Musical impressionism. Impressionism in Russian music Historical background for the emergence of the musical style impressionism

Impressionism in painting and music.

All artists before the 19th century and the first half of the 19th century, despite belonging to different schools, had one thing in common: they created their paintings within the walls of the studio, preferring neutral lighting and making extensive use of asphalt brown. For this reason, the paintings often had a muted color.

Suddenly, in the 60s, impudent young people appeared in Paris who carried quite large canvases with them to sketches and painted on them with pure paints straight from the tube. Moreover, they placed them side by side, for example: red and green or yellow and violet, calling these pairs complementary colors. Because of these contrasts, the paints, applied in large separate strokes, seemed unbearably bright, and objects that the new artists did not strive to outline with a linear outline lost the accuracy of their outlines and dissolved in the environment. In order to enhance this dissolution, new painters looked for special natural effects: they loved haze, fog, rain; admired the way the specks of light played on the figures of people in the lacy shadow of the trees. The first thing that united the young artists was the desire to paint in the open air. And not to paint preparatory sketches, as landscape painters previously did, but to paint the paintings themselves. They gathered in the Parisian cafe Guerbois (this is a place where they did not just have a snack: it is the cradle of the new French culture), they were young, unknown to anyone; Sometimes they were exhibited separately at the Salon and were noted by critics, at best, sympathetically, and the audience openly laughed.

These artists united, rebelling with their creativity and a completely new method against the traditions and canons of classical painting. In 1874, brought together at the first group exhibition, their works caused a real shock. It was an exhibition of independent artists, independent from the academy, from official art, from outdated traditions, criticism, and the bourgeois public. Here are the names of these new artists: Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Edgar Degas, Alfred Sisley, Auguste Renoir, Paul Cezanne, Berthe Morisot. Claude Monet showed, among other paintings, the painting “Impression. Sunrise". Impression - impression in French: this is where the name impressionists came from, that is, “impressionists.” This word was put into circulation by journalist Louis Leroy as a joke, but the artists themselves accepted it, since it really expressed the essence of their approach to nature.

The Impressionists believed that the task of art is to accurately reflect impressions of the surrounding world - living and ever-changing. Life is a series of unique moments. That is why the artist’s task is to reflect reality in its constant variability. Objects and creatures should be depicted not as they are, but as they look at the moment. And they may look different due to distance or angle of view, due to changes in the air environment, time of day, lighting. In order to accurately reflect his impressions, the artist must work not in the studio, but in nature, that is, in the open air. And in order to accurately convey the rapid ones in the surrounding landscape, you need to paint quickly and finish the picture in a few hours or even minutes, and not, as in the old days, in a few weeks or months. Since the surrounding reality appears before the artist in a new light, the moment he captures is a document of the minute.

The new direction, which manifested itself so clearly in painting, also influenced other types of art: poetry and music. Musical impressionism was most fully embodied in the works of two French composers: Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. Just like in painting, musical impressionism developed in an atmosphere of continuous struggle between the traditional and the new. It was asserted in opposition to the outdated, but tenaciously held, “academic” traditions of the musical art of France at the beginning of the 20th century. Young Debussy and Ravel fully experienced this themselves. Their first creative experiments met with the same hostile attitude from the leadership of the Paris Conservatory and the Academy of Fine Arts as the paintings of impressionist artists. There were negative reviews of such works by Debussy as the symphonic ode “Zuleima”, the symphonic suite “Spring”, and the cantata “The Chosen Virgin”. The composer was accused of a deliberate desire to “do something strange, incomprehensible, impossible,” and of an “exaggerated sense of musical color.” Ravel's piano piece “The Play of Water” caused disapproval from the conservatory professors, and he did not receive the Prix de Rome in 1903. And in 1905 the jury simply did not allow him to participate in the competition. The obvious injustice of the jury's decision caused a sharp protest from a significant part of the Paris musical community. There was even a so-called “case” of Ravel, which was widely discussed in the press. Debussy and Ravel had to make their way in art alone, because they had almost no like-minded people or associates. Their entire life and creative path was full of searches and bold experiments in the field of musical genres and means of musical language.

Musical impressionism grew out of the national traditions of French art. Colorfulness, decorativeness, interest in folk art, in ancient culture, and the large role of programming have always been characteristic of French music. All this was clearly manifested in the works of Debussy and Ravel. But the most direct and fruitful influence on the new direction in music, of course, was pictorial impressionism.

The works of Impressionist artists and composers reveal many similarities. First of all, this is a related topic. The leading theme is “ scenery».

The focus of the painters is the urban landscape, where the city attracts artists in interaction with general natural processes and the nuances of the atmosphere. In the painting “Boulevard of the Capuchines in Paris” by C. Monet, the composition is built on the contrast of the continuous movement of pedestrians and the static forms of houses and tree trunks; on the contrast of warm and cold colors; in an expressive temporal contrast - two frozen figures seem to be excluded from fast-flowing time. The image is blurred and elusive; there is a feeling of overlapping several images taken from one point on one frame. Flickering, flickering, moving. No items. There is the life of the city (even the artist of the 1st half of the 19th century, Delacroix, said that he wanted to paint not a saber, but the shine of a saber).

Artists also paid great attention to images of nature. But they have a landscape in which the subject itself recedes into the background, and the main character of the picture becomes the changeable and fickle light. Claude Monet introduced the practice of working on a series of canvases depicting the same motif in different lighting. Each painting in the series is unique because it is transformed by changing light.

Impressionist composers also had an unusual attitude to landscape.

In such works, some techniques of sound visualization, characteristic specifically of the music of the Impressionists, were clearly manifested. They can be described as “running of waves” (“The Play of Water” by Ravel, “Sails” by Debussy), “leaf fall” (“Dead Leaves” by Debussy), “flickering of light” (“Moonlight” by Debussy), “breath of the night” (“Breath of the night” (“Dead Leaves” by Debussy), Prelude of the Night" by Ravel, "Scents of the Night" by Debussy), "rustle of leaves" and "blow of the wind" ("Wind on the Plain" by Debussy). Debussy's play "Wind on the Plain" is playing.

Against the background of music - a story about a Monet painting. ...Already in the morning Monet is in the garden with a huge canvas. It was probably not easy to drag him to the shore of the pond, to the flowering bush near which the painter settled down. He works quickly, in a hurry: the sun moves unstoppably across the sky, the distance is clouded with haze, a little more and the sun's rays, piercing the translucent cold air, will fall on the ground in completely different colored spots. Monet, of course, does not draw; he completely banished drawing from the picture. He works directly with color, pure paints, applying them in small strokes, one next to the other on a white ground, and the canvas up close appears to be just a flat surface strewn with a scattering of random spots. But you just need to move a little away from it, and a miracle happens - the motley strokes merge and turn into bright flowers, tousled by the wind, into ripples running through the water and the trembling and noise of foliage - yes, noise is heard in the picture, and aromas are felt. Direct reflection of the changing moments of life in colors. There is nothing between the artist’s eye, which reads color, and the canvas, which takes on the equivalent of this color - no plan, no idea, no literary plot; - here is a new way of working. This is art that expressed the worldview of a person in the second half of the 19th century. This was Claude Monet's discovery.

