Melody of a Mood: Experiencing Art & Music of French Impressionism

Margeaux Ducoing Department of Music

MUTH 490: Senior Seminar March 28, 2016

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Margeaux Ducoing Dr. Mark Snyder MUTH 490: Senior Seminar March 28, 2016

The creations of the 19th century French Impressionism art movement were both

revolutionary and rebellious. Several mediums of art working in tandem created lasting moments

of a historical era. This paper will observe the relationships that exist between art and music as

exampled by three Impressionistic music compositions by Claude Debussy when compared with

Impressionistic artwork of the time. The pieces analyzed include Debussy’s Nuit d’etoiles with

Vincent Van Gogh’s Starry Night Over the Rhone; Beau Soir and Armand Guillaumin’s Sunset

at Ivry; and lastly Debussy’s Clair de lune with James Abbott McNeill Whistler’s Nocturne in

Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket. These analyses on art and music history, theory, and

aesthetics will demonstrate how impressions of moments in time can be created through these

two artistic mediums.

Impressionism had its beginnings in the 1860s, where realist artists Claude Monet, Pierre-

Auguste Renoir, and Camille Pissarro would meet on the banks of the Seine and Oise rivers to

paint landscapes. As realists, these artists were interested in studying and rendering light upon a

body of water. They became inspired by the colors that formed and wanted to convey the

continuous movement and sense of life light gave to the water. As they worked with colors and

avoided the usage of dark tones, the three men began viewing subjects in life in reaction to the

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reflex of light and used light as a way to interpret reality. Yet light became more than an element

of reality, but instead a principle of style. Impressionism, then, was born.1

Impressionism reached its turning point in 1874 with the exhibition of the Anonymous

Society of Painters, Sculptors, Printmakers, etc. in Paris. The group was founded by several

artists, including Monet, Renoir, and Pissarro, and was unified by its independence from the

Salon, the prestigious art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris.2 It was at this

exhibit that Claude Monet displayed his piece Impression: Sunrise (Figure 1). The critic Louis

Leroy critiqued the piece and

gave a mocking description of

Monet’s loosened, sketch-like

technique as a result. Leroy

accused the work of being a

sketch or “impression” instead of

a finished painting. Rather than

being defeated by the harsh

criticism, the artists of the

exhibition immediately adapted

the term for their art style and quickly diluted Leroy’s negative connotations.3

                                                                                                               1 Lionello Venturi, "The Aesthetic Idea of Impressionism," The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 1.1 (1941): 34-45, Jstor, http://www.jstor.org/stable/426742 2 Margaret Samu,, "Impressionism: Art and Modernity | Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art 2 Margaret Samu,, "Impressionism: Art and Modernity | Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art," The Met's Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Oct. 2004, https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/imml/hd_imml.htm 3 Mary Tompkins Lewis,, ed. Critical Readings in Impressionism & Post-Impressionism, Berkley & Los Angeles: Regents of the U of California, 2007, viii

Figure  1:  Claude  Monet’s  Impression,  Sunrise  

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Impressionism greatly flourished after the 1874 exhibit as new independent artists began

to join in on the new art movement. Following in the footsteps of the movement’s three founders,

the style of the artists came to consist of short, broken brushstrokes that barely conveyed forms.

They would use pure unblended colors and reduce the usage of heavy black tones to emphasize

the effects of light. The artists’ loose brushwork gave an effect of spontaneity and effortlessness

that masked their often carefully constructed compositions.4 More importantly, their sketchy

painting style was not to convey reality but the appearance of reality. The artists based their work

greatly on the sensation of experiencing a moment or object in time rather than recreating it

realistically. French critic Jules-Antoine Castagnary, after viewing the 1874 exhibition, stated the

style perfectly: “They are ‘impressionists’ in the sense that they render not the landscape, but the

sensation produced by the landscape”.5 Thus their art style incorporated the usage of bright

colors, a stark contrast from the more sober colors of Academic painting, to better express their

sensory experience of an object to their audience.

