Achille-
Claude Debussy

Claude Debussy (French: [aʃil klod dəbysi];[1] 22
August 1862 – 25 March 1918)[2] was a French composer. He and
Maurice Ravel

Maurice Ravel were the most prominent figures associated with
Impressionist music, although Debussy disliked the term when applied
to his compositions.[3] He was made Chevalier of the Legion of Honour
in 1903.[4] He was among the most influential composers of the late
19th and early 20th centuries, and his use of non-traditional scales
and chromaticism influenced many composers who followed.[5]
Debussy's music is noted for its sensory content and frequent use of
nontraditional tonalities.[6] The prominent French literary style of
his period was known as Symbolism, and this movement directly inspired
Debussy both as a composer and as an active cultural participant.[7]
Contents
1 Early life
1.1 Musical development
2 Personal life
3 Death
4 Music
4.1 Style
4.2 List of works
4.3 Early works
4.4 Middle works
4.5 Late works
4.6 Mathematical structuring
4.7 Influences
4.8 Influence on later composers
5 Eponyms
6 Recordings
7 References
8 Sources
9 Further reading
10 External links
Early life[edit]
Street where Debussy was born
Debussy, the eldest of five children, was born Achille-Claude Debussy
(he later reversed his forenames)[2] on 22 August 1862 in
Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Seine-et-Oise. His father, Manuel-Achille
Debussy, owned a china shop there; his mother, Victorine Manoury
Debussy, was a seamstress. The family moved to Paris in 1867, but in
1870 Debussy's pregnant mother fled with Claude to his paternal aunt's
home in
Cannes

Cannes to escape the Franco-Prussian War. At the age of seven,
he began piano lessons with an Italian violinist in his early 40s
named Jean Cerutti, and his aunt paid for his lessons. On their return
to Paris in 1871, Debussy drew the attention of Marie Mauté de
Fleurville,[8] who gave him piano lessons at her apartment on the Rue
du Cardinal-Lemoine, where she accommodated her daughter Mathilde and
son-in-law
Paul Verlaine

Paul Verlaine for the year after their marriage in 1870.[9]
Marie Mauté claimed to have been an aristocrat, and a pupil of
Frédéric Chopin. Debussy always believed her, although there is no
independent evidence to support her claim.[10]
Debussy's talents soon became evident, and in 1872, at age ten,
Debussy entered the Paris Conservatoire, where he spent the next 11
years. During his time there he studied composition with Ernest
Guiraud, music history/theory with Louis-Albert Bourgault-Ducoudray,
harmony with Émile Durand,[11] piano with Antoine François
Marmontel, organ with César Franck, and solfège with Albert
Lavignac, as well as other significant figures of the era. He also
became a lifelong friend of fellow student and distinguished pianist
Isidor Philipp. After Debussy's death, many pianists sought Philipp's
advice on playing his works.
Musical development[edit]
Debussy was experimental from the outset, favouring dissonances and
intervals that were not taught at the Academy. Like Georges Bizet, he
was a brilliant pianist and an outstanding sight reader, who could
have had a professional career had he so wished.[12] The pieces he
played in public at this time included sonata movements by Beethoven,
Schumann and Weber, and Chopin's Ballade No. 2, a movement from the
Piano Concerto No. 1, and the Allegro de concert.[13]
During the summers of 1880, 1881, and 1882, he accompanied Nadezhda
von Meck, the wealthy patroness of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, as she
travelled with her family in Europe. The young composer's many musical
activities during these vacations included playing four-hand pieces
with von Meck at the piano, giving music lessons to her children, and
performing in private concerts with some of her musician friends.[14]
Despite von Meck's closeness[citation needed] to Tchaikovsky, the
Russian master appears[to whom?] to have had minimal effect on
Debussy.[citation needed] In September 1880 she sent his Danse
bohémienne for Tchaikovsky's perusal; a month later Tchaikovsky wrote
back to her: "It is a very pretty piece, but it is much too short. Not
a single idea is expressed fully, the form is terribly shriveled, and
it lacks unity." Debussy did not publish the piece, and the manuscript
remained in the von Meck family; it was eventually sold to B. Schott's
Söhne in Mainz, and published by them in 1932.[15]
A greater influence was Debussy's close friendship with Marie-Blanche
Vasnier, a singer he met when he began working as an accompanist to
earn some money, embarking on an eight-year affair together. She and
her husband, Parisian civil servant Henri, gave Debussy emotional and
professional support. Henri Vasnier introduced him to the writings of
influential French writers of the time, which gave rise to his first
songs, settings of poems by Paul Verlaine.
Debussy at the
Villa Medici

Villa Medici in Rome, 1885, at centre in the white
jacket
As the winner of the 1884
Prix de Rome

