Impressionism

Impressionism in music is named after the French painters, Monet and others, whose works capture light and atmosphere rather than sharp outlines. The label was attached to the music of Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel, among others, from roughly 1890 to 1920. Debussy himself disliked the term, but it is still the usual name for the style.

What it sounds like

Instead of strong themes and goal-directed harmony, impressionist music aims for mood, shimmer and suggestion:

• Chords used for their color, often not resolving as traditional harmony expects: seventh and ninth chords, added notes, chords built in fourths.
• Parallel chords that slide up and down together, a technique sometimes called planing.
• Scales beyond major and minor: the whole-tone scale, the pentatonic scale and the church modes.
• Blurred textures, created with the sustain pedal on the piano and with harp, muted strings and soft woodwind solos in the orchestra.
• Fluid rhythm, sometimes with little sense of a strong downbeat.
• Evocative titles: water, clouds, moonlight, gardens in the rain.

▶Listen0:09

Key works

• Debussy: Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune (1894), La mer, "Clair de lune" from the Suite bergamasque, and two books of Préludes for piano.
• Ravel: Jeux d'eau for piano and the ballet Daphnis et Chloé. Ravel's music is often more classically shaped than Debussy's, and he too was uncomfortable with the label.

Influences

Debussy heard a Javanese gamelan at the Paris Exposition of 1889, an experience often cited as an influence on his layered, bell-like textures. Erik Satie's spare, modal pieces, such as the Gymnopédies (1888), also pointed away from Romantic rhetoric; see The Chords of Gymnopédie No. 1.

Playing impressionist music

Listen for color rather than drama. Use the pedal generously but deliberately, play chords with an even, cushioned touch, and let the sound decay. The Modes and Pentatonic & Blues Scales worksheets cover some of the scales these composers used.