Musical Impressionism: The Early History of the Term

Author(s): Ronald L. Byrnside

Source: The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 66, No. 4 (Oct., 1980), pp. 522-537
Published by: Oxford University Press
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 Musical Impressionism:
The Early History of the Term
RONALD L. BYRNSIDE

ONtoDecember 27, 1873, a group of artistsaffixedtheir signatures

the founding charter of Le Soci~td anonyme des artistes,
peintres, sculpteurs et graveurs, and, on April 15 of the following
year, the new society offereda public show. One of the works dis-
played was Claude Monet's Impression: Sunrise (painted in 1872).
There is some evidence to suggest that a few critics and painters in
this group had used the term "impression" or "impressions" in
their private discussions of painting for several years prior to this
show; indeed the title of Monet's painting supports such a thesis.
Nevertheless, it was almost by the whim of a Parisian art critic,
Jules Antoine Castagnary, that the Monet painting was to give a
name to the collective works of this group of artists. In an article
in Le Sihcle, on April 29, 1874, "Exposition du boulevard des Ca-
pucines - les impressionnistes" he wrote: "... if one wants to
characterize them with a single word that explains their efforts,one
would have to create the new termimpressionists."1
It appears that the only earlier use of the term "impressionism"
was in connection with the philosophical system of David Hume
(1711-1776), but there it had no association with painting or any
of the otherarts.
This term,so casually and somewhat pejoratively introduced to
painting, eventually found its way into the field of music, but there
its historyhas been troubled and confused, and its elucidatory value
has been questionable. Precisely what it means and to what music

1 John Rewald, The History of Impressionism (New York, 1961), I, 330.

522

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 Musical Impressionism 523

(if any) it should be applied are complicated matters, and an ex-

amination of the literature dealing with musical Impressionism re-
veals that there is no consensus on these issues. An inquiry into
these matterswill form the basis of a future study, but the present
essay is concerned only with the emergence of this problematical
termin musical discussions.
It is probably true that for most people the firstname (and for
some, the only name) associated with musical Impressionism is
Claude Debussy. There is only one documented use of it in a musical
context before its use in discussions of Debussy's music. Edward
Lockspeiser calls attention to a letter written by Renoir in 1882,
in which he describes his meeting with Richard Wagner. He says:
"We spoke of the Impressionistsof music."2 Lockspeiser speculates
that Renoir may have been attempting to describe to Wagner the
worksof Faur&,Duparc, Chabrier, and Chausson. In any case, Renoir
was speaking of more than one composer, and Debussy cannot have
been one of them, since he was not known to Renoir and had writ-
ten little and published nothing at that early date. Intriguing as
it is, this remains an isolated use of the term,for with this exception
documented linkings of Impressionism with music did not appear
until it was applied to Debussy's music some years later.
The firstmention of Impressionismin connection with Debussy's
music is, of course, well known. It was used by members of the
Acad~mie des Beaux-Arts to whom the composer had sent the score
of Printemps,dated February, 1887.3 The reaction of the committee
was not entirelyunfavorable, but their report contained the follow-
ing:
His feelingformusicalcoloris so strongthathe is apt to forget
theimportance
of accuracyof line and form.He shouldbewarethisvagueimpressionism which
is one of themostdangerousenemiesof artistictruth.4

In January, 1889, the committee deliberated over Debussy's La

Damoiselle glue: ". . . it bears the mark of that systematictendency

2 Debussy: His Life and Mind (London, 1962-65),I, 92n.

3 Not to be confused with the choral works Printemps (1882), text by Comte de
Sdgur,and Printemps,sometimescalled Salut Printemps (1884), text by Jules Barbier.
The work in question was originally scored for chorus and orchestra; the original
score appears to have been destroyed in a fire. The present version for orchestra
without chorus was orchestratedby Henri Biisserin 1913.
4 Leon Vallas, Claude Debussy: His Life and Works, trans. M. and G. O'Brien
(London, 1933), pp. 42-43.