However, when painting pictures of nature, composers did not strive for a purely pictorial solution to the image. It was important for them to convey a certain mood, feeling, their attitude towards a given poetic image. Hence the special confidential, intimate tone of the statement. Each landscape sketch has a certain emotional coloring - either calm, dreamy contemplation, or majestic reflection. A stern and sometimes gloomy mood can instantly give way to intoxicating joy. I. V. Nestyev said this very precisely: “Debussy’s enchanting sound landscapes - pictures of the sea, forest, rain, night clouds - are always imbued with the symbolism of mood, the “mystery of the inexpressible”, in them one can hear either love languor, or notes of sorrowful detachment, or the dazzling joy of being."

Along with the “lyrical landscape,” the “lyrical portrait” became an equally typical theme for the Impressionists. In such plays, composers manage to create a very real, life-like musical image with a few precise strokes. For example, musical portraits: the play “General Lyavin the Eccentric”, full of humor and with grotesque features. Or the light, tinged with sadness play “The Girl with Flaxen Hair.” Debussy's play "The Girl with Flaxen Hair" is playing.

Against the background of music, a story about a Renoir painting. ...Renoir was introduced to the young actress of the Comedy Francaise, Jeanne Samary. “What kind of skin, it truly illuminates everything around” - this is how the impressionist artist expressed his admiration. He wove her portrait from colorful tints, shining with warm light on her face, neck, chest, and white dress. She stepped from the depths of the living room, her face lit up, her eyes flashed and darkened, her cheeks turned tenderly red, the silk of her skirt fluttered lightly. But if Zhanna takes another step, she will come out of the stream of light and everything will change - and it will be a different Zhanna, and she needs to paint a different portrait. One random, beautiful moment...

In Impressionist artists we often see portraits of models, young ladies from the suburbs, milliners dancing in small cafes in Montmartre, ballerinas, artists, jockeys, petty bourgeois, and cafe visitors. The image of a contemporary, charming Parisian woman was central to the work of Auguste Renoir. In the portrait of Jeanne Samary, sparkling blue eyes and red lips attract the eye. The bright color chord of emerald and pink sounds attractive. In portraiture itself, impressionists are attracted not by the physiognomic description of the face and the in-depth psychological disclosure of character, but by that individual, unique aspect of the personality, revealed through a quick glance, tilt of the head, special plasticity, and demeanor.

They are also attracted to the everyday genre - the public in a cafe, boatmen at boat stations, a company in the park on a picnic, regattas, swimming, walks - all this is a world without special events, and the main events take place in nature. The magical effects of the water surface: the ripple of water, its overflow, the shine of reflection, the pattern of clouds and the swaying of foliage - this is the true passion of the impressionists. And only Edgar Degas found in the everyday genre something that could captivate the impressionists: he shows the reality of the modern city using the techniques of future cinema - framing, showing fragments, moving the camera, unexpected angles. He writes, “Sitting at the very feet of the dancer, I would see her head surrounded by the pendants of the chandelier.” In his sketches you can see a cafe with multiple reflections in the mirrors, various kinds of smoke - smoker’s smoke, steam locomotive smoke, factory chimney smoke. Working in the pastel technique, he achieves unusual color effects. The sonorous decorative chord of blue and orange in “Blue Dancers” seems self-luminous.

Impressionist composers also turn to genre and everyday subjects. In his genre and everyday sketches, Debussy uses everyday musical genres, dances of different eras and peoples. For example, Spanish folk dances in the plays “Interrupted Serenade”, “The Gates of the Alhambra”. Debussy's play "Interrupted Serenade" is playing.

Debussy also turns to modern rhythms. In the play "Minstrels" he uses the modern pop dance of the back-walk. Debussy's play "Minstrels" is playing.

There are plays inspired by fairy-tale and legendary motifs - “Fairies - Lovely Dancers”, “The Sunken Cathedral”, “Peck’s Dance”. A number of plays are associated with other types of art: with poetry (“Scents and sounds flutter in the evening air”, “Terrace illuminated by moonlight”), with works of ancient fine art (“Delphic Dancers”, “Canopy”). It is important to emphasize that in depicting all these subjects, as well as in conveying the “lyrical landscape,” Debussy is primarily interested in the atmosphere surrounding the given image. That is, he draws the phenomenon together with the background surrounding it. It is important for Debussy to show the emotional perception of this phenomenon in combination with all sorts of visual or auditory associations. Therefore, the images he depicts are often unsteady, elusive, vague, and elusive. This is also due to the composer’s desire to convey his first, direct impression of a phenomenon or image. This is where impressionist composers gravitate not towards large forms, but towards miniatures; in them it is easier to convey fleeting impressions of various phenomena and changes in mood.

The works of impressionist composers are programmatic, that is, they have titles, and in Debussy’s Nocturnes suite there is even a short literary preface before each of the three pieces. Impressionist composers are characterized by a pictorial and contemplative program, without the active development of an image or plot. Program headings and literary comments are of a conditional nature. They express only the general poetic idea, the pictorial, and not the plot idea of the composition. In addition, as if not wanting to “impose” his idea on the performer and the listener, Debussy in the preludes, for example, places the title at the end of the play, enclosing it in brackets and surrounding it with an ellipsis. For Debussy, the figurative side of the performance of his plays is very important. Since there is no consistent development of the plot in them, picturesque and colorful tasks come to the fore. To express them as accurately as possible. Debussy uses verbal instructions in his works. The composer's remarks are amazing in their diversity and brightness. These are apt metaphors and clarifying explanations for the performer. For example, “like the distant sound of a horn,” “like a gentle and sad regret,” “like a guitar,” “almost a drum,” “sounds quietly in a thick fog,” “vibrating,” “prickly,” “nervous and humorous.” It can even be a detailed description, as, for example, in “Steps in the Snow”: “This rhythm should correspond in sound to the sad and cold background of the landscape.” Such authorial instructions emphasize the composer’s desire to subordinate technical, virtuosic tasks to pictorial, artistic, and artistic ones.

Common features in the work of impressionist artists and composers are found not only in the field of content, themes, but also in artistic method.

An unusual view of the world around us determined the painting technique of the Impressionists. Plein air is the main key to their method. They did not ignore the main scientific discoveries in optics about color decomposition. The color of an object is the impression of a person, which constantly changes depending on the lighting. The Impressionists applied paints to the canvas only those colors that were present in the solar spectrum, without neutral tones of chiaroscuro and without first mixing these colors on the palette. They applied paint in small, separate strokes, which at a distance give the impression of vibration, while the contours of objects lose their clarity of outline.

