Editing Impressionism in music (section)

==History==
[[Claude Debussy]] and [[Maurice Ravel]] are two leading figures in Impressionism, though Debussy rejected this label (in a 1908 letter to [[Jacques Durand (publisher)|Jacques Durand]] he wrote "imbeciles call [what I am trying to write in ''Images''] 'impressionism', a term employed with the utmost inaccuracy, especially by art critics who use it as a label to stick on [[J. M. W. Turner|Turner]], the finest creator of mystery in the whole of art!"<ref>{{cite book |last=Debussy |first=Claude |editor-first1=François |editor-last1=Lesure |editor-first2=Roger |editor-last2=Nichols |translator-first=Roger |translator-last=Nichols |title=Debussy Letters |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=1987 |page=188 |isbn=978-0-674-19429-8 }}</ref>) and Ravel displayed discomfort with it, at one point claiming that it could not be adequately applied to music at all.<ref>Maurice Ravel, ''A Ravel Reader: Correspondence, Articles, Interviews'', compiled and edited by [[Arbie Orenstein]] (New York: Columbia University Press, 1990): p. 421. {{ISBN|978-0-231-04962-7}}. Unaltered paperback reprint (Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, 2003), {{ISBN|978-0-486-43078-2}}.</ref> Debussy's Impressionist works typically "evoke a mood, feeling, atmosphere, or scene" by creating musical images through characteristic motifs, harmony, exotic scales (e.g., whole-tone and pentatonic scales), instrumental timbre, large unresolved chords (e.g., 9ths, 11ths, 13ths), parallel motion, ambiguous tonality, extreme chromaticism, heavy use of the piano pedals, and other elements.<ref name=Burkholder /> “The perception of Debussy’s compositional language as decidedly post-romantic/Impressionistic—nuanced, understated, and subtle—is firmly solidified among today’s musicians and well-informed audiences."<ref>{{Cite book|date=2018-12-31|editor-last=de Médicis|editor-first=François|editor2-last=Huebner|editor2-first=Steven|title=Debussy's Resonance|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/9781787442528|doi=10.1017/9781787442528|isbn=978-1-78744-252-8|s2cid=239438810}}</ref> Some Impressionist composers, Debussy and Ravel in particular, are also labeled as [[Symbolism_(arts)#Music|symbolist composers]]. One trait shared with both aesthetic trends is "a sense of detached observation: rather than expressing deeply felt emotion or telling a story"; as in [[Symbolism_(arts)|symbolist poetry]], the normal syntax is usually disrupted and individual images that carry the work's meaning are evoked.<ref name=Burkholder />

In 1912, the French composer [[Ernest Fanelli]] (1860–1917) received significant attention and coverage in the Parisian press following a performance of a [[symphonic poem]] he wrote in 1886, titled ''Thèbes'',<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Calvocoressi |first=M. D. |date=1912 |title=An Unknown Composer of To-Day: M. Ernest Fanelli |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/905497 |journal=The Musical Times |volume=53 |issue=830 |pages=225–226|doi=10.2307/905497 |jstor=905497 }}</ref> incorporating elements associated with Impressionism, such as [[extended chord]]s and [[whole-tone scale]]s.<ref>{{Cite web |author=Adriano |editor-last=Anderson |editor-first=Keith |year=2002 |title=Fanelli: Symphonic Pictures – Bourgault-Duboudray: Rhapsodie cambodgienne {{!}} About this recording |type=CD booklet |url=https://www.naxos.com/MainSite/BlurbsReviews/?itemcode=8.225234&catnum=225234&filetype=AboutThisRecording&language=English |publisher=Marco Polo |location=London |via=naxos.com}}</ref> Ravel was unimpressed by Fanelli's novelties, maintaining that these were already utilized by past composers such as [[Franz Liszt]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Orledge |first=Robert |editor-last=Mawer |editor-first=Deborah |year=2000 |chapter=Evocations of exoticism |title=The Cambridge Companion to Ravel |pages=27–46 |series=Cambridge Companions to Music |location=Cambridge, UK |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-64856-1}}</ref>{{rp|36}} He also opined that Fanelli's Impressionism stemmed from [[Hector Berlioz]] rather than Liszt or Russian composers.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ravel |first=Maurice |editor-last=Orenstein |editor-first=Arbie |year=2003 |title=A Ravel Reader: Correspondence, Articles, Interviews |publisher=Dover Publications |location=Mineola, New York |pages=349–350 |isbn=978-0-486-43078-2}}</ref>

Other composers linked to Impressionism include [[Lili Boulanger]],<ref>[https://www.allmusic.com/composition/nocturne-for-violin-or-flute-piano-mc0002362240] By Sylvia Typaldos, Nocturne for violin (or flute) & piano</ref><ref>[https://www.allmusic.com/composition/pie-jesu-for-mezzo-soprano-string-quartet-harp-organ-mc0002385561] By Sylvia Typaldos, Pie Jesu for mezzo-soprano, string quartet, harp & organ</ref> [[Isaac Albéniz]],<ref name="Columbia" /> [[Frederick Delius]],<ref name="Trombley" /> [[Paul Dukas]],<ref name="Columbia" /> [[Alexander Scriabin]],<ref>[[Christopher Palmer]], ''Impressionism in Music'' (London: Hutchinson; New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1973): 208.</ref> [[Manuel de Falla]],<ref name="Columbia" /> [[John Alden Carpenter]],<ref name="Columbia" /> [[Ottorino Respighi]], [[Albert Roussel]], [[Karol Szymanowski]], [[Charles Tomlinson Griffes]], and [[Federico Mompou]].<ref name="Columbia">",[[Ivar Henning Mankell]] and [[Blair Fairchild]][https://web.archive.org/web/20090403135311/http://www.bartleby.com/65/im/impress-mus.html Impressionism, in Music]", ''The Columbia Encyclopedia'', sixth edition (New York: Columbia University Press, 2007)  (Archive copy from 3 April 2009, accessed 25 December 2012).</ref> The Finnish composer [[Jean Sibelius]] is also associated with Impressionism,<ref name="Trombley" /> and his [[tone poem]] ''[[The Swan of Tuonela]]'' (1893) predates Debussy's ''[[Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune]]'' (regarded as a seminal work of musical Impressionism) by a year.<ref name="Trombley" /> The American composer [[Howard Hanson]] also borrowed from both Sibelius and Impressionism generally in works such as his [[Symphony No. 2 (Hanson)|Second Symphony]].<ref name="Trombley">Richard Trombley, "Impressionism in Music", ''Encyclopedia of Music in the 20th Century'', edited by Lol Henderson and Lee Stacey (London and Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1999). {{ISBN|978-1-57958-079-7}}; {{ISBN|978-1-135-92946-6}}.</ref>