Chapter 27: Impressionism and Exoticism

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 • Shock began to replace beauty as the defining component of musical art

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 (1840-1926) • Edgar Degas (1834-1917) • Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) • Artistic style: • Against representational art • Importance of light • Spots of color create movement and fluidity • Debussy: “The French composers of today work on small canvases, but each stroke of the brush is of vital importance.”

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: Soloistic writing; emphasis on woodwinds and brass • Texture: Varies from thin and airy to heavy and dense; primarily homophonic • 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 • Works include Prelude to The Afternoon of a Faun (1894), Pelléas et Mélisande (opera, 1902), two books of Préludes for piano

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

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 andthe 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

10. The Exotic of Spain: Ravel’s Bolero (1928) • Victor Hugo: “Spain is still the Orient; Spain is half African, and Africa is half Asiatic.” • Maurice Ravel (1875-1937): 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

11. Impressionism