Impressionism

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Impressionism

• In Painting and Music

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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

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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.

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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.

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When is Impressionist Music?

• 1885 1910

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1. Bitonality

• 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 Debussys piano piece, La
  Puerta Del Vina. The right hand plays in one
  key while the left hand plays in another.
  Together they create bitonality.

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An example of Bitonality
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2. Fuzzy chords

• Take a lot of notes pile them up, one on top of
  another. You will get some interesting sounds.
  Listen to Claude Debussys Claire de Lune.

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3. Modes

• 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).

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Examples of the Modes
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4. New Sounds Suggest Exotic Locations

• 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.
• Ravels Piece Albarado del Gracioso.

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5. Penatonic Scales

• 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.
• Debussys Girl With the Flaxen Hair, is an
  excellent example of a piece utilizing the 5-tone
  scale.

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The Pentatonic Scales
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6.  Whole Tone Scale

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