Just as the Impressionistic movement rebelled against the Academic standards of the art

world, these works were also a reaction to the world outside of art. Though nature was one of the

most common themes of Impressionist pieces, other major themes included suburban and rural

leisure of French life. They would paint peasant cottages instead of palaces; plain girls instead of

great ladies; workingmen instead of noblemen. These themes expressed the artists’ new natural

sympathy towards the lower bourgeoisie and work-class at the time, a big contrast to the royal

portraits that the Salon and rest of the art world highly valued. The Impressionists found these

                                                                                                               4 Margaret Samu, "Impressionism: Art and Modernity | Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art," The Met's Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Oct. 2004, https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/imml/hd_imml.htm  5 Mary Tompkins Lewis, ed. Critical Readings in Impressionism & Post-Impressionism, Berkley & Los Angeles: Regents of the U of California, 2007, viii

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demographics of people to be the most natural, and thus it was only natural to depict and praise

them.6 This created a shift in the public’s view of beauty; instead of believing that true beauty

could only be achieved through royal status or appearance, the Impressionists encouraged a new

beauty that could be found in normal people. Impressionism soon became an artistic symbol for

all types of natural beauty, found in both human and nature.

As time went on, music soon came to be a big component of Impressionism. As music is

essentially an abstract art, it was ideal in projecting Impressionistic artists’ vague and sketchy

images. Music during the Impressionistic period had French composers becoming less inclined

to write overtly philosophical music, and instead they sought to restore decorative values in their

music. Composers wanted their music to be a source of pleasure rather than a source of power;

rather than the sublime, they wanted to create beauty. Furthermore, the Impressionistic

composers wanted to reduce the Wagnerian rhetoric of music at the time, putting great emphasis

on the physical sensation that their music could create. Thus to achieve this, the common

elements composers included were calculated effects of spontaneity; gradations in color and

texture; and showing greater interest in sensuousness.7

While painting was the most favored medium of the artists, the Impressionist composers

had two favorite mediums: the orchestra and the piano. The usage of an orchestra allowed for a

variety of ways to convey timbre, or color; and the piano’s damper pedal permitted vibrating

harmonies to be held out for a longer period of time, as if the sound was suspended in mid-air.

Just as the Impressionist painters tried to capture the movement of color and light through their

paints, these two musical mediums allowed for musical expression for composers. Also similar

                                                                                                               6 Lionello Venturi, "The Aesthetic Idea of Impressionism," The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 1.1 (1941): 34-45, Jstor, http://www.jstor.org/stable/426742  7 Richard Taruskin and Christopher H. Gibbs, The Oxford History of Western Music, Oxford: Oxford UP, 2005, 831

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to the artists of the movement were the themes that the Impressionist composers addressed.

Composers shared similar inspiration in natural themes and casual moments in life, such as the

play of light on water or everyday Paris scenes. These inspirations with their musical mediums

allowed composers to become poets and painters through their music.8

One composer that demonstrates the essence of Impressionistic music is Claude Debussy.

Born in 1862 into a poor family in France, Debussy showed an early talent for the piano and

soon began taking lessons at the age of seven. He entered the Paris Conservatory at the age of

eleven and remained there for ten years, claiming prizes and perplexing his teachers with his

interesting approaches to musical innovation. By 1880, Debussy was hired by Nadezha von

Meck, a Russian businesswoman and art patron, to teach her children piano. With her and her

children, Debussy traveled Europe and began accumulating musical and cultural experiences in

Russia that he would soon turn toward his compositions. Not long after, Debussy won the Grand

Prix de Rome in 1884, a competition for composers, where he took home the top prize of

studying for three years in the Italian capital. While in Rome, he studied the music of German

composer Richard Wagner. Wagner’s influence on Debussy was profound and lasting, but

despite this Debussy shied away from the ostentation of Wagner’s works.9 He soon returned to

Paris after two years and by 1887 had begun attending the meetings of the Symbolist poets.