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524 The Musical Quarterly

towards vagueness of expression and form of which the Academy

has already complained."5
In the late 1880s, Debussy was singled out fromamong his fellow
students for association with the term. It was not used in official
discussions of the music of other Prix de Rome contenders in the
years 1883-89, when Debussy was either a contender for or a holder
of the prize. Composers in this group include Paul Vidal, Charles
Rena, Xavier Leroux, Edmond Missa, Gabriel Piernd, Augustin
Savard, Andre G~dalge, Georges-Eugene Marty, Gustave Charpen-
tier,Alfred Bachelet, and Camille Erlanger.0
In the years 1889-90, several of Debussy's short piano works and
songs were published. Shortlyafter,he began to emerge as a public
figure. La Damoiselle dlue was performed on April 7, 1893; the
String Quartet on December 29, 1893; and the Prdlude & l'aprts-
midi d'un faune, on December 22, 1894. In the ensuing decade, his
music increasinglyattracted the attention of musicians, critics,and
historians,and it was during these years that the term Impressionism
first began to appear in musical discussions. It seems clear that
something about the nature of at least some of Debussy's composi-
tions prompted a number of musical commentatorsto use the word,
though, as we shall see, it was used neither uniformly,systematically,
nor consistently.In any case, discussions of Impressionism in music
emerged not before but with Debussy's music. His unique associa-
tion with it is reflectedin the fact that the term had been current
in art circles since the 1870s, yet musical scholars and critics avoided
it until his emergence as a composer of musical force at the turn of
the century.
Debussy's name did not begin to appear in music encyclopedias
and dictionaries until after 1900. He is mentioned briefly in A.
Piter's La Musique et les musiciens (1902) and in the second edition
of Grove's (1904); in neither of these is the term Impressionism
used. But in Irving Squire's The American History and Encyclo-
pedia of Music (1908), Debussy is referred to as an Impressionist
and a "great harmonic inventor and an unsurpassed poet in
5 Ibid., p. 48.
6 Debussy firstentered the Prix de Rome competition in 1883 and was awarded
the Second Prix for his cantata Le Gladiateur (unpublished). The followingyear he
was awarded the Grand Prix for his cantata L'Enfant prodigue. Neither of these
works prompted the jurors to use the term Impressionism,though the latter was
reviewed by Charles Darcourt in Le Figaro, July 1, 1884, and by Johannes Weber,
Le Temps, July 11, 1884.

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 Musical Impressionism 525

mysticism."'7The same source contains an entryfor modern French

music which states that Debussy "is the most typical of the musical
impressionistsof the day" and that
of the ultra-modernliving (French) composersd'Indy, Debussy, Dubois, and
Faurd have all distinguishedthemselvesin the orchestralfield. The tendency
of thesemenis toward
a vague,impressionistic
style.8
Although it extends beyond the chronological limits of the early
historyof the term musical Impressionism, it seems appropriate to
review the following at this point. Beginning around 1910 and
extending throughthe second decade of the twentiethcentury,music
dictionaries and encyclopedias tended to include a separate entryfor
"Impressionism." Debussy is consistently and prominently men-
tioned, but other contemporarycomposers are called Impressionists
as well. In Robert Eitner's Miscellanea musicae bio-bibliographica
(1912-16) and in other contemporaneous sources, Debussy is never
divorced from Impressionism, but the field of Impressionist com-
posers is expanded.
In the 1920s and 30s this tendencywas furtherexpanded, and two
factorsabout the attitude of certain scholars toward Impressionism
became evident. First, they felt the need to offera systematicdefini-
tion of the term; thus several of the longest and most carefullycon-
ceived articles about the nature of musical Impressionism emerged
during that period.
Second, many scholars began to use the term retroactively.Ernst
Kurth9 and Hans Mersmann,'o having determined for themselves
what the properties of Impressionism are, found these properties
not only in the music of Debussy and some of his contemporaries,
but also in some earlier music. Edward J. Dent's article on Impres-
sionism in A Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians is an
example, even though his skepticism about the usefulness of the
termis obvious.

Impressionism.A termwhichhas been borrowedfromthe criticismof painting

and recentlyapplied in a not very clearlydefinedsense to music. The chief
modern exponent of musical "impressionism"was Debussy,and the termseems
generallyto be applied to music intended to convey some suggestionof land-

7 (London,1908),V, 173-74.
8 Ibid., III, 134-35.
9 RomantischeHarmonik und ihre Krise in Wagners"Tristan" (Berlin 1923).
to Die Moderne Musik seit der Romantik,Vol. IX of Handbuch der Musik Wissen-
ed. ErnstBicken, (NewYork,1927).
schaft,

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526 The Musical Quarterly

scape,or of a picturein whichcolouris moreimportantthanoutline,the melodic

line in such cases being ill-definedand fragmentary, while subsidiaryfiguresof
accompanimentare much developed, often in rapid movement,the object of
which is to produce a general effectof timbreratherthan a clearlyintelligible
successionof notes. Similareffectsare also obtained by slow harmoniesbased on
chordswhich an older generationwould have regardedas discords,but which
the presentday regardsas agreeableconsonances.The germsof "impressionism"
can be traced far back; theymay be found in the madrigalsof Luca Marenzio
and others;Torrefrancafindsthem in the harpsichordsonatas of Galuppi and
Platti; Edward Carpenterhas pointed out similar tendenciesin the pianoforte
sonatas of Beethoven. Liszt shows frequentexamples; among the living com-
posersDelius is one of themostsuccessful"impressionists.""

