Turkish Journal Music Education

The Refereed Scholarly journal of the

JUNE 2009 YEAR: 2 VOLUME: 2 NO: 2

The Refereed Scholarly journal of the Fatih YAYLA, Editor Ayegl ATAK YAYLA, Copy Editor Ali SELMAN, Layout Editor Sleyman TARMAN, Proofreader, Publishing Editor
We are pleased to inform you that your article titled, Philosophy of Music Education: Toward Establishing a Turkish Model has been accepted for publication and will appear in the summer issue of Turkish Journal Music Education.

Electronic Article IMPRESSIONISM IN MUSIC AND PAINTING AND DEODAT DE SEVERAC

Demet Akkl

2009 All rights reserved. The content artical is the sole responsibity of the author. The TJME, is not liable for any legal actions that may aribe involving the articles content, including bun not limited to, copyright infringament. ISSN: 1307-3389 This article is part of an issue of online journal TJME (Turkish Journal of Music Education) www.tjme.net Mzik Eitimi Yaynlar www.muzikegitimi.net

ISSN: 1307-3389

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JUNE 2009 YEAR: 2 VOLUME: 2 NO: 2

IMPRESSIONISM IN MUSIC AND PAINTING AND DEODAT DE SEVERAC

Demet Akkl
By mid 19th century, humanity had witnessed a great many novelties in many elds as a result of the revolutions that had taken place in Europe and America. Urban life started to develop rapidly with the changes made in political, social and economic elds. The rich middle class that developed from the industrial revolution emerged as the new patron of art in this century. The headlong development and changes in social life affected art movements in the same direction and brought about a conict between the traditional academician artists and those in favour of novelties. Hobsbawn 2003:329) The effects of impressionism were rst felt in the art of painting. At the exhibition held in 1874, Claude Monets painting Impression, soleil levant depicts a port in the morning fog. In his article Exhibition of the Impressionists published in Charivari newspaper on 25 April 1874, journalist Louise Leray used the term impressionist to degrade and oppose the artists who turned away from traditional approaches and reected their own impressions. After some time, artists appropriated being called impressionist and have been called by this name since then.(www.petekarici.com). Impressionist artists saved the painting from the dominance of subject and focused directly on colour and style. These painters, who preferred working outdoors, aimed to catch the icker of daylight on the objects and variable volatile impressions. As a result, their palettes were brightened and their paintings were lled with an array of bright colours. They used 7 colours that form the daylight in their palettes without the concern for using black color for shade effect, and they also came to the conclusion that black doesnt exist in nature and shade was in fact a hue. Objects didnt have their own unchanging colours; the sea would look red and a pile of hay would look blue or orange depending on the light cast on them. In the compositions with pile of colours, depth was reduced and plain colour areas were used, so the subject became a secondary concern and the attention of the viewers was attracted to the surface of the painting. (ww.petekarici.com). These were the shared notions by the impressionists: however, they were quick to form their own styles soon within the framework of the common ideas. The fact that music was posterior to other arts and that it interacted with them was also true for Impressionism. Impressionism, which started as a reaction to traditional art of painting in the late 19th century and prepared the grounds for movements that led to todays modern arts, made itself felt in music at the beginning of the 20th century. The view that artists presented behind the fog created the same effect on composers. (lyasolu 1995:199). Impressionism, which removed the borders in painting, played with perspective, and left man in the middle of an intricate view, became the expression of a remote and fantastic world. Soft melodies in their melancholic ow lost all their characteristics despite the dissonances they carry in harmonic softness. (Selanik 1996:225). Moving away from shade to light and the integrity formed by the seemingly disconnected spots in the art of painting were similarly used in their works by the impressionist composers. While the rhythm and scales showed propensity towards ambiguity, new combinations of chords that aroused a sense of ambiguity in terms of technique, exotic scales and intense chromatic scales - all became impressionist instruments. Although impressionism had been used in music before Claude Debussy, he composed the most awless and best examples of this movement. Although his orchestration was similar to that of Berlioz and his piano writings to that of Chopin, he didnt follow any composers lead. Impressionist painting and symbolist poetry were inspiration for Debussys music. He opposed to realism in his music and he used rhythm, harmony, and melody to express his feelings just as poets used the sounds of the language and artist lines and colours. In his music harmony was no more main composition ingredient but was dedicated to expression and it gained a new aspect in each of his new work. Utopic vistas that are lost in the

