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.