Twentieth century Music
Why was it called the impressionist movement?
The impressionist movement got its name after the name of one of Claude Monet’s painting, ‘Impression, soleil levant (impression, sunrise)’. A critic, Louis Leroy, created the name in a review which criticised this form of painting. Techniques used by impressionist painters include visible brush strokes, techniques involving light which usually showed different times, e.g. dawn and sunset, showing movement, which included showing people or objects moving in the paintings and also brush strokes which didn’t give much details. Shadows were also added to the paintings. Mostly, impressionist painters were bold and not afraid to use this different style of painting. Two impressionist painters were:
• Edgar Degas, Dancer with a bouquet of flowers ,(1878) and Portrait of the Bellelli Family, also known as Family Portrait.(1858-1867)
• Gustave Caillebotte, Un Balcon, (1880), Les raboteurs de parquet (The Floor Scrapers), (1875)
Impressionist Composer
A great impressionist composer is Maurice Ravel, who was influenced by another great impressionist composer, Claude Debussy. Ravel is French, and he is best known for his orchestral piece ‘Boléro’.
Composers influenced by folk music
Aaron Copeland
Aaron Copeland was a twentieth century composer. He was born in 1900 and died in 1990. He was born in New York, USA, but his Jewish parents originated from Lithuania. He was influenced by the Native American Folk music. His music reflected the many different types of the American folk music and the diverse American cultures, such as the Mexicans. He hoped that one day classical music would become as popular as jazz music and the other different types of genres of music, and helped showcase the works of up and coming young composers. Representative works from Aaron Copeland relating to his influences from American folk music is Appalachian Spring, which was written for a ballet piece. Another piece...