The Impressionists updated not only the light-color structure of painting, but also compositional techniques. The Academy taught how to build a composition like a theater stage - straight in front of you, in horizontal lines, while strictly observing the laws of linear perspective. In the impressionists we see a wide variety of points of contemplation - from above, from afar, from the inside and others. In contrast to the canons of academic art, which included the obligatory placement of the main characters in the center of the picture, the three-dimensionality of space, and the use of historical subjects, the Impressionists put forward new principles for the perception and reflection of the surrounding world. They stopped dividing subjects into main and secondary ones. They banished narrative from the paintings. The Impressionists focused on studying the nature of light, carefully observing specifically colored light. The Impressionists first entered the realm of transformations of reality that are barely noticeable to the ordinary eye, which occur so quickly that they can only be noticed by a trained eye and occur at a pace incomparably faster than the pace of painting creation. The effect of a stretched out moment - “rapid” - was applied 25 years before the discovery of cinema.

Pictorial impressionism greatly influenced music in the field of expression. Just as in painting, the searches of Debussy and Ravel were aimed at expanding the range of expressive means necessary for the embodiment of new images and, first of all, at maximizing the enrichment of the colorful side of music. These searches touched on mode, harmony, melody, metrhythm, texture, and instrumentation. Debussy and Ravel create a new, impressionistic musical language.

The meaning of melody as the main expressive element of music is weakened; it dissolves in the harmonic background. There are no bright, wide melodies, only short melodic phrases flash. But the role of harmony increases unusually. Its colorful meaning comes to the fore. In the works of the Impressionists, color is very important. The colorfulness of the sound is achieved by using new, unusual chords of tertian and non-tertian structure, in the combination of which the introductory tonal gravity is overcome. Complex, unstable harmonies are characteristic: increased triads, decreased seventh chords, non-chords. They expand the vertical to twelve notes, surround the tertian structure with secondary tones, and use parallel movement of chords. For example, in Debussy's play The Sunken Cathedral.

Frets play an important role in creating a particularly colorful sound. Debussy and Ravel often turn to ancient folk modes: Dorian, Phrygian, Mixolydian, pentatonic. For example, in the play “Pagodas” it is pentatonic. They use a scale with two increased seconds - “Gate of the Alhambra”, unusual combinations of major and minor - “Snow is dancing”. In addition to major and minor modes, they turn to the whole tone mode - “Sails”, to the chromatic mode - “Alternating thirds”. Such a variety of modal palette among Impressionist musicians is similar to the enormous enrichment of the color palette among Impressionist artists.

It becomes characteristic of the music of Debussy and Ravel: unexpected changes in distant tonalities, comparison of tonics of different tonalities, and the use of unresolved dissonant consonances. All this leads to a blurring of the sense of tonality, modal foundations, and to obscuring the tonic. Hence the tonal uncertainty and instability. This “balancing” between distant tonalities, without a clear preference for one of them, is reminiscent of the subtle play of chiaroscuro on the canvases of impressionist artists. And the juxtaposition of several tonic triads or their inversions in distant keys produces an impression similar to small strokes of “pure” paints located side by side on the canvas and forming unexpected new color combinations. For example: nocturne “Clouds”. In this play, Debussy gives the following literary preface: “Clouds are a motionless image of the sky with gray clouds slowly and melancholy passing and melting; moving away, they go out, gently shaded by white light.” The play recreates a picturesque image of the bottomless depth of the sky with its difficult to define color, in which various shades are intricately mixed. The same progressive, as if swaying, sequence of fifths and thirds creates the feeling of something frozen, changing shades only occasionally. Debussy's play "Clouds" is playing.

Against the background of music: ...This musical picture can be compared with the landscapes of Claude Monet, infinitely rich in the range of colors, the abundance of penumbra, concealing the transitions from one color to another. The unity of the pictorial style in the rendering of many paintings of the sea, sky, and river is often achieved by him by not dividing the distant and close plans in the picture. About one of Monet’s best paintings, “Sailing Boat at Argenteuil,” the famous Italian art critic Lionello Venturi writes: “Violet and yellow tones are woven into both the blue of the water and the blue of the sky, the different tones of which make it possible to distinguish between these elements, and the mirror-like surface of the river becomes, as it were, the foundation of the firmament. You feel the continuous movement of air."

Along with the harmonic language, orchestration plays the main expressive role in the works of the Impressionists. Debussy's orchestral style is particularly distinctive. Debussy had the amazing gift of hearing the inner voice of the instrument, its sounding soul. Destroying stereotypes and conventional ideas, Debussy discovered a beautiful and hitherto unheard sound that seems completely natural to everyone. This ability allowed the composer to understand and reveal the essence of the instrument. She helped to hear in the sound of an alto flute the sad sound of a horn lost in the leaves, in the sound of a horn - the melancholy of a human voice, drowned out by the murmur of water, and in the harmonics of strings - drops of rain flowing from wet leaves. Debussy significantly expands the orchestra's coloristic capabilities. The composer rarely introduces new instruments into the orchestra, but uses many new techniques in the sound of both individual instruments and groups of the orchestra. In Debussy, “pure” timbres predominate; orchestral groups (strings, woodwind, brass) are rarely mixed, but the colorful and coloristic function of each group and individual solo instruments increases. The string group loses its dominant importance, and the woodwinds take center stage due to the bright characteristics of the timbres. The role of the harp has increased; its sound brings transparency and a sense of air. Debussy uses unusual registers of instruments and a variety of playing techniques. Debussy uses the human voice as a new timbre color. For example, in the play “Sirens” from the “Nocturnes” suite, the main thing for the composer is not to depict the singing of sirens, but to convey the play of light on sea waves, the diverse rhythm of the sea. Debussy's play "Sirens" is playing.

The art of Debussy and Ravel, like the paintings of impressionist artists, glorifies the world of natural human experiences, conveys a joyful feeling of life, and reveals to listeners the beautiful poetic world of nature, painted with subtle, original sound colors.

Since antiquity, the theory of imitation in art has dominated world aesthetics; the impressionists approved a new concept, according to which the artist should embody on his canvases not the objective world around him, but his subjective impression of this world. Many trends in the art of the subsequent 20th century appeared thanks to new methods of impressionism.

At the end of the lesson there is a mini-quiz. In the first stage, you are asked to choose: from three piano, and then from three symphonic musical fragments, works belonging to impressionist composers. In the second, from the proposed cards with fragments of artistic analysis of paintings, you need to choose those that belong to impressionist artists.