Symbolism was both an artistic and a literary movement whose origins dated back to the 17th

century. The movement suggested ideas through symbols, with their ideology being that art

should appeal to the senses before the intellect. Debussy also fell under the influence of the

French Impressionist painters of the day, inspired by their concentration on color and the play of

                                                                                                               8 Martin E. Kauble, "Piano Studio of Martin E. Kabule," Piano Studio of Martin E. Kauble, NCTM, Kauble Piano Studio, 2004, http://www.kaublepianostudio.com/history/impressionistic 9 Biography.com Editors, "Claude Debussy Biography," Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, http://www.biography.com/people/claude-debussy-9269290#later-years-and-death

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light on surfaces. As a result, both of these schools became crucial to Debussy's developing

musical style.10

Debussy’s first published composition was Nuit d’étoiles or “Starry Night”. Composed in

1880, the piece is written to the text of a poem written by Théodore de Banville, a 19th century

French poet and writer.11 The song portrays a poet sitting beneath a starry night sky, lyre in hand,

who sings melancholic of a past love. Debussy immediately sets up this scene by opening with a

motif of rolled chords in the piano so to create a shimmering effect. The composition stays

within a major mode up until measure 13 (Figure 2), where a diminished chord occurs in the

second half of the measure and momentarily interrupts the dream-like mood. The minor sound

                                                                                                               10 François Lesure, "Debussy, Claude." Grove Music Online: 1-25, Oxford Music Online, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com:80/subscriber/article/grove/music/07353 11 Joseph DuBose, "Claude Debussy Nuit D'etoiles," ClassicalConnect, Classical Connect, LLC, 2014, http://www.classicalconnect.com/Soprano/Debussy/Nuit_etoiles/4518

Figure  2:  Nuit  D’étoiles  measures  7-­‐20  

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creates distress in the song to capture the singer’s description of the lyre’s sad song (“Triste

lyre”). The rolled chords and the shimmering effects of the accompaniment stop altogether at

measure 17 as the melody plays “Je rêve aux amours défunts”, or “I dream of lost loves”. At this

point, there is a great crescendo and a large jump in the bass line. This is to convey the dramatic

emotion of the poet as he laments over his previous love. The mood eventually shifts back to

being cheerful as the piece transitions from the opening chorus to the first verse, conveying the

poet’s change from reliving sad memories to remembering the happier times described by the

singer. The poet’s personal shift in reverie is achieved by the chordal progression of iv to I that

occurs in measures 22 to 23 (Figure 3), where a pleasant-sounding cadence brings the audience

back to his happier memories.

The continuous shift from happy to sad occurs throughout the piece to indicate the poet’s internal

struggle: the chorus showcases the poet’s personal thoughts as he relieves past memories, while

the verses are more cheerful due to conveying positive memories. The fact that the chorus is

repeated three times within the composition, becoming quieter with each repeat before ending

altogether on the tonic chord, symbolizes the poet’s final hopeful acceptance in finding love

again.

Figure  3:  Nuit  D’étoiles  measures  21-­‐32  

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The artwork of Vincent Van Gogh, titled Starry Night Over the Rhone, best portrays the

story and emotion of Debussy’s composition (Figure 4). Created in 1889, Starry Night Over the

Rhone depicts the view Van Gogh had of the Rhone River from his rented apartment in Place

Lamartine.12 Van Gogh’s vivid contrast of rich blues and yellows create a dreamy atmosphere

that echoes Debussy’s

composition. The heavy,

repetitive brushstrokes

used throughout the

piece, from the sky to the

reflection of the lights in

the river, correlate with

the shimmering effect

that the piano plays in the

composition.

