The impact of the Impressionist movement on French piano music in

the early 20th Century

The Impressionist movement is renowned as one of the most divisive musical
movements in history; to such an extent that one of its most famous and influential
composers, Claude Debussy, openly voiced his opposition to the term. He believed it
to be a way of simple classification for his music, avoiding the proper analysis of its
content.1 More than likely he also rejected the term due to his prior knowledge of the
negative connotations it originally held when used in the description of Claude
Monets Impression, Soleil Levant.2 Ravel, though never outright deriding the term,
decided that the lack of structural lines was not the way in which he wished to
ultimately compose, adapting an almost mechanical form of composition and
dissonance, owing to the sounds of his childhood, and not overly impressionist in
style.3 Other artists, such as Satie, explicitly distanced themselves from the
Impressionist movement.4 These factors create a fascinating backdrop to a movement
that entirely altered French piano music in many ways, including its composition,
performance and inspiration. This essay seeks to document and analyse some of the
developments in these areas throughout this turbulent but hugely influential time in
the history of French piano music.

The spread of the Impressionist style in French piano music owes much to virtuoso
pianist Ricardo Vies. A force to be reckoned with in Impressionist piano
performance, he was an essential component in the realisation of works by the
influential composers early in the movement, before his overly free way of
interpretation cooled some, Ravel especially, towards his performances.5 Indeed, his
belief in the style was all too clear even before its spread to France, and certainly his

Lesure,
http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/07353
2 Venturi, http://www.jstor.org/stable/426742
3 Larner (1996), pp. 20-26.
4 Orledge,
http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/40105
5 Rodger,
http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/opr/t114/e7153
1

performance debuting Mussorgskys Pictures at an Exhibition could not fail to be,

in part, the catalyst for rapid growth of the movement throughout French piano music.
Being reasonably nationalist, Vies began searching for composers in France with
similar ideals to his own, and encouraging composers to adapt their style.6

It was in 1902 that he performed one of the first truly Impressionist piano pieces by a
French composer. Maurice Ravels Jeux dEau is a composition taking much
influence from Lizsts Les Jeux dEaux la Villa dEste. Ravel uses innovative
compositional techniques and performance directions to create the impression of the
movement of water. Ravels ingenuity is displayed in how the piece itself is played,
instructing Vies to allow the higher notes of the piece to ring out using the pedal,
giving the sense of a consistently fluid, rippling effect through the composition.
Ex. 1:

Though the clarity of the notes being played may suffer as the harmonics of the
arpeggios build up, Ravel believed them to be subservient to the hazy impression of
vibrations in the air.7 These ideas enabled Ravel and composers under his influence
to wash their music with sustained colour and manifest the sensation of certain

Nichols,
http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/opr/t114/e7153
7 Palmer (1973), pp. 111-113.
6

environments or objects, rather than merely attempting to replicate them.8

The

inscription on the piece further validates the theory that this work is purely
impressionist. Taken from an Impressionist poem, it reads River God laughing at the
water that tickles him.9 Reading the preceding quotation in relation to the piece itself
all but confirms the piece as Impressionist in inspiration as well as in composition.
Jeux dEau was to have a profound impact on all of French piano music, far more so
than Debussys rather romantically orientated piano work Pour la Piano, premiered in
the same year. The lack of impressionist textures and ideals in this piece meant it
paled in comparison to the shimmering Impressionism of Jeux dEau. Debussy had
already created his ideal of Impressionist work, completing his opera Pellas et
Mlisande beforehand but was seemingly unable to immediately transfer his ideas to
his piano music (barring the stirring pentatonic work Clair de Lune in 1890).10

Though it could be argued that Jeux dEau was Ravels most seminal work, it falls
short of being widely accepted as his greatest piano music. That honour falls to
another composition of water-music based impressionism, the haunting Gaspard de la
Nuit. The first of this three-part collection based on the poems by Aloysius Bertrand is
Ondine. Amusingly, the piece was originally intended as a caricature of
romanticism but Ravels fears that during the process of composition he had become
carried away with the intricacy of the music were well founded. The result is a
juxtaposition of two styles: a synthesis of Romanticism and Impressionism.11 Notice
in the example, taken from the first bars of the piece, the strong melodic line in the
second stave, written in a style more associated with Romantic works than those of
the Impressionism movement.

