Volume 6 (1) 2025

Professional Art Education

UDC: 78.01+75

DOI https://doi.org/10.34142/27091805.2025.6.01.04

SOUND AND COLOR SYNESTHESIA: IMPRESSIONISM

IN THE MUSIC OF CLAUDE DEBUSSY AND ITS

RELATIONSHIP WITH PAINTING

Doctor of philosophy, Lecturer. Kharkiv State

Academy of Culture (Department of Choral

Conducting and Academic Singing)

Kharkiv, Ukraine

email: kim.sungdai@yahoo.com

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9570-5243

Candidate of pedagogical sciences, Associate

professor of the department of musical art in

H.S. Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical

University

Kharkiv, Ukraine

email: korchagina.anna@hnpu.edu.ua

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2022-1623

Object: the connection between Claude Debussy’s musical creativity and impressionism in painting.

Results: In the late 19th century, Impressionism emerged as a new movement and the art movement reached

a turning point. The Impressionist painting style, a conscious reaction to the over expressionism of the late

Romanticism centered in Germany, rejected all existing traditional styles and forms. The movement sought to

express sensual nuances through the immediate effects of color or tone and to describe objects, nature, light,

etc. Claude Debussy was an important composer of French Impressionism. In the late 19th century, he started

the French Impressionist music movement by bringing Impressionism to music. He is called an Impressionist

musician because he composed music that combined images with soft tones, sounds, vague compositions and

free choice of themes, bringing the Impressionist art form to music. He was introduced to the music of Vietnam,

Cambodia and Java, including Javanese gamelan, at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1889. Although he did not

visit each of these countries, he sublimated the musical elements of each country into his music and was able

to clearly express the oriental avor and exotic atmosphere of his music. He mainly used the gamelan music of

Java as a source of inspiration for his music, and the titles or indications hinted at exoticism and its combination

with impressionism. He managed to convey exotic imagery through the use of stylistic freedom, fresh rhythms,

musical percussion effects, oriental melodies and folk elements such as traditional rhythms, instruments and

modes. Debussy expressed images with the use of symbols, presenting images not through direct imitation but

through symbolism. Through these methods, he transformed the senses into impressive arts. These processes

were acquired through individual experience and generalize their embodied values as sensory experience and

extension of expression. The connection between Debussy’s music and the visual arts is more obvious given

his familiarity with Eastern painting, which, in contrast, does not strive for realism, an almost photographic

reproduction of an object, but rather aims to convey the feeling, the impression of a visual image. Conclusions:

This study examines gamelan music, which, among other exotic elements, inspired Debussy and is found in his

piano works, and analyzes how he presented and combined these elements in his music.

Keywords: impressionist painting, impressionist music, gamelan, feeling, imagery

Introduction. At the end of the 19th century,

Parisian art reached a turning point, becoming the

center of art with a new aesthetic perspective. The

new aesthetic perspective concerns Impressionism.

The beginning of this ideology is a new movement

in painting that originated in French artists, in

particular Manet, Monet and Renoir, which was

a national movement that opposed the excessive

expressionism of late Romanticism with a German

center. These artists rejected all existing traditional

painting techniques and depicted nature in the

ever-changing colors of the landscape and the

light that contrasted with it, and tried to accurately

and objectively record the world they saw,

using the momentary effects of color and tone.

According to Gang Ji-hye (2013), that is, instead of

directly expressing passionate human emotions,

he initiated an independent world that sought

to express restrained renement and sensual

nuances, thereby initiating Impressionism.

Impressionism in art gradually spread to

many elds, including music. The characteristic

features of Impressionism in music include a free

choice of subject, unique harmony, sophisticated

tone, and sound effects. The tonality is also very

ambiguous, and low sustained tones and ostinato

are used repeatedly. The rhythm is also irregular.

These irregular changes were used as more

effective tools to create impressions, which was the

goal of Debussy’s music.