The beauty of the young model seems most expressive against the backdrop of the clear greenish distances of the landscape and the gentle blue sky. This endless landscape seems fabulous, evoking a feeling of the immensity of the world.
A sense of scale, a sense of the immensity and scope of what is happening. The allegorical figure is the semantic center of the picture: a classic antique profile, a powerful sculpted torso. The idea of freedom seems to be visibly embodied in a beautiful woman.
With small strokes of paint, the artist recreates on canvas the play of the midday sun, giving rise to many color shades.
Bright flowers tremble in the light, long shadows sway. The lady's white dress is written in a blue tone - the color of the shadow that fell on it from a yellow umbrella. A short moment of the life of a blooming garden lives on this canvas.
A pink ball without rays floats out of the cloud, coloring the sky and the bay, reflected in a trembling path on the surface of the water. Moist fog softens the silhouettes of objects. Everything around is unsteady, the boundaries between the sky and the river are barely perceptible. Another minute - the morning fog will clear, and everything will take on a different look.
The space of the landscape, in which slight asymmetry is emphasized, is formed by the lines of trees, the contours of figures and color spots of white, green, blue, trembling shadows on the ground. The blinding sunlight deprives the figures of volume, which turn into silhouettes. Freedom of strokes, dazzling freshness of the palette, illusion of light, tranquility of mood become the main features of the new painting style.
The painting, endowed with a unique charm of atmosphere, seems unusually decorative and majestic.

Cut off by the frame, in a slight diagonal shift, it appears as a mysterious phantom of the past. The midday sun lights up the planes of the façade with a light golden flame, but the glow also comes from within the stone.
Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, portrait of Mlle Rivière, 1805, Paris, Louvre.
E. Delacroix, “Freedom Leads the People”, 1831, Paris, Louvre.
K. Monet, “Lady in the Garden”, 1867, St. Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum.
K. Monet, “Impression. Sunrise", 1873, Paris, Marmotan Museum.
O. Renoir, “Girl with a Fan”, 1881, St. Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum.
C. Monet, “Women in the Garden”, 1886, Paris, Musée D’Orsay.

K. Monet, “Rouen Cathedral at Noon”, 1892, Moscow, State Institute of Fine Arts named after. A.S. Pushkin.

1 / 4

Encyclopedic YouTube

✪ Edgar Degas “The Movement of Color” [A Brief History of a Long Life]

✪ Russian impressionism and its predecessors

✪ Russian impressionist artists

✪ Konstantin Korovin. "Paris"

Subtitles

Origin

The term “impressionism” itself in relation to music is emphatically conditional and speculative in nature (in particular, Claude Debussy himself repeatedly objected to it, however, without offering anything definite in return). It is clear that the means of painting, associated with vision, and the means of musical art, based mostly on hearing, can be connected with each other only with the help of special, subtle associative parallels that exist only in the mind. Simply put, the blurry image of Paris “in the autumn rain” and the same sounds, “muffled by the noise of falling drops” in themselves already have the property of an artistic image, but not a real mechanism. Direct analogies between the means of painting and music are possible only through composer's personality who has been personally influenced by artists or their paintings. If an artist or composer denies or does not recognize such connections, then talking about them becomes, at a minimum, difficult. However, before us as an important artifact there are confessions and, (what matters most) the works themselves of the main characters of musical impressionism. It was Erik Satie who expressed this idea more clearly than others, constantly emphasizing how much he owes to artists in his work. He attracted Debussy to himself with the originality of his thinking, independent, rough character and caustic wit, which absolutely did not spare any authorities. Also, Satie interested Debussy with his innovative piano and vocal compositions, written with a bold, although not entirely professional, hand. Here below are the words with which in 1891 Satie addressed his newly found friend, Debussy, encouraging him to move on to the formation of a new style:

When I met Debussy, he was full of Mussorgsky and persistently sought ways that were not so easy to find. In this respect, I have long surpassed him. I was not burdened by either the Rome Prize or any others, for I was like Adam (from Paradise), who never received any prizes - definitely lazy!...
At this time I was writing “Son of the Stars” to a libretto by Péladan and explained to Debussy the need for a Frenchman to free himself from the influence of Wagnerian principles that do not correspond to our natural aspirations. I also said that although I am in no way an anti-Wagnerist, I still believe that we should have our own music and, if possible, without “German sauerkraut.” But why not for these purposes use the same visual means that we see in Claude Monet, Cezanne, Toulouse-Lautrec and others? Why not transfer these funds to music? Nothing could be simpler. Isn't this what real expressiveness is?

But if Satie derived his transparent and stingy impressionism from the symbolic painting of Puvis de Chavannes, then Debussy (through the same Satie) experienced the creative influence of more radical impressionists, Claude Monet and Camille Pissarro.

It is enough just to list the names of the most striking works of Debussy or Ravel to get a complete idea of the impact on their work of both visual images and landscapes of impressionist artists. So, in the first ten years, Debussy wrote “Clouds”, “Prints” (the most figurative of which, a watercolor sound sketch - “Gardens in the Rain”), “Images” (the first of which, one of the masterpieces of piano impressionism, “Reflections on the Water ", evokes direct associations with the famous painting by Claude Monet "Impression: Sunrise")… According to the famous expression of Mallarmé, impressionist composers studied "hear the light", convey in sounds the movement of water, the vibration of leaves, the blowing of wind and the refraction of sunlight in the evening air. The symphonic suite “The Sea from Dawn to Noon” suitably summarizes Debussy’s landscape sketches.

Despite his often-publicized personal opposition to the term “impressionism,” Claude Debussy repeatedly expressed himself as a true impressionist artist. So, speaking about the earliest of his famous orchestral works, “Nocturnes", Debussy admitted that the idea for the first of them (“Clouds”) came to his mind on one of the cloudy days, when he was looking at the Seine from the Bridge of Concorde... Well Regarding the procession in the second part (“Celebrations”), this idea was born from Debussy: “... while contemplating the equestrian detachment of soldiers of the Republican Guard passing in the distance, whose helmets sparkled under the rays of the setting sun... in clouds of golden dust.” Likewise, the works of Maurice Ravel can serve as a kind of material evidence of direct connections from painting to music that existed within the Impressionist movement. The famous sound-visual “Play of Water”, the cycle of plays “Reflections”, the piano collection “Rustles of the Night” - this list is far from complete and it can be continued. Sati, as always, stands somewhat apart; one of the works that can be named in this regard is, perhaps, “The Heroic Prelude to the Gates of Heaven.”

The surrounding world in the music of impressionism is revealed through the magnifying glass of subtle psychological reflections, subtle sensations born of contemplation of minor changes occurring around. These features make impressionism similar to another art movement that existed in parallel - literary symbolism. Erik Satie was the first to turn to the works of Josephin Péladan. A little later, the work of Verlaine, Mallarmé, Louis and especially Maeterlinck found direct implementation in the music of Debussy, Ravel and some of their followers.

Despite all the obvious novelty of the musical language, impressionism often recreates some expressive techniques characteristic of the art of previous times, in particular, the music of French harpsichordists of the 18th century and the Rococo era. It would only be worth recalling such famous visual plays by Couperin and Rameau as “Little Windmills” or “The Hen”.

