1. Chapter 27: Impressionism and Exoticism

2. Modernism: An Anti-Romantic Movement
Turning away from the predominantly idealistic, sentimental aesthetics of Romanticism
Partially due to the upheaval of the Franco-Prussian War and WWI
Developments in the arts mirrored the unsettled times
Move away from conventional musical expression

3. Impressionism
Impressionism: late 19th-century movement that sought to re-create the impression of a single, fleeting moment; began in France and centered around Paris
Began in the visual artists:
Claude Monet ( )
Edgar Degas ( )
Auguste Renoir ( )
Artistic style:
Against representational art
Importance of light
Spots of color create movement and fluidity
Figure 27.1 Claude Monet, Woman with Umbrella (1886). The Impressionist canvas is not a finished surface in the traditional sense. Rather, the painter breaks down light into separate dabs of color and juxtaposes them for the viewer’s eye to reassemble. Here, bold brushstrokes convey an astonishing sense of movement, freshness, and sparkling light.

4. Impressionism in Music
Melody: Motives rather than long themes; use of whole-tone, pentatonic, and chromatic scales to obscure tonic
Harmony: Static harmony instead of strong cadences; use of 7th and 9th chords; parallel motion
Rhythm: Free, flexible rhythms with irregular accents
Color: emphasis on woodwinds and brass; “new “colors”
Texture: Varies from thin and airy to heavy and dense;
Form: Adapted to the particular composition; avoidance of traditional forms

5. Claude Debussy (1862-1918) Career spent in Paris
Studied piano, composition, and music theory at the Paris Conservatory
Travelled to Italy, Russia, and Vienna thanks to his patron Nadezhda von Meck
Won the Prix de Rome in 1884
Figure 27.2 Claude Debussy at the age of twenty-four

6. Prelude to The Afternoon of a Faun (1894)
Written to precede a stage reading of the poem The Afternoon of a Faun by Stéphane Mallarmé
Symbolist poetry
Dream-like mood, vague and elusive
Use of distinctive orchestral colors, especially woodwinds
Tonal impressions swirl, dissolve, and form again
No repeating rhythms or clear-cut meters
Languid beauty
Figure Mallarmé’s “The Afternoon of a Faun” created something of a sensation among late nineteenth-century artists. This painting by Pal Szinyei Merse (1845–1920) is just one of several such representations of the faun and woodland nymphs. Notice that he holds classical panpipes, which Debussy transformed into the sound of the flute.

7. Préludes for Piano (1910, 1913)
Debussy’s last and most far-reaching attempt at evocative writing in music
Challenge to create musical impressions without the use of the colorful orchestra
Voiles (Sails) from the first book of Préludes (1910)
Depiction of the sea
Fluid descent in mostly parallel motion
Hazy, languid atmosphere
Use of the whole-tone scale and the pentatonic scale
Use of ostinato

8. Voiles

9. Exoticism in Music A fascination of the “other”
Classical composers imitated Turkish bands
Spain: Bizet, Debussy, Ravel
African art may have influenced Cubism
The Far East was particularly intriguing
Any sounds drawn from non-Western music
Scales or harmony
Folk rhythm
Musical instruments
Foreign subject for a program
Figure 27.7 Claude Monet, La Japonaise (Madame Camille Monet in Japanese Costume, 1876). Europe and America began to show an enthusiasm for things Japanese after the opening of trade with Japan in the 1850s. Fashionable Parisian women wore kimonos and furnished their homes with oriental furniture, prints, and objects d’art

10. The Exotic of Spain: Ravel’s Bolero (1928)
Maurice Ravel ( ): Bolero (1828)
Bolero: A sultry Spanish dance in a slow tempo and triple meter
Repetitive, hypnotic music, moving inexorably towards a frenzied climax
A single melody
Instrumental color and gradual crescendo create a spellbinding atmosphere
Figure 27.8 John Singer Sargent (1856–1925), El Jaleo: Spanish Dancer. Sargent was an American painter working in Paris who got caught up in the European enthusiasm for all things Spanish during the late nineteenth century.