Claude de Debussy (1862-1918), a French

composer and representative of Impressionism,

created his own musical style based on the

characteristic features of Impressionism. His music

usually evokes a mood, feeling, emotion, or scene. As

in symbolist poetry, the standard syntax is broken,

and our attention is instead directed to individual

images that carry the structure and meaning of the

work. He composed music by juxtaposing musical

images created through motifs, harmonies, exotic

scales, and tones of musical instruments, and

created his own unique impressionistic music.

The history of Debussy’s association with

Impressionism in painting is already multifaceted.

It was probably rst established in 1887, when

the ‘Journal ocial’ (Lockspeiser, 1980, p.

277) condemned the «vague impressionism»

of Printemps, a work that the young Debussy

completed during his stay at the Villa Medici.

This rst use of the term «impressionism» is

clearly pejorative: the ocial critic reproached

the composer for the same mistake that had

been attributed to the Impressionists at their rst

exhibition (1874), sometimes referring to other

music, namely Wagner (Clemenceau, 1990, p. 60).

Debussy received praise in 1900 for his Nocturnes:

«It is impossible to imagine a more rened

impressionist symphony. Composed entirely of

sound fragments, it does not t into the sinuousness

of denite melodic curves, but its arrangement

of timbres and chords – its harmony, as artists

would say – still preserves a certain very strict

uniformity, which replaces the line with the same

plastic beauty of sonorities, skillfully distributed

and logically sustained» (Vallas, 1958, p. 213-214).

The impression of «vagueness» persists, but

we now discover a new order in Debussy’s music,

an order whose technical description includes

references to Impressionist painting. «This type of

commentary enjoyed extraordinary success: since

the beginning of the century, the aforementioned

association had become rmly established in

people’s minds and seemed to be conrmed

by analyses – mainly of Debussy’s harmonies –

conducted by French and German musicologists»

(Jarocinsky, 1970, p. 33-37).

However, since the post-war period, a turning

point has been observed. Although the general

public continues to automatically associate Debussy

with Impressionism, musicologists have become

increasingly skeptical, even openly protesting this

association. There are many reasons for this turn.

Of course, Debussy was interested in painting,

and it is safe to assume that he found some of his

inspiration there.

One could even assume that the composer

paid attention to Monet’s experiments with series

of paintings (from the «Gare Saint-Lazare» series,

begun in 1877, to the «Nymphéas» series, which

continued until his death in 1926), aimed at

showing the same object lit differently; but such an

assumption is dicult to conrm. At the same time,

from the point of view of analyzing the composer’s

intentions, skeptics have seen no evidence that

would indicate his kinship with the Impressionist

artists. «Quite the opposite, given the fact that

Debussy himself radically rejected this association.

But this rejection must be interpreted with

moderation: on the one hand, he was terried of

any label; on the other hand, when this association

was imposed, Impressionism was on its way to

becoming (for the public) the new academicism,

and it is dicult to imagine that a non-conformist

like Debussy would have reacted otherwise than

by this rejection» (Makis, 1994, p. 27).

An objective fact also complicates the

comparison; namely the historical gap:

«Impressionism as an active movement existed

from 1874 to 1886, and, for example, Monet was

22 years older than Debussy» (Lockspeiser, 1980,

p. 277). It should also be noted that pictorial

impressionism was originally a collective

Professional Art Education Volume 6 (1) 2025

Scientic Journal

movement (although only Monet drew denitive

conclusions from it), while Debussy was the most

important, but also undoubtedly the only true

representative of musical impressionism.

It is clear that in Monet the real «subject» of

the painting is not (anymore) the depicted object,

but the almost physical impressions it evokes. As

for Debussy’s «La Mer», the extraordinary brevity

and fragmentation of the «pictures» that we seem

to hear there at rst glance clearly indicate that the

composer is not «painting» anything, but rather

trying to make us experience sensations that are

by denition eeting.