Pastler,
http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/50026
9 Larner (1996), pp. 68-69.
10 Nichols (1975), pp. 15-16.
11 Larner (1996), p. 109.
8

Ex. 2:

Comparing this to the top line demonstrates the contrast in styles, with the lower stave
anchoring the intricate rhythmic action of the top stave. The harmonies used on the
top stave do not concur with that of Romantic music, with a perfect fifth and minor
sixth constantly changing, giving the effect of a tremolo on the piece. Later in the
piece we see more evidence of the Impressionist style, with similar arpeggios to those
used in his Jeux dEau to create a musical manifestation of the Water Fairy in
Bertrands poetry attempting to woo him and the maniacal laughter within seconds of
his rejecting her.
Ex. 3:

It is wise also to note Ravels attention to the melodic line, which provides a tenable
link for the listener to the ever-changing spectrum of tonality used throughout the
piece.12 In parts where this link is not applied, the arpeggios themselves can be seen to

12

Palmer (1973), pp. 116-117.

4

take on both the harmonic and melodic content of the piece, with the melody moving
at a similar pace but somewhat disguised by the harmonic arpeggios at work.1314
Ex: 4

This proved to be one of Ravels last truly Impressionist works as he moved his sound
to a more dissonant level. He did retain many of the fundamental compositional
techniques of Impressionism, its seamless movement into new styles indicative of its
influence on all of French piano music.15

Claude Debussy is in the unique position of being the emergent talent on whom the
term Impressionist was mockingly thrown, just like Claude Monet in the fine art
movement. Monet was an artist Debussy openly admitted feeling he had a great
affinity with, once taking for a compliment Emile Vuillermozs figurative naming of
him as a pupil of Monet.16 This also indicates to us that the term Impressionism,
though he disliked its use as a generalization, was not an altogether inaccurate
terminology for his influences and by extension works.
Larner (1996), pp. 109-110.
Kelly,
http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/52145
15 Palmer (1973), pp. 118-119.
16 Lesure et all,
http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/07353
13
14

Debussys Estampes collection came at a point in his life when his compositions had
become a sought after commodity and his opinion mattered greatly to the
Impressionist movement. His opera Pellas et Mlisande had just catapulted him into
a position of massive influence, though many felt that his piano works had yet to
reach their zenith in terms of quality.17 The first piece of the collection, Pagodes,
shows the fundamental difference between his style of composition and that of Ravel,
but also shows some of the unifying traits of both composers at work. Debussys
primary concern in this piece is its texture, weaving the composition through several
layers with calculated decisions throughout based almost solely on texture. His expert
use of the pentatonic is quite deliberately overshadowed by his unerring dedication to
the textural ideal, as opposed to the form or tonality of the piece.
Ex. 5:

From the point of view of Impressionism, its steady assimilation into French piano
music is noticeable through its application by different composers. Pagodes contains
a section of arpeggios, which apes in a striking fashion the arpeggios in the
aforementioned Ravel piece Jeux dEau.

17

Palmer (1973), pp. 118-119.

6

We also see traces of influence from foreign folk music in this piece, used by
Debussy to create a feeling of the orient. Though the foreign element is not
Impressionist in terms of composition, his reasons for its inclusion certainly are. He
uses these sounds to create an almost physical texture of the oriental fountain as the
subject of the piece.18

Undoubtedly Debussy was influenced by Ravels work. It does, however, differ from
Ravels use by virtue of the fact that Debussy considered texture before line or form,
while Ravel approached his composition with the melodic line of the piece very much
at the forefront of his consideration. These differences aside, it is clear that the
Impressionist style was bleeding through French piano music, even with a composer
who refuted the term.

