Impressionism

[rojo]

I find this page helpful in describing what impressionism is. I found the 'Prominent Musical Characteristics' list at the bottom of the page covered pretty much everything-

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

In the next while, I will be going on a quest to find works that I enjoy as much as Debussy`s La Mer, Ravel`s Daphnis and Chloe, Debussy`s L`Isle Joyeuse, and Ravel`s La Valse. Hope you`ll all come with me! :grin:

In the meantime, if anyone has any suggestions, I`m all ears...

 

[rojo]

I should mention that I already know and love Debussy`s Préludes - Ce Qu`a Vu Le Vent De L`Ouest in particular, and Ravel`s Miroirs - Une Barque Sur l`Océan in particular.

Here is something new for me by Carol Szymanowski. It`s called Fonte Aretusa, or La Fontaine d`Aréthuse. It`s played here by Jacques Thibaud, and it`s from an early Cinéphonie.


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFZguWf1lvs[/youtube]

I thoroughly enjoyed this work. The effects at the end are pretty neat.

 

[Krummhorn]

Interesting piece, the Szymanowski work. At first listen it resembled finger nails scratching on a blackboard ... the 2nd and successive times it was starting to gain my interest. Having the video as an aid to listening surely helped my better understanding of the piece. Some of the piano parts reminded me of Hindemith in a couple ways. Thanks for sharing this with us.

 

[Andrew Roussak]

Thanks for it, Rojo, really very interesting. Though I must admit I liked mostly the parts of the piece, where one can hear a certain melodic line...

I have a question -

I should mention that I already know and love Debussy`s Préludes - Ce Qu`a Vu Le Vent De L`Ouest in particular, and Ravel`s Miroirs - Une Barque Sur l`Océan in particular.

I've just looked through the score of the Prelude of Debussy you mentioned - if I got it right, it is a nr. VII in 1er Livre von Preludes, key A major. Do you play it yourself? It looks rather difficult. I have no great experience in playing Debussy in general, except maybe for Claire de Lune - and wanted to give a try. Do you have any advices - which would be the general approach here to begin with? My method of memorising the chords will be surely not the best one by learning the piece...

 

[rojo]

Thanks for listening guys. I actually just listened to it again a couple more times. Still like it a lot. Fine work. Not as great a work as my faves though.

Nails on a blackboard? I think not! :grin: Well, even if you thought so, Kh, it might be due to the sound quality, and/or the fact that there is a lot of high register stuff on the violin. Actually, I thought at one point the violinist had some trouble with the harmonics...

Hindemith? Interesting... I must listen to more of his works. I`m sure I`ve heard a few, but it`s been a long while...

Just btw, thought of another famous impressionist work that deserves mentioning; Debussy`s L`Après-midi d`un Faun. Lovely, and ground-breaking for it`s time.

And now here`s Michelangeli playing Ce Qu`a Vu Le Vent De L`Ouest (edit- apparently the owner of the video has forbidden the embedding of this video; go figure) -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deR7Je457aw

Andrew - Well, it`s not a walk in the park by any means. I play the first two pages on a regular basis; it`s the only part I have maintained by heart. It`s my favourite part. Actually, your memorizing the chords technique might work for a lot of it; there are a lot of repeated patterns and parallel chords in there. I found reading them a bit arduous in a couple of spots. I had trouble getting some parts of the piece up to the speed I wanted as well...

 

[Andrew Roussak]

Hi rojo,

many, many thanks for that - wonderful performance of Arturo Michelangelo, I watched some other pieces played by him too. Well, I guess I should first a shorter one to begin with - I liked very much the VIIIth, for example. Hope I can manage it...

best regards,
Andrew

 

[rojo]

Hi Andrew,

You`re welcome.

You mean La Fille Aux Cheuveux De Lin? I think that one`s pretty accessible. Not one of my faves, but a relatively popular one of the preludes. Best of luck with it, (I`m sure you`ll do a fine job) and let us know how it goes! :up:

 

[Andrew Roussak]

Hi Andrew,

You`re welcome.

You mean La Fille Aux Cheuveux De Lin? I think that one`s pretty accessible. Not one of my faves, but a relatively popular one of the preludes. Best of luck with it, (I`m sure you`ll do a fine job) ...

Yep, thanks for encouraging!! I have to finish a choral prelude of Bach now, so Debussy will be a next station!

...and let us know how it goes! :up:

I guess I will place a video here!!!





http://smiley.smileycentral.com/download/index.jhtml?partner=ZSzeb068_ZS

 

[rojo]

I look forward to hearing your interpretation.

 

[rojo]

Ok, back to my quest.

I`ve found four of the five Roman Sketches for piano by American composer Charles Griffes at youtube. Most definitely impressionism. Lovely stuff. Unfortunately another composer who died young- at 35. I think he wrote mostly for piano and small ensemble. Here is Fountains, from the suite-

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhkKq64XNBY[/youtube]

Thinking of getting the sheet music for this; could become a favourite of mine. I`ll have to listen a few more times...

 

[Music8]

Hi everyone! I'm Music8, a music student from South East Asia . I am fascinated with the different music styles. Impressionism is a style wherein the use of dissonance and whole tone scale is practiced. Obviously, it is breaking down classical forms and structure. It paved the way for classical modern music that we now know today. In my opinion, the most important thing is how you express yourself especially your feelings through music. It's unfair that rules will hinder you to write what you feel. Isn't it nice to experiment new things and discover newer styles? Do rules really matter? I'd like to hear from you guys!....

 

[music9]

Hello Music8! I agree with what you've just said. By the way, here's one of my personal favourite piano pieces - "Jeux d’eau" by Maurice Ravel, which means something like "Water Games", or "Playing with Water". Inspired by the sound of running river, this work is considered to be one of the first examples of "musical impressionism" among Ravel's compositions. Upon hearing it, I could imagine a day on a running river, thinking about the reflection of lights and colours of its splashes.

It is based on two motives in the manner of the movement of a sonata, without however, subjecting itself to the classical tonal plan. As you've said, "whole tone" scales can be heard in some of his passages, and is sometimes mixed with extended chords on its accompaniment. Bitonality is also one of its medium.

I could say, my favourite part is the part somewhere at the end, particularly on the "rit." when he wrote an unusual chord progression. I really love how it sounded.

 

[methodistgirl]

Debussy

I like debussy's Clare De lume better. It has quite a victorian style to it.
I love it. I never heard the other by him. Sorry!
judy tooley