Debussy argued that “art should not

meticulously reproduce nature, but should achieve

a mystical correspondence between nature and

imagination”, and he “tried to convey ‘symbols’

and ‘impressions’ through new harmonies and

tones in music” (Gim Ju-won, 2015, p. 14 (50)).

More than just a vision, ‘La Mer’ exudes perfume;

the connection it establishes with the ear is almost

tactile. It is to denote this change of perspective

that the term impressionism was coined. But in

this sense, nature is no more than a pretext; what

is essential is the embodiment of the sensations we

experience when we encounter it. Pretext also in a

more indirect sense: focusing on nature is the best

way to get rid of the subjectivity that Romanticism

brought to its culmination.

Results and discussion.

Rodrigo Debussy was born in Saint-Germain-

en-Laye, France, and began his musical education

at a young age. He entered the Paris Conservatoire

at the age of 10 and soon learned to play complex

piano pieces quite well. However, upon entering

the composition department in 1880, he abandoned

his dream of becoming a virtuoso pianist and twice

won the Grand Prix de Rome for composition. In his

youth, he traveled widely, including Italy, Vienna,

and Russia, and spent two years in Rome studying

music. He was known as a somber person who had

diculty making friends and found it dicult to

spend time with strangers, even for short periods

of time.

The controversy in assessments regarding

the kinship of Debussy’s work with Impressionist

artists was largely determined by the fact that

representatives of different points of view took

into account only European artists – mainly

French and German, without paying attention to

Debussy’s acquaintance with and fascination with

Eastern painting and music.

In 1989, at the World Exhibition in Paris,

Debussy was introduced to the gamelan music of

Vietnam, Cambodia and Java (Bag Sug-lyeon, 1997,

p. 12), among other musical works from around the

world, and was deeply impressed by the freedom

of form, freshness of rhythm, musical effects of

percussion instruments and oriental melodies.

Although he was unable to visit each country

in person, he is a composer who sublimated the

characteristic musical elements of each country

into his own music, clearly conveying oriental

colors and exotic atmosphere.

After being introduced to the music of other

countries, he became interested in elements

of their folk music and created his own world

of composition, introducing folk elements and

techniques to describe the images and atmosphere

of other countries in his works. Among the music

of various countries around the world, he was

greatly inuenced by Javanese gamelan music,

and he incorporated gamelan styles into his own

music.

He mainly composed works depicting

Javanese gamelan music in India and Spain, and

to combine impressionism, the titles alluded to

exotic images. He managed to depict the images

of each country by using folkloric elements such

as freedom of form, freshness of rhythm, musical

effects of percussion instruments, oriental melodies

or traditional Spanish rhythms, instruments and

modes. Debussy’s music combines literary and

pictorial elements. Debussy wanted to convey the

feeling and image of an object without expressing

them specically. For this reason, the key words

to understand his music are melody, rhythm and

harmony, as in traditional music.

In 1892 he began work on one of his most

representative works, ‘Prelude a l’apres-midi d’un

faune’. At its premiere, the audience went wild

and demanded the encore, and today the work is

considered to have opened up new horizons in

music due to its «impressionistic harmony». Based

on a poem by Stéphane Mallarmé describing the

dreams and desires of a faun dozing under the

midday sun, this work depicts the erotic content of

the original work in an almost painterly mosaic of

beautiful and sensual melodies.

In 1893 he completed his only and greatest

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Professional Art Education

opera, ‘Pelléas et Mélisande’. This work, which

took almost ten years to create, premiered at the

Opéra-Comique in 1902. The work is dramatic,

but unlike Wagner’s operas with their turbulent

passions, it is largely restrained, and the dialogue

is always delivered clearly. The intoxicating music

transports the audience into an ecstasy of deep

sounds.