Prix de Rome with his composition L'enfant
prodigue, he received a scholarship to the Académie des Beaux-Arts,
which included a four-year residence at the Villa Medici, the French
Academy in Rome, to further his studies (1885–1887). According to
letters to Marie-Blanche Vasnier, perhaps in part designed to gain her
sympathy, he found the artistic atmosphere stifling, the company
boorish, the food bad, and the monastic quarters "abominable".[16]
Neither did he delight in Italian opera, as he found the operas of
Donizetti and Verdi not to his taste. Debussy was often depressed and
unable to compose, but he was inspired by Franz Liszt, whose command
of the keyboard he found admirable. In June 1885, he wrote of his
desire to follow his own way, saying, "I am sure the Institute would
not approve, for, naturally it regards the path which it ordains as
the only right one. But there is no help for it! I am too enamoured of
my freedom, too fond of my own ideas!"[17]
Debussy finally composed four pieces that were sent to the Academy:
the symphonic ode Zuleima (based on a text by Heinrich Heine); the
orchestral piece Printemps; the cantata La Damoiselle élue
(1887–1888) (which was criticized by the Academy as "bizarre",
although it was the first piece in which the stylistic features of his
later style began to emerge); and the Fantaisie for piano and
orchestra, which was heavily based on César Franck's music and
therefore eventually withdrawn by Debussy. The Academy chided him for
"courting the unusual" and hoped for something better from the gifted
student. Although Debussy's works showed the influence of Jules
Massenet, Massenet concluded, "He is an enigma."[18]
Pieces from Ariettes oubliées
No. 2: "Il pleure dans mon cœur"
No 4: "Chevaux de bois"
No. 6: "Aquarelles II. Spleen"
All performed by Xiaobo Su, soprano; Giorgi Latso, piano
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During his visits to Bayreuth in 1888–9, Debussy was exposed to
Wagnerian opera, which would have a lasting impact on his work. Like
many young musicians of the time, he responded positively to Richard
Wagner's sensuousness, mastery of form, and striking harmonies.[19]
Wagner's extroverted emotionalism was not to be Debussy's way, but the
German composer's influence is evident in La damoiselle élue and the
1889 piece Cinq poèmes de Charles Baudelaire. Other songs of the
period, notably the settings of Verlaine – Ariettes oubliées, Trois
mélodies, and Fêtes galantes – are all in a more capricious style.
Around this time he met Erik Satie, who proved a kindred spirit in his
experimental approach to composition and to naming his pieces. Both
musicians were bohemians during this period, enjoying the same cafe
society and struggling to stay afloat financially.[20]
In 1889, at the Exposition Universelle in Paris, Debussy first heard
Javanese gamelan music. He incorporated gamelan scales, melodies,
rhythms, and ensemble textures into some of his compositions, most
notably Pagodes from his piano collection Estampes.[21]
Personal life[edit]
Debussy, by Marcel Baschet, 1884
Debussy's private life was often turbulent. At the age of 18 he began
an eight-year affair with Marie-Blanche Vasnier, the wife of Parisian
civil servant Henri Vasnier. The relationship eventually faltered
following his winning of the
Prix de Rome

Prix de Rome in 1884 and obligatory
residence in Rome.
On his permanent return to Paris and his parents' home on the rue de
Berlin (now rue de Liège) he began a tempestuous relationship with
Gabrielle ('Gaby') Dupont, a tailor's daughter from Lisieux, soon
living with her on the rue de Londres, and later the rue Gustave
Doré. During this time he also had an affair with the singer
Thérèse Roger, to whom he was briefly engaged. Such cavalier
behaviour was widely condemned, and precipitated the end of his long
friendship with Ernest Chausson.
He ultimately left Dupont for her friend Rosalie ('Lilly') Texier, a
fashion model whom he married in 1899, after threatening suicide if
she refused him.[22] However, although Texier was affectionate,
practical, straightforward, and well liked by Debussy's friends and
associates, he became increasingly irritated by her intellectual
limitations and lack of musical sensitivity. Moreover, her looks had
prematurely aged, and she was unable to bear children.[23]
In 1904 Debussy was introduced to Emma Bardac, wife of Parisian banker
Sigismond Bardac, by her son Raoul, who was one of his students.[24]
In contrast to Texier, Bardac was a sophisticate, a brilliant
conversationalist, and an accomplished singer. After dispatching Lilly
to her father's home at Bichain in
Villeneuve-la-Guyard

Villeneuve-la-Guyard on 15 July
1904, Debussy secretly took Bardac to
Jersey

Jersey for a holiday. On their
return to France, he wrote to Texier on 11 August from Dieppe,
informing her that their marriage was over, but still making no
mention of Bardac. He briefly moved to an apartment at 10 avenue
Alphand. On 14 October, five days before their fifth wedding
anniversary, Texier attempted suicide, shooting herself in the chest
with a revolver while standing in the Place de la Concorde; she
survived, although the bullet remained lodged in her vertebrae for the
rest of her life. The ensuing scandal was to alienate Debussy from
many of his friends, whilst Bardac was disowned by her family.[25]
Debussy's last home, now 23 Square Avenue Foch, Paris[26]
In the spring of 1905, finding the hostility towards them intolerable,
Debussy and Bardac (now pregnant) fled to England, via Jersey.[27]
Bardac's divorce was finalized in May.[28] The couple settled at the
Grand Hotel, Eastbourne, from 24 July to 30 August 1905,[29] where
Debussy corrected proofs to his symphonic suite La mer,[4][25]
celebrating his divorce from Texier on 2 August.
After a brief visit to London, the couple returned to Paris in
September, buying a house in a courtyard development off the Avenue du
Bois de Boulogne (now Avenue Foch) where Debussy resided for the rest
of his life.[30] Their daughter (the composer's only child)
Claude-Emma was born there on 30 October.[25] Her parents eventually
married in 1908, their troubled union enduring until Debussy's death
in 1918. Claude-Emma, more affectionately known as 'Chouchou', was a
great musical inspiration to the composer (she was the dedicatee of
his
Children's Corner

Children's Corner suite). Claude-Emma outlived her father by
scarcely a year, succumbing to the diphtheria epidemic of 1919 after
her doctor administered the wrong treatment.[31]
Mary Garden, who played the part of Melisande in the original
production of Pelléas et Mélisande in 1902, was to write of him: "I
honestly don’t know if Debussy ever loved anybody really. He loved
his music – and perhaps himself. I think he was wrapped up in his
genius... He was a very, very strange man." [32]
Death[edit]
Debussy's grave at
Passy Cemetery

Passy Cemetery in Paris
Debussy died of rectal cancer at his Paris home on 25 March 1918,[33]
at the age of 55. He had been diagnosed with the cancer in 1909[25]
after experiencing bleeding, and in December 1915 underwent one of the
earliest colostomy operations ever performed. The operation achieved
only a temporary respite, and occasioned him considerable frustration
(he was to liken dressing in the morning to "all the labours of
Hercules in one"). His death occurred in the midst of the aerial and
artillery bombardment of Paris during the German
Spring Offensive

