Impressionist Music

Fonte: Naxos Music Library

Overview
Like in art, music deemed to be 'impressionist' was concerned with evoking atmospheres
and concentrated on achieving this through blending 'colours' in both instrumentation
and harmony. Impressionist orchestral music often used big orchestras, but rarely
fortissimo dynamics; impressionist harmony and texture were rich, with triads
expanded with added sixths and sevenths and traditional harmonic progressions ignored
in favour of chains of parallel chords.
Debussy 's orchestral piece Prélude à l'Après-midi d'un faune - based on an evocative
poem by Mallarmé, dating from 1894, is often regarded as the first impressionist work.

Characteristics of impressionism include:

• Chains of parallel chords such as sevenths
• Use of whole-tone scales, pentatonic scales and modes
• Rejection of traditional harmonic and tonal progressions
• Complex musical forms
• Rich palette of orchestral colours; unusual instrumental combinations
• Rich textures
• Chords which provide as much colour as they do functional harmony
• Influences from foreign (i.e. non-French!) cultures
• Unprepared, abrupt modulations
• Atmospheric, dream-like pieces with evocative and descriptive titles

Other works of Debussy's which could be seen as impressionist include his two books
of Piano Préludes and Images. Another composer (also French) who wrote a number
of works which were described as 'impressionist', was Ravel, whose Miroirs for piano
are a good example. Both Debussy and Ravel were influenced by the earlier French
composer Chabrier, whose España, among other works, paved the way for works in a
Spanish style by both men.

Suggested listening
DEBUSSY: Prélude à l'Après-midi d'un faune
DEBUSSY: Images
DEBUSSY: Préludes I
CHABRIER: España
RAVEL: La Vallée des cloches (Miroirs)

What to listen for

Debussy: Prélude à l'Après-midi d'un faune
Debussy described this 1894 piece as 'a general impression' of a poem by his friend, the
French poet Mallarmé, in which the faun (a mythological creature) stands beside a lake
on a hot afternoon and sees nymphs across the water - he is not sure whether they are
really there or he is dreaming.
The most notable feature of this piece is the orchestration. Debussy aims for transparent
textures in which different timbres are never obscured. He focuses particularly on
woodwind and makes much use of the harp. He achieves balance by presenting
melodies in different orchestral 'colours', and in turn creating a variety of textures.
The Prélude opens with a solo flute playing the principal theme of the work. Each time
the theme recurs, it is heard in a different transformation - sometimes a different pitch,
sometimes extended or compacted, sometimes with different rhythms. The interval that
the melody covers is a tritone (augmented fourth) between C sharp and G, which clouds
any sense of diatonic tonality due to its chromaticism. The work seems unpredictable,
but still has a unified structure.
The opening three or so minutes consist of four presentations of the theme - each time
transformed. The first contains a bar of silence after the theme ends (00:34), the second
uses a full-bodied orchestral sonority (00:59), and the third and fourth are rhythmic
variations, ending with a cadence in B major (3:09) - the only point of tonal punctuation
until the end of the work.
The thematic material is then 'developed' in a fragmentary manner that was to become
a feature of Debussy's later works. The whole-tone scale is used at 3:29 (deriving from
the tritone in the opening theme), followed by a theme on the oboe (3:50) which is also
derived from the opening. Another 'new' theme, on the woodwind at 5:10 (repeated by
strings at 5:52) is underpinned by the bass notes D flat falling to G - another tritone.
Later in the work, the principal theme returns in augmentation with the tritone softened
to a perfect fourth (7:11). This happens twice, interrupted each time by a scherzo-like
passage. After the second of these, we return to the material of the opening - again
without the tritone, and a perfect cadence at 9:44 coloured by descending harp
chromatics.

Debussy
Préludes (Book 1) for piano

Traditionally, a prelude is a short piece with few contrasts, perhaps maintaining a similar
texture throughout (such as in many of Chopin's) or even similar figurations (such as in
Bach's). Debussy's Préludes, though shorter than most of his other works, show a similar
approach. Each prelude reveals one or two aspects of Debussy's style.
Danseuses de Delphes - a resumé of his harmonic and melodic processes; pentatonic
melodies and parallel chords (chords which move in similar motion)
Voiles - almost entirely based on the whole-tone scale
Le Vent dans le pleine - like a toccata, starting with a pentatonic idea and with a whole-
tone central section
Les Collines d'Anacapri - a sort of tarantella
Ce qu'a vu le vent d'ouest - a virtuosic piece which reminds one of Liszt. The themes
are very fragmented, and largely based on pentatonic and whole-tone scales
La Fille aux cheveux de lin - a simple, lyrical piece, like Debussy's very early piano pieces
La Sérénade interrompue- - one of Debussy's many Spanish-influenced pieces
La Cathedral engloutie - an unusual narrative piece about the sunken cathedral of Ys,
off the coast of Brittany, which rises from time to time. You can hear bells and organ
pedals within the piano writing.
Minstrels - a light-hearted, raggy piece like the 'Golliwogs Cakewalk', which seems to
poke fun at Wagner's Tristan und Isolde in the middle section, by mimicking the opening
phrase and then inserting a musical 'snigger'!
Debussy placed the title of each prelude at the end of the piece, as a warning against
taking any extra-musical suggestion too seriously.

Related listening:

Chabrier: España
Ravel: Miroirs (La Vallée des
cloches)

Supplementary suggested listening

DEBUSSY: La Mer
DEBUSSY: Nocturnes

DEBUSSY: Pour le piano