Toward the end of the earliest phase of this history,we occasion-

ally finda writerwho attaches Impressionistto composers other than
Debussy. Significantly,most of these writers were not French. To
some British and American authors, Impressionism seems to have
been more or less synonymouswith "new music," that is it was not
conceived of as a designation for a particular musical style,but was
used in a much broader and more general way.
Ultimately, Debussy became not only the central but, for all
practical purposes, the only composer who figuresin the early his-
tory of the term musical Impressionism. Let us consider some of
the early literatureon Debussy.
In the period from 1887 (when the term was firstused in con-
nection with his music) to 1910 (about when Impressionism became
a term in general use), over 125 authors wrote books, articles, re-
views, and studies of Debussy and his music, producing more than
200 items.12Among the most prolificwere Louis Laloy, music his-
torian and friendof Debussy; Jean Marnold, founder of Le Mercure
musical (in 1905), principal music critic of Mercure de France, and
regarded by some of his contemporaries as an expert in the field
of functional harmony; Paul Dukas; Camille Mauclair, primarily
an art historian,but also a prolificand highly regarded music critic;
Pierre Lalo; M. D. Calvocoressi; and Lbon Vallas.
Some of their contributions to Debussian scholarship remain

11 A. Eaglefield Hull, ed., A Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians (London,

1924).
12The most complete bibliography is Claude Abravanel's
"Claude Debussy: A
Bibliography," Detroit Studies in Music Bibliography (Detroit, 1974). Even this ex-
cellent bibliography is not complete, lacking a number of early reviews of certain
compositionsby Debussy.

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 Musical Impressionism 527

valuable to the present day. Most of them approached the term

Impressionism cautiously, often apologetically, and rather late in
the period 1887-1910. A few of them- and a majority of authors
from the period - never used Impressionism in their discussions
of Debussy's music.
II
In the earliest biography of Debussy, Claude Achille Debussy,
Louise Liebich in a rather sentimental way describes Debussy's
aesthetics and several of his compositions, but does not have any
firmunderstanding of either. It is not known how she acquired the
term Impressionism, but it is fair to assume that she adopted it
as a convenience in attempting to assess certain of Debussy's works
with which she was infatuated. She stated: "If in the right mood he
will treat his hearers to a wonderful display of tonal impressionism,
weaving iridescent chords and harmonies into a fantastic web of
color and beauty."'" And further:
By inclinationand temperamentDebussy is in close sympathywith the school
of painterscalled Impressionistsand withthe class of poets styledSymbolists..
It is indisputablethat thereare points of resemblancebetween theirwork and
his, but at the same time,like his personality,his individual art is affranchised
fromprecedentand category, cliques or coteries.14

Louis Laloy met Debussy in 1902. There developed between

them a cordial friendship and on Laloy's part a sympatheticunder-
standing of Debussy's music and aims. This is reflectedin Laloy's
important early biography Claude Debussy,'5 a book which, accord-
ing to Lockspeiser and others,expressed views that Debussy approved
of. Laloy stated that "Debussyism is the equivalent in music of Im-
pressionism in painting and Symbolism in poetry." Debussy may
well have agreed in a general way with such views but it is difficult
to believe that he would have countenanced the use of the word
"Debussyism" in this or any context, for on numerous occasions
he expressed his disgust with it. In this same work, Laloy related
the nature of Impressionismas he understood it:
Sounds used in musichave no meaningnor can theyrepresentan object. Music,
among all the arts must originallyhave been the one which is essen-
therefore,
tiallysymbolistand impressionist.
Non-Europeanmusicians,like the Chinese,the

13 (London, 1908),pp. 12-13.

14Ibid., pp. 24-25.
15 (Paris, 1909).

