Impressionism (1890–1930)

The word comes from painting (Monet, Renoir), and Debussy himself disliked it. Yet it captures a new approach: instead of developing themes like an argument, music suggests an atmosphere, a reflection, a mist, the sea.

Harmony changed its role. Chords no longer had to “resolve”: they were enjoyed for their colour and allowed to glide in parallel. Debussy used the whole-tone scale (no semitones), the pentatonic scale (the piano’s black keys), old modes and ninth chords. At the 1889 Paris World’s Fair he heard the Javanese gamelan, which left a lasting mark on him.

The piano became an instrument of timbres: plenty of sustain pedal, very soft dynamics, extreme registers. Ravel, more attached to classical forms, was an outstanding orchestrator; his Boléro (1928) is a lesson in orchestration on a single repeated theme.

Erik Satie, Debussy’s friend, took another path: simplicity, humour, hypnotic repetition (Gymnopédies, Gnossiennes). He already pointed towards 20th-century minimalism.