The piano works of Claude Debussy : an analytical and critical study

Abstract

It was in 1867 that the academic salons rejected a painting entitled Impression: sun rising, by Claude Monet (1840 - 1926). Before long the term 'Impressionism' was being applied to the paintings of Monet and his friends, such as Camille Pisarro (1830 - 1903), Edoard Manet ( 1832 - 1883 ), Edgar Degas ( 1834-1917 ), and Auguste Renoir (1841 - 1919). The Impressionist painters wanted to discard all academic principles of the Romantics. They saw the world in a luminous haze. 'The Impressionists were repelled by the heroic theme of the Romantic painters. The hero of their painting was not man, but light'. (Machlis: Introduction to Contemporary Music.) These painters were to have a great influence on Debussy; this is most evident in the titles of his Preludes.