Impressionism

An artists impression of reality as depicted by color, light and atmosphere. The French artistic movement in the early 20^th Century had visual artists such as Monet and Degas preoccupied with depicting water. Also, these artists were concerned with the effects of light, color, and atmosphere. Water depicts shades of light in its movement and reflections off it’s surface. Impressionistic painters were not concerned with the literal depiction of an object or person but the with the way light, color, shade or atmosphere influenced the depiction of that object or person.

Impressionistic music creates light by the lack of strong rhythmic articulation and accentuation. It creates color by the tremendous reliance on timbre or the tone color of the orchestras varied instruments. Atmosphere is developed by long held out notes (pedal tones), or long successions of chords creating a tonal haze. These chords lack tension and therefore resolution but provide a strong sense of atmosphere.