Impressionism In Art, Literature And Music
Impression, Soleil Levant by Claude Monet is a painting that created a whole new artistic era out of the combined idea of motion, and emotion. Impressionist paintings are filled with small, similar brush strokes creating a wonderous sense of movement and direction within a stationary canvas, all whilst using colour to evoke a strong emotional connection between the artist and the onlooker. Monet is often described as the founder of Impressionism, by giving the movement its name and by becoming one of the era’s most celebrated artists. He was praised and yet heavily critiqued, with the general public and art critiques being less than ready for this new trend of painting, with it even being called “less skilful than crude wallpaper” (Grandville 1947, p. 211-212). The evocative and expressive style was revered not only in its French motherland, but all over the world. And soon, it created an entire new dynamic in the musical world, too.
Exactly a decade before Impression, Soleil Levant was created, Claude Debussy was born. His family was poverty-stricken, teetering on the edge of unsustainability. However, as Claude’s childhood went by, financial issues resided, resulting in consistent and high-quality piano lessons to mark the beginning of Debussy’s musical career. By the time Debussy was little over ten years old, merely two years since his first official lesson on the piano, he was of near virtuosic playing ability and was granted a place at the Paris Conservatoire. Debussy rebelled against the strict rules of harmonisation that were enforced at the Conservatoire, exploring new and exciting harmonic structures that were not in circulation at this point in musical history. After years of performing and eventually composing, he transferred to the composition course at the Conservatoire, where his true flare for harmonisation was nurtured and refined, paving the way for Impressionism (Walsh 2018, Chapter 1).
Upon first hearing Debussy, his appreciation for the piano as a solo instrument is clear. His music feels to be written with the piano, as opposed to written for it. His poetic melodic lines and almost blurred harmonisation creates a timbre unlike anything that had come before him. Debussy truly set himself apart with his virtuosic creativity and originality, composing pieces that made their audience feel the music, from the 19th century all the way into the 21st. However, it is not to be overlooked that Debussy had a large and significant influence from Frederik Chopin, whose former pupil was Claude’s own piano tutor. Phrases with an air of impressionism can be heard in later work of Chopin’s, described as “a form of life and an expression of old age” (Piotrowska, [n. d. ]). Despite this, Debussy managed to create his own genre entirely, pushing the boat out with ingenious ambiguity and the need to create music that strayed far from the grammatical musical norm of the 19th century. Many of Debussy’s most revered works were based upon poetry from the likes of Verlaine (Buja, 2017). Claire de Lune, for example, was inspired by Verlaine’s poem of the same name, which translates from French to Moonlight:
Au calme clair de lune triste et beau, The calm light of the moon, sad and fair,
Qui fait rêver les oiseaux dans les arbres that sets the birds dreaming in the trees
Et sangloter d’extase les jets d’eau, and the fountains sobbing in their rapture,
Les grands jets d’eau sveltes parmi les marbres. tall and svelte among marble statues.
(Verlaine 1869)
This verse of Clair de Lune, in particular, can be envisaged with astonishing clarity when listening to Debussy’s interpretation, with its deeply emotional melodic and harmonic structure, truly painting the colours of the scene rather than attempting to accurately recreate the subjects, much like Monet. Debussy said himself, “J'aime les images presque autant que la musique” (I love the painting almost as much as the music itself), in a letter he wrote to Edgard Varèse in 1911 (Lockspeiser 2019). Although Debussy was the most influential and famed composer of the Impressionist era, he is closely rivalled by Ravel. Maurice Ravel, born in 1875, was debatably not as ground-breaking in his use of harmony as Debussy. Despite this, he made his mark on impressionism with his exotic melodies, made up of modes rather than the traditional Western diatonic scale which was used at this point in music history and is still primarily used today (Myers, 2019). Unlike Debussy who primarily wrote for solo piano, Ravel wrote for full orchestras. Perhaps his most famous piece, Bolero, is unique for its slow build of dynamics and instruments, ending in a full orchestra for its invigorating ending (Schwarm 2016). His innovative approach to melody and intricate orchestration made him a leader in his field, earning him a valuable place in the history of music.
Despite the cross-curricular links on Impressionism between literature, art and music, it is almost never taught to students this way. There is a clear route for interdisciplinary learning, yet it is ignored. The Curriculum for Excellence Benchmarks on Music Education have nothing that touches on the history of music and its cultural significance. This has caused there to be a gaping hole in the music curriculum that needs to be addressed and resolved, as students are missing out on integral information that adds a whole new depth to their studies. The work of Debussy and Ravel and their ground-breaking exploration of harmony and melody changed the way composers and musicians more than one hundred years later approach writing and performing music of their own. They set an example for how inventive and expressive music can be, and demonstrated with their own personal flare, that breaking the rules is not always a bad thing.