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528 The Musical Quarterly

and Symbolists
Indians and the Sengaleseare Impressionists withoutbeing aware
of it.16

The music critic Henri Gauthier-Villars (Willy) was among the

earliest chroniclers to mention Debussy. He was not a musician,
but an author and a kind of factotumin the artisticcircles of Paris
in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and was ac-
quainted with many artistic, literary, and musical luminaries of
the day. In such collections as Voyage autour de la musique (1890)
and La Colle aux Quintes (1898), Gauthier-Villars mentioned De-
bussy several times and spoke of some of his compositions, but in
these early works he never applied the term Impressionist to the
composer.
In Lawrence Gilman's Phases of Modern Music, Debussy is not
referredto as an Impressionist,but Gilman did apply the label to
another composer: "Both in theory and in practice Mr. (Edward)
MacDowell stands uncompromisinglyformusic that is, of intention,
persistentlypictorial and impressionistic.""'7
But threeyearslater, in The Music of Tomorrow, Gilman stated:
It has been made evident enough in the foregoingpages, I think, that he
[Debussy]is, in the purestsense of that outwornand misdirectedterm,an inm-
- a sensitiverecorder,to use his own apt phrase, of "impressions
pressionist
and speciallights."'8

Two years later, in Aspects of Modern Opera (1909), Gilman

offereda lengthy discussion of Pellias et Milisande, but nowhere
used the termImpressionism.
A substantial number of early writersand reporterson Debussy's
music who did not call him an Impressionist had recourse to one
or another label for him, an indication that he seemed to them a
unique composer, one calling forsome kind of descriptiveor stylistic
banner which would separate his music from that of all other com-
posers. In his book Etude sur VictorHugo, Fernand Gregh included
a brief appendix entitled "Sur Claude Debussy," in which Debussy
was not referred to as an Impressionist. Gregh stated, however:
"If Vincent d'Indy is a symbolist,if Charpentier is a naturist,Claude
Debussy seems to me a greathumanist composer.""
16 Ibid., p. 89.
17 (London,1904),p. 30.
18 (London,1907),p. 36.
19 (Paris, 1904).

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 Musical Impressionism 529

In 1905, LUon Vallas, in attempting to differentiateDebussy

from other composers, referredto him as a "paganiste."20 In 1910,
Edwin Evans called him "un vrai primitif,"21and in that same year
Ernest Newman suggested that Debussy was affectedand a snob,
and the "prince of mannerists."22Also in that year Etienne Des-
tranges referredto him as a "pointilliste."23 Two years earlier, an
anonymous author suggested that Debussy was a "pseudo-Orien-
tal."24
In these middle years of the firstdecade of the twentieth cen-
tury, a pattern began to emerge, or, perhaps more accurately, a
habit began to develop which consisted of applying some extra-
musical label to Debussy's music. Impressionism was only the most
prominent one; but within a veryshort time, it not only superseded
the others, it permanently attached itself to Debussy's music. This
"creeping Impressionism" is no less evident in the periodical litera-
ture of the time.

III
Tristan Klingsor (pen name of Leon Leclbre) was one of several
authors who, at the turn of the century,wrote articles dealing with
analogies between the arts. In November, 1900, Klingsor, who was
himselfa poet, painter, and composer, as well as a critic, dealt with
this subject at some length. He did not, however, refer to Debussy
as an Impressionist.25The anonymous author of an article on De-
bussy's Nocturnes, I and II, made an oblique analogy between them
and the Nocturnes of the painter James Whistler, stating that
"Debussy seems to wish to express passinigimpressionsof a dream,"26
but he stopped shortof calling him an Impressionist.A month later,
in January, 1901, Pierre de Br~ville discussed the same works and
said that most of the critics who heard Nocturnes had recourse to
analogies saying: "It is some musical Whistler . . . this can be turned

20 "Apropos Debussy,"La Revue musicale de Lyon, October 15, 1905,p. 7.

21 "Une opinion anglaise sur Pelldas et Milisande," La Revue musicale de Lyon,
January1, 1910,p. 345.
22 "A Note on Debussy,"Musical Times, May 1, 1910,p. 293.
23 "Pelldas et Milisande," La Revue musicale de Lyon, November 13, 1910,p. 137.
24 "Pellias et Mdlisande," Journal of
Incorporated Society of Musicians (June,
1908),p. 151.
25s"Les Musiciens et les Pobtes," Mercure de France (January, 1901), p. 17.
26 "Les Nocturnesde Debussy," Le Figaro, December 10, 1900.

