Describe Impressionism and its musical characteristics as created by Debussy and Ravel
Answer (1)
Impressionism in music is a style that started in the late 1800s and early 1900s. It was popularized by Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. This style focuses more on creating moods and feelings rather than telling a clear story or following strict rules in music. One of the key characteristics of impressionist music is the use of tone color or timbre. They used instruments in creative ways to produce light, airy, and dreamy sounds. For example, they often used flutes, harps, and soft strings to paint a picture in the listener’s mind.Another feature is the unclear rhythm. Unlike traditional music with strong beats, impressionist music often feels like it is floating or drifting. This gives the music a calm and peaceful feeling, much like waves or clouds.They also used new types of scales, such as the whole-tone scale and the pentatonic scale. These scales give the music a magical, mysterious sound that’s different from the usual major and minor scales that's typically used back then.
