The Great Musical Adventure part 7
- Chloe Elizabeth
- May 7, 2019
- 2 min read
The impressionist era came after the romantic era. In this era, composers such as Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel played around with new tonalities. The composers wanted you to feel and see the scene through the harmonies of the notes rather than writing in a strict musical form. They wrote in colors to paint the scene just as the painters of the impressionist era.
The first composer to coin the term of impressionism in his music was Debussy. He lived between 1862 and 1918. His most famous work is by far Clair de Lune which opens up with a slow and beautiful harmony line. He seems to be painting a scene during a lovely walk in the spring. You can see the trees, you can feel the wind. You can see and hear the sound of the bubbling creek as you walk past it in all its glory. You finally reach the top of the little mountain. Your finishing line. Wow, what a lovely sight to see! You sit down beside a tree on a log and take in all God's glory. What beauty God has created for us to behold. It is all about the painting with colors in this music.
Another composer to consider is Maurice Ravel. He too was an impressionist composer who lived between 1875-1937. He, like Debussy, wrote a single song for a solo instrument, the violin. With this composition, he paints a scene of an angry magical forest. The violin starts with a long cadenza full of anger and mystery. There are open chords, there are mysterious harmonics, there are troublesome runs. Finally, the piano or orchestra joins into increase the suspenseful magic. In one part of the song, the violin is playing a fast section and the piano is doing a suspenseful trill and it sounds as though magic is all around.
Now on to the 20th century. There are a lot of good works in this century. Composers such as Bartok, Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Bernstein, and Vaughn-Williams are just to name a few. Rather than giving a descriptive picture for each one, I will include links to just a handful of my favorites. I highly encourage you to listen to these pieces for they are different than any of the other compositions. These are real gems.
I hope you have learned a thing or two during this musical adventure. I will be taking the next two weeks off to finish my high school work and create some new content for the next journey. Stay tuned for a new series!
Cheers!
Chloe Elizabeth
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