Claude Debussy and
Maurice Ravel are two leading figures in Impressionism, though Debussy rejected this label (in a 1908 letter to
Jacques Durand he wrote "imbeciles call [what I am trying to write in
Images] 'impressionism', a term employed with the utmost inaccuracy, especially by art critics who use it as a label to stick on
Turner, the finest creator of mystery in the whole of art!") and Ravel displayed discomfort with it, at one point claiming that it could not be adequately applied to music at all. Debussy's Impressionist works typically "evoke a mood, feeling, atmosphere, or scene" by creating musical images through characteristic motifs, harmony, non-diatonic scales (e.g., whole-tone and pentatonic scales), instrumental timbre, large unresolved chords (e.g., 9ths, 11ths, 13ths), parallel motion, ambiguous tonality, chromaticism, heavy use of the piano pedals, and other elements. Some Impressionist composers, Debussy and Ravel in particular, are also labeled as
symbolist composers. One trait shared with both aesthetic trends is "a sense of detached observation: rather than expressing deeply felt emotion or telling a story"; as in
symbolist poetry, the normal syntax is usually disrupted and individual images that carry the work's meaning are evoked. incorporating elements associated with Impressionism, such as
extended chords and
whole-tone scales. Ravel was unimpressed by Fanelli's novelties, maintaining that these were already utilized by past composers such as
Franz Liszt. He also opined that Fanelli's Impressionism stemmed from
Hector Berlioz rather than Liszt or Russian composers. Other composers linked to Impressionism include
Lili Boulanger,
Isaac Albéniz,
Manuel de Falla, The Finnish composer
Jean Sibelius is also associated with Impressionism, == Characteristics ==