee Williams skillfully blended
• the qualities of realism with whatever
• scenic, structural or symbolic devices
• were necessary to achieve the effects
• he wanted.
• His plays, such as The Glass Menagerie
• and A Streetcar named Desire, deal
• sensitively with the psychological
• problems of common people. One
• of his greatest interests and strengths
• was character development and this
• often carries his plays forward as he
• explores the tortured lives and the
• illusions of his larger-than-life
• characters.

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Arthur Miller (1915-2005)

• Arthur Miller probed
• both the social and
• psychological forces that
• destroy contemporary
• people in plays such as,
• Death of a Salesman.
• One of the first
• playwrights to include
• homosexual characters
• in his plays.

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Impressionism

• The Realists search for spontaneity, harmonious
  colors and
• subjects from everyday life and faithfulness to
  observed
• light and atmospheric conditions led to the
  development of
• a style used by a small group of painters in the
  1860s and
• described by a hostile critic as impressionism.
  the
• impressionists created a new way of seeing
  reality through
• color and motion. This style developed due to
  competition
• with the newest technology of the time---the
  camera. These
• painters tried to outdo photography by portraying
  the
• essentials of perception that cannot be captured
  by a
• camera. They emphasized the presence of color
  within
• shadows and based their style on an understanding
  of the
• interrelated mechanisms of the camera and the
  eye vision
• consists of the result of light and color making
  an
• impression on the retina.

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Impressionism

• In its purest and truest form, Impressionism only
  lasted
• about 15 years, but it profoundly influenced all
  painting
• that followed. Working out of doors, the
  impressionists
• concentrated on the effects of natural light on
  objects and
• atmosphere. Their experiments resulted in a
  different
• vision of the world around them and ways of
  rendering that
• vision. For them the canvas was first of all, a
  material
• covered with pigments---small color patches
  which
• together created lively, vibrant images. The
  subjects painted
• are impressions of landscapes, rivers, streets,
  cafes, theatres
• and so on.

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Claude Monet (1840-1926)

• Claude Monet and fellow impressionist Auguste
• Renoir spent the summer of 1866 working closely
  together and from that time came the beginnings
  of impressionism.
• In his paintings, Claude Monet tried to find an
• art of modern life by recording everyday themes
• with on-the-spot, objective observation. He had
• two aims representation of contemporary
• subject matter and optical truththat is, the way
• colors and textures really appear to the eye.
• Monets paintings reflect an innocent joy in the
• world around him and an intensely positive view
• of life. His work encompasses scientific
• observation, the study of optics and other
• aspects of human perception.
• Monet translated objects into color stimuli.

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Claude Monet (1840-1926)

• The scene conveys a
• pleasant picture of the
• times, an optimistic view
• rather than the often
• pessimistic outlook of the Romantics. Although
• this is a landscape panorama, lack
• of linear perspective or
• atmospheric conditions
• brings the entire painting
• to the foreground with
• almost no deep space.
• The scene is bright, alive
• and pleasant.

On the Seine at Bennecourt
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Claude Monet (1840-1926)
This painting began it all. One critic referred
to this Monet, in a derogatory manner, as an
impression of a sunrise. Impressionism got its
name at that point.
Impression Sunrise
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• Impressionists often
• painted the same
• subject matter times at
• different times of day
• and in many seasons to
• study the effects of
• light on subjects.

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Mary Cassatt (1845-1926)

• Mary Cassatt came from Philadelphia, a
• minor center for the arts at the time.
• However, she had experienced difficulties
• entering the American art market. She first
• joined and trained with the Impressionists in
• 1877. She was financially independent and that
• allowed her to ignore her familys objection to
• being an artist (it was deemed unsuitable for a
• woman, especially one of wealth). In fact, it was
  her wealth and connections with wealthy
  collectors in the U.S. that helped the
  Impressionists gain
• exposure and acceptance in this country. Cassatt
  was also able to achieve considerable commercial
  success herself.
• You will see that her favorite subjects are women
  
• and children. Her brushwork is far less obvious
  than it is in other Impressionist works. It was
  like a combination of realism and Impressionism.
  This helped conventional
• viewers to understand the works of the
• Impressionists and closely relate to the scenes.