Spring Offensive of
World War I. The funeral procession made its way through deserted
streets to
Père Lachaise Cemetery

Père Lachaise Cemetery as the German guns bombarded the
city. The military situation in France was critical, and did not
permit the honour of a public funeral with ceremonious graveside
orations. His body was reinterred the following year in the small
Passy Cemetery

Passy Cemetery sequestered behind the Trocadéro, fulfilling his wish
to rest "among the trees and the birds"; his wife and daughter are
buried with him.[28]
Music[edit]
Style[edit]
In 1889, Debussy is reported to have held a number of conversations
with his former teacher
Ernest Guiraud

Ernest Guiraud that explored harmonic
possibilities at the piano. These discussions were reported by a
younger pupil of Guiraud’s, Maurice Emmanuel, who transcribed both
the spoken discussion and the actual chord progressions that Debussy
demonstrated:
Chords from dialogue with Ernest Guiraud.
Chords, featuring chromatically altered sevenths and ninths and
progressing unconventionally, explored by Debussy in a "celebrated
conversation at the piano with his teacher Ernest Guiraud"[34]
Stephen Walsh writes, “Emmanuel’s report is so precise and
musicianly as to place its authenticity beyond question, and it sums
up to the letter the aesthetic position towards which Debussy seems to
have been proceeding.”[35]
Rudolph Reti (1958, pp.26-30) points out the following features of
Debussy's music, which "established a new concept of tonality in
European music":
The frequent use of lengthy pedal points – “not merely bass pedals
in the actual sense of the term, but sustained ‘pedals’ in any
voice."
Des pas sur la neige, bars 1-7
Des pas sur la neige, bars 1-7
Glittering passages and webs of figurations which distract from
occasional absence of tonality;
Les fees sont d'exquises danseuses. (Audio below in the 'Late Works'
section.)
Frequent use of parallel chords which are "in essence not harmonies at
all, but rather 'chordal melodies', enriched unisons", described by
some writers as non-functional harmonies;
Canope bars 1-5 (Audio below in the 'Late Works' section.)
Bitonality, or at least bitonal chords;
Brouillards Bars 1-4 (Audio below in the 'Late Works' section.)
Use of the whole-tone and pentatonic scale;
Cloches a travers le feuilles 02
Cloches a travers le feuilles
La Cathedrale engloutie bars 1-2
La Cathedrale engloutie, bars 1-2
Unprepared modulations, "without any harmonic bridge".
La serenade interrompu, bars 76-86
La serenade interrompu, bars 76-87
Reti concludes that Debussy's achievement was the synthesis of
monophonic based "melodic tonality" with harmonies, albeit different
from those of "harmonic tonality".".[36]
The application of the term "Impressionist" to Debussy and the music
he influenced is a matter of intense debate within academic circles.
One side argues that the term is a misnomer, an inappropriate label
which the composer himself opposed. In a letter of 1908 he wrote: "I
am trying to do 'something different' – an effect of reality... what
the imbeciles call 'impressionism', a term which is as poorly used as
possible, particularly by the critics, since they do not hesitate to
apply it to [J.M.W.] Turner, the finest creator of mysterious effects
in all the world of art."[37]
List of works[edit]
Clair de Lune
Composed in 1890, performed by Laurens Goedhart in 2011 (5:04)
Première Arabesque (4:53)
Deuxième Arabesque (4:00)
Both arabesques performed in 2016 by Patrizia Prati on piano
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List of compositions by Claude Debussy by genre

List of compositions by Claude Debussy by genre (with audio)
List of compositions by Claude Debussy by Lesure number

List of compositions by Claude Debussy by Lesure number (without
audio)
Early works[edit]
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From the 1890s Debussy began to develop his own musical language,
which was largely independent of Wagner's style, coloured in part from
the dreamy, sometimes morbid romanticism of the Symbolist movement. He
became a frequent participant at Stéphane Mallarmé's Symbolist
gatherings, where Wagnerism dominated the discussion. However, in
contrast to the enormous works of Wagner and other late romantic
composers around this time, he chose to write in smaller, more
accessible forms.
Debussy at the piano, in front of the composer Ernest Chausson, 1893
The
Deux arabesques is an example of one of his earliest works,
already developing his musical language.
Suite bergamasque

Suite bergamasque (1890)
recalls rococo decorousness with a modern cynicism and puzzlement, and
contains one of his most popular pieces, Clair de Lune. His String
Quartet in G minor (1893) paved the way for his later more daring
harmonic exploration, using the
Phrygian mode

Phrygian mode as well as less standard
scales such as the whole-tone, which creates a sense of floating,
ethereal harmony. He was beginning to employ a single, continuous
theme, breaking away from the traditional A–B–A form with its
restatements and amplifications, which had been a mainstay of
classical music since Joseph Haydn.
Debussy wrote one of his most famous works under the influence of
Mallarmé, the revolutionary Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune,
which is truly original in form and execution. In contrast to the
large orchestras so favoured by late romanticism, he wrote this piece
for a smaller ensemble, emphasizing instrumental colour and timbre.
Despite Mallarmé himself and colleague and friend
Paul Dukas

Paul Dukas having
been impressed by the piece, it was controversial at its premiere, but
nevertheless established Debussy as one of the leading composers of
the era.
Middle works[edit]
The three Nocturnes (1899) include characteristic studies: in Nuages,
using veiled harmony and texture; Fêtes, in exuberance; and Sirènes,
using whole-tones. Debussy's only complete opera Pelléas et
Mélisande premiered in 1902, after ten years of work, and contrasted
sharply with Wagnerian opera. Based on the play by Maurice
Maeterlinck, the opera proved to be an immediate success and immensely
influential to younger French composers, including Maurice Ravel.
These works brought a fluidity of rhythm and colour quite new to
Western music.
La mer (1903–1905) essays a more symphonic form, with a finale that
works themes from the first movement, although the middle movement,
Jeux

