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Impressionism in the Piano Music of Claude Debussy

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Impressionism in the Piano Music of Claude Debussy Eastern Illinois University The Keep Masters Theses Student Theses & Publications 1962 Impressionism in the Piano Music of Claude Debussy Barbara Ellen Webb Eastern Illinois University Follow this and additional works at: https://thekeep.eiu.edu/theses Part of the Music Commons Recommended Citation Webb, Barbara Ellen, "Impressionism in the Piano Music of Claude Debussy" (1962). Masters Theses. 4728. https://thekeep.eiu.edu/theses/4728 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Theses & Publications at The Keep. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of The Keep. For more information, please contact [email protected]. IMPRESSIONISH IN THE FIAI~O MUSIC - OF GLAUDE DEBUSSY A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Department of Music Eastern Illinois University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Science in Education by Barbara Ellen Webb May 1962 ii FOREWORD The purpose of this paper is the acquisitior. of an understand­ ing of Impressionism in the piano music of Claude Debussy acquired through study and analysis of his major piano works. This is not intended as an exhaustive (theoretical) analysis but an illuraination of the musical content to as2ist the pianist in interpretative com- · prehension. note: An abbreviation useci in this paper which the reader must understand is li:_ which stands for rneasure(s). iii I wish to acknowledge Dr. Catherine S;ni th f'or her guidance and assistance. I also wish to thunk Dr, Alan Aulabaugh, Liss 3lizabeth hichael, and Liss Chenault for their helpful advice. iv I. 1 In Fainting 1 In Litaraturo 4 Jr; Lusic G 7 donistic Techr:iques 8 Harmonic Froceciures 12 t'or:mal Structure 13 Tor;e Color 14 17 ...:;stauoes___ ---...___ 17 Irnages 33 111. comiu:::;1orr 71 .':3DLlOGJlfrh~ 73 76 CHAPTER I IMPRESSIONISM Impressionism, a movement which manifested itself in the late nineteenth and carried into the twentieth century, offered a solution to the escape :from traditional Realism. The Impressionists, searching for realism, sought it not in the world of externals, but rather, by looking into the emotions that this world inspired in them. In order to communicate these emotions, they endeavored to create the proper mood or atmosphere to induce each emotion in the mind or the recipient. The evanescence of Impressionistic art causes it to be fleeting, short-lived, and changeable. This stems :from the basic philosophy or the movement itself which closely resembles that or the early Greek philosopher Heraclitus. He believed that the universe was in a constant state or change-in fact, the only constant was change or •nux." Heraclitus used fire as the symbol of this change; many Impressionists used a river in which time is perceived only in terms or the present moment as their symbol¥. or change. A. IN PAINTING Impressionism, which became a process or chain reaction in all the arts, is a term that was first applied to a school or French painting which flourished from the 1870s to the end or the century. "The name adopted by the school came by chance, from a reference~ 2 slurring and derogatory at the time~to one of Monet's canvases in the~ des Refuses of 1874, entitled Impressionism: Soleil Levant. Reviewers found the label handy, and soon the painters undertook to defend themselves as Impressionists." 1 This Impressionistic school of painters, consisting of Manet, Monet, Sisley, Renoir, Pissarro, and others, was revolutionary in its turn away from photographic realism. These painters ware more concerned with color and light than with form and substance. Subject, composition, and detail were to impres­ sionism of secondary importance; its subjects are lacking in clarity, their contours are wasted away, and what dominates is a planar, uncertain color os-· cillation with no pretense at corporeal roundness ••• or at composition in the sense of clear-cut forms. 2 The Impressionistic painters treated the subject as if it had only been seen for a fleeting momen~as if one had only seen it in passing. As a result of this concept, these painters departed from objective values. They would make a dozen pictures of a hay­ stack, a bridge, or a cathedral facade in a different light • ••• what the subject intrinsically is, really does not matter; only its appearance under light matters •••• The haystack, the postman, and the railway station now became picture subjects •••• In the end it is not the object or event that counts, but the visual im­ pression as caught at a certain time of day, under a certain light. Reality went into a luminous fog. 3 1sheldon Cheney,~ New~ History of Art (New York: Viking Press, 1956), p. 574. 2paul Henry Lang, Music in Western Civilization {New York: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc.;-i941), p. 1016. 