The Contemporary Period
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Transcript of The Contemporary Period
The Contemporary The Contemporary PeriodPeriodPost-Romanticism – Germany, AustriaPost-Romanticism – Germany, Austria
Impressionism -- FranceImpressionism -- France
Impressionism
French! Movement began with the painters . . .
Use of light and color to create their “first impressions”
Subjects – preferred stills, dancing girls, nudes, everyday scenes of middle-class life, picnics, boating and café scenes; nature
La Promenade (1875)
Poppies (1873)
Fishing Boats Leaving the Harbor (1874)
The Boat Studio (1876)
Auguste Renoir (1841-1919)The Girl with the Watering Can
At the Theatre
Poet Counterparts – the Symbolists
Direct poetic expression unspoiled by intellectual elements. Sought to suggest rather than describe
Baudelaire, Mallarme, etc. Greatly influenced by the famous
American poet, Edgar Allan Poe
Impressionism – origins and influences
Paris Exhibition – attracted to other sounds
Got away from the “normal” sounds of the previous period
Scale typesChromaticWhole tone
Chords/Color/Rhythm
Parallel chords Ninth chords Use of orchestra
“veiled” sounds Flutes/clarinets in lower registers (unusual) Use of harp Instruments used differently
Rhythms “veiled”
Forms
Smaller forms (got away from larger forms, i.e., symphonies)
Descriptive titles
Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
Claude Debussy
“Let’s go . . . He’s beginning to develop.” “The idea of spreading one drama over
four evenings! Is this admissible, especially when in these four evenings you always hear the same thing? . . . My God! How unbearable these people in skins and helmets become by the fourth night.”
Music
Subtle, discreet Short, flexible forms Evokes images Wrote wonderful orchestral music Wrote much for piano – was one of the most
important composers for the piano of that time Vocal composer
Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun
Best known orchestral work (1894) From a poem by the Symbolist, Stephane
Mallarme Image of a faun, who wakes from a
dream . . . Wondering if it was a dream A-B-A