The context
Between 1890 and 1920, composers such as Claude Debussy (1862–1918) and Maurice Ravel (1875–1937), with their forerunner Erik Satie, looked for an alternative to both German functional tonality and Wagnerian chromaticism. The chord becomes color: it does not have to “go” anywhere. The term “Impressionism” (borrowed from painting) was not liked by Debussy, but it describes well the aesthetic of light, water, mist, and distant sounds.
The techniques
- Whole-tone scale: in Voiles (Préludes I, 1909–10) almost the whole piece uses the scale C D E F# G# A#, with a central pentatonic section (on the black keys).
- Pentatonic scale: Pagodes (Estampes, 1903) evokes the Javanese gamelan heard at the 1889 Paris Exposition.
- Old modes: Dorian, Aeolian, Mixolydian, Lydian, Phrygian used as colors, without a leading tone.
- Planing: parallel chords (La cathédrale engloutie, Sarabande from Pour le piano).
- Unresolved ninth, eleventh, and thirteenth chords: the dissonance does not have to resolve.
- Added notes: triads with a sixth or a second (C6, Cadd9), chords in fourths.
- Long pedals and ostinatos with changing harmonies above.
- Ambiguity of tonal center: the flute’s opening tritone in the Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune (1894), a chromatic descent from C# to G and back, suspends the tonality right away.
Ravel: more classical, more “jazz”
Ravel uses the same palette but with clearer forms and a taste for major seventh and ninth chords with added notes that anticipates jazz:
- Jeux d’eau (1901): arpeggiated major sevenths and ninths.
- Pavane pour une infante défunte, Ma mère l’Oye, Daphnis et Chloé (1912): modality, extended chords, luminous orchestration.
- Boléro: ostinato and timbral planing.
Ravel admired jazz and blues (Piano Concerto in G, Violin Sonata, with a “Blues” movement).
Satie
The Gymnopédies (1888): No. 1 alternates Gmaj7 and Dmaj7 in slow 3/4, with a modal melody. It is the prototype of the “two-maj7-chord loop” of ambient and lo-fi music.
Influence
- Jazz: Bill Evans (Peace Piece, Kind of Blue), Herbie Hancock, modal jazz: voicings in fourths, maj7#11, planing.
- Film: the “dreamy” orchestration (harps, celesta, divisi strings) and harmony without dominants are the language of wonder.
- Ambient and pop: maj7/maj9 chord progressions that alternate without cadences.
Example of an “impressionist” progression in C
| Chord | Notes | Color |
|---|---|---|
| Cmaj9 | C E G B D | light |
| D/C | C D F# A | suspended Lydian |
| Bbmaj7/C | C Bb D F A | Mixolydian, soft |
| Abmaj7#11/C | C Ab C Eb G D | dreamy |
A C pedal under everything, parallel maj7/maj9 chords above: there is no dominant at all.
Producer exercise
- Pad and piano: alternate Gmaj7 and Dmaj7 in 3/4 at 70 BPM (a tribute to Satie).
- Write a melody on the D major scale that often rests on the sevenths (F# over Gmaj7, C# over Dmaj7).
- Add a harp (or a pluck with long reverb) arpeggiating the whole-tone scale for 2 bars as a transition.
Related topics
Planing and constant structures, symmetrical scales, pandiatonicism, advanced quartal harmony, modal harmony for each mode, harmony for film.