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530 The Musical Quarterly

around and permit one to affirmthat Whistler is Debussy in paint-

ing."27
In June, 1902, Jean Marnold wrote an article devoted in part
to a discussion of Nocturnes. In it he spoke of the nature of Im-
pressionist painting; then, turning to a discussion of Nocturnes,
he said: "But this is an Impressionist musician."'''s Hugues Imbert
suggested that Debussy attempts "to realize in music what Impres-
sionists such as Monet and Sisley have executed in painting." Later
in the same article he said of the Nocturnes: "These are pages of
pure Impressionism." He also offereda warning, stating that Im-
pressionismin music
. . is charmingforpieces of small dimensions,but perhapsdangerousfor large-
scale pieceswhichrequirea solid architecture:
example,his StringQuartet.It
is difficult in vagueness
togo farther withoutfallingintoincoherence.29
It is difficultto reconcile this idea with the fact that the author,
in this same article, designated Pellhas et Milisande - hardly a
work of small dimensions - as Impressionist.
Pellhas et Milisande was firstperformedon April 30, 1902. More
than two dozen critics reviewed the work, and by the end of 1910
more than seventyreviews,articles, and special studies of the opera
had been published.
Only a few reviewers used the term Impressionism. About two-
thirds of the reviews and articles in 1902 made no mention of it,
including those by Paul Dukas, Louis Laloy, and Julien Benda.
Camille Mauclair claimed that Impressionism used in connection
with Debussy's music is often "vague, inexact, and hazardous." But
he did draw a comparison between Monet and Debussy, suggesting
that Monet's beautiful landscapes are nothing but
symphonies with.luminous waves:and the musicof Debussy,foundednot on
thestringingtogetherof motives,buton thecomparedpowerof thesoundsin
themselves,drawssingularlycloseto thesepaintings.
It is an Impressionism
of
sonorousstrokes.3o

Pelldas was the subject of three separate articles in La Revue

blanche during 1902. None of the authors, Frederich Spigl, Julien
Benda, Paul Flat, used the term Impressionism. Neither did Louis
27 Mercure de France (January,1901),p. 214.
28 Mercure de France (June, 1902), p. 805.
29 "M. Claude Debussy,"La Revue bleue, April 19, 1902,p. 112.
30 "La Peinture musicienne et la fusion des arts," La Revue bleue, September 6,
1902,p. 300.

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 Musical Impressionism 531

Schneider,3' Camille Bellaigue,32 Gaston Serpette,33 nor Andre

Hallays34 in their discussions of Pelldas. But on June 4, 1902, Max
Rikoffreported:
In the orchestrahis leitmotives -- one harmonization- Impressionisticpainting
of themood. Is Mr. Debussyahead of his timeas founderof a new art movement
or has time, forevermoving on, passed by his contribution?. . . We demand
above all thatintellect (head) and heartbe unifiedin art whichshould not find
itselfon the same level with the crafts.Impressionisticand sessionisticmusic
cannotbe listenedto forlong withoutan incurableshattering of nerves.35

Some reviewersdid not like the work at all. S. Marchesi reported:

An importantevent, another step downwardin the evolution of the musical
theoriesand musical taste of our age, happened on April 30 last. Pelldas et
... wasproduced
Mdlisande on thatevening
at theOpdra-comique.30

The flurryof scholarlyand journalistic activitycreated by Pellhas

et Mdlisande in 1902 was followed by a quiet period. The years 1903
and 1904 produced little writing on Debussy perhaps because they
were not Debussy's most productive in terms of completed com-
positions.
The most noteworthywriting on Debussy during the two im-
mediate post-Pellias years centered mainly on older works. In
January, 1903, Laloy wrote an article on La Damoiselle dlue.37 In
discussing this work from 1887-88, he did not use the term Im-
pressionism,nor did Pierre Lalo employ it in his discussion of a per-
formance of Chansons de Bilitis (1897).38 In 1904, Laloy discussed
Pellias and several older works without using the term,39and
Marnold also failed to use it in his review of Proses lyriques (1892-
93).40 In 1904, Paul Landormy quoted from a letter from Arnold
Schering,in which the latter gave an account of the German attitude

31"Pellas et Mdlisande," Revue d'historique de critique musicale, II/5 (May,

1902),p. 122.
32 "Pellias et Milisande," Revue des deux mondes,May 15, 1902, p. 450.
33 "Pellias et Milisande," Gil bias, May 10, 1902.
34 "Pelldas et Milisande,"
Revue de Paris, May 15, 1902, p. 173.
35 "Pelldas und Milisande," Neue Zeitschrift
fiirMusik, June 4, 1902,p. 325.
36 "Pelldas et Milisande," MonthlyMusical Record, XXXII/6 (June,1902).
37"La Damoiselle dlue," La Revue musicale. Histoire et Critique (January,1903)
p. 81.
38Le Temps, March 31, 1903.
39 "La SimplicitCen musique," La Revue musicale. Histoire et Critique, February
15,1904,p. 111.
40 "La musique," Mercure de France (July,1904),p. 241.

