s Primitivism drastically different from Impressionism.
             Primitivism is an important facet in musical history for several reasons. It opened the door to new tonalities and new sonorities with the juxtaposition of new, fresh ideas like chordal plaining and synthetic scales, with old, sometimes ancient, ideas like modes and counterpoint.
             Primitivistic Art and its Influence on Music
             Primitivism in art has been called "the most salient manifestation of the avant-garde's enduring obsession with 'otherness'." Like the musical revolution that was Impressionism, (which in visual art was far less ground-breaking), Primitivism in visual art was considered to be a breath of fresh air, a profound simplicity. The roots of Primitivism in the visual arts can be traced to Jean-Jacques Rousseau's piece, Noble Savage, and to the near-romantic concept of truth in purity.
             The idea that truth can only be released in a pure state of being, unmarred by modern civilization, is a staple of Primitivism in art as well as music. The onset of the industrial revolution created a feeling of urgency, even panic. The initial reaction among many average citizens as well as aristocracy was to drag their heels in defiance of the coming age.
             The rise of the working middle class in Europe and the United States only intensified the stress of Industrialization. One reaction from modern artists at the time was to create in art a world untouched by the mechanized hand of progress. More resources for inspiration were becoming easier to attain in faster, more efficient transportation.
             The more frequently established roles of trade and colonialism supplied contact with a mass of once hopelessly isolated cultures. The inspiration for all things of an unadulterated society was at various times situated closer to home, in Romanesque Europe, in the Italian art of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and in Egyptian and Japa...