November / Month of the Sonata – 10

Moonlight, c.1895 - Felix Vallotton

    “Moonlight” or “Clair de lune” (c.1895) 

 

             Félix Vallotton

 

                  _______

 

 

at the end of the Nineteenth Century, a 

a seismic shift occurred in our Western 

culture’s sensitivity to art

 

much as visual representation during

the Renaissance and up until the late

Baroque Period had dominated, to 

be replaced by music during the 

Classical Age as the sensory 

temperature of the times, visual 

representation once again took over 

as arbiter of Western sensibility 

during Impressionism

 

you’ll remember the artists of the 

Renaissance, but not many of the 

composers, you’ll be able to name 

the composers of the Classical Age

and the Romantic, but not many, if

any, of the painters, you’ll then 

immediately toss off a list of artists 

of the Impressionist Era, but not 

many of its composers

 

this lasts till, I’d say, Andy Warhol,

when the visual arts still held sway,

but the present is, it seems, up for 

grabs

 

here’s meanwhile, an Impressionist,

Claude Debussy – his Clair de lune,

an obvious Impressionist statement, 

to be compared, incidentally, with 

its Romantic counterpart, Beethoven’s 

Moonlight Sonata – delivering his 

Sonata for Violin of 1917

 

enjoy

 

 

R ! chard