Expressionism and Impressionism

Expressionism is the tendency of an artist to distort reality for an emotional effect; it is a subjective art form. Expressionism is exhibited in many art forms, including painting, literature, theatre, film, architecture and music. The term often implies emotional angst. In a general sense, painters such as Matthias Grnewald and El Greco can be called expressionist, though in practice, the term is applied mainly to 20th century works.
In music, Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern and Alban Berg, the members of the Second Viennese School, wrote pieces described as expressionist. Ernst Krenek, is often considered as a part of the expressionist movement in music. What distinguished these composers from their contemporaries such as Maurice Ravel, George Gershwin and Igor Stravinsky is that expressionist composers self-consciously used atonality to free their artform from the traditional tonality. They also sought to express the subconscious, the 'inner necessity' and suffering through their highly dissonant musical language. Erwartung and Die Glckliche Hand, by Schoenberg, and Wozzeck, an opera by Alban Berg
, are example of expressionist works.

Impressionism(印象派)was a 19th-century art movement that began as a loose association of Paris-based artists exhibiting their art publicly in the 1860s. The name of the movement is derived from the title of a Claude Monet work, Impression, Sunrise, which provoked the critic Louis Leroy to coin the term in a satiric review published in Le Charivari.
Characteristics of Impressionist painting include visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on light in its changing qualities.

Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel are generally considered the greatest Impressionist composers, but Debussy disavowed the term, calling it the invention of critics. Erik Satie was also considered to be in this category. Musical Impressionism beyond France includes the work of such composers as Ralph Vaughan Williams and Ottorino Respighi.

2008-06-12 23:50:05 補充：
Impressionist music has a vague and romantic effect that is NOT atonal.

2008-06-13 00:10:18 補充：
Expressionist music is very atonal,that is NOT following the basics of the traditional major or minor scale. It is much more atonal that the impressionist music.