Jeux de vagues, proceeds much less directly and with more variety of
colour. The reviews were once again sharply divided. Some critics
thought the treatment to be less subtle and less mysterious than his
previous works, and even a step backward, with
Pierre Lalo complaining
"I neither hear, nor see, nor feel the sea." Others extolled its
"power and charm", its "extraordinary verve and brilliant fantasy",
and its strong colors and definite lines.[38]
He wrote much for the piano during this period. His first volume of
Images pour piano (1904–1905) combines harmonic innovation with
poetic suggestion:
Reflets dans l'eau is a musical description of
rippling water, while the second piece Hommage à Rameau is slow and
yearningly nostalgic, taking a melody from Jean-Philippe Rameau's 1737
Castor et Pollux

Castor et Pollux as its inspiration.
The evocative
Estampes for piano (1903) give impressions of exotic
locations. Debussy came into contact with Javanese gamelan music
during the 1889 Paris Exposition Universelle. Pagodes is the directly
inspired result, aiming for an evocation of the pentatonic structures
employed by Javanese music.[39]
He wrote his famous
Children's Corner

Children's Corner Suite (1908) for his beloved
daughter, Claude-Emma, whom he nicknamed Chouchou. The suite recalls
classicism – the opening piece Doctor
Gradus ad Parnassum refers to
Muzio Clementi's collection of instructional piano compositions Gradus
ad Parnassum – as well as a new wave of American ragtime music. In
the popular final piece of the suite, Golliwogg's Cakewalk, Debussy
also pokes fun at
Richard Wagner

Richard Wagner by mimicking the opening bars of
Wagner's prelude to Tristan und Isolde.
Pieces from first book of Préludes
La fille aux cheveux de lin
Performed by Mike Ambrose
La cathédrale engloutie
Performed by Ivan Ilic
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The first book of Préludes (1910), twelve in total, proved to be his
most successful work for piano. The Preludes are frequently compared
to those of Chopin. Debussy's preludes are replete with rich, unusual
and daring harmonies. They include the popular La fille aux cheveux de
lin (The Girl with the Flaxen Hair) and La Cathédrale Engloutie (The
Engulfed Cathedral), although since he wanted people to respond
intuitively to these pieces, their titles were placed at the end of
each one in the hope that listeners would not make stereotype images
as they listened.
Larger scale works included his orchestral piece Iberia (1907), a
triptych medley of Spanish allusions and fleeting impressions which
was begun as a work for two pianos, and also the music for Gabriele
D'Annunzio's mystery play
Le Martyre de saint Sébastien

Le Martyre de saint Sébastien (1911). A
lush and dramatic work, written in only two months, it is remarkable
in sustaining a late antique modal atmosphere that was otherwise
touched only in relatively short piano pieces.
As Debussy's popularity increased, he was often engaged as a conductor
throughout Europe during this period, most often performing Pelléas,
La Mer, and Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune. He was also an
occasional music critic, to supplement his conducting fees and piano
lessons, writing under the pseudonym "Monsieur Croche". He avoided
analytical dissection and attempts to force images from music, saying
"Let us at all costs preserve this magic peculiar to music, since of
all the arts it is most susceptible to magic." He could be caustic and
witty, sometimes sloppy and ill-informed. He was for the most part
enthusiastic about Richard Strauss[40] and Stravinsky, and worshipful
of Chopin and Bach, the latter being acknowledged as "the one great
master."[41] His relationship to Beethoven was a complex one; he was
said to refer to him as "le vieux sourd" (the old deaf one)[42] and
adjured one young pupil never to play Beethoven's music for "it is
like somebody dancing on my grave."[42] It was said that "Debussy
liked Mozart, and he believed that Beethoven had terrifically profound
things to say, but that he did not know how to say them, because he
was imprisoned in a web of incessant restatement and of German
aggressiveness."[42] He also admired the works of Charles-Valentin
Alkan.[43] Schubert and Mendelssohn fared much worse, the latter being
described as a "facile and elegant notary".[44]
Late works[edit]
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Debussy's harmonies and chord progressions frequently exploit
dissonances without any formal resolution. Unlike in his earlier work,
he no longer hides discords in lush harmonies,[45] and the forms are
far more irregular and fragmented.[46] These chords that seemingly had
no resolution were described by Debussy himself as "floating chords",
and were used to set tone and mood in many of his works. The whole
tone scale dominates much of his late music.
His two final volumes of works for the piano, the Études (1915),
interpret similar varieties of style and texture purely as pianistic
exercises, and include pieces that develop irregular form to an
extreme, as well as others influenced by the young
Igor Stravinsky

Igor Stravinsky (a
presence too in the suite
En blanc et noir for two pianos, 1915).[47]
The rarefaction of these works is a feature of the last set of songs,
the Trois poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé (fr) (1913), and of the
Sonata

Sonata for flute, viola and harp (1915), though the sonata and its
companions also recapture the inquisitive Verlainian classicism.
Caplet and Debussy
With the sonatas of 1915–1917 there is a sudden shift in the style.
These works recall Debussy's earlier music in part, but also look
forward, with leaner, simpler structures. Despite the thinner textures
of the Violin
Sonata

Sonata (1917), there remains an undeniable richness in
the chords themselves. This shift parallels the movement commonly
known as neo-classicism, which became popular after his death in 1918.
He planned a set of six sonatas, but had only completed three (cello,
flute-viola-harp, and violin) before he died.
The final orchestral work by Debussy, the ballet
Jeux

Jeux (1912) written
for Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, contains some of his strangest
harmonies and textures in a form that moves freely over its own field
of motivic connection. At first,
Jeux

