Debussy and Ravel — The Color of French Impressionism

French Impressionism — A Great Musical Revolution

In contrast to the introspective German Romanticism of the previous [Schumann and Brahms] article, French Impressionism in early-20th-century Paris:

• Claude Debussy (1862–1918) — the center of Impressionism, “musical painting”
• Maurice Ravel (1875–1937) — 13 years younger, an artisan of refinement

The name “Impressionism” originally comes from painting (Monet, Renoir, Degas, from the 1870s). Debussy himself disliked the term but posterity made it stick.

Traits of Impressionist Music

Innovations in Harmony

• The whole-tone scale — an equal six-note scale that blurs tonality
• Pentatonic scales — East-Asian in flavor; Debussy uses one in Pagodes
• Modal scales — a rediscovery of medieval modes (from the earlier article on medieval music)
• Parallel chords; ninth, eleventh, and thirteenth chords — unresolved, “floating” sonorities
• Bell-like harmonies (major seconds together)

The Pursuit of Timbre

• Sophisticated pedaling — sounds blend into a “mist”
• Extensive soft dynamics and ornaments
• The piano as a coloristic instrument, not a percussion instrument

The Freeing of Form

• Escape from the clear sonata form of the Classical era
• Music of “the impression of a poem or painting”
• The ultimate form of programme music

Claude Debussy — The Center of Impressionism

Achille-Claude Debussy (1862–1918) was born at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France and died at 55 of colon cancer.

Life

• 22 August 1862 — Born at Saint-Germain-en-Laye (outside Paris)
• 1872–1884 — Paris Conservatoire: piano, composition, harmony
• 1884 — Wins the Prix de Rome; three years in Rome
• 1889 — Paris Universal Exposition; shocked by Javanese gamelan music
• 1890s — Frequents the salon of the symbolist poet Mallarmé
• 1894 — Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune — establishes Impressionist music
• 1902 — Opera Pelléas et Mélisande premieres
• 1905 — La Mer — a symphonic triptych
• 1908 — Children’s Corner, dedicated to his daughter Chouchou
• c. 1909–10 — Colon cancer discovered
• 25 March 1918 — Dies in Paris under German bombardment during World War I, aged 55

The Gamelan Shock — 1889

Hearing Javanese gamelan music at the 1889 Paris Exposition at the age of 27 shocked Debussy:

• Pentatonic scale (distinct from the Western seven-note scale)
• Percussion ensemble with a distinct sonority
• A different sense of time and rhythm

This experience is directly reflected in Pagodes (Book 2 of Images, 1907). A symbolic moment: “Asia enters Western music.”

Main Piano Works

• Suite bergamasque (1890–1905) — four pieces; the third, Clair de lune, is world-famous
• Estampes (1903) — three pieces: “Pagodes (East),” “La soirée dans Grenade (Spain),” “Jardins sous la pluie (West)”
• Images, Books 1 and 2 (1905, 1907) — three pieces each
• Children’s Corner (1908) — six pieces for his daughter Chouchou, including the famous “Golliwogg’s Cakewalk”
• Préludes, Books 1 and 2 (1910, 1913) — twelve each; the subtitles are at the end (“La fille aux cheveux de lin,” “La cathédrale engloutie,” “Le vent dans la plaine,” “Minstrels,” “Feux d’artifice”)
• Études, Books 1 and 2 (1915) — six each, late masterpieces
• L’isle joyeuse (1904) — from Watteau’s painting L’embarquement pour Cythère
• Images oubliées (1894) — “Sarabande”
• Pour le piano (1901)
• The overture to Estampes, Masques et bergamasques

Clair de lune — The Most Famous Impressionist Piece

The third piece of Suite bergamasque, after Verlaine’s poem. Used again and again at piano recitals, in films, and in advertising worldwide.

Modern performances: Samson François, Walter Gieseking, Uchida Mitsuko, Fujita Mao.

Pelléas et Mélisande (1902)

His only completed opera, based on Maeterlinck’s symbolist play. A fusion of Wagnerian chromatic harmony and French delicate color. A masterpiece announcing the beginning of 20th-century opera.

