Impressionism

Around 1900 a small group of Paris composers changed the sound of Western music. Instead of building long arguments out of themes and keys, as the German tradition did, they worked with colour, atmosphere and suggestion. The result was a style that listeners associated with the paintings of Monet and Renoir, and that is still the first thing many people think of when they hear the words "French music". This chapter looks at Debussy, Ravel and Satie, with Fauré as their older neighbour, and at the idea of French colour that grew up around them. Names, dates and attributions are given from general knowledge and flagged where they should be checked.

The World's Fair of 1889

In 1889 Paris held a world's fair, the Exposition Universelle, whose centrepiece was the new iron tower designed by Gustave Eiffel. Visitors could also hear music from other parts of the world, and it is often said that the young Claude Debussy heard a Javanese gamelan orchestra there and was struck by its sound (check this carefully, since the story is widely repeated and the details are debated). Whether or not that one moment was decisive, the fair is a good symbol: Paris was a city where new sounds from elsewhere were available, and where composers were willing to listen.

What Was New

Claude Debussy

Claude Debussy (1862 to 1918) is the central figure. His orchestral piece Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune (first performed in 1894, check) is often named as a turning point in modern music. His opera Pelléas et Mélisande (1902, check) set a Symbolist play almost like speech, and his orchestral work La Mer (1905, check) evokes the sea in three movements. His piano music, including the piece known as Clair de lune, is among the most played of the period (check the details of its publication). Debussy himself disliked the label "impressionist", and the term was first used as criticism of painters before it was applied to musicians (check). Many writers use it with caution for that reason.

Maurice Ravel

Maurice Ravel (1875 to 1937) is often paired with Debussy, but his music is more precise and more openly rooted in older dance forms. He was a master of orchestration, and his arrangement of Mussorgsky's piano suite Pictures at an Exhibition (1922, check) is the version most often heard. His ballet Daphnis et Chloé and the piece Boléro (1928, check) show his range, and Boléro is a single theme repeated while the orchestration grows. The two composers admired each other, though their relations were sometimes cool (check the details).

Erik Satie

Erik Satie (1866 to 1925) was an eccentric and an original. His Gymnopédies for piano (1888, check) are slow, quiet and plain, and look forward to much later ideas of minimal and ambient music. He gave his pieces whimsical titles and instructions to the performer, and he wrote what he called "furniture music" (musique d'ameublement), meant to be part of the background rather than listened to closely (check the details). In 1917 he collaborated on the ballet Parade with the writer Jean Cocteau and the painter Pablo Picasso (check), a sign of how closely Paris musicians worked with other artists.

Exercises

Next chapter: Les Six, Boulanger & the Hot Club, which covers Paris between the wars.