Jeux was overshadowed by Igor
Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, which was composed in the same year
as Jeux, and was premiered only two weeks later by the same ballet
company. Decades later, composers such as
Pierre Boulez
.jpg/440px-Pierre_Boulez_(1968).jpg)
Pierre Boulez and Jean
Barraqué pointed out parallels to Anton Webern's serialism in this
work.
Other late stage works, including the ballets Khamma (fr) (1912)
and La boîte à joujoux (fr) (1913), were left with the
orchestration incomplete, and were later completed by Charles Koechlin
and André Caplet, who also helped him with the orchestration of
Gigues (from Images pour orchestre) and Le martyre de St.
Sébastien.[48]
The second set of Préludes for piano (1913) features Debussy at his
most avant-garde, where he uses dissonant harmonies to evoke specific
moods and images. He consciously gives titles to each prelude which
amplify the preludes' tonal ambiguity and dissonance. He uses scales
such as the whole tone scale, musical modes, and the octatonic scale
in his preludes which exaggerate this tonal ambiguity, making the key
of each prelude almost indistinguishable at times. The second book of
Préludes for piano represents his strong interest in the indefinite
and esoteric.[citation needed]
Pieces from second book of Préludes
Brouillards
Feuilles mortes
La puerta del Vino
Les fées sont d'exquises danseuses
Bruyères
Général Lavine – eccentric
La terrasse des audiences du clair de lune
Ondine
Hommage à S. Pickwick Esq. P.P.M.P.C.
Canope
Les tierces alternées
Feux d'artifice
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Although Pelléas was Debussy's only completed opera, he began several
opera projects which remained unfinished, perhaps due to his fading
concentration, increasing procrastination, and failing health. He had
finished some partial musical sketches and some unpublished libretti
for operas based on Poe's
The Devil in the Belfry

The Devil in the Belfry (Le diable dans le
beffroi, 1902–?1912) and
The Fall of the House of Usher

The Fall of the House of Usher (La chute de
la maison Usher, 1908–1917) as well as considering projects for
operas based on Shakespeare's
As You Like It

As You Like It and Joseph Bedier's La
Legende de Tristan.
Further plans, such as an American tour, more ballet scores, and
revisions of Chopin and Bach works for re-publication, were all cut
short by poor health and the outbreak of World War I.
Mathematical structuring[edit]
Some people have contended that Debussy structured parts of his music
mathematically.[49][50] Roy Howat, for instance, has published a book
contending that certain of Debussy's works are proportioned using
mathematical models, even while using an apparent classical structure
such as sonata form. Howat suggests that some of Debussy's pieces can
be divided into sections that reflect the golden ratio, which is
approximated by ratios of adjacent numbers in the standard Fibonacci
sequence.[51]
Influences[edit]
Debussy's influences were wide-ranging. He acquired a taste for
parallel motion in fifths, fourths and octaves from medieval
music,[citation needed] and an appreciation for figuration and
arabesque from the Baroque masters. He especially had a great love for
the French clavier composers
François Couperin

François Couperin and Rameau, as well as
J. S. Bach. Chopin and Liszt were also powerful influences, not only
in terms of pianistic layout and harmonic ingenuity, but also because
of their willingness to create new forms to accommodate their
material.[citation needed]
Among the Russian composers of his time, the most prominent influences
were Tchaikovsky[clarification needed This seems to contradict what it
says in the 'Early Life' section], Balakirev, Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodin
and Mussorgsky.[19] It can be inferred that from the Russians "Debussy
acquired his taste for ancient and oriental modes and for vivid
colorations, and a certain disdain for academic rules".[attribution
needed][19] Mussorgsky's opera Boris Godunov directly influenced one
of Debussy's most famous works, Pelléas et Mélisande.[citation
needed] In addition to the Russian composers, one of Debussy's biggest
influences was Richard Wagner. According to Pierre Louys, Debussy "did
not see 'what anyone can do beyond Tristan.'"[19]
Claude Debussy, by Donald Sheridan
After Debussy's Wagner phase, he started to become immensely
interested in non-Western music and its unfamiliar approaches to
composition. Specifically, he was drawn to the Javanese Gamelan:[52] a
type of ensemble that prominently features percussion instruments,
including hand-drums, xylophones, gongs, and other metallophones. He
first heard a gamelan at the 1889 Paris Exposition. He was not
interested in directly quoting his non-Western influences, but instead
allowed their aesthetic to generally influence his own musical work,
for example, by frequently using quiet, unresolved dissonances,
coupled with the damper pedal, to emulate the "shimmering" effect
created by a gamelan ensemble.
Debussy was just as influenced by other art forms as he was by music,
if not more so. He took a strong interest in literature and visual
art, and used these mediums to help shape his unique musical style. He
was heavily influenced by the French symbolist movement of the 1880s,
which encompassed poetry, visual art, and theatre. He shared the
movement's interest in the esoteric and indefinite and their rejection
of naturalism and realism. Specifically, "the development of free
verse in poetry and the disappearance of the subject or model in
painting influenced him to think about issues of musical form."[19] He
became personally acquainted with writers and painters of the
movement, and based some of his own works on those of the symbolists.
The poet
Stéphane Mallarmé

Stéphane Mallarmé was a major influence, who in talking of
"a 'musicalization' of poetry"[19] laid claim to a strong connection
between music and his own poetry. Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi
d'un faune was directly influenced by Mallarmé's poem "Afternoon of a
Faun". Like the symbolists in respect to their own art forms, Debussy
aimed to reject common techniques and approaches to composition and
attempted to evoke more of a sensorial experience for the listener
with his works. Since his time at the Paris Conservatoire, he believed
he had much more to learn from artists than from musicians, who were
primarily interested in their musical careers.
Above all, Debussy was inspired by nature and the impression it made
on the mind, making a pantheistic profession of faith when he called
"mysterious Nature" his religion. 'I do not practice religion in
accordance with the sacred rites. I have made mysterious Nature my
religion. I do not believe that a man is any nearer to God for being
clad in priestly garments, nor that one place in a town is better
adapted to meditation than another. When I gaze at a sunset sky and
spend hours contemplating its marvellous ever-changing beauty, an
extraordinary emotion overwhelms me. Nature in all its vastness is
truthfully reflected in my sincere though feeble soul. Around me are
the trees stretching up their branches to the skies, the perfumed
flowers gladdening the meadow, the gentle grass-carpeted earth, ...
and my hands unconsciously assume an attitude of adoration. ... To
feel the supreme and moving beauty of the spectacle to which Nature
invites her ephemeral guests! ... that is what I call prayer.'[53]
Contemporary painter
James Abbott McNeill Whistler