In the 1880s, before meeting Erik Satie and his work, Debussy was fascinated by the work of Richard Wagner and was completely in the wake of his musical aesthetics. After meeting with Satie and from the moment of creating his first impressionistic opuses, Debussy with surprising sharpness switched to the position of militant anti-Wagnerism. This transition was so sudden and sharp that one of Debussy’s close friends (and biographer), the famous musicologist Emile Vuillermeau, directly expressed his bewilderment:

“Debussy's anti-Wagnerism is devoid of greatness and nobility. It is impossible to understand how a young musician, whose entire youth was intoxicated by the intoxication of “Tristan” and who, in the formation of his language, in the discovery of an endless melody, undoubtedly owes so much to this innovative score, contemptuously ridicules the genius that has given him so much!
- (Emile Vuillermoz, “Claude Debussy”, Geneve, 1957.)

At the same time, Vuillermeau, internally bound by a relationship of personal hostility and enmity with Erik Satie, did not specifically mention him and released him as a missing link in creating a complete picture. Indeed, French art of the late 19th century, crushed by Wagnerian musical dramas, asserted itself through impressionism. For a long time, it was precisely this circumstance (and the growing nationalism between the three wars with Germany) that prevented us from talking about the direct influence of Richard Wagner’s style and aesthetics on Impressionism. Perhaps the first to raise this question was the famous French composer of Cesar Franck's circle - Vincent d'Indy, Debussy's senior contemporary and friend. In his famous work "Richard Wagner and his influence on the musical art of France", ten years after Debussy's death, he expressed his opinion in categorical form:

“The art of Debussy is indisputably from the art of the author of Tristan; it rests on the same principles, is based on the same elements and methods of constructing the whole. The only difference is that Debussy interprets Wagner’s dramatic principles..., so to speak, a la française» .
- (Vincent d'Indy. Richard Wagner et son influence sur l'art musical français.)

Representatives of impressionism in music

The main environment for the emergence and existence of musical impressionism always remained France, where Claude Debussy’s constant rival was Maurice Ravel, who after 1910 remained practically the sole head and leader of the Impressionists. Erik Satie, who acted as the pioneer of the style, due to his nature was unable to move into active concert practice and, starting in 1902, openly declared himself not only in opposition to impressionism, but also founded a number of new styles, not only opposite, but also hostile to him. Interestingly, in this state of affairs, for another ten to fifteen years, Satie continued to remain a close friend, friend and opponent of both Debussy and Ravel, “officially” holding the post of “Forerunner” or founder of this musical style. Likewise, Maurice Ravel, despite very complex and sometimes even openly conflicting personal relationships with Erik Satie, never tired of insisting that meeting him was of decisive importance for him and repeatedly emphasized how much he owes to Erik Satie in his work. Literally at every opportunity, Ravel repeated this to Satie himself “to his face,” which greatly surprised this universally recognized “the clumsy and brilliant Herald of new times” .

The followers of Debussy's musical impressionism were French composers of the early 20th century - Florent Schmitt, Jean Roger-Ducas, Andre Caplet and many others. The first to experience the charm of the new style was Ernest Chausson, who was friends with Debussy and, back in 1893, became acquainted with the first sketches of “The Afternoon of a Faun” hand-in-hand, performed by the author on the piano. Chausson's last works clearly bear traces of the influence of just emerging impressionism - and one can only guess what this author's later work might have looked like if he had lived at least a little longer. Following Chausson and other Wagnerists, members of César Frank's circle were influenced by the first impressionist experiments. Thus, Gabriel Piernet, Guy Ropartz and even the most orthodox Wagnerist Vincent d'Indy (the first performer of many orchestral works by Debussy) paid full tribute to the beauties of impressionism in their work. Thus, Debussy (as if in retrospect) still prevailed over his former idol - Wagner, whose powerful influence he himself overcame with such difficulty... Such a venerable master as Paul Dukas experienced the strong influence of early examples of impressionism, and in the period before The First World War - Albert Roussel, already in his Second Symphony (1918) moved away from impressionistic tendencies in his work, to the great disappointment of his fans.

Subtitles

Musical impressionism has, first of all, impressionism in French painting as its predecessor. They not only have common roots, but also cause-and-effect relationships. And the main impressionist in music, Claude Debussy, and especially Erik Satie, his friend and predecessor on this path, and Maurice Ravel, who took the baton of leadership from Debussy, looked for and found not only analogies, but also expressive means in the works of Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne , Puvis de Chavannes and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

The term “impressionism” itself in relation to music is emphatically conditional and speculative in nature (in particular, Claude Debussy himself repeatedly objected to it, however, without offering anything definite in return). It is clear that the means of painting, associated with vision, and the means of musical art, based mostly on hearing, can be connected with each other only with the help of special, subtle associative parallels that exist only in the mind. Simply put, the blurry image of Paris “in the autumn rain” and the same sounds, “muffled by the noise of falling drops” in themselves already have the property of an artistic image, but not a real mechanism. Direct analogies between the means of painting and music are possible only through composer's personality who has been personally influenced by artists or their paintings. If an artist or composer denies or does not recognize such connections, then talking about them becomes, at a minimum, difficult. However, before us as an important artifact there are confessions and, (what matters most) the works themselves of the main characters of musical impressionism. It was Erik Satie who expressed this idea more clearly than others, constantly emphasizing how much he owes to artists in his work. He attracted Debussy to himself with the originality of his thinking, independent, rough character and caustic wit, which absolutely did not spare any authorities. Also, Satie interested Debussy with his innovative piano and vocal compositions, written with a bold, although not entirely professional, hand. Here below are the words with which Satie addressed his newly found friend, Debussy, in 1891, encouraging him to move on to the formation of a new style:

When I met Debussy, he was full of Mussorgsky and persistently sought ways that were not so easy to find. In this respect, I have long surpassed him. I was not burdened by either the Rome Prize or any others, for I was like Adam (from Paradise), who never received any prizes - definitely lazy!... At this time I was writing “Son of the Stars” to a libretto by Péladan and explained to Debussy the need for a Frenchman to free himself from the influence of Wagnerian principles that do not correspond to our natural aspirations. I also said that although I am in no way an anti-Wagnerist, I still believe that we should have our own music and, if possible, without “German sauerkraut.” But why not for these purposes use the same visual means that we see in Claude Monet, Cezanne, Toulouse-Lautrec and others? Why not transfer these funds to music? Nothing could be simpler. Isn't this what real expressiveness is?

- (Erik Satie, "Claude Debussy", Paris, 1923).

