What is Impressionism?

 Impressionism in music was a movement among various composers in Western classical music
(mainly during the late 19th and early 20th centuries) whose music focuses on mood and
atmosphere, "conveying the moods and emotions aroused by the subject rather than a detailed
tone‐picture". "Impressionism" is a philosophical and aesthetic term borrowed from late 19th-
century French painting after Monet's Impression, Sunrise.

Characteristics of impressionism:

 In conclusion, tone color, atmosphere, and fluidity were the most important characteristics to
define Impressionist music. Most often represented by short, lyrical pieces, composers such as
Debussy became prolific in this style from 1890-1920.

Who are the well known Impressionists composer?

 Claude Debussy, in full Achille-Claude Debussy, (born August 22, 1862, Saint-Germain-en-Laye,
France—died March 25, 1918, Paris), French composer whose works were a seminal force in the
music of the 20th century. He developed a highly original system of harmony and musical
structure that expressed in many respects the ideals to which the Impressionist and Symbolist
painters and writers of his time aspired. His major works include Clair de lune (“Moonlight,” in
Suite bergamasque, 1890–1905), Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune (1894; Prelude to the
Afternoon of a Faun), the opera Pelléas et Mélisande (1902), and La Mer (1905; “The Sea”).
 And Maurice Ravel, in full Joseph-Maurice Ravel, (born March 7, 1875, Ciboure, France—died
December 28, 1937, Paris), French composer of Swiss-Basque descent, noted for his musical
craftsmanship and perfection of form and style in such works as Boléro (1928), Pavane pour une
infante défunte (1899; Pavane for a Dead Princess), Rapsodie espagnole (1907), the ballet
Daphnis et Chloé (first performed 1912), and the opera L’Enfant et les sortilèges (1925; The
Child and the Enchantments).
What is expressionism in music?

 Expressionism is a term that, like impressionism, originated in the visual arts and was then
applied to other arts including music. Expressionism can be considered a reaction to the
ethereal sweetness of impressionism. Instead of gauzy impressions of natural beauty,
expressionism looks inward to the angst and fear lurking in the subconscious mind. In music,
expressionism is manifest in the full embrace of jarring dissonance. Expressionism was
developed as an avant-garde style before the First World War. It remained popular during
theWeimar Republic, particularly in Berlin. The style extended to a wide range of the arts,
including expressionist architecture, painting, literature, theatre, dance, film and music.

What are the characteristics of expressionism?

 Expressionist music often features a high level of dissonance, extreme contrasts of dynamics,
constant changing of textures, "distorted" melodies and harmonies, and angular melodies with
wide leaps.

Who are the well known expressionists composer?

 The term expressionism "was probably first applied to music in 1918, especially to Schoenberg",
because like the painter Wassily Kandinsky (1866–1944) he avoided "traditional forms of
beauty" to convey powerful feelings in his music (Sadie 1991, 244). Theodor Adorno sees the
expressionist movement in music, as seeking to "eliminate all of traditional music's conventional
elements, everything formulaically rigid". This he sees as analogous "to the literary ideal of the
'scream' ". As well Adorno sees expressionist music, as seeking "the truthfulness of subjective
feeling without illusions, disguises or euphemisms". Adorno also describes it as concerned with
the unconscious, and states that "the depiction of fear lies at the centre" of expressionist music,
with dissonance predominating, so that the "harmonious, affirmative element of art is
banished" (Adorno 2009, 275–76).
 Arnold Schoenberg was an Austrian, and later American, composer, music theorist, teacher,
writer, and painter. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential
composers of the 20th century. He was associated with the expressionist movement in German
poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School. With the rise of the Nazi Party,
Schoenberg's works were labeled degenerate music, because they were modernist and atonal.
He emigrated to the United States in 1933.
 Theodoro Adorno he was a leading member of the Frankfurt School of critical theory, whose
work has come to be associated with thinkers such as Ernst Bloch, Walter Benjamin, Max
Horkheimer, Erich Fromm, and Herbert Marcuse, for whom the works of Freud, Marx, and Hegel
were essential to a critique of modern society. He is widely regarded as one of the 20th
century's foremost thinkers on aesthetics and philosophy, as well as one of its preeminent
essayists. As a critic of both fascism and what he called the culture industry, his writings—such
as Dialectic of Enlightenment (1947), Minima Moralia (1951) and Negative Dialectics (1966)—
strongly influenced the European New Left.

Submitted by group#3 (Yellowrific)