James Abbott McNeill Whistler (who lived in
France between 1855 and 1859) had a profound influence on the
composer. In 1894, Debussy wrote to violinist Eugène Ysaÿe
describing his Nocturnes as "an experiment in the different
combinations that can be obtained from one color – what a study in
grey would be in painting."[54]
Influence on later composers[edit]
Debussy is widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of
the 20th century.[55] His innovative harmonies and structures were
influential to many major 20th-century composers, particularly Maurice
Ravel, Igor Stravinsky,[56] Olivier Messiaen,[57] Manuel de
Falla,[58][56] Béla Bartók,[56] Pierre Boulez,[56] Jean
Barraqué,[59] Heitor Villa-Lobos,[60] Edgard Varèse,[56] Henri
Dutilleux,[59] Ned Rorem,[61] George Gershwin,[59] and the minimalist
music of
Steve Reich

Steve Reich and
Philip Glass

Philip Glass as well as the Japanese composer
Toru Takemitsu.[59][additional citation(s) needed] He also influenced
many jazz musicians, including Duke Ellington, Bix Beiderbecke,
Branford Marsalis, and Steve Kuhn.[62] He also had a profound impact
on modern film composers such as John Williams, because Debussy's
colourful and evocative style translated easily into an emotional
language for use in motion picture scores.[citation needed]
Eponyms[edit]
A twenty-franc banknote from 1997, depicting Debussy
A number of posthumous discoveries bear Debussy's name. These include:
Debussy Heights, a minor mountain range on Alexander Island,
Antarctica, which was discovered in 1960 – including Ravel Peak
Debussy, an impact crater on Mercury which was discovered in 1969
Debussy, an Irish thoroughbred race horse
4492 Debussy, a main belt asteroid which was discovered in 1988
Recordings[edit]
In 1904, Debussy participated in a handful of recordings made together
with Scottish soprano Mary Garden. He also made some piano rolls for
Welte-Mignon
_(1).jpg/440px-Welte_Concert_Orchestrion_(style_6,_no198,_1895)_(1).jpg)
Welte-Mignon in 1913.[63]
References[edit]
^
Claude Debussy

Claude Debussy – pronunciation at Forvo.com
^ a b Also known since the 1890s as Claude-Achille Debussy or Claude
Debussy. Born Achille-Claude Debussy, he was known as "Achille" during
his student days, changed his forename to "Claude-Achille" around
1890, and after 1894 was known simply as "Claude Debussy" (Fulcher,
Jane F. Debussy and His World. Princeton University Press, 2001. p.
101).
^ Politoske, Daniel T.; Martin Werner (1988). Music, Fourth Edition.
Prentice Hall. p. 419. ISBN 0-13-607616-5.
^ a b "Claude Debussy – Biographie : 1903–1909 –
Centre de documentation Claude Debussy". Debussy.fr. Retrieved 10
March 2010.
^
Claude Debussy

Claude Debussy – Biography at AllMusic
^ Schmitz, E. Robert. The Piano Works of Claude Debussy. Duell, Sloan
& Pierce, 1950. pp. 23–26.
^ Hartmann, Arthur; Hsu, Samuel; Grolnic, Sidney; Peters, Mark A.
(2003). "
Claude Debussy

Claude Debussy as I Knew Him" and Other Writings of Arthur
Hartmann. Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 1-58046-104-2.
^
Léon Vallas (March 2007). Claude Debussy: His Life and Works.
Lightning Source Inc. pp. 4–. ISBN 978-1-4067-5912-9.
Retrieved 27 April 2011.
^ Mathilde Mauté (1992). Ex-Madame Verlaine - Mémoires de ma vie.
Champ Vallon. ISBN 2-87673-134-7.
^ David Mason Greene (2007). Greene's biographical encyclopedia of
composers. Reproducing Piano Roll Fnd. pp. 904–.
ISBN 978-0-385-14278-6. Retrieved 27 April 2011.
^ "Centre de documentation Claude Debussy". Debussy.fr. Retrieved 22
August 2013.
^ Harold C. Schonberg, The Great Pianists, p. 343
^ "Concerts where Debussy appeared as a pianist". Djupdal.org.
Retrieved 10 March 2010.
^ Edward Lockspeiser, Debussy: His Life and Mind, vol. 1, The
Macmillan Company, 1962, pp. 40–47.
^ Alexander Poznansky, Tchaikovsky: The Quest for the Inner Man,
p. 375
^ Thompson, p. 70
^ Thompson, p. 77
^ Thompson, p. 82
^ a b c d e f François Lesure and Roy Howat. "Debussy, Claude." Grove
Music Online. Oxford Music Online. 14 December 2009
^ Moore, Stephen (1999). Satie the Bohemian: From Cabaret to Concert
Hall. Oxford University Press. p. 172.
^ Brent Hugh. "
Claude Debussy

