In America at the turn of the 20th Century, musical change happened slowly, much like communication itself. Across the Atlantic, European musical ideas could travel quickly from composer to composer, city to city, nation to nation. But the same musical ideas could take months to reach America - and even then, there was no guarantee that they would stick. The American musical establishment was firmly rooted in the traditions of German Romanticism, and that's what audiences had come to expect.
But one concert in Boston on April 1st (not a prank) in 1902 would change the development of American music forever - the first concert in America that ever featured orchestral music by Claude Debussy. The Boston Orchestral Club, a group of formidable orchestral amateurs, performed Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun alongside works by Mozart and Henri Robaud, and were conducted by BSO principal oboist Georges Longy (yes, that Longy). That concert inspired fierce criticism and debate about what classical music is and should be, with one critic claiming that the titular faun "brayed on muted horns and whinneyed [sic] on flutes, and avoided all traces of soothing melody." Musically progressive critic Philip Hale was more generous, and praised Debussy for his “suggestive vagueness” and “exquisite timbres,” urging further performances of Debussy’s orchestral works on the American continent. But by all accounts, that one concert singularly reshaped the course of American music’s development, sowing impressionistic seeds that, while initially slow to grow, eventually blossomed into the art form of modern and contemporary classical music as we know it today.
Some of these seeds landed among composers who are widely known, namely, Charles Ives and Duke Ellington. From Ives’s Three Places in New England to Ellington’s Harlem, their ability to musically portray an impression of something, or more often somewhere, in the mind’s eye is a necessary component of their musical identity.
Impressionism as a label stemmed first from the art world with visual artists such as Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir where it was initially lobbied against them as an insult by critics. In a contrarian fashion, the artists adopted the label and ran with it, and it was eventually applied to composer Claude Debussy and later Maurice Ravel for their emphasis on evoking a distinct mood in their music rather than prioritizing formal polish akin to their musical predecessors. Neither appreciated the label; nevertheless, the label stuck.
But many of these seeds also landed among composers who, for one reason or another, didn’t quite make it into the pantheon. Their music is no less great, and stands out as some of the most inventive American music of the 20th Century. These forgotten impressionists include Charles Griffes, John Alden Carpenter, Mary Howe, Marion Bauer, and Charles Loeffler, among other names who have fallen to the annals of history. Here are some, ahem, impressions of these impressionists, along with some of their standout compositions.
Charles Tomlinson Griffes (1884-1920)
The poster child for American impressionism in music, a talented watercolorist, and a closeted gay man, composer Charles Griffes was born and raised in New York but educated in Germany, where he initially took to the German Romantic style. But once he became aware of impressionist trends in music, he quickly adopted them and synthesized them into his body of work, in a uniquely distilled compositional voice. His star was still rising when, at the height of his musical abilities, he passed away at just 35. He left behind a trove of art songs, as well as a small number of orchestral jewels that, though rarely performed today, are unlike any other music composed by an American before or since. For my money, Griffes’s The White Peacock is the perfect encapsulation of his compositional voice at its most refined.
Charles Loeffler (1861-1935)
Born in Germany near Berlin, though often fibbing to the public and claiming to be born in Alsace, France (likely due to a wider cultural distaste for Germans post WWI), Loeffler was a monumental figure in the arts in his time. A violinist and composer, he performed in a number of orchestras in Europe before emigrating to Boston in 1881, where, in 1882, he became the assistant concertmaster of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. By 1887, he was already an American citizen. He had the distinct pleasure of performing as violin soloist in some of his own compositions premiered by the orchestra, beginning with Les Vieilles d'Ukraine in 1891, though he eventually exclusively dedicated himself to composition.
He was hugely metropolitan with a vast artistic circle, including John Singer Sargent, who painted his portrait, and patron of the arts Isabella Stewart Gardner, who counted him among her friends and musical guests at her home. Incidentally, she received the portrait Sargent painted of Loeffler as a gift to celebrate the opening of her house as a museum, where you can still view it today. Loeffler was also acquainted with composers Gabriel Fauré and Ferruccio Busoni, both of whom dedicated works to him, and, later in his life, a young George Gershwin.
In 1927, Loeffler reached out to Gershwin, telling him that history would regard him much more highly than his other modernist peers - turns out he was on to something. Of Loeffler’s body of work, most critics would regard his A Pagan Poem to be his magnum opus, and I would be inclined to agree given its distinct character that invokes gothic imagery of poetry by Virgil. But it is his work for violin and orchestra Une Nuit de Mai that I’d recommend for a first listen, as it so perfectly captures the feeling of taking in the night air that it might as well be as good as the real thing.
