1. The Impressionist Era

2. Two important movements surface at the turn of the 20th century
Impressionism in France
Primary contributors: Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel
Post-Romanticism in Germany and Austria
Richard Strauss (1864–1949) was a beacon of post-Romanticism
Known for his programmatic symphonic poems and operas
Gustav Mahler (1860–1911) is another transitional figure
song cycles and 9 symphonies

3. The Impressionist Painters
Impressionism was a French movement developed by painters
Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Auguste Renoir
"First impression" of a subject captured by use of light and color
Abandoned grandiose subjects of Romanticism

4. The Symbolist Poets Literary response to tradition
Stéphane Mallarmé and Paul Verlaine
Influenced by American poet Edgar Allan Poe
Concern with the sound of a word as well as its meaning
Achieved an abstract quality in the text

5. Impressionism in Music
Sentiment that the possibilities of the major/minor system had been exhausted
Attraction to ancient scales (church modes of the Middle Ages), exotic scales (chromatic, whole tone)
Interest in non-Western music flourished
A departure from Classical harmony is witnessed in Impressionism
Unresolved dissonances, parallel chords, ninth chords
Use of the chromatic scale and whole-tone scale parallel chords, ninth chords

6. Orchestral color was exploited in new ways
The pulse in Impressionist music tended to be obscured
The large forms of the past were abandoned in favor of short lyric forms

7. Claude Debussy (1862–1918): His Life and Music
French composer, trained at the Paris Conservatory
Rebelled against compositional traditions at Paris Conservatory
At age 22, won the Prix de Rome with cantata The Prodigal Son
Fame came after the premiere of his opera Pelléas and Mélisande(1902)
Died in 1918 during German bombardment of Paris
Most recognized works
Orchestral: La mer, Prelude to "The Afternoon of a Faun"
Piano: Clair de lune, Evening in Granada
He also composed chamber music and French songs