The
Impressionist movement in music is loosely set between the late
nineteenth century, up to the middle of the
twentieth century. Like its precursor in the
visual arts, musical impressionism was based in
France.
Claude Debussy and
Maurice Ravel are considered to be the two "great" impressionists.
Philosophically, impressionism aimed to convey the emotional impact of an event, place, or thing, rather than an accurate portrayal of the thing itself.
Technically, the impressionists invented or began using a great number of new compositional techniques: Multi-modality, planing, extended tertian harmonies, and intentionally ambiguous musical forms[?]. Also, a sharp focus on tone color[?] led to many new orchestrational advances.
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