“Impressionism” — Debussy’s Own Rejection

Debussy himself strongly rejected being called an Impressionist:

• Objected to critics who saw his music as “a musical version of Monet’s impressions”
• “I am a Symbolist, in the tradition of Mallarmé and Verlaine”
• “I pursue color, sound, and light”

Modern musicology sees both Impressionist and Symbolist aspects.

Maurice Ravel — “The Precise Craftsman”

Joseph-Maurice Ravel (1875–1937) was born in Ciboure, French Basque country and worked in Paris. He died at 62 of complications after brain surgery.

Life

• 7 March 1875 — Born in Ciboure, French Basque country (near the Spanish border). His father was Swiss-French, his mother Basque
• 1889–1905 — Paris Conservatoire; studies composition with Gabriel Fauré
• 1901–1905 — Tries and fails to win the Prix de Rome four times (the “Ravel Affair,” a scandal at the Conservatoire that led to the director’s resignation)
• 1908 — Published Jeux d’eau; famous
• 1914–1917 — Serves as a truck driver in World War I
• 1928 — Boléro; a great hit
• c. 1933 — Brain disorder (aphasia, agraphia)
• 28 December 1937 — Dies in Paris after brain surgery, aged 62

Main Piano Works

• Pavane pour une infante défunte (1899) — a masterpiece of his debut at 24
• Jeux d’eau (1901) — dedicated to Fauré; a development of Liszt’s Les jeux d’eaux à la Villa d’Este
• Sonatine (1903–1905)
• Miroirs (1904–1905) — five pieces: “Noctuelles,” “Oiseaux tristes,” “Une barque sur l’océan,” “Alborada del gracioso,” “La vallée des cloches”
• Gaspard de la nuit (1908) — three pieces from Bertrand’s poems: “Ondine,” “Le gibet,” “Scarbo” — one of the world’s most difficult piano works
• Ma mère l’Oye (1908–1911) — a fairy-tale set for four hands, solo, and ballet
• Valses nobles et sentimentales (1911)
• Le Tombeau de Couperin (1914–1917) — six pieces, each dedicated to a friend killed in World War I
• Concerto for the Left Hand (1929–1930) — commissioned by Wittgenstein, who had lost his right arm in the war
• Piano Concerto in G major (1929–1931)

Gaspard de la nuit — “The Hardest Piano Piece”

Based on Aloysius Bertrand’s prose-poem collection Gaspard de la nuit — fantaisies à la manière de Rembrandt et de Callot:

• “Ondine” — the water nymph; “come with me and be my wife”
• “Le gibet” — the corpse on the gallows; the tolling of a bell
• “Scarbo” — a hobgoblin; transcendent virtuosity

Ravel himself said:

“I wanted to write something harder than Balakirev’s Islamey.”

The ultimate goal for pianists worldwide. Modern performances: Argerich, Pogorelich, Pollini, Uchida, Fujita Mao.

Le Tombeau de Couperin — Dedications to Fallen Friends

Each of six pieces is dedicated to a friend killed in World War I:

• Prélude — Lieutenant Jacques Charlot
• Fugue — Second Lieutenant Jean Cruppi
• Forlane — Lieutenant Gabriel Deluc
• Rigaudon — brothers Pierre and Pascal Gaudin
• Menuet — Lieutenant Jean Dreyfus
• Toccata — Captain Joseph de Marliave

An 18th-century French suite style (Couperin, Rameau) revived with 20th-century sensibility. A forerunner of “neoclassicism.”

Boléro (1928)

Ballet music for the dancer Ida Rubinstein. A simple structure — 15 minutes of the same theme repeated, gradually adding instruments and volume.

The most famous French piece in the world. The film Bolero (Les uns et les autres, 1981) made it even more famous. Ravel himself:

“I have written only one masterpiece. That is Boléro. Unfortunately it contains no music.”

Self-deprecating.

