Impressionist colours

Around 1890 in Paris, a few musicians grew tired of grand romantic machinery that always has to "go somewhere". Erik Satie wrote his Gymnopédies (1888), Claude Debussy his Préludes and Estampes, Maurice Ravel his Jeux d'eau. Their idea: a harmony does not need to resolve, it can simply exist as a colour, like a patch of light on a Monet canvas. For a budding composer this is a wonderful world: the rules of resolution relax, and the ear becomes the only judge.

The fingerprints of the style

• The whole-tone scale: six notes a whole step apart (C–D–E–F♯–G♯–A♯). No semitones, so no leading tone, so no tonic: music that floats (Debussy, "Voiles").
• Parallel chords ("planing"): the same chord shape sliding as a block, parallel fifths and all. What counterpoint forbade becomes a colour (Debussy, "The Sunken Cathedral").
• Modes: Dorian, Lydian (with its luminous raised fourth), Mixolydian, Aeolian… rather than the major/minor pair.
• The pentatonic scale: the five black-key notes, a memory of the Javanese gamelan heard at the 1889 World's Fair (Debussy, "Pagodes").
• Enriched chords: major sevenths, ninths, added sixths, left unresolved.
• Static harmony: a held bass or two oscillating chords, the pedal blending resonances, evocative titles.

The whole-tone scale and augmented chords

M:4/4
L:1/8
Q:1/4=60
K:C
%%staves {RH LH}
V:RH clef=treble
V:LH clef=bass
[V:RH] C D E ^F ^G ^A c2 | ^A ^G ^F E D C C2 |]
[V:LH] [C,E,^G,]8 | [D,^F,^A,]8 |]

Every note, melody and chords alike, comes from the same whole-tone scale. The left-hand chords are augmented (stacked major thirds): they have no clear root and no direction. Hear how the rising line doesn't "want" to go anywhere: it's a fog, mist on the water. Use it in small doses, or the ear quickly tires.

Parallel chords

M:4/4
L:1/8
Q:1/4=56
K:C
%%staves {RH LH}
V:RH clef=treble
V:LH clef=bass
[V:RH] [ceg]2 [dfa]2 [egb]2 [dfa]2 | [ceg]8 |]
[V:LH] [C,G,]2 [D,A,]2 [E,B,]2 [D,A,]2 | [C,G,]8 |]

The right hand slides a triad along the degrees of the scale; the left hand follows in bare fifths. A 19th-century harmony teacher would have crossed all this out in red! Here chords are no longer functions (tonic, dominant…) but a thickened melodic line, like a choir of monks or a ringing bell. Play it pianissimo, with pedal: it's already a small cathedral.

The Lydian mode and oscillation

M:4/4
L:1/8
Q:1/4=66
K:C
%%staves {RH LH}
V:RH clef=treble
V:LH clef=bass
[V:RH] "Cmaj7"g4 e2 c2 | "D/C"^f4 a2 d2 | "Cmaj7"e4 g2 b2 | "D/C"a2 ^f2 "C"g4 |]
[V:LH] C,2 [E,G,B,]2 C,2 [E,G,B,]2 | C,2 [D,^F,A,]2 C,2 [D,^F,A,]2 | C,2 [E,G,B,]2 C,2 [E,G,B,]2 | C,2 [D,^F,A,]2 [C,G,E]4 |]

C Lydian is C major with an F♯. The bass stays on C (a pedal point) while the harmony rocks between C major seventh and D major: that D over C brings out the F♯, the magic note of Lydian, which sounds weightless, luminous, slightly unreal. Many film scores use this mode to suggest wonder.

The model: oscillation in the manner of Satie

Satie's Gymnopédie No. 1 rests on two major-seventh chords rocking back and forth endlessly beneath a slow, bare melody. Here is an original sketch built on the same principle:

M:3/4
L:1/4
Q:1/4=72
K:D
%%staves {RH LH}
V:RH clef=treble
V:LH clef=bass
[V:RH] "Gmaj7"z a f | "Dmaj7"e3 | "Gmaj7"z d B | "Dmaj7"c3 |]
[V:LH] G,, [B,DF]2 | D,, [A,CF]2 | G,, [B,DF]2 | D,, [A,CF]2 |]

A low bass on the downbeat, a mid-register chord on beats 2–3: a waltz slowed down to stillness. The melody rests on the most colourful notes: E (the ninth of D) and C♯ (the major seventh). Nothing resolves, and that is precisely why it is so beautiful.

The pastiche recipe

1. Choose an image and a working title.
2. Choose a main colour for A (say, Lydian over a C pedal) and a contrasting colour for B (say, whole-tone, or parallel chords).
3. Lay down a static background: a held bass, or two oscillating chords.
4. Write a slow melody that lingers on the "coloured" notes (ninth, major seventh, raised fourth).
5. End without a classical cadence: a held major-seventh or ninth chord dying away in the pedal.

Your workshop

1. Explore the sounds with the impressionist backing track: improvise for five minutes using only the black keys, then only the whole-tone scale.
2. In the piano roll, create an 8-bar background: a C pedal in the bass, oscillating between C major seventh and D over C.
3. Add a slow melody in C Lydian (with F♯), favouring long notes.
4. Write an 8-bar B section in sliding parallel chords, then bring back A.
5. Transcribe your piece in the ABC editor and give it an evocative title.
6. Self-check: play your piece to someone without telling them the title and ask what they imagine. If their answer is close to your image, you have painted with sound.