«The works ‘La Mer’, ‘Jardins sous la pluie’

and ‘Brouillards’ describe visual images, ‘Cloches

à travers les feuilles’ and ‘Chansons de Bilitis’

describe auditory images, and ‘Désir du ciel’ and

‘Melancholy’ describe emotional states. In addition,

he also simultaneously conveys emotions and

different sensations, as in ‘Paysage sentimental’

and ‘Les sons et les parfums tournent dans l’air du

soir’» (Gim Eun-su, 2023, p. 7).

Debussy allows himself to be immersed

in dreams because his music rejects linearity

and, even more, because it tends towards the

dissolution of form. The impressionist composer

no longer has any tangible form. Form dissolves

into mists or clouds (‘Brouillards’ of the second

book of ‘Préludes’ for piano, ‘Nuages’ of the three

‘Nocturnes’ for orchestra), plunging the listener

into a trance: unable to follow the formal unfolding

of the work, the listener seeks refuge in sleep.

In Debussy’s work, not only form but also

material dissolves. It would be more accurate,

recalling certain rather numerous titles of Debussy

(‘En bateau’, ‘Jardins sous la pluie’, ‘L’Isle joyeuse’,

‘Reets dans l’eau’, ‘La Cathédrale engloutie’,

‘Ondine’, ‘Pour merci la pluie au matin’, not

forgetting ‘La Mer’), to cause a rarefaction of

the material (Jankelevitch, 1989, p. 76-77). This

is probably what the critics meant when they

called Debussy’s impressionism synonymous

with vagueness: the contours of the themes blur,

the rhythms become imprecise, the orchestration

strives for a fusion of timbres, to name only the

most striking elements. The opening theme of

the prelude to ‘Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune’

(1992-94) is eloquent enough that there is no need

to dwell on this issue. Its rst two measures are,

strictly speaking, imperceptible (though they will

become more perceptible due to the very large

number of their repetitions): the extraordinary

uidity comes from the chromaticism (it is almost

a glide), from the tritonal relationship between the

two extreme notes (C#-G), from the very undulating

rhythm (Makis, 1994, p. 10).

Debussy’s piano works can be divided into

three parts. The works belonging to the early period

were written between 1888 and 1903, in particular

the ‘Arabesque’. Some examples include the ‘Suite

Bergamasque’, the ‘Nocturne’ and the ‘Estampes’.

During this period, Debussy was inuenced by

Massenet (J. Massenet, 1842-1912), Grieg (E. G.

Grieg, 1843-1907) and Saint-Saëns (C. C. Saint-Saëns,

1835-1921), and his unique features gradually

emerged. Piano works of the middle period include

‘Le coin des enfants’, which demonstrates a wealth

of harmony and free ngerwork that skillfully

changes the mood, as well as the lyrical poem

‘Reets dans l’eau’, based on dizzyingly dazzling

harmony, the solemn and solemn ‘Sarabande’

with strong formal characteristics. ‘Cloches à

travers les feuilles’ is known for its mixed strong

and weak tone, reminiscent of orchestral sounds,

and ‘Clair de lune’ is a heavy and solemn piece

that acts as a kind of nocturne and contains more

than forty pianissimo notes. ‘Le coin des enfants’

was inuenced by Mussorgsky’s ‘The Children’s

Room’ (M.P. Mussorgsky, 1889 - 1881). In this work,

Debussy himself becomes a child and expresses the

intuitive and sensual world of children. It is a work

that exudes playfulness, renement, innocence

and sweetness. The last is ‘Douze Études’, written

in 1915. This work avoids expressive elements

and instead deals with objective and technical

techniques (Gang Ji-hye, 2013, p. 14).

Debussy’s imagery can be classied and

interpreted in different ways depending on the

perspective of understanding, but in terms of the

method of expression, they can be broadly divided

into four perspectives: «descriptive imagery»,

which focuses on the depiction of images,

«metaphorical imagery», which is based on the

title of the work and instructions for performance,

«symbolic imagery», which refers to the poetry of

symbolist poets, and «dynamic imagery», which

refers to dynamic movement (Gim Eun-su, 2023, p.

10).

