WHAT IS IMPRESSIONISM?

IMPRESSIONISM
•Just like other art and music influences,
Impressionism is a movement in painting
that started in France in the 1860s. It is
characterized by visual impression of the
moment in terms of the shifting effect of
color and light.
WHAT IS THE HISTORY AND
BACKGROUND OF
IMPRESSIONISM?
•Impressionism is an art movement that
started in the mid – 19 century and
became popular in the last quarter of
the century. It was inspired by
different factors that include anti –
establishment, foreign or Asian
influences, and desire to paint
modern life instead of academic
subjects of mythology and history.
•The artist who started anti –
establishmentism were Rosa Bonheur,
Gustave Courbet, and Jean – Francis
Millet. They painted real – life images
(Realism) instead of myth, fantasy, and
historical topics, but they were still
painting using traditional techniques in
painting.
•Even if Manet started the idea of
Impressionism in painting, it was
Claude Monet who made it popular
by exhibiting the landscape
Impression: Sunrise in the Paris Salon in
1872.
WHAT IS IMPRESSIONISM IN
MUSIC?
•It has been said that IMPRESSIONISM in
music was adapted from ART
IMPRESSIONISM. In music,
Impressionism - is a style of music that
make use of sound to let listener feel
the moods that focus on the structure
of music. Impressionism in music also
started and developed in France in
the 19th century.
CHARACTERISTICS OF IMPRESSIONISM IN MUSIC
• The rhythm of Impressionism music is
irregular in terms of phrases.
• It avoids the traditional harmonic
progression.
• It has unresolved dissonance
• It uses the whole – tone scale, uses the 9th
chord, and also frequently uses modality
and exotic scales.
WHO ARE THE NOTABLE 20 TH

CENTURY COMPOSERS AND

MUSICIANS THAT BELONG TO THE
GENRE OF IMPRESSIONISM IN
MUSIC?
ARNOLD SCHOENBERG
• His method of organizing
his music was the use of
12 different tones, which
was greatly influenced
by the modern
technique.
• Was also known for his
radical sound of music.
• Father of Modern
Composition
• 213 musical composition
•Three Pieces for
Piano
•Pierrot Lunaire
•Gurreleider
•Verklarte Nacht
IGOR STRAVINSKY

•Adapted the forms

of the 18th century
with his
contemporary style
of writing.
•127 musical
composition
•The Firebird Suite
•Petrouchka
•The Rite of
Spring
•The Rake’s
Progress
 BELA BARTOK
•He inspired the
musical style of
different composers
like Claude Debussy
and Igor Stravinsky.
• His most famous
composition is Six
String Quartets
•Six String Quartets
•Concerto for
Orchestra
•Duet for Pipes
GEORGE GERSHWIN
• He is also known as
“crossover artist”
• In the sense that his
serious compositions
remain highly popular
in the classical
repertoire.
• Considered the
Father of American
Jazz
SUMMERTIME(PORGY AND BESS)
 SOME KEY POINTS IN MUSIC
• Neo – classicism was a partial return to a Classical
form of writing music with carefully modulated
dissonance.
• Avant – garde style was associated with electronic
music and dealt with the parameters or dimensions
of sound in space.
• Modern Nationalism was a looser form of 20th
century music development that focused on
nationalist composers and musical innovators who
sought to combine modern techniques with folk
materials.
2ND UNIT IN MUSIC
QUARTER II: AFRO – LATIN
AMERICAN AND POPULAR
MUSIC
TRADITIONAL MUSIC OF
AFRICA
 TRADITIONAL MUSIC OF AFRICA
• Largely functional in nature, used primarily in
ceremonial rites, such as birth, death,
marriage, succession, worship, and spirit
invocations.
• Others are work related or social in nature,
while many traditional societies view their
music as entertainment.
 AFRICAN MUSIC
•It is a rich and diverse cultural heritage
that exists in hundreds of different
languages.
•Basically interlocking structural format,
due mainly to its overlapping and
dense texture as well as its rhythmic
complexity.
 ITS MANY SOURCES OF INFLUENCE HAVE
PRODUCED SUCH VARIED STYLES AND GENRES
AS THE FOLLOWING
• Afrobeat
• Apala (Akpala)
• Axe
• Jit
• Jive
• Juju
• Kwassa kwassa
• Marabi
 AFROBEAT
• Is a term used to describe the fusion of West
African with black American music.
 APALA (AKPALA)
• Is a musical genre from Nigeria in the Yoruba
tribal style, used to wake up the worshippers
after fasting during the Muslim holy feast of
Ramadan.
 AXE
• Is a popular musical genre from Salvador,
Bahia, and Brazil. It fuses the Afro – Caribbean
styles of the marcha, reggae and calypso,
and is played by carnival bands.
 JIT
• Is a hard and fast percussive Zimbabwean
dance music played on drums with guitar
accompaniment, influenced by mbira – based
styles.
 JIVE
•Is a popular form of South African music
featuring a lively and uninhibited variation
of the jitterbug, a form of swing dance.
 JUJU
• Is popular music style from Nigeria that relies
on the traditional Yoruba rhythms, where the
instruments are more Western in origin.
 KWASSA KWASSA
• Is a dance style begun in Zaire in the late
1980’s, popularized by Kanda Bongo Man. In
this dance style, the hips move back and forth
while the arms follow the hip movements.
 MARABI
•Is South African three – chord township
music of the 1930s – 1960s which evolved
into African Jazz.