Claude Debussy and the Javanese Gamelan".
brenthugh.com. Retrieved 2 July 2014.
^ Nichols, R. (1998) The Life of Debussy. Cambridge University Press,
196 pages.
^ Orledge, R. 'Debussy the man', in Trezise, S. (ed.) (2003). The
Cambridge Companion to Debussy. p. 4. Cambridge University Press, UK.
ISBN 9780521654784
^
Léon Vallas (March 2007). Claude Debussy: His Life and Works.
Lightning Source Inc. pp. 169–. ISBN 978-1-4067-5912-9.
Retrieved 27 April 2011.
^ a b c d Diane Enget Moore (2005). Debussy in Jersey. The Centenary,
1904–2004 [1].
^ "23 Square
Avenue Foch

Avenue Foch 75116 Paris, France". Google Maps. Retrieved
11 June 2015.
^ Claude Achille Debussy Archived 17 March 2015 at the Wayback
Machine.
^ a b Simeone, N. (2000). Paris – A musical Gazetteer. Yale
University Press.
^ Eastbourne Local Historian (Eastbourne Local History Society) Nr 157
(Autumn 2010).
^ "Claude Debussy's residence". Debussypiano.com. Retrieved 22 August
2013.
^ "Tobin, A. (2012). ''Claude Debussy's Pianistic Vision''".
Debussypiano.com. Retrieved 22 August 2013.
^ Garden, M. & Biancolli, L. (1951). Mary Garden's Story. 302 p.
Simon & Schuster, New York.
^ Debussy, Claude Achille The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th
ed. Columbia University Press. Retrieved 12 July 2010.
^ Edward Lockspeiser (1962). Debussy: His Life and Mind, p. 207.
ISBN 0-304-91878-4 for Vol. 1. cited in Roland Nadeau
(1979), "Debussy and the Crisis of Tonality", p. 71, Music
Educators Journal, Vol. 66, No. 1 (September),
pp. 69–73.
^ Walsh, S. (2018, p.74) Debussy; A Painter in Sound. Lodnon, Faber
& Faber.
^ Reti, R. (1958, p.26-30) Tonality-Atonality-Pantonality. London,
Barrie and Rcokliffe.
^ Thompson, p. 161
^ Thompson, pp. 158–59
^ Brent Hugh. "
Claude Debussy

Claude Debussy and the Javanese Gamelan".
brenthugh.com. Retrieved 27 January 2007.
^
Claude Debussy

Claude Debussy (1962). Monsieur Croche the Dilettante Hater[full
citation needed].
^ Francois Lesure (1988). Debussy on Music The Critical Writings of
the Great French
Composer

Composer Claude Debussy
^ a b c Roger Nichols (2003). Debussy Remembered [2].
^ "The Myths of Alkan". Jack Gibbons. Retrieved 10 March 2010.
^ Thompson, pp. 180–85
^ Mark McFarland, "Transpositional Combination and Aggregate Formation
in Debussy," Music Theory Spectrum 27 no. 2 (Fall 2005): 187–220
^ Mark McFarland, "Debussy: The Origins of a Method," Journal of Music
Theory 48 no. 2 (Fall 2004): 295–324
^ Mark McFarland, "Debussy and Stravinsky: Another Look into their
Musical Relationship," Cahiers Debussy 24 (2000): 79–112
^ Barraqué, Jean (1977). Debussy (Solfèges). Paris: Editions du
Seuil. ISBN 2-02-000242-6.
^ "Golden Ratio". Web.hep.uiuc.edu. Retrieved 22 August 2013.
^ [3]
^ Howat, Roy (1983). Debussy in Proportion: A musical analysis.
Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-31145-4.
^ Ross, Alex (2008). The Rest Is Noise. London: Fourth Estate.
p. 41. ISBN 978-1-84115-475-6.
^
Léon Vallas (1933). Claude Debussy: His Life and Works. Oxford
University Press, H. Milford. p. 225.
^ Weintraub, Stanley. 2001. Whistler: A Biography (New York: Da Capo
Press). ISBN 978-0-306-80971-2. p. 351
^ Gorlinski, Gini, ed. (2009). The 100 Most Influential Musicians of
All Time (1st ed.). Britannica Educational Publishing. p. 117.
ISBN 9781615300563. Retrieved 25 March 2018.
^ a b c d e Brown, Matthew. Debussy Redux: The Impact of His Music on
Popular Culture. Indiana University Press, 2012. p. 2.
^ Brown, Matthew. Debussy Redux: The Impact of His Music on Popular
Culture. Indiana University Press, 2012. pp. 2–3.
^ Roger, Nichols (2018). Hall, Peter, ed. Fantasia Baetica & other
piano music (PDF) (Booklet). Hyperion Records. p. 5. Retrieved 25
March 2018.
^ a b c d Brown, Matthew. Debussy Redux: The Impact of His Music on
Popular Culture. Indiana University Press, 2012. p. 3.
^ Peppercorn, Lisa M. (1977). "Foreign Influences in Villa-Lobos's
Music". Ibero-amerikanisches Archiv. 3 (1): 38, 43, 44, 47.
JSTOR 43750552. Retrieved 25 March 2018.
^ Schweitzer, Vivian (9 September 2008). "Honoring a Modern Composer
Shaped by French Tradition". New York Times. Retrieved 25 March
2018.
^ Brown, Matthew. Debussy Redux: The Impact of His Music on Popular
Culture. Indiana University Press, 2012. pp. 3–4.
^ "Steve's Debussy Page". 1 November 1913. Retrieved 10 December
2015.
Sources[edit]
Thompson, Oscar, Debussy: Man and Artist, Tudor Publishing Company,
1940.
Further reading[edit]
Fulcher, Jane (ed.) (2001). Debussy and His World (The Bard Music
Festival). Princeton: Princeton University Press.
ISBN 0-691-09042-4. CS1 maint: Extra text: authors list
(link)
Lücke, Hendrik (2005): Mallarmé, Debussy: Eine vergleichende Studie
zur Kunstanschauung am Beispiel von „L'Après-midi d'un Faune“.
Schriftenreihe Studien zur Musikwissenschaft 4. Hamburg: Dr. Kovac.
ISBN 3-8300-1685-9.
Nichols, Roger (1998). The Life of Debussy. Cambridge University
Press. ISBN 978-0521578875.
Parks, Richard S. (1989). The Music of Claude Debussy. New Haven: Yale
University Press. ISBN 978-0300044393.
Pasler, Jann (December 2013). "Debussy: the Man, his Music, and His
Legacy: an overview of current Research". Notes: Quarterly Journal of
the Music Library Association. 69 (2): 197–216.
Poleshook, Oksana (2011). Russian Musical Influences of The Five on
piano and vocal works of Claude Debussy. LAP Lambert Publishing.
ISBN 978-3-8443-1643-8.
Roberts, Paul (ed.) (2001). Images: The Piano Music of Claude Debussy.
Amadeus Press. ISBN 1-57467-068-9. CS1 maint: Extra text:
authors list (link)
Roberts, Paul (ed.) (2007).
Claude Debussy