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532 The Musical Quarterly

toward recent French music. Impressionism was not mentioned,

and neither was Debussy!41
The firstperformancesof La Mer in 1905 created another flurry
of activityand interestin Debussy's music and produced more state-
ments about Impressionismin his work. Reviewers like Pierre Lalo4'
did not mention Impressionism; others,such as Raymond Bouyer,43
and especially Mauclair, did. Mauclair asked. "Qu'est-ce que l'im-
pressionnisme?"and then reportedthat
it is at the same time a promise and a result of the future. The result I have
analyzed many times here: it is the logical outcome of the pictorial eighteenth
century, the heritage of Fragonard, of Boucher, and of the sketches which are
completed by the characterism,the modernism, of the Renoirs and the Manets.44

He furthersuggested about the word Impressionism: "It should

no longer be used in historicalcriticismas a designation for a move-
ment that has disappeared."
Jean Marnold suggested that La Mer representedsomethingnew
in Debussy's style, a more organic kind of music, a style different
from PellE~as.45Probably for that reason he did not use the term
Impressionism, though he had in discussions of earlier works by
Debussy. L0on Vallas mentioned La Mer in 1905;46 he did not use
the term Impressionism,but it is in this article that Vallas referred
to Debussy as a "paganiste."
AfterLa Mer, Impressionsmappeared in print with much great-
er frequency. It was still not universally applied to Debussy's
music, but the number of authors who began to use it increased
sharply. Some recognized La Mer as a stylistic turning point in
Debussy's career and asserted that it was in one way or another
differentfrom his earlier works. Thus confronted with a "new"
Debussy, some authors, perhaps in an attempt to separate La Mer
from the earlier works, put aside their reluctance to use the term
Impressionism and began to apply it to certain compositions. Some

41 "L'Etat actuel de la musique frangaise,"La Revue bleue, March 26, p. 394, and
April 2, 1904,p. 421.
42 Le Temps, October 24, 1905.
43 "L'Impressionnisme en musique et le culte de Beethoven," La Revue bleue,
May 13, 1905,p. 603.
44 "La finde l'impressionnisme,"La Revue bleue, January14, 1905,p. 49.
45 Mercure de France, November 1, 1905,p. 540.
46 "Apropos Debussy,"La Revue musicale de Lyon, October 15, 1905,p. 7.

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 Musical Impressionism 533

came to the conclusion that many of the earlier works should be

labeled Impressionist.Paul de Lestrang suggestedthat
the Five Poems of Baudelaire neatly affirmthe descriptive and Impressionistic
character which are found henceforth in all the works of Debussy. .. . The Chan-
sons de Bilitis is pure Impressionism.47

At about that time Vallas also began to use the term Impres-
sionism, though in a more guarded and restrictedmanner. In dis-
cussing Faune on February 4, 1906,48he did not use the term, but
on October 14 and 21, 1906, he listed all the piano works by Debussy
up to Images, firstseries, and called none of them Impressionistex-
cept Estampes, which he said contained a "delicious and original
Impressionism indicated by their divers titles.""49One can only
assume that for Vallas the Impressionism in Estampes derived from
its rather special titles. But that is a little peculiar, for there are
other provocative titlesamong the other piano workslisted by Vallas,
such as Reflets dans l'eau, and one might place Reverie and Clair
de lune in that category.Perhaps at this time Vallas was beginning to
formulate his own conception of the nature of musical Impression-
ism, and the use of the term in connection with Estampes marked
a first,provisional manifestationof that conception. He was to use
it consistentlyin later years, devoting considerable space to a con-
sideration of it in his biographyof Debussy.
M. D. Calvocoressi also discussed Debussy's piano music in 1906.
He did not use the term Impressionism,but suggested that Debussy's
music is "markedly picturesque, even descriptive."'5 Henry Hadow
took much the same attitude, stating that Debussy is "a master of
half-lightsand delicate shadows,"51while Edward Burlingame Hill
referredto Debussy as an "unsurpassed poet in mysticism."52
In 1907, Vallas momentarilyretreated from his use of the term
Impressionism.53He was one of the several authors who were drawn
47"Les Chansons de Bilitis," La Revue musicale de Lyon, December 2, 1906,
p. 235.
48 La Revue musicale de Lyon, February4, 1906,p. 481.
49 "Le Nouveau style pianistique," La Revue musicale de Lyon, October 14, p. 6,
and October 21, 1906,p. 33.
50"A Few Remarks on Modern French Pianoforte Music," Monthly Musical
Record, June 6, 1906,p. 123.
51 "Some Tendencies in Modern Music," Edinburg Review (October, 1906), p. 381.
52 "Claude Debussy's Piano Music," The Musician (August, 1906),p. 192.
53 "Encore l'affaireRavel," La Revue musicale de Lyon, May 1, 1907,p. 772.

