Impressionism does not deal with describing the subjects - it shares the composer's perception of moods and colors of the occurrences with the listener. Color instead of form. Personal impression is here!

In the Romantic age, many harmonic innovations were evolved by the great composers. Each one played his part in breaking conservative classic harmony. At the end of the romantic period, impressionism appears and changes musical harmony for ever.

Claude Debussy, the founder of this school, was influenced by impressionism in painting and literature: he gives up artistic creation in conventional ways and creates harmony that is not based on tonality. For this purpose he uses the "whole tones" scale, in which none of the notes has a real attraction. Just like in impressionist painting, the emphasis in this music is the impression evoked by the object it describes, and the work is built on switches of color, moods and atmosphere, instead of on a logic sequence of ideas and occurrences.

Impressionism is another step on the path to the total dispatch of conventions of harmony and form created during the classical period. Other prominent composers in this trend are Ravel and Satie.