12 Stellar Tracks That Define the Music of Impressionism
What Was the Music Wafting Around Those Water Lillies Between 1890 -1920?
Guest Post by Gino Cirignano
What’s not to love about Monet, Degas, or Renoir? Right?
Well, some of the most prominent art critics of the period found a lot not to love.
Most art critics of Monet’s day saw impressionist work as a radical affront to the senses.
Did you know world-class painters weren’t the only creative geniuses being frowned upon by European art critics at that time?
Many of the classical musicians we love today from that era were also lambasted by critics.
You see, many music critics of the era were longtime Wagner fans.
And the new music of composers like Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel was initially rejected, too.
Thankfully, Debussy and Ravel persisted anyway.
They thrived despite the opinions of the critics.
(There is a lesson there for all creatives.)
Indeed, the two composers wisely chose to reflect and inspire each other.
They maintained a productive, friendly rivalry.
(Read more about Why Artists Need Rivals: Especially If You’re A Woman here.)
A rivalry that later influenced the development of the music that would become a movement; a movement later known as Musical Impressionism.
Consequently, Musical Impressionism was a movement that went on to win over many formerly cranky critics.
What Did the Music of Impressionism Sound Like?
Musical impressionism used moods and emotions to paint a soundscape.
Interestingly, both Debussy and Ravel rejected being labeled “Impressionist” composers.
What did the music of Impressionism actually sound like?
Sample the following 12 tracks to find out.
Best Music of Impressionism Track # 1
The Petit Suite
Yet if you listen to our first track, “Petite Suite” by Debussy, you may experience that same feeling you get when standing in front of an actual Monet, Renoir, Degas, or Van Gogh in person.
Best Music of Impressionism Track #2
Bolero
Similarly, the same holds for my second selection, “Bolero” by Ravel.
“Petite Suite” and “Bolero” are now classical music standards because they create a mood or an impression of a time, place, moment, or feeling universal to all.
The raw emotions expressed within these sonic landscapes are mesmerizing examples of Musical Impressionism.
Best Music of Impressionism Track # 3
Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun
Debussy’s “Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun” is an example of his genius-like ability to make timeless music.
Music historians agree that Claude Debussy (1862-1918) was the first Impressionist composer.
Moreover, Debussy is now considered one of the most influential composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The prodigy entered the Conservatoire de Paris ( the leading musical institution in France) at the age of ten!
Best Music of Impressionism Track #4
Le Tombeau de Couperin
If you love Debussy’s Prelude to Afternoon With a Faun, you must sample Ravel’s suite for piano, “Le Tombeau de Couperin.”
Each of its six movements, composed from 1914-17, was dedicated to the memory of friends of Ravel who lost their lives fighting in World War 1.
It, too, can transport you into a musical world without boundaries.
Best Music of Impressionism Track #5
La Mer
My fifth pick is Debussy’s most important work for orchestra.
Even though my fifth track choice, Debussy’s “La Mer,” received a mixed reception at its 1905 premiere, it later became one of his most admired and performed works for orchestra.
Debussy wrote “La Mer” with the enormous power of the sea in mind.
And indeed, this is a tour de force of melodic fury.
As Debussy himself once said:
“Music is the expression of the movement of the waters, the play of curves described by changing breezes.”
– Claude Debussy
Best Music of Impressionism: Selection # 6
Claire de Lune (1890)
Our 6th selection is Debussy’s most romantic composition.
This beloved and enchanting composition is often heard in film and television.
It’s the lovely “Clair de Lune”, French for Moonlight.
The piece was inspired by a poem by Paul Verlaine in 1869.
The above link for “Clair de Lune” is from a 1913 piano roll with Debussy himself playing the piano!)
Similarly, Debussy’s friend Ravel composed a body of work we still hear in films and television around the world today.
Reveling in Ravel
Music historians consider Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) to have been the greatest living composer in France during the 1920s and 1930s.
Ravel’s popularity was probably a result of his adherence to the same Impressionist aesthetic we treasure in the works of Manet, Pizarro, and Cezanne.
“Music, I feel, must be emotional first and intellectual second.”
-Maurice Ravel
Best Music of Impressionism Track #7
Bolero
My seventh pick is Ravel’s most famous work for orchestra.
Ravel is known by many for his universally acclaimed “Bolero”.
But Ravel delighted music lovers with many other musical compositions, such as my seventh selection, Ravel’s complex orchestral work “Daphnis et Chloe” (1912).
This passionate suite shows how Ravel embraced Impressionism.
(Although Ravel himself would be loath to admit it.)
Interestingly, Ravel, a man famous for passionate pieces, once said:
“The only love affair I have ever had was with music.”