Claude Debussy (20th Century Composers).
Phaidon Press Ltd. ISBN 0-7148-3512-9. CS1 maint: Extra
text: authors list (link)
Ross, James. 1998. "Pelléas et Mélisande: The 'Nouveau Prophete'?
Crisis and Transformation: French Opera, Politics and the Press"
D.Phil. Thesis, Oxford University. pp. 164–208.
Smith, Richard Langham, ed. (1997). Debussy Studies. Cambridge
University Press. ISBN 978-0521460903.
Trezise, Simon (ed.) (2003). The Cambridge Companion to Debussy.
Cambridge Companions to Music. Cambridge University Press.
ISBN 0-521-65478-5. CS1 maint: Extra text: authors list
(link)
Cobb, Margaret (ed.) (2005). Debussy's Letters to Inghelbrecht – The
Story of a Musical Friendship. University of Rochester Press.
ISBN 1-58046-174-3. CS1 maint: Extra text: authors list
(link)
Miller, Richard (ed.) (Editor: Cobb, Margaret) (1982). Poetic Debussy
2nd Edition. University of Rochester Press.
ISBN 1-878822349.
External links[edit]
Find more aboutClaude Debussyat's sister projects
Media from Wikimedia Commons
Quotations from Wikiquote
Data from Wikidata
Claude Debussy

Claude Debussy at Encyclopædia Britannica
Claude Debussy

Claude Debussy at Curlie (based on DMOZ)
"Discovering Debussy". BBC Radio 3.
Claude Debussy

Claude Debussy at AllMusic
Claude Debussy

Claude Debussy Catalogue chronologique (in French)
Documentary film about Claude Debussy
Works by
Claude Debussy

Claude Debussy at Project Gutenberg
Works by or about
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Claude Debussy at Internet Archive
Works by
Claude Debussy

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Open Library
Free scores by
Claude Debussy

Claude Debussy in the Open Music Library
Free scores by
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Claude Debussy at the International Music Score Library
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Free scores by
Claude Debussy

Claude Debussy in the Choral Public Domain Library
(ChoralWiki)
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Claude Debussy
Opera
Rodrigue et Chimène

Rodrigue et Chimène (1890–1892)
Pelléas et Mélisande (1893–1902)
Le diable dans le beffroi

Le diable dans le beffroi (1902–1911)
La chute de la maison Usher (1908–1917)
Ballet
Jeux

Jeux (1912–1913)
Orchestral
Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune

Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune (1894)
Nocturnes (1897–1899)
La mer (1903–1905)
Images (1905–1912)
Soloist and orchestra
L'enfant prodigue (1884)
Fantaisie for piano and orchestra (1889–1890)
Première rhapsodie (1909–1910)
Chamber music
Piano Trio (1879)
String Quartet (1893)
Syrinx for flute (1913)
Six sonatas for various instruments (1915-1917)
Solo piano
Deux arabesques (1888, 1891)
Valse romantique

Valse romantique (1890)
Suite bergamasque

Suite bergamasque (1890–1905)
Pour le piano suite (1894–1901)
Estampes (1903)
Masques (1904)
L'isle joyeuse

L'isle joyeuse (1904)
Images, Set 1 (1905)
Reflets dans l'eau
Children's Corner

Children's Corner (1906–1908)
Préludes, Book 1 (1909–1910)
Voiles
Des pas sur la neige
Ce qu'a vu le vent d'ouest
La fille aux cheveux de lin
La sérénade interrompue
La cathédrale engloutie
La plus que lente (1910)
Préludes, Book 2 (1912–1913)
Brouillards
Hommage à S. Pickwick Esq. P.P.M.P.C.
Études (1915)
Piano four hands or two pianos
Petite suite (1886–1889)
Six épigraphes antiques (1914)
En blanc et noir (1915)
Voice and piano
Beau soir (1880)
Ariettes oubliées
.jpg/480px-Claude_Debussy,_portrait_by_Marcel_Baschet_(1884).jpg)
Ariettes oubliées (1885–1887)
Cinq poèmes de Charles Baudelaire
.jpg/480px-Claude_Debussy,_portrait_by_Marcel_Baschet_(1884).jpg)
Cinq poèmes de Charles Baudelaire (1887–1889)
Other vocal
La Damoiselle élue

La Damoiselle élue (1889)
Le Martyre de saint Sébastien

Le Martyre de saint Sébastien (1911)
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WorldCat Identities
VIAF: 6219636
LCCN: n79132137
ISNI: 0000 0001 2119 0614
GND: 118524186
SELIBR: 183573
SUDOC: 026816105
BNF: cb13893072d (data)
BIBSYS: 90079353
ULAN: 500335877
MusicBrainz: be50643c-0377-4968-b48c-47e06b2e2a3b
NLA: 35034487
NDL: 00437533
NKC: jn19990001672
Léonore: LH/681/19
ICCU: ITICCUCFIV57468
BNE: XX993