Impressionism aimed to capture atmospheric impressions rather than depict specific subjects. Key musical impressionists included Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel, who used non-traditional scales, dissonance, and a non-emotional style. In contrast, expressionism sought to represent inner emotions and experiences through atonal and dissonant music. Important expressionist composers were Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg, and Anton Webern, who developed the 12-tone technique. Impressionism used tonal music while expressionism was atonal and dissonant.

1. Impressionism
Classical Music of the 20th Century
vs Expressionism

2. Impressionism

3. Impressionism
Claude Monet - Soleil levant

4. Claude Monet - Water Lilies

5. Impressionism
 Goal of Impressionism
 Movement
 NOT “Capturing the subject”

6. Impressionism
Musical Example:
La Mer mov. II - Claude Debussy

7. Impressionism
The Great Impressionist of Music
Claude Debussy
1862-1918

8. Impressionism
The Great Impressionist of Music
Maurice Ravel
1875-1937

9. Musical Example:
La cathedrale engloutie - Debussy
Impressionism
“The Sunken Cathedral”

10. Impressionism
 Musical Characteristics
 Atmospheric
 Non-emotional (Opposite of Romantic music)
 Explored other scales (e.g. whole tone)

11. Whole tone scale
 Impressionistic music, like the Common Practice
Period, is tonal. A single tonic is evident, although it
does not achieve importance through specific voice
leading (for example, through a leading tone). Instead,
tonic is created in other ways, such as repetition or
being the central pitch, or even more simply, through
the use of a pedal point.

12.  Look at Debussy: Voiles

13. Expressionism

14. Expressionism
Germany
France

15. The Scream -
Munch

16. Sunflowers -
Van Gogh

17. Expressionism
Goals of Expressionism
 Capture “being alive”
 Express emotional experience… not
physical reality
 Expressionism also in dance, architecture,
and movies

18. Expressionism
Musical Example:
Pierrot Lunaire - Schoenberg

19. Expressionism
Notable Composer:
Arnold Schoenberg
1874 - 1951
Students:
Alban Berg
Anton Webern

20. Expressionism
Musical Example:
Five Pieces for Orchestra -
Schoenberg

21. Expressionism
Musical Characteristics:
 Atonal (no key center)
 Dissonance (represents inner turmoil)
 Primal

22. Impressionism Expressionism
-Atonal
-Dissonant
-Inner emotions
-Tonal
-Non-emotional
-“Color”
-Non Traditional
harmony
-“New Sounds”

23. Other 20th Century
Classical Musical Styles
 Post Romantic/Nationalism - Mahler, Sibelius
 Free Dissonance - Ives
 12 Tone - Schoenberg, Berg, Webern
 Neoclassicism - Stravinsky, Hindemeth, Ravel
 Minimalism - Glass, Reich, Le Monte Young
 Post Modernism/Electronic - Cage
 Jazz Influenced - Gershwin, Copland, Milhaud