1. Department for
Continuing Education
Music and Art
Marilou Polymeropoulou
marilou.polymeropoulou@music.ox.ac.uk
Week 4
Impressionism
http://musicandartoxford.wordpress.com/
Friday, 10 February 2012
2. Previously
• Definitions of art and aesthetics
• Musical aesthetics
• Visual and Hybrid arts
Friday, 10 February 2012
3. Today
• Impressionism movement
• Examples: Debussy’s “The Sea” (1905):
listening, reading, representing
• Monet’s “Impression, sunrise” (1872):
landscape and realism
Friday, 10 February 2012
4. Impressionism
“Impression - I was certain of it. I was just telling myself
that, since I was impressed, there had to be some
impression in it — and what freedom, what ease of
workmanship! A preliminary drawing for a wallpaper
pattern is more finished than this seascape.”
Louis Leroy “Le Charivari”, 25/4/1874
Friday, 10 February 2012
6. Impressionism
• 19th & early 20th century
• Term coined by French artist/art critic Louis Leroy “Le
Charivari” satirical newspaper
• Purpose: to accurately and objectively record visual reality in
terms of transient effects of light and colour
• Notable: Claude Monet, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro.
• Some impressionist works by: Paul Gauguin, Edgar Degas, Paul
Cézanne
Friday, 10 February 2012
7. “Why shouldn't art be
pretty? There are enough
unpleasant things in the
world.”
Renoir On the Terrace
1881
Oil on canvas, 100.5 x 81 cm
(39 1/2 x 31 7/8"); The Art
Institute of Chicago, Mr. and
Mrs. Lewis Larned Collection
Friday, 10 February 2012
8. Pissarro Le verger (The Orchard)
1872; Oil on linen, 45.1 x 54.9 cm (17 3/4 x 21 5/8"); National Gallery of Art,
Washington
Friday, 10 February 2012
10. 1892 1893 1894
Rouen Cathedral
Monet
Friday, 10 February 2012
11. Realism
Degas, Musicians in the Orchestra,
1872
Friday, 10 February 2012
12. Impressionist music
• Atmosphere
• Reaction to the excess of Romanticism
• Dissonance
• Forms: nocturne, arabesque, prelude (shorter
forms)
• Characteristics: dynamics, melodies,
harmony, sensualism
Friday, 10 February 2012
13. Musical aesthetics
• 19th century: expression of ideas, images,
emotions, situations.
• Schopenhauer’s criticism on music as the
greatest art: has the capacity to represent the
metaphysical organisation of reality.
• Direct expression of emotions/moods/
feelings (Tolstoy’s communication theory)
• Hanslick: music related to its representational
function (formalism).
Friday, 10 February 2012
14. Debussy
La mer (1905)
• The sea, three symphonic sketches for
orchestra (opposed to the term
“symphony”)
• 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, cor anglais, 2
clarinets, 3 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 2
trombones, tuba, 3 timpani, cymbals,
tamtam, 2 harps, strings
Friday, 10 February 2012
15. Debussy
La mer (1905)
• 1. De l'aube à midi sur la mer (From dawn
to noon on the sea) (approx. 9 min)
• 2. Jeux de vagues (Play of the waves)
(approx. 6 min 30 sec)
• 3. Dialogue du vent et de la mer (Dialogue
of the wind and the sea) (approx. 8 min)
Friday, 10 February 2012
16. Debussy
La mer (1905)
• 1) Listen
• 2) Imagine
• 3) Draw shapes/images
• 4) Examine the score
Friday, 10 February 2012