-Maurice Ravel
Best Music of Impressionism Track #8
Rapsodie Espagnole
Our eighth musical selection is another popular Ravel composition that also conveys an early aspect of Musical Impressionism.
It is Ravel’s very first orchestral rhapsody, Rapsodie Espagnole (1907-1908).
This musical magic carpet ride has beautifully layered textures and is Ravel’s most hypnotic musical foray.
But let’s leave Spain now because the allure of Japan influenced my 9th and 10th track picks.
Best Music of Impressionism Track #9
Ma mere l’Oye
Music popular in Japan at the time influenced both Ravel and Debussy.
You can hear reflections of this in my ninth choice, Ravel’s Ma Mere l’Oye (Mother Goose, 1910).
As well as in the tenth selection.
Best Music of Impressionism Track #10
Estampes No. 1 Pagodes
Debussy’s Estampes No. 1 Pagodes.
The Japanese style used musical scales and various modes that intrigued these European composers.
If you haven’t begun your journey into the music of impressionism, my eleventh and twelfth picks are an excellent place to start.
Best Music of Impressionism Track #11
Reverie
Number eleven is “Reverie” by Debussy.
This exquisite piece is often used as background music for movies and television because it seems to stir the same feelings in so many listeners and is a great example of Impressionist music.
Best Music of Impressionism Track #12
Pavane Pour Une Infante Défunte
And our final selection, track twelve, is “Pavane Pour Une Infante Defunte” by Ravel. The title of this tender piece evokes the death of an infant and is often played at funerals for the young.
It has a haunted, elegiac quality and makes quite an impression when played by solo piano or orchestra.
Want to discover the surprising origin and use of elegiac poetry and music in Ancient Greece? Head over here.
“We should always remember that sensitiveness
and emotion constitute the real content of a work of art.”
– Maurice Ravel
Give the Music of Impressionism a Try
Art is in the eye of the beholder.
It’s also in the ear of the beholder.
Whether or not you like classical music, this is beauty in melody.
Give Impressionist Music a try.
Then spread the word.
After that, if you want to buy an album, maybe pick one that features both of these innovative composers:
Help yourself to this one hundred-and-two-track epic, “Debussy & Ravel: Orchestral Works by Jean Martinon” or “Ravel: Boléro & Debussy: La Mer by Berlin Philharmonic & Herbert von Karajan.”
We are talking food for the soul here, people.
About the author:
In addition to being a freelance writer, Gino Cirignano is also “The Computer Tutor,” offering one-to-one computer training.
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I didn’t think I had a connection to this subject but you made it so interesting it broadened my horizons. That’s a gift!
I’m happy you found that connection, Denise! Thank you for the kind words. As far as I’m concerned, Impressionist Music never fails to impress in creating a world of musical possibilities.
This is so cool – to add ambiance and context to the time period of the artworks – which we usually see in isolation from its era.
That’s true Melissa, they are usually so isolated. Hurray Gino!
Makes me wonder who Dali was listening to as he painted. I know musician Nell Shaw Cohen researched the music O’Keeffe collected and listened to while painting. Here’s what she says:”Above all, O’Keeffe collected music of the 18th and 19th centuries – Beethoven, Schumann, Haydn, Bach, etc, and surprisingly to me, a quantity of Monteverdi madrigals, sacred music and operas (including multiple recordings of the opera “The Coronation of Poppea”) – which were relatively obscure at the time she was listening – as well as Verdi and Wagner operas.” I know O’Keeffe would occasionally listen to Edith Piaf as well.
Do you listen to music as you paint your beautiful work Melissa? And if you do, what kind?
I have an eclectic range of musical tastes, which was influenced by growing up in a household of hundreds of albums in may genres from several decades. It goes according to my mood. I can do dance ‘ hip hip, world, celtic, 70’s rock, or classical in any given week lol! But here is the thing – I MUST have it in my life daily and especially in my studio.
Wonderful. I need to include more music in my day. I love 60’s and 70’s rock. I Used to live in Laurel Canyon in the early 2000’s , near where Joni Mitchell and those guys lived back when that neighborhood was a fairy ring of talent and creativity for creatives. Faint magic glimmering there. Very faint.
Thank you for this excellent post. Daphnis et Chloe is my favorite piece by Ravel ! I was transfixed by it for the entire length of the piece once when I was listening to it with my father in his car… Yellow leaves of Autumn were falling onto the rainy windshield and being plastered there, as if transfixed by Ravel themselves.
Thanks for the feedback, Kathy. That sounds like a day to remember with your father. It certainly made an impression on you. “Daphnis et Chloe” is a wonderful suite. Ravel creates an atmosphere and mood left to each of our own interpretations. May I suggest Debussy’s “La Mer” as a companion piece, which is another orchestral masterpiece.
I love your comment because now I am seeing these music-loving leaves searching for Ravel…