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The Childs Bath Painted in clear, bright
colors, Cassatts subjects in The Childs Bath,
do not make eye contact with the viewer. Their
forms are purposeful and they awaken interest,
rather than emotions
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Maternal Kiss.
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The Boating Party
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Young Mother Sewing
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Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)

• The surface and textural concerns of the
  Impressionists can be seen in the work of the
  centurys most remarkable sculptor, Auguste
  Rodin. Although his style is not easy to
  classify, we find plenty of idealism and social
  comment.
• Rodins textures are impressionistic his
  surfaces appear to shimmer as light plays on
  their irregularities, but they are more than
  reflective surfaces. They give his works dynamic
  and dramatic qualities. Although Rodin worked
  fairly realistically, he nevertheless created a
  subjective reality beyond the surface, and the
  subjectivity of his viewpoint is even more clear
  and dramatic in his pessimistic later sculptures.

54
The Burghers of Calais Commissioned by the City
of Calais, France as a public monument, the work
honors six leading citizens (burghers) who, in
1937, offered themselves as hostages to the
English King Edward III, who had laid siege to
the city. The burghers were ready to sacrifice
their lives if the city would be spared. King
Edward III was so impressed with their courage
that he spared both the burghers and Calais.
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The Cathedral
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The Thinker
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The Kiss
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Post-Impressionism

• In the last 2 decades of the 19th century,
  impressionism evolved into a
• collection of disparate styles simply called
  post-impressionism. Post
• Impressionists subject matter was similar to the
  Impressionists---
• landscapes, familiar portraits, groups, café and
  nightclub scenes---but
• the post impressionist gave their subject matter
  a complex and
• personal significance.
• The Post Impressionists were concerned about
  capturing a sensory
• experience. They maintained the contemporary
  philosophy of art for
• arts sake and rarely attempted to sell their
  works. The did want to
• share their subjective impressions of the real
  world, but moved
• beyond the romantic and impressionistic world of
  pure sensation.
• They were more interested in the painting as a
  flat surface carefully
• composed of shapes, lines and colors, an idea
  that became the
• foundation for most of the art movements that
  followed.

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Post-Impressionism

• The post impressionists called for a return to
  form
• and structure in painting, characteristics they
• believed were lacking in the works of the
• impressionists. Using the light qualities of the
• impressionists, they brought formal patterning
  to
• their canvases. They used clean color areas and
• applied color in a systematic, almost scientific
• manner. The post impressionists sought to return
• painting to traditional goals while retaining the
  clean
• palette of the impressionists.

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Vincent van Gogh (1853-1903)

• van Gogh was intensely emotional in pursuing
• form in a unique way. His turbulent life included
  
• numerous short lived careers, impossible love
• affairs, a tempestuous friendship with Paul
• Gauguin and a serious mental illness. van Gogh
• gives us one of the most personal and subjective
  
• artistic viewpoints in the history of Western
  art.

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In this work, Harvest at La Crau (The Blue Cart),
which van Gogh produced during his Arles period,
reflects an interest in complementary colors
(colors on opposite sides of the color wheel) van
Gogh, inspired by Japanese prints, placed large
areas of color side by side. Doing so, he
believed expressed the quiet, harmonious life of
the rural community.
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Café Terrace at Night
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A frenzy of energy explodes from van Goghs
paintings such as this one, Starry Night.
Flattened forms and outlining also reflect
Japanese influence. Tremendous power surges
through the painting, especially in focal areas
and we can sense the dynamic, personal feelings
and mental turmoil barely contained by the
paintings surface. This work represents one of
the earliest and most famous examples of
expressionism, a style we will study later.
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Impressionism and Music