Very often Debussy builds a sequence using

two processes: repetition and juxtaposition. The

best illustration of music that is undoubtedly

deliberately archaic is the beginning of the prelude

to ‘Pelléas et Mélisande’ (1893-1902). There are

three themes: the ‘forest’ theme in bars 1-4 and

8-11 (whose parallel fths reinforce the archaic

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character of the prelude), the ‘de Golaud’ theme

(bars 5-6 and 12-13) and the ‘de Mélisande’ (which

begins in bar 14). Each of these three themes is

already built up by repetition (the ‘de Golaud’

theme, a real incantation, contains only two

different notes). But, moreover, their presentation

ignores any transition: they appear and reappear

by means of collage. «Debussy strives for

impressionistic hypnosis: in his work, repetition

brings into play successive, changing and

disintegrated visions of the original scheme, like a

sphere that rotates and which, like itself, presents

different facets and aspects. As for juxtaposition,

it determines the transition from one moment to

another» (Makis, 1994, p. 14).

The song ‘Le coin des enfants’ was written

in 1908 and dedicated to his daughter. ‘Le coin

des enfants’ is particularly famous for ‘Golliwog’s

Cake-Walk’, in which the playful melody seems

to lightly mock the rst movement of Wagner’s

opera ‘Tristan und Isolde’. In 1910 and 1913 he

completed two sets of ‘Overtures’ for piano, and

in 1915 a collection of ‘Études’, also for piano, was

published. Debussy’s last major orchestral work

was the ballet ‘Jeux’, which some have called a

«beautiful nightmare» (Gang Ji-hye, 2013, p. 14).

Instead of a xed form, Debussy followed

a form that naturally derived from a theme and

a shortened form, and he liked to compose short

lyrical works. In other words, he broke away

from the grandiose structures of Classicism

and Romanticism and sought a exible form

that could express the uid feeling and charm

of improvisation. The elements of balance,

proportion, and harmony in this loose structure

contributed to Debussy’s own uniqueness. «Also,

due to the inuence of Baroque keyboard music,

he used a simple and balanced form that lacked

the traditional method of thematic development,

which means that Debussy did not rely on form or

simply imitate it, but used it from the perspective

of recomposition» (Gim Nan-hui, 1989, p. 58). Each

motif is associated with a specic sound pattern,

chord or series of chords, scale type, strength and

range on the piano, and as they appear one after

the other they create a series of images that are

clearly distinct from each other. As one moves

from one section to the next, some notes remain

unchanged while others change, creating an effect

similar to a harmonic progression. Debussy’s use of

chromatic and whole-tone chords was inuenced

by the harmonic styles of Wagner and Liszt, but

Debussy’s chords lack the urgency that demands

their resolution. All we need to do is enjoy each

moment that is given to us. Debussy generally

maintained a tonal focus but ignored traditional

tonal relationships between chords, allowing each

chord a certain independence. He gave his music

a sense of detached observation, encouraging us

to enjoy the events themselves rather than seek

solutions. Debussy once said of his music: «There

is no such thing as theory. Just listen. If you like

it, it is law» (Gang Ji-hye, 2013, p. 16). Of course,

pleasure can eventually turn into enthusiasm or

even ecstasy, and so one should not think that

Debussy’s music lacks emotion.

For connoisseurs of painting and music in

Ukraine, the rst association with Debussy’s work

is probably with Arkhip Kuindzhi’s painting “Night

on the Dnieper” (Fig. 1).

The anity of Debussy’s musical work with

the arts of the East has found its reverse reection

to some extent. Perhaps the most famous example

is the lm ‘Seven Years in Tibet’, in which Debussy’s

Volume 6 (1) 2025

Professional Art Education

Figure 1. Night over the Dnieper (A. Kuindzhi)

‘Clair de Lune’ is played several times.