Despite his often-publicized personal opposition to the term “impressionism,” Claude Debussy repeatedly expressed himself as a true impressionist artist. So, speaking about the earliest of his famous orchestral works, “Nocturnes”, Debussy admitted that the idea for the first of them (“Clouds”) came to his mind on one of the cloudy days, when he was looking at the Seine from the Pont de la Concorde... Well Regarding the procession in the second part (“Celebrations”), this idea was born from Debussy: “... while contemplating the equestrian detachment of soldiers of the Republican Guard passing in the distance, whose helmets sparkled under the rays of the setting sun... in clouds of golden dust.” Likewise, the works of Maurice Ravel can serve as a kind of material evidence of direct connections from painting to music that existed within the Impressionist movement. The famous sound-visual “Play of Water”, the cycle of plays “Reflections”, the piano collection “Rustles of the Night” - this list is far from complete and it can be continued. Sati, as always, stands somewhat apart; one of the works that can be named in this regard is, perhaps, “The Heroic Prelude to the Gates of Heaven.”

The surrounding world in the music of impressionism is revealed through the magnifying glass of subtle psychological reflections, subtle sensations born of contemplation of minor changes occurring around. These features make impressionism similar to another art movement that existed in parallel - literary symbolism. Erik Satie was the first to turn to the works of Josephin Peladan. A little later, the work of Verlaine, Mallarmé, Louis and especially Maeterlinck found direct implementation in the music of Debussy, Ravel and some of their followers.

Ramon Casas (1891) "The Money Mill" (impressionist painting with the figure of Satie)

“Debussy's anti-Wagnerism is devoid of greatness and nobility. It is impossible to understand how a young musician, whose entire youth was intoxicated by the intoxication of “Tristan” and who, in the formation of his language, in the discovery of an endless melody, undoubtedly owes so much to this innovative score, contemptuously ridicules the genius that has given him so much!

- (Emile Vuillermoz, “Claude Debussy”, Geneve, 1957.)

“The art of Debussy is indisputably from the art of the author of Tristan; it rests on the same principles, is based on the same elements and methods of constructing the whole. The only difference is that Debussy interprets Wagner’s dramatic principles..., so to speak, a la française».

- (Vincent d’Indy. Richard Wagner et son influence sur l’art musical francais.)

Representatives of impressionism in music

Debussy and Satie (photo by Stravinsky, 1910)

The main environment for the emergence and existence of musical impressionism always remained France, where Claude Debussy's constant rival was Maurice Ravel, who after 1910 remained practically the sole head and leader of the impressionists. Erik Satie, who acted as the pioneer of the style, due to his nature was unable to move into active concert practice and, starting in 1902, openly declared himself not only in opposition to impressionism, but also founded a number of new styles, not only opposite, but also hostile to him. Interestingly, in this state of affairs, for another ten to fifteen years, Satie continued to remain a close friend, friend and opponent of both Debussy and Ravel, “officially” holding the post of “Forerunner” or founder of this musical style. Likewise, Maurice Ravel, despite very complex and sometimes even openly conflicting personal relationships with Erik Satie, never tired of insisting that meeting him was of decisive importance for him and repeatedly emphasized how much he owes to Erik Satie in his work. Literally at every opportunity, Ravel repeated this to Satie himself “to his face,” which greatly surprised this universally recognized “the clumsy and brilliant Herald of new times”.

The followers of Debussy's musical impressionism were French composers of the early 20th century - Florent Schmitt, Jean-Jules Roger-Ducas, Andre Caplet and many others. The first to experience the charm of the new style was Ernest Chausson, who was friends with Debussy and, back in 1893, became acquainted with the first sketches of “The Afternoon of a Faun” hand-in-hand, performed by the author on the piano. Chausson's last works clearly bear traces of the influence of just emerging impressionism - and one can only guess what this author's later work might have looked like if he had lived at least a little longer. Following Chausson and other Wagnerists, members of Cesar Franck's circle were influenced by the first impressionist experiments. Thus, Gabriel Piernet, Guy Ropartz and even the most orthodox Wagnerist Vincent d'Indy (the first performer of many of Debussy's orchestral works) paid full tribute to the beauties of impressionism in their work. Thus, Debussy (as if in retrospect) still prevailed over his former idol - Wagner, whose powerful influence he himself overcame with such difficulty... Such a venerable master as Paul Dukas experienced the strong influence of early examples of impressionism, and in the period before World War I - Albert Roussel, already in his Second Symphony (1918) moved away from impressionistic tendencies in his work, to the great disappointment of his fans.

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, certain elements of the impressionist style were developed in other composition schools in Europe, uniquely intertwined with national traditions. Of these examples, we can name the most striking: in Spain - Manuel de Falla, in Italy - Ottorino Respighi, in Brazil - Heitor Villa-Lobos, in Hungary - the early Bela Bartok, in England - Frederick Delius, Cyril Scott, Ralph Vaughan - Williams, Arnold Bax and Gustav Holst, in Poland - Karol Szymanowski, in Russia - early Igor Stravinsky - (of the Firebird period), late Lyadov, Mikalojus Konstantinas Ciurlionis and Nikolai Tcherepnin.

In general, it should be recognized that the life of this musical style was quite short even by the standards of the fleeting 20th century. The first traces of a departure from the aesthetics of musical impressionism and the desire to expand the limits of its inherent forms of musical thinking can be found in the work of Claude Debussy himself after 1910. As for the pioneer of the new style, Erik Satie, before anyone else, after the premiere of Pelleas in 1902, he decisively left the growing ranks of supporters of impressionism, and ten years later he organized criticism, opposition and direct opposition to this trend. By the early 30s of the 20th century, impressionism had already become old-fashioned, turned into a historical style and completely left the arena of contemporary art, dissolving (as individual colorful elements) in the work of masters of completely different stylistic directions (for example, individual elements of impressionism can be distinguished in works by Olivier Messiaen, Takemitsu Toru, Tristan Murai and others.

Notes

Schneerson G. French music of the 20th century. - M.: Music, 1964. - P. 23.
Erik Satie, Yuri Khanon Memories in hindsight. - St. Petersburg. : Center for Secondary Music & Faces of Russia, 2010. - P. 510. - 682 p. - ISBN 978-5-87417-338-8
Erik Satie. Ecrits. - Paris: Editions champ Libre, 1977. - P. 69.
Emile Vuillermoz. Claude Debussy. - Geneve, 1957. - P. 69.
Claude Debussy. Selected letters (compiled by A. Rozanov). - L.: Music, 1986. - P. 46.
edited by G. V. Keldysh. Musical encyclopedic dictionary. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1990. - P. 208.
Schneerson G. French music of the 20th century. - M.: Music, 1964. - P. 22.
Vincent d'Indy. Richard Wagner et son influence sur l’art musical francais. - Paris, 1930. - P. 84.
Volkov S. History of culture of St. Petersburg. - second. - M.: "Eksmo", 2008. - P. 123. - 572 p. - 3000 copies.
- ISBN 978-5-699-21606-2
Ravel in the mirror of his letters. - L.: Music, 1988. - P. 222. Compiled by M. Gerard and R. Chalus.
Schneerson G. Ravel in the mirror of his letters. - L.: Music, 1988. - P. 220-221.
French music of the 20th century. - M.: Music, 1964. - P. 154. Filenko G.

