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Chapter 20:
The Twentieth
Century: Early
Modernism
Debussy and
Impressionism
Key Terms
Impressionism
Nocturne
The Twentieth Century:
Early Modernism (1)
The Twentieth Century:
Early Modernism (2)
1st phase of modernist music 1890-1914
• Took place mostly in Paris & Vienna
• Leading figures were Debussy, Stravinsky, &
Schoenberg
• Other modernist rumblings in Russia, Hungary,
Italy, & the United States
A period of rapid change & development
• Revolution in tonality especially captured early
20th century imagination
• Along with rethinking of melody & harmony
Debussy and Impressionism
On the border between late 19th & early
20th century styles
Some features remind us of Romanticism
• Investigation of sensuous new tone colors
• Development of new rich harmonies
• Search for new ways to express emotion
Some features rebel against Romanticism
• Favors subtle, mysterious shades of sound
• Fragmentary melodies based on vague scales
• Ambiguous harmonies & clouded tonality
Claude Debussy
(1862-1918)
The leading impressionist composer
Trained at Paris Conservatory
• Influenced by the kuchka, gamelan, & Wagner
Style crystallized in his early 30s
• Influence of impressionism & symbolism
• Innovations in orchestration & piano writing
Brief career as a music critic
Wrote orchestral works, piano music,
songs, chamber music, & an opera
• La Mer, Preludes, Pelléas et Melisande
Debussy, Three Nocturnes (1)
Impressionistic symphonic poems
• Vague & evocative – no clear-cut narrative
• Title suggests Chopin’s piano nocturnes
• But Debussy was thinking of a set of
atmospheric paintings by Whistler
Three character pieces for orchestra
• Clouds – a pure nature piece
• Festivals – mysterious night-time fairs &
parades
• Sirens – wordless women’s chorus evokes
alluring but deadly singers from The Odyssey
Whistler
Monet
Three Nocturnes
Clouds (1)
Very loose ternary form – A B A’
• No literal return of A – only vague recollection
No full-blown melodies in the A section
•
•
•
•
Motives & melodic fragments only
“Cloud theme” built on oscillating chords
Haunting octatonic English horn motive
Focus on subtly shifting textures, tone colors
Three Nocturnes
Clouds (2)
B section more melodic & complete
• Pentatonic tune repeats three times
A’ even more fragmentary than A
Conclusions on Debussy
The 1st great modernist composer
Breaks down traditional approaches to
melody & harmony
• Tone color takes on a new importance
• Few tunes – mostly motives & melodic
fragments based on exotic scales
• Pedal tones & ostinatos anchor the tonality
• Frequent use of parallelism & rich chords
Static, fragmentary quality draws attention
to his exquisite tone colors