Furthermore, the small image

of the couple towards the

bottom of the painting repeats the theme of love in Debussy’s piece. Though the meaning behind

the two people is not certain, they can be interpreted as lovers strolling on the dock near the

river. However, their ambiguity in facial expression, as well as being shown in the darker portion

of the painting, could also symbolize a darker meaning. In particular, this painting was created

before Van Gogh created the famous Starry Night, a work that commemorates the view the artist

                                                                                                               12 K. Shabi, "Meaning & Analysis: Starry Night Over the Rhone by Vincent Van Gogh," Legomenon, Legomenon Online Literary Journal & Magazine, http://legomenon.com/meaning-analysis-starry-night-over-the-rhone-van-gogh.html

Figure  4:  Starry  Night  Over  the  Rhone  by  Vincent  Van  Gogh  

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had from his window while hospitalized at a mental asylum.13 This darkness could suggest his

depressive outlook towards relationships and life, which in turn connects with Debussy’s

melancholy poet who sings of lost loves.

Beau Soir is another early work of Debussy created in 1878. Though unlike Nuit

d’étoiles, where the composition depicts a personal scene, Beau Soir expresses a philosophical

message about life. It is composed after the poetic texts by Paul Bourgety that show the poet’s

desire to be happy and to enjoy life while out on a gorgeous evening. Despite the poet’s

inspirational thoughts, he is aware that death is inevitable and that all life eventually meets its

end.14 Debussy begins the first four measures of the piece with a rhythmic motif consisting of

triplets in the piano (Figure 5). This creates a wave-like motion that sets up the introduction of

the singer, who sings of streams flowing and breezes blowing through fields of grain. The singer

                                                                                                               13  ibid.  14 "Claude Debussy: Beau Soir." AllMusic, AllMusic, 2016, http://www.allmusic.com/composition/beau-soir-lorsque-au-soleil-couchant-les-rivières-sont-roses-song-for-voice-piano-l-6-mc0002354786

Figure  5:  Beau  Soir  measures  1-­‐7  

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performs in duple meter while the piano continues in triple meter; a tricky coordination, however

the push and pull between piano and singer symbolize the relationship between nature and life.

The singer as the poet, and the piano, as nature, flow together but with difficulty in a somewhat

slurry rubato. As seen in Figure 6, this symbolism of life, death, and nature continues throughout

the rest of the piece, until it reaches a climax at measure 26 at the word “beautiful” (“beau”). The

climax is held out for five counts at forte before dropping sharply, serving as a metaphor of the

quick interruption to life and its joys. The moment resolves in the piano with dim. molto over the

next several measures, signaling the fast ebbing out of life at its end. The repeated D natural at

measure 30 adds to the moment, sounding similar to a funeral toll and denoting the grim

acceptance of death. Finally, at measure 33, the melodic line ascends a minor third. This is

within the dominant chord of E major, which has been withheld throughout the piece. Both

voices rest with no resolution to the tonic. However the piano re-enters to repeat the wave-like

motif from the very beginning, signaling a rebirth as the singer utters one final rising minor third

Figure  6:  Beau  Soir  measures  26-­‐33  

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of “we to the tomb” (“nous au tombeau”). Reminiscent of the soul rising, the piano sweeps a

large range from low to high before finally finishing with a simple tonic E major. Furthermore,

true rhythmic synchronicity is shared between singer and piano, signaling a unification of the

poet with nature.

Sunset at Ivry by Armand Guillaumin (Figure 7) properly reflects and captures the

symbolic overtones present in Debussy’s Beau Soir. The artwork, created in 1873, shows smoke

billowing from distant

factory chimneys in the

Paris suburb of Ivry.15

The depiction of flowing

smoke clouds and stream

echo the wave-like

imagery within

Debussy’s piece. More

importantly, the painting

shows the relationship

between nature and human

life just as Beau Soir illustrates. Though the industrialization of humanity slowly encroaches

upon nature, the two live together in harmony underneath the setting sun. Lastly, the brilliant

colors of the sunset vividly demonstrate the beauty of the natural scene. It gives off an almost

fiery appearance, which is emphasized by the smoke tendrils that lick the sky, displaying both

                                                                                                               15 "Jean Baptise Armand Guillaumin (1841-1927)," Art Experts: Art Authentication, Art Appraisal, Art Experts, http://www.artexpertswebsite.com/pages/artists/guillaumin.php

Figure  7:  Sunset  at  Ivry  by  Armand  Guillaumin  

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beauty but ferocity. The element of fire against Debussy’s water motif again reiterates the duality

theme; just like nature and life, fire and water work are natural elements that work with and

against each other throughout the flow of time.

