1. The Contemporary Period Post-Romanticism – Germany, Austria Impressionism -- France

2. Impressionism French! Movement began with the painters... Use of light and color to create their “first impressions” Subjects – preferred stills, dancing girls, nudes, everyday scenes of middle-class life, picnics, boating and café scenes; nature

3. La Promenade (1875)

4. Poppies (1873)

5. Fishing Boats Leaving the Harbor (1874)

6. The Boat Studio (1876)

7. Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) The Girl with the Watering Can

8. At the Theatre

9. Poet Counterparts – the Symbolists Direct poetic expression unspoiled by intellectual elements. Sought to suggest rather than describe Baudelaire, Mallarme, etc. Greatly influenced by the famous American poet, Edgar Allan Poe

10. Impressionism – origins and influences Paris Exhibition – attracted to other sounds Got away from the “normal” sounds of the previous period Scale types  Chromatic  Whole tone

11. Chords/Color/Rhythm Parallel chords Ninth chords Use of orchestra  “veiled” sounds  Flutes/clarinets in lower registers (unusual)  Use of harp  Instruments used differently Rhythms  “veiled”

12. Forms Smaller forms (got away from larger forms, i.e., symphonies) Descriptive titles

13. Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

14. Claude Debussy “Let’s go... He’s beginning to develop.” “The idea of spreading one drama over four evenings! Is this admissible, especially when in these four evenings you always hear the same thing?... My God! How unbearable these people in skins and helmets become by the fourth night.”

15. Music Subtle, discreet Short, flexible forms Evokes images Wrote wonderful orchestral music Wrote much for piano – was one of the most important composers for the piano of that time Vocal composer

16. Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun Best known orchestral work (1894) From a poem by the Symbolist, Stephane Mallarme Image of a faun, who wakes from a dream... Wondering if it was a dream A-B-A