French music of the first half of the 20th century. - L.: Music, 1983. - P. 12.

Sources Musical encyclopedic dictionary, ed. G. V. Keldysh
, Moscow, “Soviet Encyclopedia” 1990. Ravel in the mirror of his letters. Compiled by M. Gerard And R. Chalu
Schneerson G.., L., Music, 1988.
French music of the 20th century, 2nd ed. - M., 1970; Vincent d'Indy
. Richard Wagner et son influence sur l’art musical francais. Paris, 1930;, "Ecrits", - Editions champ Libre, 1977;
Anne Rey Satie, - Seuil, 1995;
Volta Ornella, Erik Satie, Hazan, Paris, 1997;
Emile Vuillermoz"Claude Debussy", Geneve, 1957.

Application of the term " impressionism"to music is largely conditional - musical impressionism is not a direct analogy to impressionism in painting and does not coincide with it chronologically (its heyday was the 90s of the 19th century and the 1st decade of the 20th century).

Impressionism arose in France, when a group of artists - C. Monet, C. Pissarro, A. Sisley, E. Degas, O. Renoir and others - presented their original paintings at Paris exhibitions in the 70s. Their art was sharply different from the smoothed and faceless works of the academic painters of that time: the impressionists left the walls of their workshops into the free air, learned to reproduce the play of the living colors of nature, the sparkle of the sun's rays, multi-colored reflections on the moving surface of the river, the diversity of the festive crowd. The painters used a special technique of fluent spots-strokes, which seemed chaotic up close, but at a distance gave rise to a real feeling of a living play of colors, fanciful play of light. The freshness of an instant impression was combined in their paintings with the subtlety and sophistication of psychological moods.

Later, in the 80-90s, the ideas of impressionism and partly its creative techniques found their expression in French music. Two composers - C. Debussy and M. Ravel - most clearly represent the movement of impressionism in music. Their piano and orchestral sketch pieces express with particular harmonic and modal novelty the sensations caused by the contemplation of nature. The sound of the sea surf, the splash of a stream, the rustle of the forest, the morning chirping of birds merge in their works with the deeply personal experiences of a musician-poet in love with the beauty of the world around him. Both of them loved folk music - French, Spanish, oriental, and admired its unique beauty.

The main thing in musical impressionism is the transmission of moods that acquire the meaning of symbols, subtle psychological nuances, and a tendency toward poetic landscape programming. He is also characterized by refined fantasy, poeticization of antiquity, exoticism, and an interest in timbre and harmonic beauty. What he has in common with the main line of impressionism in painting is his enthusiastic attitude towards life; moments of acute conflicts and social contradictions are avoided in it.

Classic expression " musical impressionism" found in the works of C. Debussy; its features also appeared in the music of M. Ravel, P. Dukas, F. Schmitt, J. J. Roger-Ducas and other French composers.

Debussy is rightfully considered the founder of musical impressionism, who enriched all aspects of modern compositional skill - melody, harmony, orchestration, form. His innovative experiments were partly inspired by the outstanding discoveries of Russian realist composers, primarily M. P. Mussorgsky. At the same time, he adopted the ideas of new French painting and symbolist poetry. Debussy wrote many piano and vocal miniatures, several pieces for chamber ensembles, three ballets, and the lyrical opera Pelléas et Melisande.

Musical impressionism inherited many of the features of the art of late romanticism and national music schools of the 19th century. (“The Mighty Handful”, F. Liszt, E. Grieg, etc.). At the same time, the impressionists contrasted the clear relief of contours, extreme materiality and oversaturation of the musical palette of the late romantics with the art of restrained emotions and transparent, meager texture, and the fluent changeability of images.

The work of impressionist composers greatly enriched the expressive means of music, especially the sphere of harmony, which reached great beauty and sophistication; the complication of chord complexes is combined in it with the simplification and archaization of modal thinking; The orchestration is dominated by pure colors, capricious highlights, and the rhythms are unsteady and elusive. The colorfulness of modal harmonic and timbre means comes to the fore: the expressive meaning of each sound and chord is enhanced, and previously unknown possibilities for expanding the modal sphere are revealed. The music of the Impressionists was given a special freshness by their frequent use of song and dance genres, elements of the musical language of the peoples of the East, Spain, and early forms of black jazz.

Inspired pictures of nature are conveyed with amazing, almost visible concreteness in his orchestral pieces: “Preludes to the Afternoon of a Faun”, in the cycle “Nocturnes” (“Clouds”, “Festivities” and “Sirens”), three sketches “The Sea”, the cycle “Iberia” (three sketches of the nature and life of southern Spain), as well as in the piano miniatures “Island of Joy”, “Moonlight”, “Gardens in the Rain”, etc. The work of Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) reflected a later era. The drawing of his compositions is sharper, sharper, the colors are clearer and more contrasting - from tragic pathos to caustic irony. But in his compositional style there is also a sophisticated sound design, a complex and colorful play of colors, typical of musical impressionism. Ravel's best piano pieces are dominated by a whimsical iridescence. sounds inspired by living nature (“Play of Water”, “Sad Birds”, “Boat in the Ocean”) Throughout his life, the composer developed the motifs of his beloved Spain. This is how “Spanish Rhapsody” for orchestra, the comic opera “The Spanish Hour” appeared. Bolero".

Ravel paid much attention to the genres of dance music. Among several of his ballets, the fairy tale ballet “Daphnis and Chloe”, created by him in collaboration with the Russian troupe of S. P. Diaghilev, stands out. Ravel knew the secrets of musical humor well and wrote music for children with love. Such are his pieces for the piano “Mother Goose”, turned into a ballet, or the opera “The Child and the Magic”, in which the Clock and the Couch, the Cup and the Teapot appear amusingly as characters. In the last years of his life, Ravel turned to more modern, rhythmically sharpened musical means, in particular to the intonations of jazz (sonata for violin and piano, two piano concertos).

The traditions of impressionism, begun by French masters, were continued in the works of composers of various national schools. They were originally developed by M. de Falla in Spain, A. Casella and O. Respigi in Italy, S. Scott and F. Dilius in England, K. Szymanowski in Poland. The influence of impressionism was experienced at the beginning of the 20th century. and some Russian composers (N. N. Cherepnin, V. I. Rebikov, S. N. Vasilenko). A. N. Scriabin combined the independently formed features of impressionism with fiery ecstasy and violent impulses of will. The uniquely realized achievements of French impressionism are noticeable in the early works of I. F. Stravinsky (ballets “The Firebird”, “Petrushka”, opera “The Nightingale”).

