This PowerPoint presentation contains a series of links to YouTube videos that contrast the works of Romantic composers with those of Impressionist composers.

1. Romantic
Period
vs.
Impressionist
Period

2. The following slides contain a series of links
to YouTube video recordings of Romantic and
Impressionist works in various musical genres
(solo piano works, songs, chamber music,
orchestral music, opera and ballet.)
Listen to a minute or two of each Romantic
work, followed with its Impressionist
counterpart. By doing so, you will learn to
recognize the differences in sound and
other qualities between Romantic
and Impressionist music.

3. Piano Music
Romantic
• Chopin: Polonaise in A-flat (Vladimir Horowitz)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZGi49Bnghs
Impressionist
• Debussy: La Cathedrale Engloutie
(“The Sunken Cathedral”)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsdIkUSjXv8

4. Piano Music
Romantic
• Brahms Intermezzo in A Major
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqBzK5tKFVc
Impressionist
• Ravel: Gaspard de la Nuit - III. Scarbo (1909)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZ4BKX5R1ko
(See next slide for a description of this work.)

5. Piano Music
Impressionist
• Ravel: Gaspard de la Nuit - III. Scarbo (1909)
This movement depicts the nighttime mischief of
small fiend or goblin of some sort, making
pirouettes, flitting in and out of the darkness,
disappearing and suddenly reappearing. Its
uneven flight, hitting and scratching against the
panels of the bed, casting a growing shadow in
the moonlight creates a nightmarish scene for
the observer lying in his bed.

6. Songs
(German Lied/French Art Song)
Romantic
Schubert
• An die Musik (Lieder)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-VqK088TF4
Impressionist
• Debussy: "Green"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2PaUySrhRk

7. Songs
(German Lied/French Art Song)
Romantic
• Schubert Ave Maria
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXdqprmpgoM
Impressionist
• Nebbie ("Fog" or "Mists")
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfPQcROKxqw

8. Chamber Music
Romantic
• Johannes Brahms: Quintet for Clarinet and
Strings in B Minor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtN1scGYJKA
Impressionist
• Maurice Ravel:
• Introduction & Allegro for Harp, Flute, Clarinet &
Strings
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBm1w8J63mg

9. Orchestral Music
Romantic
• Anton Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 - Scherzo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwhmbK6Av_w&feature=fvst
Impressionist
• Claude Debussy: La Mer - 1st Movement (1905)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66hX8Ms0FwE

10. Orchestral Music
Romantic
• Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 8 - Finale (1906)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WhNn6zxqVg
Impressionist
• Charles Tomlinson Griffes: (American; 1884-1920)
Poeme for Flute & Orchestra
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTb3UtQIrZs

11. Piano Solo & Orchestra
Romantic
• Tchaikovsky: Concerto No. 1 in Bb for Piano
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1axL9ZNnJIE
Marta Argerich, pianist (start at 1:31)
Impressionist
• Manuel De Falla (Spanish Composer)
Nights in the Gardens of Spain
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgy0d2lJv9M

12. Opera
Romantic
• Richard Wagner
“Du bist der Lenz” from Die Walkure
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcYADZGp5DY
Impressionist
Claude Debussy: Pelléas et Mélisande (Mes longs
cheveux)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJENlHEZi18

13. Ballet Music
Romantic
• Peter Illych Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake (Ballet)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S76CGGPqI3s&feature=fvst
Impressionist
• Maurice Ravel: Daphnis & Chloe (Ballet)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzwHjEOwVno&feature=fvst