The last song to be analyzed is Debussy’s Clair de lune. The composition was created in

1882 and illustrates the poem of Paul Verlaine, a poet of the Symbolist literary movement. The

poem is from Verlaine’s collection Fêtes Galantes, or Gallant Festivals, which was inspired by

the paintings of 18th century artist Jean-Antoine Watteu. Both the paintings and poetry portray

regal men and women in masks playing games and dancing under the moonlight. However, the

poem suggests that beneath the guise of grandeur, the characters are melancholy.16 As a result,

Debussy’s piece is very visual, rather than philosophical like Beau Soir. Debussy first creates an

ethereal atmosphere with the descending piano progression in the opening, repeating the

dominant chord continuously till measure 10. The piano progression also produces expectation

before the singer begins, at measure 12, as it constantly descends before arriving at the tonic in

measure 11. Moments where Debussy illustrates the poem through sound occur at measure 21,

for example, where the piano begins rolling chords. The piano, here, depicts the sound of a lute

playing as the text “playing the lute and dancing” (“Jouant du luth et dansant”) is sung. Another

example of this happens between measures 31 through 33, where the piano echoes the phrase

“they all sing in a minor mode” (“Tout enchant taut sur le mode mineur”) by playing in A#

minor. While the piano aurally illustrates moments of the poem, the singer instead conveys

shifting moods. Voice is all over the place, shifting from low to high ranges constantly, as if

portraying the many colorful characters that inhabit the festival. One character, as seen in Figure

                                                                                                               16  "Gabriel Faure’s Style: “Clair De Lune” as a Link between Romanticism and Impressionism," Music 242 Spring 2014, 2014, https://pages.stolaf.edu/music242-spring2014/portfolio/gabriel-faures-style-clair-de-lune-as-a-link-between-romanticism-and-impressionism/

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8, is vigorous and full of life, as symbolized by the song’s climax at measure 38 (“L’amour vain

queur et la vie opportune”), while others are doubtful of their life, which is represented by the

descent of the climax (“Ils n’ont pas l’air de croire a leur bonheur”). By the end of the song, both

voice and piano play softer and slower as the festival and its inhabitants mingle endlessly

together under the calm light of the moon.

In the realm of art, Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket by James McNeill

Whistler best connects with Debussy’s moonlit composition. Though Whistler is not, strictly

speaking, a French Impressionist, he lived in Paris to study the art of French painting and was

inspired by the Impressionists. Whistler became close friends with Claude Monet, and the two

would work together and influence each other’s works. Regarding the 1877 Nocturne in Black

and Gold: The Falling Rocket, Whistler focused on the dissolution of the subject matter towards

Figure  8:  Clair  de  lune  measure  36-­‐43  

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abstraction, while also incorporating his interest in the abstract language music and subtle tonal

harmonies.17 The lack of a distinct focal point within the composition allows the viewer to focus

on the overall imagery of the piece and the mood it conveys. This connects with the constantly

shifting moods and ranges performed by the singer when portraying the festival characters.

Likewise, the blending of blues and greens, with hints of yellow, not only reflects the nighttime

setting of Clair de lune but it

reverberates the ever-

changing sound of the

singer. Just as the colors

blend seamlessly into one

another, so does the voice

transition smoothly from

high to low. Furthermore,

the transparent figures that

appear at the bottom of the

composition, appearing to

sit at the bank of a river,

restate the dream-like essence that

exists with Debussy’s work. Because the figures are not defined, the audience is left to interpret

the characters and their purpose. The festivalgoers in Debussy’s piece are also left to audience

interpretation; though the singer conveys the moods of the characters, the reason for their doubts

                                                                                                               17 Ursula Rehn Wolfman, "James McNeill Whistler – Claude Debussy – Nocturnes in Painting and Music," Interlude, Interlude, 6 Sept. 2014, http://www.interlude.hk/front/james-mcneill-whistler-claude-debussy-nocturnes-in-painting-and-music/

Figure  9:  Nocturne  in  Black  and  Gold:  The  Falling  Rocket  by  James  McNeill  Whistler  

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and melancholic states are unclear. Nevertheless, both figures in Whistler and Debussy’s

compositions enjoy spending their time under the veil of night.

