Impressionist: Features

Question 1

general intentions of impressionist composers

Answer 1

portray a certain mood or tone, generally going against romanticism and the western tradition

Question 2

timbre

Answer 2

• sustain pedal to blend the notes together
• piano most of the times
• unique sounds from standard instruments (eg by pushing their limits)
• muted horns

Question 3

melody

Answer 3

• expressive
• avoid diatonic, instead use whole tone scales, pentatonic scales and chromatic scales to avoid there being a clear or predictable key or tune
• unpredictable
• avoid repetition

Question 4

tempo

Answer 4

• unclear
• Much of rubato tempo
• change in tempo in different sections that change often
• tied notes across the bars.

Question 5

what impressionist music usually sound like

Answer 5

• expressive
• complex
• ambiguous
• unpredictable

Question 6

rhythm

Answer 6

• syncopation
• patterns are not constant / lack of repetition
• polyrhythms

Question 7

harmony

Answer 7

• Avoid chord progressions
• remove the 3rd in some chords to avoid it being major or minor
• much use of parallel 4ths, 5ths, 6ths, and 8ves
• Avoid avoid cadences
• Much use of dissonance in the chords / chromaticism / extended harmonies
  = Much use of pedal notes and static harmony
• And on the piano, they used the sustain pedal to blur the notes together. ​

Question 8

tonality

Answer 8

• Avoid clear use of major or minor keys.
• Avoid triad shapes, use chromatic scale, avoid major or minor scales (use pentatonic etc), colour the chords with other notes to blur the tonality. ​