Impressionism in painting and music

The Impressionists believed that the task of art is to accurately reflect impressions of the surrounding world - living and ever-changing. Life is a series of unique moments. That is why the artist’s task is to reflect reality in its constant variability. Objects and creatures should be depicted not as they are, but as they look at the moment. They may look different due to distance or viewing angle, due to changes in the air environment, time of day, and lighting. In order to accurately reflect his impressions, the artist must work not in the studio, but in nature, that is, in the open air. And in order to accurately convey the rapid ones in the surrounding landscape, you need to paint quickly and finish the picture in a few hours or even minutes, and not, as in the old days, in a few weeks or months. Since the surrounding reality appears before the artist in a new light, the moment he captures is a document of the minute.

The works of Impressionist artists and composers reveal many similarities. First of all, this is a related topic. The leading theme is “scenery».

The focus of the painters is the urban landscape, where the city attracts artists in interaction with general natural processes and the nuances of the atmosphere. In the painting “Boulevard of the Capuchines in Paris” by C. Monet, the composition is built on the contrast of the continuous movement of pedestrians and the static forms of houses and tree trunks; on the contrast of warm and cold colors; in an expressive temporal contrast - two frozen figures seem to be excluded from fast-flowing time. The image is blurred and elusive; there is a feeling of overlapping several images taken from one point on one frame. Artists also paid great attention to images of nature. But they have a landscape in which the subject itself recedes into the background, and the main character of the picture becomes the changeable and fickle light. Claude Monet introduced the practice of working on a series of canvases depicting the same motif in different lighting. Each painting in the series is unique because it is transformed by changing light. Impressionist composers also had an unusual attitude to landscape.

None of the composers of the past embodied such a variety and richness of subjects associated with paintings of nature. Moreover, Debussy and Ravel are attracted to images of nature, first of all, by what moves: rain, water, clouds, wind, fog and the like. For example, such plays by Debussy: “Wind on the Plain”, “Gardens in the Rain”, “Mists”, “Sails”, “What the West Wind Saw”, “Heather”, “The Play of Water” by Ravel. In such works, some techniques of sound visualization, characteristic specifically of the music of the Impressionists, were clearly manifested. They can be described as “running of waves” (“The Play of Water” by Ravel, “Sails” by Debussy), “leaf fall” (“Dead Leaves” by Debussy), “flickering of light” (“Moonlight” by Debussy), “breath of the night” (“Breath of the night” (“Dead Leaves” by Debussy), Prelude of the Night" by Ravel, "Scents of the Night" by Debussy), "rustle of leaves" and "blow of the wind" ("Wind on the Plain" by Debussy).

Common features in the work of impressionist artists and composers are found not only in the field of content, themes, but also in artistic method.

The Impressionists updated not only the light-color structure of painting, but also compositional techniques. In the impressionists we see a wide variety of points of contemplation - from above, from afar, from the inside and others. In contrast to the canons of academic art, which included the obligatory placement of the main characters in the center of the picture, the three-dimensionality of space, and the use of historical subjects, the Impressionists put forward new principles for the perception and reflection of the surrounding world. They stopped dividing subjects into main and secondary ones. The Impressionists focused on studying the nature of light, carefully observing specifically colored light. The Impressionists first entered the realm of transformations of reality that are barely noticeable to the ordinary eye, which occur so quickly that they can only be noticed by a trained eye and occur at a pace incomparably faster than the pace of painting creation.

Pictorial impressionism greatly influenced music in the field of expression. The search touched on mode, harmony, melody, metrhythm, texture, and instrumentation. Debussy and Ravel create a new, impressionistic musical language.

Consider a mini-quiz.

In the first stage, you are asked to choose: from three piano, and then from three symphonic musical fragments, works belonging to impressionist composers. In the second, from the proposed cards with fragments of artistic analysis of paintings, you need to choose those that belong to impressionist artists.

1. The beauty of the young model seems most expressive against the backdrop of the clear greenish distances of the landscape and the gentle blue sky. This endless landscape seems fabulous, evoking a feeling of the immensity of the world.

2. A sense of scale, a sense of the immensity and scope of what is happening. The allegorical figure is the semantic center of the picture: a classic antique profile, a powerful sculpted torso. The idea of freedom seems to be visibly embodied in a beautiful woman.

3. With small strokes of paint, the artist recreates on canvas the play of the midday sun, giving rise to many color shades. Bright flowers tremble in the light, long shadows sway. The lady's white dress is written in a blue tone - the color of the shadow that fell on it from the yellow umbrella. A short moment of the life of a blooming garden lives on this canvas.

4. A pink ball without rays floats out of the cloud, coloring the sky and the bay, reflected in a trembling path on the surface of the water. Moist fog softens the silhouettes of objects. Everything around is unsteady, the boundaries between the sky and the river are barely perceptible. Another minute - the morning fog will clear, and everything will take on a different look.

5. The musical variation played out by the artist in this exquisite canvas of shining colored spots on the face, hairstyle, dress, background, repeated in the unfolded fan, forms the image of a dreamy and tender girl, like a beautiful flower.

6. The space of the landscape, in which slight asymmetry is emphasized, is formed by the lines of trees, the contours of figures and color spots of white, green, blue, trembling shadows on the ground. The blinding sunlight deprives the figures of volume, which turn into silhouettes. Freedom of strokes, dazzling freshness of the palette, illusion of light, tranquility of mood become the main features of the new painting style. The painting, endowed with a unique charm of atmosphere, seems unusually decorative and majestic.

7. Cut by the frame, in a slight diagonal shift, it appears as a mysterious phantom of the past. The midday sun lights up the planes of the façade with a light golden flame, but the glow also comes from within the stone.

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, portrait of Mlle Rivière, 1805, Paris, Louvre.

E. Delacroix, “Freedom Leads the People”, 1831, Paris, Louvre.

K. Monet, “Lady in the Garden”, 1867, St. Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum.

K. Monet, “Impression. Sunrise", 1873, Paris, Marmotan Museum.

O. Renoir, “Girl with a Fan”, 1881, St. Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum.

C. Monet, “Women in the Garden”, 1886, Paris, Musée D’Orsay.

K. Monet, “Rouen Cathedral at Noon”, 1892, Moscow, State Institute of Fine Arts named after. A.S. Pushkin.

C squeak literature

1. John Rewald. History of impressionism.416 p. Publishing house Respublika, Moscow, 2002.

2. Andreev L.G. Impressionism. M. MSU, 1980

3. Vlasov V.G. “Styles in art.” St. Petersburg, “Lita”. 1998

4. Koretskaya I.V. Impressionism in the poetics and aesthetics of symbolism. - In the book: Literary and aesthetic concepts in Russia at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries. M., 1975

5. Claude Monet. Paten Sylvie. - M.: Astrel Publishing House, 2002. - 175 p.