French Impressionism was a significant movement in history for art, music, and

literature. All these genres came together and allowed artists, composers, and writers to influence

one another. Composers like Claude Debussy created musical illustrations and philosophies

written by Symbolist poets; while artists depicted natural beauty and everyday scenes from life

that in turn inspired composers and writers. Though the movement was short-lived, it generated

waves in the art world and changed the course of art entirely; it continues to inspire people in the

modern age. Even today, the impressions of nighttime scenes and beautiful sunsets depicted

through art and song are just as vivid as they were back in the 19th century.

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Works Cited

"Claude Debussy: Beau Soir." AllMusic. AllMusic, 2016. Web. 29 Mar. 2016.

http://www.allmusic.com/composition/beau-soir-lorsque-au-soleil-couchant-les-rivières-

sont-roses-song-for-voice-piano-l-6-mc0002354786

"Jean Baptise Armand Guillaumin (1841-1927)." Art Experts: Art Authentication, Art

Appraisal. Art Experts. Web. 29 Mar. 2016.

http://www.artexpertswebsite.com/pages/artists/guillaumin.php

Biography.com Editors. "Claude Debussy Biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks

Television. Web. 29 Mar. 2016. http://www.biography.com/people/claude-debussy-

9269290#later-years-and-death

DuBose, Joseph. "Claude Debussy Nuit D'etoiles." ClassicalConnect. Classical Connect,

LLC, 2014. Web. 29 Mar. 2016.

http://www.classicalconnect.com/Soprano/Debussy/Nuit_etoiles/4518

Kauble, Martin E. "Piano Studio of Martin E. Kabule." Piano Studio of Martin E.

Kauble, NCTM. Kauble Piano Studio, 2004. Web. 30 Mar. 2016.

http://www.kaublepianostudio.com/history/impressionistic.html

Lesure, François. "Debussy, Claude." Grove Music Online: 1-25. Oxford Music Online.

Web. 1 Apr. 2016.

http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com:80/subscriber/article/grove/music/07353

Lewis, Mary Tompkins, ed. Critical Readings in Impressionism & Post-Impressionism.

Berkley & Los Angeles: Regents of the U of California, 2007. Print.

"Gabriel Faure’s Style: “Clair De Lune” as a Link between Romanticism and

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Impressionism." Music 242 Spring 2014. 2014. Web. 28 Mar. 2016.

https://pages.stolaf.edu/music242-spring2014/portfolio/gabriel-faures-style-clair-de-lune-

as-a-link-between-romanticism-and-impressionism/

Samu, Margaret. "Impressionism: Art and Modernity | Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of

Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art." The Met's Heilbrunn Timeline of Art

History. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Oct. 2004. Web. 30 Mar. 2016.

https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/imml/hd_imml.htm

Shabi, K. "Meaning & Analysis: Starry Night Over the Rhone by Vincent Van Gogh."

Legomenon. Legomenon Online Literary Journal & Magazine. Web. 28 Mar. 2016.

http://legomenon.com/meaning-analysis-starry-night-over-the-rhone-van-gogh.html

Taruskin, Richard, and Chirstopher H. Gibbs. The Oxford History of Western Music.

Oxford: Oxford UP, 2005. Print.

Taruskin, Richard, and Chirstopher H. Gibbs. The Oxford History of Western Music.

Oxford: Oxford UP, 2005. Print.

Wolfman, Ursula Rehn. "James McNeill Whistler – Claude Debussy – Nocturnes in

Painting and Music." Interlude. Interlude, 6 Sept. 2014. Web. 31 Mar. 2016.