Problems defining musical impressionism?

Question

I have been given an assignment to look at the problems surrounding defining musical impressionism...it doesnt seem to me to be hard to define it at all...does anyone have any ideas? thank you!!

Answer 1

Well, one problem, if I recall correctly, is that of the three composers most famous for it--Satie, Debussy, and Ravel--only Debussy embraced the title "impressionist", Satie seems to have been indifferent and Ravel antagonistic.

Then there's the fact that each of these composers did some work that was decidedly non-impressionistic.  Ravel's Bolero, for example; it's a traditional dance form, so what besides the dance is it creating an impression of?  (Faure's "Pavane pour une Enfant Defunct" is also a dance form, but not impressionist according to most critics--neither are any of the minuets and trios that pop up as the 3rd movement of symphonies by Mozart and Beethoven).