• The anti-Romantic spirit produced a style in
  music that parallels that of the impressionistic
  painters. A free use of chromatic tones marked
  later 19th century style, even among the
  Romantics. However, a parting of the ways
  occurred, the effects of which still affect music
  today. Some composers made free use of chromatic
  tones and
• key shifts but stayed within the parameters of
  traditional
• major/minor tonality. Others rejected traditional
  tonality
• completely and a new ATONAL harmonic expression
  came
• into being. This rejection of traditional
  tonality led to
• impressionism in music. Foggy tonalities with
  dissonant and irregular rhythms were also
  characteristics of the Impressionistic style.
• Music of the Impressionistic time period means
  creating mood and tone colors.

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Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

• Impressionist music can best be found in the
• work of its primary champion, Claude Debussy,
  although he did not like to be called an
  impressionist because it had been coined by a
  critic of painters and was meant to be
  derogatory. Debussy claimed he was an old
  Romantic who has thrown the worries of success
  our the window, and he sought no association
  with the painters. There are however,
  similarities. His use of tone color has been
  described as wedges of color, much like those
  the painters provided with individual
  brushstrokes. Oriental influence is also
  apparent, especially in his use of the Asian
  six-tone scale. He wished above all to return
  French music to fundamental sources in nature and
  move it away from the heaviness of the German
  tradition. He delighted in natural scenes, as did
  the impressionist painters and he sought to
  capture the effects of shimmering light in music.

Debussy is best known for composing dream-like
piano pieces.
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Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

• Debussy reduced melodic development to limited
  short
• motifs and, in perhaps his greatest break with
  tradition, he
• moved away from traditional progressions of
  chordal
• harmonies. Debussy considered a chord strictly on
  the
• merits of its expressive capabilities, apart from
  any idea of
• tonal progression within a key. As a result,
  gliding chords,
• that is, the repetition of a chord up and down
  the scale,
• became a hallmark of musical impressionism.
• DISSONANCE and irregular rhythm and meter further
• distinguish Debussys works. Form and content
  are
• subordinate to expressive intent. His works
  suggest, rather
• than state, leaving the listener with only an
  impression,
• perhaps even an ambiguous one.
• Debussy did not like Wagners music calling it
  heavy and tiresome.

67
Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

• Freedom, flexibility and nontraditional timbres
• mark Debussys compositions, the most famous
• of which is Prelude a lapres-midi dun faune
  (Prelude to
• the Afternoon of a Faun). (CD Track 19) This
  piece
• uses a large orchestra, with emphasis on the
  woodwinds,
• most notably in the haunting theme running
  throughout.
• Two harps also play a prominent part in the
  texture, and
• antique cymbals are used to add an exotic touch
  near the
• end. Although freely ranging in an irregular 9/8
  meter and
• having virtually no tonal centers, the Prelude
  does have the
• traditional ABA structure.

68
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)

• Maurice Ravel is often linked with his
• French countryman Claude Debussy,
• and there are some important similarities
• in their music. Both used the rich
• harmonies and new scales that are
• usually associated with musical
• impressionism, and both had an interest
• in the exotic. But where Debussy
• was a sensualist, influenced by the
• symbolist and decadent movements,
• Ravel was more of a craftsman and
• traditionalist, creating a style that was
• more neoclassical. Although he is considered
• an impressionist, he followed the classical
• structures of Haydn and Mozart.

69
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)

• Ravels style became more and more classical as
  the years went by. He did not adopt Debussys
  complex sonorities and ambiguous tonal centers.
• Ravel is known for his orchestra music in which
  he
• used symbolism. For instance, in Bolero, Ravel
• exhibits driving rhythms meant to signify
  primitive tribal dances and urges.
• Other works of Ravel---his Piano Concerto in
  G---use Mozart and traditional classicism as
  their models.
• As you can see, some composers stayed completely
  within established neo-classical conventions of
  Western music well into the 20th century.