Contemporary Listening – Impressionism
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Contemporary Listening – Impressionism
Impressionism in music was a revolution in Western classical music that involved several artists. This musical revolution aimed to provide ideas and mood. Impressionist music conjured up images of bright lights, the sea, and the joy of a hot summer day. Artists did this by combining a wide range of devices, sound rhythms, and musical systems. Irregular expressions, the absence of conventional harmonic progressions, and entire tone scales were all features of Impressionist songs. Claude Debussy was one of the great artists of this movement.
Many impressionist techniques are used in Debussy’s “Prelude to an Afternoon of a Faun” to construct the simplistic scene he is attempting to depict. These techniques involve using as many instruments as needed at the same time. This was achieved since in prior works, artists tried to construct a tone hue such that groups of different musicians sounded the same. Imitated by Debussy, the impressionist artists were more concentrated on the actual tones of each instrument, and they composed in such a way as to emphasize those different tone colors (Hurd, 2020). This results in a thin texture, which is a third impressionist composition process. The instruments in this vast ensemble always stand out, though not alone; for instance, a violin with a flute and clarinets in the background (Howard-Lewis, 2016). Alternatively, only a couple woodwinds and no other instruments can be used.
In this piece, the tempo is difficult to discern. Nevertheless, I would explain it with the tempo marking largo. The key theme is introduced by the flute in the opening metrics of this symphonic poem, which is performed in a largo tempo that stays constant as the momentum progresses from piano to forte (Debussy, 1894). The faun, who is the major figure in the poem, is represented by the flute. Since the key instruments that bear the theme are woodwind instruments and strings, which have a higher tone and are brighter, I find this piece to use more fascinating timbre. The harp is used to highlight the violins and flutes at timestamps of 0:26 and 0:42. At this point, the melody is accompanied by French horns. It also adds a touch of radiance. The flute duo’s crescendo during their harmonious cells is accompanied by larghetto strings, with violin holding the soprano portion over alto violins. There is a brief pause at 1:57 where the oboe begins to play and the excerpt fades out. Due to the usage of the French Horns, which combine with the flutes and almost linger in tremolo at timestamp 0:56, I found it to be more harmonically exciting. The notes always hang, keeping the audience in suspense.
The difference between the two elements beat and rhythm is that beat, also called tempo, is the pulse of music. The beat remains constant where rhythm can vary. Rhythm is a series of notes within a musical piece; it is the pattern which can vary in length and accent. The music I have listened to in class and Debussy’s Prelude follow a form however, Debussy’s Prelude was based on a poem and is in A-B-A form. One of the pieces I have listened to, Piano Concerto, by Mozart is in B-flat major form and used a Siciliano rhythm. I enjoyed all selections equally and went back to listen to more of them to appreciate the differences in them.
References
Debussy, C. (1894). Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun. YouTube. https://youtu.be/9_7loz-HWUM
Howard-Lewis, A. (2016). Claude Debussy’s manipulation of musical elements to compose impressionist music (Doctoral dissertation, Colorado State University-Pueblo.).
Hurd, I. (2020). Colors of Sound: Preparing Students for the Music of Debussy.