Debussy vs. Ravel — Contrasts

	Debussy	Ravel
Born	1862	1875 (13 years younger)
Character	Sensuous, intuitive, mysterious	Precise, artisanal, clear
Form	Free, poetic	Classical, clearly formed
Harmony	Ambiguous, unresolved	Refined, functional
Orchestration	Sensuous color	Radiant precision
Famous line	“I am not an Impressionist”	“I am a Swiss watchmaker”

The Relationship

• Ravel admired Debussy and was deeply influenced by L’après-midi d’un faune in his youth
• Debussy briefly saw Ravel as an “imitator” (exaggerated by modern research)
• The two coexisted in 1900s Paris but drew into opposing camps

Others in French Impressionism

Gabriel Fauré (1845–1924)

The generation of Debussy’s and Ravel’s teacher:

• Requiem, Op. 48 (1888) — gentle, beautiful
• 13 nocturnes, 13 barcarolles — piano miniatures
• Pelléas et Mélisande Suite*
• Director of the Paris Conservatoire; Ravel’s teacher

Erik Satie (1866–1925)

The other side of Impressionism, minimal and experimental:

• Gymnopédies (1888) — three pieces, tranquil
• Gnossiennes (1889–1897)
• Musique d’ameublement — a forerunner of “background music”
• Vexations — a short piece repeated 840 times; a distant ancestor of modern minimalism

Satie was friends with Debussy and Ravel, and avant-garde and eccentric.

“Les Six” (1920s)

• Darius Milhaud (1892–1974)
• Francis Poulenc (1899–1963) — piano works, the opera Dialogues des Carmélites
• Arthur Honegger (1892–1955)
• Germaine Tailleferre (1892–1983) — the only woman
• Georges Auric (1899–1983)
• Louis Durey (1888–1979)

“A young France beyond Impressionism,” with Satie as their spiritual guide.

Olivier Messiaen (1908–1992)

A titan of late-20th-century French music:

• Catalogue d’oiseaux — solo piano; the songs of 77 species of birds worldwide
• Turangalîla Symphony (1948)
• Catholic mysticism, rhythmic theory, ornithology

Impressionist Playing — Three Lineages

1. The French Tradition

• Samson François (1924–1970) — free tempi, “the French poem”
• Michel Béroff (1950–)
• Anne Queffélec (1948–)

2. The German/International Line

• Walter Gieseking (1895–1956) — an authority on the complete Debussy
• Alfred Cortot (1877–1962) — Swiss-French

3. Contemporary

• Aldo Ciccolini (1925–2015) — the complete Satie
• Uchida Mitsuko (1948–) — luminous Debussy
• Jean-Yves Thibaudet (1961–) — Satie and Debussy
• Angela Hewitt (1958–) — Bach and, alongside, Ravel
• Fujita Mao (1998–) — the contemporary Japanese master

Impressionism and Jazz and Modern Music

The harmonic and coloristic revolutions of Impressionism resonate throughout 20th-century music:

• Jazz — ninth, eleventh, thirteenth chords, whole-tone scales — under Debussy and Ravel’s influence
• Film music — French Impressionism is the basis of modern “coloristic music”
• Takemitsu Tōru (Japan) — “the Japanese Impressionist,” heir of Messiaen and Debussy
• 21st-century anime and video-game music — heavy use of Impressionist harmony

Modern Impact

• Standard piano repertoire — Clair de lune, Jeux d’eau, Gaspard de la nuit, Boléro, etc.
• Pedagogy — a staple of advanced piano teaching
• Harmony — 20th-century harmony textbooks include chapters on “Impressionist harmony”
• Film, anime, video games — direct ancestor of today’s coloristic music
• Interaction with Japanese culture — Japonism (Hokusai’s The Great Wave off Kanagawa was the inspiration for Debussy’s La Mer)

From This Article to the Next

We have surveyed French Impressionism through Debussy and Ravel. The next article turns to the final form of Russian Romanticism — Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873–1943) and Alexander Scriabin (1872–1915). The last Russian Romantics — Rachmaninoff’s four piano concertos, Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, the 24 preludes, and the Études-tableaux — and Scriabin’s mysticism, ten piano sonatas, and Prometheus — Poem of Fire. Just before the Russian Revolution in the early 20th century, we follow the last light of the vanished Romantic age.