Impressionist music

Impressionist music
Cultural origins	Late 19th century in Paris, France

Impressionism in music was a movement in European classical music, mainly in France, which appeared in the late 19th century and continued into the beginning of the 20th century from 1875 to 1925.^{[citation needed]} Similarly to its precursor in the visual arts, musical impressionism focuses on suggestion and atmosphere.^{[citation needed]}

Overview

Periods of Western classical music
Early
Medieval	(500–1400)
Renaissance	(1400–1600)
Baroque	(1600–1760)
Common practice
Baroque	(1600–1760)
Classical	(1730–1820)
Romantic	(1815–1910)
Impressionist	(1875–1925)
Modern and contemporary
Modern	(1890–1930)
20th century	(1901–2000)
Contemporary	(1975–present)
21st century	(2001–present)

French critic Stéphane Mallarmé states that naming an object takes away three fourths of its power, "to suggest is to dream". Musical impressionism was based in France by the French composer Claude Debussy. Debussy found inspiration in Javanese music "which makes our tonic and dominant seem like ghosts?" (Kamien 412). He and Maurice Ravel were generally considered to be the two "great" impressionists. However, these days composers are generally not as accurately described by the term "Impressionism" as painters in the genre were. Debussy renounced it, saying: "I am trying to do 'something different' – in a way realities – what the imbeciles call 'impressionism' is a term which is as poorly used as possible, particularly by art critics."

Impressionist composers

Ernest Fanelli was claimed to have innovated the style, though his works were unperformed before 1912.

Impressionism has also influenced at least some of the music of Isaac Albéniz, John Alden Carpenter, Frederick Delius, Paul Dukas, Manuel de Falla, Charles Tomlinson Griffes, and Ottorino Respighi.

Further reading

• Machlis, Joseph, and Kristine Forney. The Enjoyment of Music, seventh edition. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1995. ISBN 0-393-96643-7.
• Palmer, Christopher. Impressionism in Music. London: Hutchinson; New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1973.
• Pasler, Jann. "Impressionism". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers, 2001.
• Thompson, Oscar. Debussy, Man and Artist. New York: Dodd, Mead & company, 1937.