Impressionist music evolved from the romantic school and the national music school in the later period. Before Debussy, some elements of impressionist music have been revealed in the works of F.F. Chopin, F.Liszt, E.Grieg, п Musorgskiy, C.-A Frank, R. Wagner and others. Chopin fully realized the value of color as an independent and important factor in music. Grieg's complex, hazy and colorful harmony can also be described as having a certain impressionist temperament. Their meticulous requirements for piano music and excellent use of pedals have an important influence on impressionist piano music. The titles of some of Liszt's works contain the nature of impressionism, such as "Ghost Fire" which shows the rapid movement of light; There are many novel sound combinations in Wagner's opera, and the overture of "The Gold of the Rhine" presents an artistic conception of ups and downs and fog. In addition, oriental music is also an important nutrient for impressionist music. For example, the music of Java and Southeast Asia performed in the Paris World Expo in 1889 has great enlightenment to Debussy.

After Debussy, although it is difficult to classify a composer into impressionism, the practical influence of impressionism's music style and technique has spread all over the music world. In France, lavelle also likes to choose the poems of symbolic poets C. Baudelaire, P. Verland and S. Malarme as lyrics. Although his music is rigorous in structure and some of it is close to classicism, some people still attribute him to impressionism. P. Dickas used the drama of the symbolist poet M. maeterlinck as the opera script, and used the whole-tone scale and Debussy-style harmony. Like French composers of the same age as A. Russell and F. Schmidt, he kept his own personality while adopting impressionist musical vocabulary. In Britain, F. Dili'esi was the most influenced by Debussy. His music such as Summer Garden and Summer Night on the River fully reflected the characteristics of Impressionism. In his London Symphony, R Vaughan Williams' description of the hazy dawn on the Thames and the loud bells of Westminster Abbey is characterized by impressionist music. In addition, Neptune in G. holst's Planets, Fireflies by F. Bridge, Spring Comes, and Van der Gardens by A. Bacchus can also be cited. Many works by the Spanish composer M. Defaria have distinct impressionism tendency and national characteristics, and Night in the Spanish Garden is the representative work of this type. Flowers in Full Bloom in Two Pictures by Hungarian B Bartok, Night Music in Outdoor, Nine Tunes by Z Kodaly and Summer Dusk all show impressionistic artistic conception.

Impressionist music, as a new artistic style, has inspired the creation of a large number of composers in the early 2th century. However, its theme and content are only descriptions of natural scenery, lacking profound ideological and social significance, so it only prevailed in the early 2th century and was soon replaced by new musical styles and genres. Impressionist music is one of the bridges between romantic music and modern music. Although this music school is mainly concentrated in France from the end of 19th century to the beginning of 2th century, this style has played an inestimable role in the development of modern music. Later, several schools of music in the 2th century, such as Expressionism, Twelve-tone System and Sequential Music, were all influenced by Impressionist music to some extent.

Debussy, the representative of impressionism, opposes the self-centered hero worship and the excessive expansion of music in the late romanticism. Starting from the social background, psychological characteristics and aesthetic view of contemporary France, he tries to restore the clear and elegant characteristics of French music and pursue the truth, novelty and originality of artistic images. At that time, the symbolist poet pursued the subtle effect of rhetoric and rhyme, and the impressionist painter used color to grasp the instantaneous changes of natural scenery, which gave him great enlightenment. Orchestral music Afternoon Prelude of Faun (1892 ~ 1894), chamber music String Quartet (1893), opera Priyas and Melisand (1893 ~ 192), piano piece Prints Collection (193) and song Baudelaire's The characteristics of this style are: advocating softness, restraining and eliminating excessive passion; Avoid literary narration, and arouse association with titles and rich color changes; Implicit hints are more than warm and straightforward expressions, emphasizing hazy feelings and impressions and changeable atmosphere. Debussy believes that music can put the ideal of impressionism into practice more effectively than painting. Painting can only express the static state of light, while music can express the flow and change of light. Monet needs a series of frames to draw different effects of light in the same scene, but music can create an uninterrupted flow of light.