late-19th-cent, French school. It was generally characterized by the attempt to depict transitory visual impressions, often painted directly from nature, and by the use of broken color to achieve brilliance and luminosity.
a French movement of the late 19th and early 20th cent. It was begun by Claude DEBUSSY as a reaction to the emotionalism of romantic music. Using new chord combinations and exotic rhythms and scales, Debussy developed a style in which atmosphere and mood take the place of strong emotion or a story.