On Discoveries from the Fleisher Collection, Jan. 12th at 5 pm… Impressionism is an imprecise, even controversial term, the first “impressionist” Debussy having none of it. Each of its elements—open form, reliance on tone color over melody, unpredictable harmonies with modal scales—is challengeable, and Debussy’s music is awash with counter-examples. But everyone agrees that impressionism, whatever it is, exists, and that it is French.
Which is why it is such a surprise that one of the leading impressionist composers lived and died in upstate New York and studied in, of all places, Germany.
Charles Tomlinson Griffes was born in Elmira in 1884, studied piano with his sister, and then
Article source: http://www.wrti.org/post/impressions-charles-tomlinson-griffes-discoveries