The spiritual aspect of the beginning of ‘Clair

de Lune’ sets the mood when the music box, which

plays the rst few bars, is given to the Dalai Lama

as a gift when he is very young. Fascinated by the

box, he later learns a little about Heinrich Harrer

(Brad Pitts) and then gives the box to Harrer to take

to Austria to his own son, who has never seen his

father (Top Ten movies that use Clair de Lune).

Conclusion. Claude Debussy delicately

depicted not only visual phenomena such as

nature, people, objects and space, but also lyrical

and dynamic emotions such as feelings, states and

movements through music, and even depicted

poetic nuances through metaphors and symbols

as an auditory art. By carefully separating beats

and rhythm, introducing exotic scales and using

various instrumental tones, he tried to express

subtle colors while providing detailed performance

instructions. In this way, Debussy perceived objects

through a sense different from music, that is, vision

originating from the body, and transferred the

imagination and creativity generated by sensory

experience into metaphysical auditory art. In other

words, what Debussy wanted to express was an

artistic practice of the body in which objects are

recognized and embodied as bodies and depicted

through two or more complex senses.

With respect to readers who would like to get

acquainted with the Korean primary sources listed

here in more detail, and given the imperfection of

the Korean-Latin transliteration, which does not

allow authentically restoring the original name in

Korean, we provide the text, after placing it in the

GOOGLE search box, a list is displayed, the rst of

which contains a link to the relevant source:

- Bag Sug-lyeon. (1997): 박숙련. (1997). 20세기

피아노 음악, 음악 춘추사

- Gang Ji-hye. (2013): 강지혜 (2013). 뷔시의 피아

노 작품에 나타난이 국적요 소에관 한연구

- Gim Eun-su. (2023): 김은수 (2023). 체화된 가치

로서의 드뷔시 음악의 공감각적 심상

- Gim Ju-won. (2015): 김주원. (2015). 드뷔시의

음악비평 연구.

- Gim Nan-hui. (1989): 김난희. (1989) 드뷔시의

피아노 작품과 연주 해석. 음악춘추사

Professional Art Education Volume 6 (1) 2025

Scientic Journal

REFERENCES

Bag Sug-lyeon. (1997). 20segi piano eumag, eumag chunchusa [20th Century Piano Music], Music

Chunchusa. 288 p. [in Korean]

Clemenceau, G. (1990). Claude Monet. Les Nymphéas. Terrain Vague. Belgique. 122 p. https://www.

musee-orangerie.fr/sites/default/les/2023-03/dossier_pedagogique_nympheas_0.pdf [in English]

Gang Ji-hye. (2013). Bwisiui piano jagpume natanani gugjeogyo soegwan hanyeongu. Sahagwi nonmun

[A Study of National Elements in de Bussy's Piano Works. Master's Thesis]. Jeju daehaggyo ilban daehagwon

piano jeongong. 55 peiji [in Korean]

Gim Eun-su. (2023). Chehwadoen gachiloseoui Deubwisi eumagui gong-gamgagjeog simsang. Gugmin

daehaggyo yesul daehag. 69 peiji [Synesthetic Imagery in Debussy's Music as Embodied Value. Kookmin

University College of Arts] [in Korean]

Gim Ju-won. (2015). Deubwisiui eumagbipyeong yeongu. Seoul daehaggyo seoyang eumag yeonguso

eumagilon yeongu je25gwon [A Study on Debussy's Music Criticism]. (36-73) 38 [in Korean]

Gim Nan-hui. (1989). Deubwisiui piano jagpumgwa yeonju haeseog. Eumag chunchusa [Debussy's piano

works and performance interpretation]. Music Chunchusa. 234 p. [in Korean]

Jankelevitch, V. (1989). Debussy et le mystère de l'instant. Plon. Paris. 320 p. https://www.vrin.fr/

livre/9782259276528/debussy-et-le-mystere-de-l-instant [in France]

Jarocinsky, S. (1970). Debussy. Impressionnisme et symbolisme. Seuil. Paris. 200 p. https://www.amazon.