Mary Howe (1882-1964)
Mary Howe was an American composer, pianist, and musical organizer and philanthropist who was born in Richmond, Virginia, grew up in Washington, D.C., and eventually settled in Newport, Rhode Island. Though her social standing limited her ability to perform outside of salon-style settings, she maintained a robust career as a pianist, and even performed twice at the White House. She was friendly with fellow composer Amy Beach and premiered Beach’s Suite for Two Pianos at a benefit concert for the MacDowell Colony, where Howe spent nearly every summer as a resident from 1926-1952.
She began composing at nine years old, at first emulating neo-romanticism, before fully integrating modernist and impressionist techniques with her penchant for American themes. At 18, she studied music at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, and returned to study composition at Peabody at age 40, where she received an artist diploma. She also went to Paris to study with Nadia Boulanger, the compositional kingmaker who taught practically every composer in the 20th century who was worth hearing. Howe was instrumental in helping to establish the National Symphony Orchestra, which she co-founded and helped raise funds for, and was highly influential in a number of other musical organizations, including the Chamber Music Society of Washington, the League of Composers, the National Association of American Composers and Conductors, the MacDowell Colony, and the National Cultural Center (associated with the Kennedy Center).
Her works seamlessly integrate a sweeping orchestral style with a variety of colorful textures and snappy gestures which beautifully depict the impressions she seeks to convey. I particularly enjoy Stars, a brief orchestral nocturne that balances serene stillness with colorful perforations in the texture to depict a shimmering night sky.
Marion Bauer (1882-1955)
Born in Walla Walla, Washington, Marion Bauer was a composer, writer, teacher, and critic. She taught at NYU, and was also a guest lecturer at Juilliard. She was an influential organizer and an avid advocate for new music, helping to found the American Music Guild, the American Music Center, and the American Composers Alliance. She also held leadership positions in both the League of Composers and the Society for the Publication of American Music, further cementing her standing as a musical figure in America. In 1906, French violinist Raoul Pugno invited Bauer to study with him in Paris as a favor for her teaching him French while he was in the states.
After Bauer made her way to France, she also became the very first of many American composers to be taught by Nadia Boulanger. Like Mary Howe, Bauer too studied music both early and late in life, making return trips to Europe to make further investments in her knowledge of modernist musical practices. She never earned a degree, but was hired nonetheless to teach music for NYU’s music department, becoming their first female music faculty member. Her published book Twentieth Century Music was highly regarded both for its accessible language, “big tent” approach to the music that was included, and her extensive writing on women composers of the day, who were typically ignored or mentioned only in passing in works by her contemporaries. Among her many compositions, I particularly enjoy her Piano Concerto “American Youth” for its vibrant orchestral coloration, jazz-influenced rhythms and harmonies, and its ever-present propulsive vivacity.
John Alden Carpenter (1876-1951)
Much like the American pioneering composer Charles Ives who made his living in insurance though is mostly remembered today for his music, John Alden Carpenter made his living in the family business of shipping supplies, where he served as the vice president from 1909 until his retirement in 1936. Outside of his day job, however, he composed. He was an early proponent of incorporating jazz into classical music, and was the first classical composer to feature the word “jazz” in the title of a composition, in his second ballet Krazy Kat: A Jazz Pantomime. His third ballet, Skyscrapers, blends modernist techniques, impressionist harmonies, and jazz-influenced rhythms and structures to depict the hustle and bustle of city life to a loose narrative. Initially commissioned by Sergei Diaghilev for his Ballets Russes, dialogue between Diaghilev and Carpenter stuttered, and the work ended up being premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1926.
Carpenter’s jazz-influenced Concertino was performed by composer and pianist Margaret Bonds in 1933 alongside a now-historic performance of Florence Price’s Symphony No. 1 by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra - the first performance of a symphonic work by a Black woman to be performed by a major orchestra. Carpenter was an early advocate of Price and her music, sponsoring her membership for the National Association for American Composers and Conductors in 1940. Though his modernist masterpiece Skyscrapers is an obvious candidate to suggest given its urbane setting and ambitious synthesis of various stylistic trends, it is his ebullient, playful, and exceedingly colorful suite Adventures in a Perambulator that I would recommend for a first listen of Carpenter’s work. Each movement shimmers like a small jewel of kaleidoscopic orchestral color that is in stark contrast to any of his ballets or larger scale orchestral works.
