MUSIC 10

20 CENTURY
TH

MUSIC
Q1 WEEK 1
Impressionism
a. Historical and cultural background
b. Composers: Claude Debussy, and
Maurice Ravel
 Claude Monet
Artworks
Oscar-Claude Monet was a French painter and founder
of impressionist painting who is seen as a key
precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to
paint nature as he perceived it.
 Wassily
Kandinsky
Artworks
Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky was a Russian painter
and art theorist. Kandinsky is generally credited as one
of the pioneers of abstraction in western art
VINCENT VAN
GOGH
ARTWORKS
Vincent Willem van Gogh was a Dutch Post-
Impressionist painter who posthumously became one
of the most famous and influential figures in Western
art history. In a decade, he created about 2,100
artworks, including around 860 oil paintings, most of
which date from the last two years of his life.
Claude Debussy
French composer

klaad deh·byoo·see
What can you say about the
music?
How will you describe the
emotion of the composer?
What mood does the composer is
trying to portray?
How will you relate the
personality of the painters with
that of the musical composers?
1. Claude Debussy was among the most influential
composers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries. His mature compositions, distinctive and
appealing, combined modernism and sensuality so
successfully that their sheer beauty often obscures
their technical innovation.
2. Claude Debussy's “Clair de Lune” is so elegant in its manner of
adapting to any emotion. It's tone can be interpreted with joy,
melancholy, fear, anguish, excitement, curiosity, the list is unending.
3. Reverie induces fleeting moods of joy, sadness,
anxiety, and finally fulfillment. The song is
passionate, erratic and romantic. The music creates an
ambiguous and misty atmosphere.

4. Monet's paintings are characterized by distinct, thin

brush strokes, soft edges, and changing light. Likewise,
Debussy's music blurs the edges and creates new
harmonies in ways that give a dreamy
characteristic to his music.
Debussy was a highly complex personality who
often suffered from depression. 
Claude Debussy was among the
most influential composers of the
late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries. His mature
compositions, distinctive and
appealing, combined modernism
and sensuality so successfully that
their sheer beauty often obscures
their technical innovation.
 Joseph Maurice Ravel

jow·suhf maw·rees ruh·vel

Joseph Maurice Ravel was a French composer, pianist

and conductor. He is often associated with
Impressionism along with his elder contemporary
Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the
term. In the 1920s and 1930s Ravel was internationally
regarded as France's greatest living composer.
Analyze the music and
compare from the
previous music.
Ravel's music is in every way "bigger"
than Debussy's. It's more layered, more
virtuosic, more romantic, more sexual, etc..
But, Ravel's music lacks the charm and
unpretentious creativity of Debussy's
music.

Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel were the

two most important and influential French
composers of the early 20th century.
They shared similar backgrounds and
influences as both resided in Paris during an
epoch of rich cultural confluence. As a result,
they are often categorized together as
"Impressionist" composers.
Impressionist
Music
(circa 1875 to 1925)
Impressionism is a late 19th century and
early 20th century artistic movement
that began as a loose association of
Paris-based painters whose independent
exhibitions brought them to prominence
in the 1870s and 1880s.
The name of the Impressionist
movement is derived from the title of an
1872 painting of Claude Monet,
Impression, Sunrise.
Impression, Sunrise (1872)
Claude Monet
In addition to Claude Monet, other leading
Impressionist painters include:
Edouard Manet (eh·dwaard ma·nay)
Edgar Degas (ed·gr duh·gaa)
Pierre Auguste Renoir (pee·ehr uh·goost ruhn·waar)
Georges Seurat (zhorzh sr·aa)
 As with most artistic movements,
the Impressionist movement in music
was a reaction to the previous era of
music, namely the Romantic era,
in which the music of many composers
is heavy and overly dramatic
by comparison.
 Musical Impressionism
formed a transition from
late-Romantic music (1850-1900) to

20th century Modernist music.

Musical Impressionism was
based in France, and the
French composers
Claude Debussy and
Maurice Ravel are generally
considered to be the two
"great" Impressionists.
Claude Debussy
(1862-1918)
Maurice Ravel
(1875-1937)
 Other important
Impressionist composers included:
Ottorino Respighi (Italian - 1879-1936)
known for: The Pines of Rome (orchestral suite)

Frederick Delius (English - 1862-1934)

known for: Summer Night on the River

Manuel DeFalla (Spanish - 1876-1946)

Ritual Fire Dance from the ballet
known for:
El amor brujo (“Love, the Magician”)
 Characteristics of Music of the
Impressionist Period:
1. Music that conveys atmosphere
and subtle (suh·tl) emotion in
contrast to
the strong emotions expressed
in music of the Romantic period
 Characteristics of Music of the
Impressionist Period:
2. A departure from traditional
major/minor harmonies to include
the use of whole tone scales, (In
music, a whole-tone scale is a scale in which
each note is separated from its neighbors by the
interval of a whole tone.)  advanced
chromatic harmony
and dissonance.
 Characteristics of Music of the
Impressionist Period:
3. A departure from traditional musical
forms, such as the symphony,
concerto and sonata, in favor of
shorter musical forms, such as the
prelude, nocturne and the song.
 Characteristics of Music of the
Impressionist Period:
4. Great emphasis on orchestration as
a form of art in itself
(Orchestration is the study or practice
of writing music for an orchestra.)
 Characteristics of Music of the
Impressionist Period:
5. Rhythm: a strict sense of pulse and
time are often absent, making the
music sound much more free and
explorative.
 Important Works By
Impressionist Composers:
Claude Debussy:
Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun

Claire de Lune
from Suite Bergamasque
La Mer (The Sea)
 Important Works By
Impressionist Composers:
Maurice Ravel:
Daphnis & Chloe Suites 1 & 2
(ballet suites)

Bolero
La Valse
Ass.:
Research on the other composers
in the 20th century.