Over time Debussy made several attempts to distance himself from the Impressionist
term, trying to divert attention to the compositions themselves instead of the label
attached to them. One of his most audacious attempts was to place the titles of each of
his Prludes (1908) at the end of the piece.
Ex. 6:

By doing this he hoped to avoid an instant belief that these pieces were based on the
titles, hoping the listener would instead notice the textures throughout and not merely

18

Griffiths (1978), p. 124.

7

generalise each composition as Impressionist by virtue of its name.19 In the first book
we also see Debussy shorten the length of the pieces in comparison to his previous
works and eradicating all repeats from his composition. Des pas sur la Neige, the
sixth piece in his first book of Prludes, is so typical of a piece from these collections.
Most are based on a small amount of themes and in the case of this piece it could be
argued that only one theme really exists; certainly one is more prominent than any
other. The concept of using large amounts of ornamentation is gone, indeed within the
collection very little exists. This was a telling precursor to the future of French piano
music, moving further away from composing complicated music towards composing
with a specific inspiration in mind, allowing the music to solely concentrate on
projecting the idea to the listener. 20
Ex. 7:

The example above shows the main two-note theme from Des pas sur la Neige. Note
the extremely thin harmonic content. Given Debussys attention to detail regarding
texture, one can only assume that he has purposely created the opaque feeling,
perhaps to aurally manifest the idea of a snowbound environment.21 Although this
piece has very little actual modulation, Debussy does lean heavily towards other
remote keys such as D flat major and G flat major without, strictly speaking, altering
the key of the piece. An example of this is given below, with the chord giving the
listener an uneasy wait to hear if the semi-implied modulation to the relative major
will in fact occur.22

Lesure et all,
http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/07353
20 Myers (1971), pp. 95-98.
21 Gatti, www.jstor.org/stable/738116
22 Whittall (1999), pp. 25-28.
19

Ex. 8:

The works of Debussy and Ravel directly influenced many French composers.
Composer Paul Dukas can be taken from a long list of composers just late enough to
the Impressionist movement to be called imitators but relatively skilful composers in
their own right. With Dukas La Plainte, au Loin, du Faune, we see very obvious
Impressionistic elements.
Ex. 9:

Given the depth of Impressionism in the piece, it is unsurprising that it is dedicated to

Claude Debussy himself. The style is slow and downcast, again using the aesthetic
features of Impressionism, given that it is in mourning of Debussys death.23
Historically there has been great difficulty in labelling a specific composer as
Impressionist. Certain elements of most French composers composition could be
termed Impressionistic. But still Debussy fought against the term for most of his life,
even given his love of Impressionist artists. Roussel was certainly influenced by it
before evolving his music in his own independent direction, trying to compose in a
more natural fashion.24 Even Satie, who wished to completely separate music and
inspiration, composed at least one piece that could be termed impressionist: his
23

Palmer (1973), pp. 129-130.

24Labelle,

http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/23971
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second Sarabande.25 Perhaps that is in fact the most compelling evidence for the
dissemination of Impressionism throughout French music: a composer who openly
disagreed with the very fabric of Impressionism still, if only for the creation of one
piece of music, fell under its spell.

Bibliography
Books:

Orledge,
http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com:80/subscriber/article/grove/music/40105
25

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Abraham, Gerald, The Concise Oxford History of Music (Oxford: Oxford University
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Myers, Rollo, Modern French Music (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1971)
Nichols, Roger, Debussy (London: Oxford University Press, 1975)
Palmer, Christopher, Impressionism in Music (London: Hutchinson & Co, 1973)
Whittall, Arnold, Musical Composition in the Twentieth Century (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1999)

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Venturi, Lionello, The Aesthetic Idea of Impressionism, www.jstor.org [Website]

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Musical Examples:
Jeux dEau, Maurice Ravel:
http://conquest.imslp.info/files/imglnks/usimg/b/b8/IMSLP03175-Ravel-Jeuxd_EauDemets.pdf
Gaspard da la Nuit, Maurice Ravel:
http://erato.uvt.nl/files/imglnks/usimg/6/6a/IMSLP246875-PMLP02576Ravel__Maurice-Gaspard_de_la_nuit_Durand_7207_scan.pdf

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