Impressionism

General:

The impressionist movement that took place mainly in European Classical Music largely occurred in France. The impressionist movement occurred in the late 19th century and carried on roughly to the middle of the 20th century. Theoretically; the aim of impressionism is to convey the emotional impact of the subject as opposed to accurately depicting it. Claude Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune is an example of this, it’s is not an accurate representation of the poem but merely conveys the feeling of it.

Impressionism came about as a reaction against the musical conventions of the romantic period where intense emotion was directly addressed, otherwise known as program music.

Technical:

Whilst the impressionist era was still essentially tonal in the sense that they used the diatonic system of music the composers often used dissonances, often ninths and thirteenths. Mathematical scales were sometimes also used for example the whole tone scale. It is also worth noting that in contrast to the romantic era, impressionist composers favoured shorter musical forms like prelude, nocturne and arabesque, almost completely abandoning forms like symphony and concerto.

Often in Debussy’s pieces a large orchestra is require to perform the piece however it is rarely used to make a loud sounds. String sections are often divided and muted; harps are used to add a distinctive touch. Woodwind is heavily used, the flute in the lower registers as well as the oboe and the English horn feature in solos. Con sord brass is often used in pianissimo sections. Percussion is also used in many forms; kettledrums, tamtams, celesta, glockenspiel and xylophone add yet more colour to the mix.

Other techniques used by impressionists are extensive use of crossed rhythms to ‘blur’ the bars lines and the pulse of the music. Minutia is also a large part of impressionistic music, this is where subtleties in the music can be picked out that convey meaning. Once again Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune is a prime example of this.

Influence

So who did the impressionists influence?

Manuel de Falla (Spanish); Frederick Delius (English); Isaac Albéniz (Spanish); Erik Satie (French); Camille Saint-Saëns (French); and Ottorino Respighi (Italian) to name but a few. Impressionistic passages are common in earlier music by Frédéric Chopin, and can also be found in the music of Béla Bartók and George Gershwin.

Post-impressionism

Impressionism like Romanticism was eventually seen as uncouth and ‘too impressionistic’ Erik Satie was a key player in this school of thought which led to the school of post-impressionism where the limitations of impressionism were abandoned. Ironically the term impressionism was never widely liked by ‘impressionist’ composers. Debussy most notably said the term was woefully inaccurate and that he was ‘just trying to do something different.’

One of the most important things that impressionism achieved however was the weakening of the concept tonality. Non-functional chords and chromatic harmonies paved the way for the likes of Schoenberg and the second Viennese school and their atonality.