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534 The Musical Quarterly

into the unfortunate and rather silly debate on the subject of in-
fluencesand even plagiarismalleged to have existed between Debussy
and Ravel. This musical warfare,unwanted by both composers,was
waged in Parisian newspapers and periodicals in the closing years
of the firstdecade of this century,and it reached a climax in Le Cas
Debussy (1910) by Charles Francis Caillard and Jose de B6rys.54
Vallas's failure to use the term Impressionism may have been be-
cause he did not want to associate Debussy and Ravel with a com-
mon stylisticlabel, for he quite rightlyrecognized substantial dif-
ferences in their music. In any case, Vallas suggested that perhaps
the best label for Debussy's music is not Impressionism, but De-
bussyism.
Marnold also entered the affair.In an article in 1907,55he juxta-
posed aspects of the stylesof Ravel and Debussy without, however,
applying the term Impressionism to the music of either composer.
He had used the term in earlier discussions of Debussy's music,
but in this argument, perhaps for the same reason as Vallas, he
it. also avoided the term in an article related to the
shunmed Laloy
but
controversy,56 he maintained that Debussy is the model which
other French composers ought to admire. Calvocoressi also entered
the controversyand introduced a thirdparty:
The studyof theartisticoriginscommonto Mr. Debussyand to his contemporaries
proves thereforeirrefutably,I believe, the independenceof the inspirationsof
certainyoungmusiciansthat theytryto presentto us as pure plagiarists.. . . A
French composer,very little known to the public, Mr. Erik Satil [sic], who is
about the same age as Debussy,producedfifteen,
or perhapstwentyyears
ago, some strange,incompleteworksbut whose entirelynew language, in spite
of the manifestinfluenceof Chabrier,offersstrikingexamplesof pre-Debussyism
which,comingtoday,would seem correctlyto be veryclumsycopies of the music
of Debussy.57

In 1908, Laloy finallyemployed the term Impressionism in con-

nection with Debussy's music. Like Vallas, he found an "impres-
sionnisme dbliceux" in Estampes and in Nocturnes, though in an
earlier discussion of the latter work he had not used the term. With
La Mer he saw a new phase emergingin Debussy's music:

54 (Paris, 1910).
55 "L'AffaireRavel," La Revue musicale de Lyon, May 1, 1907,p. 793.
56 "Le partismusicauxen France,"La GrandeRevue,December25,1907,p. 608.
57"Les Histoiresnaturellesde M. Ravel et L'imitationDebussyste,"
La Grande
Revue,May10,1907,p. 394.

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 Musical Impressionism 535

The happy changehas come about in theart of Claude Debussy,whichcompletely

Impressionistic at first,adopts more ample formstoday,more preciseideas, more
solid constructions, more vigorousrhythms, and that withoutlosing anythingof
its finesseor its freshness.It is a concise style,determined,affirmative,
full; in
a wordclassic.58

Laloy did not use the term in his brief review of Trois Chansons
de Charles d'Orlians,59 but the brevity of the article and perhaps
the quality of this particular work did not suggest its usage to him.
In any case, Laloy's biography of Debussy, mentioned earlier, ap-
peared in 1909; it made liberal use of the term and left no doubt
regardingLaloy's enthusiasmforit.
G. Allix, in contrast to Laloy, found in La Mer a "very studied
kind of Impressionism."'6 He furtherstated that "certain seascapes
of that other Claude who is Monet caress the eyes a little bit as the
ears are delighted here."
Marnold discussed Images, Series II, and other works in a two-
part article in 1908, but none of the works discussed was labeled
Impressionist,61and Calvocoressi also failed to use the term in his
article in 1908, an article that was a kind of general report on
Debussy's work up to that time.62
In an article in 1909, Georges Jean-Aubrymade the following
observation:

However Impressionisticthe music of Debussy may be, it concernsitselfsuffi-

cientlywith literature,is it not true,so that the knowledgeand the love of the
themeson whichit floatslead to knowingit and lovingit; and if one has already
compared the music of La Mer so many timesto the pictorialImpressionismof
Monet, one will rememberthat this Impressionismowes a great deal to one of
the Englishglories,T. M. W. Turner.3

Raymond Bouyer, who had been using the term Impressionism

in discussions of Debussy's music for at least five years, continued

58"La nouvellemanibrede Claude Debussy,"La Grande Revue, February10,

1908,p. 206.
59 "Trois Chansons de Charles d'Orlians," La Grande Revue, April 15, 1909,
p. 203.
so0"Le Mois-Concertset ThCAtres,"La Revue musicale S.I.M., February 15, 1908,
p. 166.
61 "M. Debussy," Mercure de France, April 1, 1908, p. 184.
62"Claude Debussy,"MusicalTimes,February1, 1908,p. 179.
63 "Claude Debussyet la musique frangaisemoderneen Angleterre,"
Bulletin
frangaisde la S.I.M., March 15, 1909,p. 109.

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536 The Musical Quarterly

to do so in an article in 1909,04in which he not only referred to

Debussy as an Impressionist, but related several of his works to
paintingsby Monet.
Laloy continued to use the term in 1910. In an article in that
year,he stated that "Debussyism correspondsto symbolismin poetry,
and Impressionismin painting. The analogy is not fortuitous."6'5
Edwin Evans wrote (in "Une opinion anglaise sur Pellias et
Mdelisande"):
Debussy is often considered an Impressionist.Whether he be considered an
Impressionist or not depends on the definitionof the word Impressionism which
is so oftenabused. Realism in music is the real imitationof nonmusicalsounds;
it is in its true nature restrictedto auditive phenomena.Impressionism, on the
other hand, tries to create an impressionanalogous to the one produced by a
nonmusicalphenomenonor by any phenomenonof the senses;it is not restricted
to auditive phenomena.It is in this sense that Debussy is an Impressionistand
not a realist.As an example of Impressionism one is able to cite the music ac-
companyingthe words"thereare innumerablestars"[page 106 of the piano-vocal
score of Pellias]. Since one cannot hear the sparklingof the stars,one would
not be able to reproducethis nonexistentsound, but one can tryto create an
impressionanalogous to theone thatvisionexperienceson a starrynight.66

Later, Evans pointed to some influences on Debussy's Impression-

ism:
prototypeof the musicalImpressionists.
First,theevidentinfluenceof Mussorgsky,
Vocal Impressionismis considereda new thing,but the volume of the melodies
of Mussorgsky in The Nurserywas published fortyyears ago, and it is as Im-
as anymelodyof Debussy.67
pressionistic

Within the span of scarcely two decades Impressionism became a

generally accepted term in the field of musicology. The evidence
suggests that it was hastily and carelessly brought forward in an
attempt to account for the newness and strangeness of Debussy's
music.
The resistance with which the term met in its early history,
the looseness with which it was so often applied to Debussy's music,
and the failure of most of those who used it to define precisely its

64 "La Musique," La Revue bleue, July 10, 1909,p. 59.

65 "Claude Debussy et le Debussysme,"S.IM. Revue musicale mensuelle (August-
1910),p. 200.
September,
66 "Une opinion anglaise sur Pellias et Mdlisande," Revue musicale de Lyon,
January1, 1910,p. 345.
67Ibid.

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 Musical Impressionism 537

meaning or its attributesshould greatlyconcern us today, for much

is at stake.
The point that should be emphasized is this: that even three-quar-
ters of a centuryafter its introduction to the field of music, Impres-
sionism seems inevitably to create a frame of reference at whose
center is painting, not music, and just as inevitablywe may be coaxed
into dealing with Debussy's music firstin termsof visual images and
visually evocative titles. It is rare in the historyof music for a com-
poser of Debussy's stature to be subjected to such a peculiar kind of
prejudice. It is not too much to suggestthat this prejudice, which fil-
ters his music through painting, gives rise to the practice of reading
things into Debussy's music which may not be there at all and of
obscuring other things which are there and which are crucial to a
true understanding of his uniqueness and individuality as a com-
poser. Operating under such a cloud of prejudice, the significance
of Debussy's works and his contribution to the course of twentieth-
centurymusic have frequentlybeen, and will likely continue to be,
underestimatedor misunderstood.

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