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fog, clouds, hills and water were all sources of inspiration for him. Water in particular is the most notable element that had inuence on the composer. He made use of this element in his works such as Reets dans Ieau (Reections in the Water), jardins sour la pluie (Gardens in the Rain), La Mer (the Sea). Debussy also made some changes in the orchestra. He brought to the fore woodwind instruments rather than the brass ones. The composer, who was always in a pursuit of novelty, tried to create the misty and dim atmosphere in his works. He inuenced a great many 20th century composers. Deodat de Sverac, who was among those composers inuenced by Debussy, was born in Saint-Felix-de-Caraman on 20 July 1873. His father was Baron Gilbert de Sverac, who was a member of a noble family and a gifted artist. (Blom 1955:726). Upon his fathers wishes, Sverac started his education in law, but gave it up because of his passion for music and attended La Schola Contorum in Paris, where he studied composition with Albert Magnard and Vincent dIndy, and organ with Charles Bordes and Felix Alexander Guilmant. His undisciplined behaviour and violating school rules caused dismay. His notions were in conict with especially that of dIndys. In his thesis on Centralization and Small Schools of Music he utters his discontent with degeneration in his music life and tells about his fear of systems and the distress resulted from unconditional devotion to music theories. To him, being unconditionally devoted to rules meant undermining the visionary world of the composer and making him unproductive. (Colin 1958:510). He maintained this belief all his life and made it a major principle of his music style. Just as the impressionist artists depicted nature going out of their workrooms outdoors, Sverac, being affected by natures colours, smell and sound, communicated with the sun, clouds and the sky and considered himself a rural composer. Some time after he completed his education, he moved to Ceret, where he was to live all his life. The composer started his music life with an organ brought to the church in Saint Felix, where he was born and grew up. Sverac, who took music lessons from the organist of the church, started his composing practices for organ in Toulous Conservatory that he attended prior to La Schola Cantorum. Unlike the works of the composers of the time, his rst compositions were introvert and religious. His opera called Heligobale , which was rst performed in 1910, was composed under the inuence of religious notions. Thinking that his spontaneous creativity would be hindered by writing, he didnt want to lose time with it and his indifference to written works reduced his repertoire greatly, especially his organ repertoire. For

this reason Sveracs many works couldnt reach next generations and hence, he couldnt become popular as his contemporaries did. Sverac created compositions not only for the organ but also for the piano. His work Beigneuses au soleil, The sunbathing Girl which he wrote in 1908 is a poetic etude. This piece brought Sverac fame among the musicians especially the pianists. Alfred Cortot remarked on this work, which depicts sunbathing women on a beautiful summer day, saying A sonarite full of angels and this work bears the emotional, tender and bright touch seen in the organists of the past. (Colin 1958:510) Sveracs major piano compositions: -Le Chant de la terre(Song of the Land) depicts people working in the eld, their struggle, their hopes and their joy. -En Languedoc,This work, which was published secondly in ve parts, brought the composer a good fame. -Le Soldat de plomp Tin Soldiers was composed in 1905, -Pepermint-Get in 1907 -Elegie sur le mort de Paul Gauguin Elegy for the death of Gauguin in 1908 -Les Naides et le Faune ndiscret Water Nymphs and Tactless Pan in 1909 -Cerdana suit in four parts (the region where half French and half Spanish Catalan language is spoken) in 1910. -En vacances On Holiday , composed of two notebooks, in 1912 -Sous les Lauriers Roses Under the Oleander Tree composed of 10 parts in 1912 Sveracs works were published by Rouart&Lerolle Pubr. He added warm and deep emotion to his music. He was able to arouse a liking of the others though sometimes he was not competent enough to create a full admiration. Bibliography: HOBSBAWN, Eric, Capital Period, Ankara, 2003, 329 www.petekarici LYASOLU, Evin, Music in history, stanbul,1994 SELANK, Cavidan, The historical development of music, Ankara, 1995 BLOM, Eric, Groves Dictionary of Music, New York, 1955 COLN, Armand, Music History IV, Paris,1958, p.510 AKKILI, Demet, Prociency in Art,Piece Study Report, Ankara,2006