fr/Debussy-impressionnisme-symbolisme-Jarocinski-Stefan/dp/2020020572 [in France]

Lockspeiser, E. (1980). Claude Debussy. Fayard. Paris. 832 p. https://www.fayard.fr/livre/claude-

debussy-9782213009216/ [in English]

Makis, S. (1994). Elements pour une comparaison entre Debussy et Monet. HAL open science. hal-

02055207. https://hal.science/hal-02055207/document [in English]

Top Ten movies that use Clair de Lune. Falcon at the movies. https://falconmovies.wordpress.

com/2019/05/29/top-ten-moves-that-use-clair-de-lune/ [in English]

Vallas, L. (1958). Claude Debussy et son temps. Paris. Albin-Michel. 356 p. [in English]

Volume 6 (1) 2025

Professional Art Education

DOI https://doi.org/10.34142/27091805.2025.6.01.04

СИНЕСТЕЗІЯ ЗВУКУ І КОЛЬОРУ: ІМПРЕСІОНІЗМ

У МУЗИЦІ КЛОДА ДЕБЮСІ ТА ЙОГО ЗВ’ЯЗОК ІЗ

ЖИВОПИСОМ

кандидат педагогічних наук, викла-

дач кафедри хорового диригування та

академічного співу Харківської держав-

ної академії культури

Харків, Україна

email: kim.sungdai@yahoo.com

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9570-5243

кандидат педагогічних наук, доцент ка-

федри музичного мистецтва ХНПУ імені

Г. С. Сковороди

Харків, Україна

email: korchagina.anna@hnpu.edu.ua

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2022-1623

У статті розкрито зв’язок музичної творчості Клода Дебюссі з імпресіонізмом у живописі.

Результати показали, що наприкінці 19 століття імпресіонізм з’явився як новий напрямок,

що став переломним у художньому русі. Імпресіоністський стиль живопису, цілеспрямована про-

тидія надмірному експресіонізму, що спостерігався у пізньому романтизмі, зосередженому в Німеч-

чині, відкидав усі існуючі традиційні техніки живопису. Це був тренд, який намагався виразити

чуттєві нюанси за допомогою миттєвих ефектів кольору чи відтінку та описував об’єкти, природу,

світло тощо. Клод Дебюссі був провідним композитором французького імпресіонізму. Він започат-

кував французький музичний імпресіоністичний рух наприкінці 19 століття шляхом перенесен-

ня імпресіонізму в музику. Його називають музикантом-імпресіоністом, бо він складав музику, яка

поєднує образи з тонкими тонами, звуками, розпливчастими композиціями та вільним вибором

тем, переносячи імпресіоністичну форму мистецтва в музику. Він познайомився з музикою В’єтна-

му, Камбоджі та Яви, включаючи яванську гамелан (музику гамелан), на Всесвітній виставці, що

відбулася в Парижі в 1889 році. Хоча він не відвідав кожну з цих країн, він сублімував музичні еле-

менти кожної країни у власну музику та зміг чітко виразити східні кольори та екзотичну атмосферу

у своїй музиці. Він здебільшого використовував музику гамелан острова Ява, щоб вплинути на свою

музику, а назви чи вказівки натякали на екзотику та її поєднання з імпресіонізмом. Йому вдалося

передати екзотичні образи, використовуючи свободу стилів, свіжі ритми, музичні ударні ефекти,

східні мелодії та фольклорні елементи, такі як ритми, інструменти та традиційні лади. Висновок: У

цьому дослідженні вивчалися музика гамелан, яка, зокрема серед екзотичних елементів, надихала

Дебюссі та зустрічається в його фортепіанних творах, а також досліджувалося, як він зображував ці

елементи та поєднував їх у своїй музиці.

Ключові слова: імпресіоністський живопис, імпресіоністська музика, гамелан, відчуття, об-

разність

Надійшла до редакції / Received: 19.04.2025

Рекомендовано до друку / Accepted: 23.06.2025