3Cheney, ~· cit., pp. 574 et seq. 3 There are several characteristics of evanescent impressions which are portrayed by the painters. The first characteristic is the absence of clarity. This is found chiefly in the compositional arrangement of colors and objects. Roughly speaking, the orthodox method of painting a purple area theretofore had been to mix red and blue on the palette to the desired purple shade, then to spread the mixture flat. The impressionists discovered (from laboratory scientists) that the color came much more alive and brilliant if tiny dots or smears or lines of the two colors were placed side by side and the mixing was left to the eye. 4 A second characteristic is the use of light and shadow. The way sunlight or shadow struck the object dictated the color pattern. "This reveling in light and color does not necessarily entail the use of a wide color scheme; it is sometimes restricted to one tone, like the •colorless• gray of Whistler, which the artist handles with consummate skill by manipulating his light effects and transitional shades." 5 To achieve their aim, Impressionistic painters selected subjects of la nature~ (fruits, flowers, vases) and subjects which allowed a great freedom with contour~especially landscapes. The subjects they selected were known and enjoyed by everyone: rippled water of streams and ponds, sailboats, horse races, ballet dancers, etc. These painters also liked to paint subjects of personal elements such as dancing girls, scenes from county fairs, country folk, and 4Ibid., p. 575. 5Lang' 12.£. ill• 4 people on holiday. Impressionism in painting, one of the last phases of overt realism, was the final act of depicting what the eye sees. B. IN LITERATURE Although related in a way to the impressionistic movement in art and music, impressionism in literature took a slightly dif­ ferent path, probably because of the nature of language. Many au­ thors began to look at reality not from an external point of view but from an internal (subjective) point of viev. The external move­ ment was not as important as the internal mental process in reaction to that movement. The techniques developed were known as "stream of consciousness," inner monologue, and impressionism. In developing these techniques, novelists and poets eliminated formal construction of ordinary fiction (beginning, middle, ending), poetic diction, rlqme, consistent point of view; conventional punctua­ tion, grammar, and syntax. Their writing became vague and suggestive through association and juxtaposition and symbol and objective cor­ relation. As a result, often, meaningless word groups were used simply because the beautiful sounds evoked a mental mood. Mental moods vere the reality of the· impressionists. The removal of ordinary narrative elements, along with des­ criptive apd explanatory passages, enabled the author to recreate in his reader's imagination a particular psychological sensation or mood. Events were treated as momentary mental impressions 5 " ••• either in his /.f,he author•§] own mind or in the minds of the characters whom he creates." 6 So, literary artists shared with painters (and later musicians) the movement known as impressionism.. They believed: {l) ••• that the true existence of an individual lies in his mental processes, not in external in­ cidents of his life; {2) that the mental life of the ordinary person is disjointed, intuitive, and associative rather than sharply logical; and (3) psychological association--i.e., the mental linking of objects which have been encountered in juxtaposi­ tion--is one of the chief processes forming our emotional attitudes toward things. 7 To do these things, authors had to invent new techniques. There are four or five important impressionistic authors and many imitators. The most important authors are James Joyce, Marcel Proust, Virginia Woolf, and Katherine Mansfield. In Oscar Wilde's Impression~ Matin, the impressionistic technique is ap­ parent in the subjectivity of description and the suggestiveness of the colors: The Thames nocturne of blue and gold Changed to a Harmony in grey: A barge vith ochre-coloured hay Dropt from the wharf, and chill and cold The yellow fog came creeping down The bridges, till the houses• walls Seemed changed to shadows and St. Paul's Loomed............................................ like a bubble o•er the town 6Donald J. McGinn and George Howerton, Literature!!.!~ Fine Art (Evanston, Illinois: Row, Peterson, and Co., 1959), p. 303. 7Donald w. Heiney, Essentials 2f Contemporary Literature (Great Neck, New York: Barrou's E)jucational Series, Inc., ), p. '2.44. 6 ••• one pale woman all alone, The daylight kissing her wan hair Loitered beneath the gas lamps• rlare, With lips of flame and heart of stone. C. IN MUSIC Since the impressionistic painters, novelists, and poets were interested in evoking moods and sensations by the use of sounds and colors, it seems only natural that the musicians found this a natural medium of expression. In music, impressionism seems to have come about as a reaction to subjectivism.
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