His mother was a seamstress. Raoul introduced his teacher to his mother, to whom Debussy quickly became greatly attracted. He was one of the most important figures in music at the turn of the 20th century; his music represents the transition from. [82], Although Debussy was in no doubt of Wagner's stature, he was only briefly influenced by him in his compositions, after La damoiselle élue and the Cinq poèmes de Baudelaire (both begun in 1887). … His works have strongly influenced a wide range of composers including Béla Bartók, Olivier Messiaen, George Benjamin, and the jazz pianist and composer Bill Evans. "[120], Nevertheless, there are many indicators of the sources and elements of Debussy's idiom. Among his pupils was Raoul Bardac, son of Emma, the wife of a Parisian banker, Sigismond Bardac. Find Claude Debussy composition information on AllMusic. [87] Newman remarked that, like Chopin, the Debussy of this period appears as a liberator from Germanic styles of composition – offering instead "an exquisite, pellucid style" capable of conveying "not only gaiety and whimsicality but emotion of a deeper sort". She was a sophisticate, a brilliant conversationalist, an accomplished singer, and relaxed about marital fidelity, having been the mistress and muse of Gabriel Fauré a few years earlier. [2][148][149][150] Roger Nichols writes that "if one omits Schoenberg [...] a list of 20th-century composers influenced by Debussy is practically a list of 20th-century composers tout court. I am too enamoured of my freedom, too fond of my own ideas! Claude Debussy, Soundtrack: Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Halford cites the popular "Clair de Lune" (1890) from the Suite Bergamasque as a transitional work pointing towards the composer's mature style. Howat suggests that some of Debussy's pieces can be divided into sections that reflect the golden ratio, which is approximated by ratios of consecutive numbers in the Fibonacci sequence. [51], Debussy's works began to feature increasingly in concert programmes at home and overseas. [160] Others have made orchestrations of some of the piano and vocal works, including John Adams's version of four of the Baudelaire songs (Le Livre de Baudelaire, 1994), Robin Holloway's of En blanc et noir (2002), and Colin Matthews's of both books of Préludes (2001–2006). [7][n 2] He was the eldest of the five children of Manuel-Achille Debussy and his wife, Victorine, née Manoury. He was one of the most important figures in music at the turn of the 20th century; his music represents the transition from late-romantic to 20th century classical. Life and Music Claude Debussy was born on the 22nd August 1862 in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France. Debussy's orchestral works include Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune (1894), Nocturnes (1897–1899) and Images (1905–1912). [38] He commented in 1903 that Wagner was "a beautiful sunset that was mistaken for a dawn". Recent analysts have found it a link between traditional continuity and thematic growth within a score and the desire to create discontinuity in a way mirrored in later 20th century music. A 2 cd collation of Debussy's orchestral works, this album provides a highly musical entry into his oeuvre - a good point of access for further exploration and purchases. P.P.M.P.C. Many of these early recordings have been reissued on CD. [115], In contrast to the "impressionistic" characterisation of Debussy's music, several writers have suggested that he structured at least some of his music on rigorous mathematical lines. I think he was wrapped up in his genius",[77] but biographers are agreed that whatever his relations with lovers and friends, Debussy was devoted to his daughter. Some user-contributed text on this page is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. [76] Mary Garden said, "I honestly don't know if Debussy ever loved anybody really. 4.5 out of 5 stars 24. Vallas, p. 225. Debussy was addressed by various permutations of his names during the course of his life. "[110], Debussy strongly objected to the use of the word "Impressionism" for his (or anybody else's) music,[n 14] but it has continually been attached to him since the assessors at the Conservatoire first applied it, opprobriously, to his early work Printemps. [71] His relations with Ravel, never close, were exacerbated when the latter joined other former friends of Debussy in contributing to a fund to support the deserted Lilly. The analyst David Cox wrote in 1974 that Debussy, admiring Wagner's attempts to combine all the creative arts, "created a new, instinctive, dreamlike world of music, lyrical and pantheistic, contemplative and objective – a kind of art, in fact, which seemed to reach out into all aspects of experience. Clair de lune, Dances for Harp and Orchestra, L. 103: 2. [10], With Marmontel's help Debussy secured a summer vacation job in 1879 as resident pianist at the Château de Chenonceau, where he rapidly acquired a taste for luxury that was to remain with him all his life. Suite bergamasque, L. 75: 3. [11] Sivry's mother, Antoinette Mauté de Fleurville, gave piano lessons, and at his instigation the young Debussy became one of her pupils. [129], Debussy opined that Chopin was "the greatest of them all, for through the piano he discovered everything";[130] he professed his "respectful gratitude" for Chopin's piano music. He first joined the piano class of Antoine François Marmontel,[14] and studied solfège with Albert Lavignac and, later, composition with Ernest Guiraud, harmony with Émile Durand, and organ with César Franck. [157], Among contemporary composers George Benjamin has described Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune as “the definition of perfection”;[158] he has conducted Pelléas et Mélisande[159] and the critic Rupert Christiansen detects the influence of the work in Benjamin's opera Written on Skin (2012). Although considering Images "the pinnacle of Debussy's achievement as a composer for orchestra", Trezise notes a contrary view that the accolade belongs to the ballet score Jeux. The interview was published in, Notes to Warner Classics CD 190295642952 (2018), style of late 19th-century French painting, "An introduction to the solo piano music of Debussy and Ravel", "From L'aprés-midi d'un faune to Pelléas", "Maeterlinck's Mistress Assumed She Was Going to Sing Melisande. His behaviour was widely condemned; anonymous letters circulated denouncing his treatment of both women, as well as his financial irresponsibility and debts. A new version of Last.fm is available, to keep everything running smoothly, please reload the site. [76], Debussy died on 25 March 1918 at his home. He wrote his own poems for the Proses lyriques (1892–1893) but, in the view of the musical scholar Robert Orledge, "his literary talents were not on a par with his musical imagination". [86], In a survey of Debussy's oeuvre shortly after the composer's death, the critic Ernest Newman wrote, "It would be hardly too much to say that Debussy spent a third of his life in the discovery of himself, a third in the free and happy realisation of himself, and the final third in the partial, painful loss of himself". 10 in G minor (also the only work where the composer's title included a key). Know the score Debussy: where to start with his music He created a new world of ravishing instrumental colour and constantly shifting sensations … Achille-Claude Debussy (22nd August 1862 – 25th March 1918) was a French composer. [34] Although Debussy's works showed the influence of Jules Massenet, the latter concluded, "He is an enigma. He developed a highly original system of harmony and musical structure that expressed in many respects the ideals to which the Impressionist … [93] The reviews were sharply divided. [2], Among the late piano works are two books of Préludes (1909–10, 1911–13), short pieces that depict a wide range of subjects. He has become recognizable over the years as one of the most notable and influential French musical composers that has ever lived. Throughout his career he wrote mélodies based on a wide variety of poetry, including his own. [61] It made Debussy a well-known name in France and abroad; The Times commented that the opera had "provoked more discussion than any work of modern times, excepting, of course, those of Richard Strauss". [2], Debussy is widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. [41] This too made an impression on him, and its harmonic freedom and non-Teutonic tone colours influenced his own developing musical style. She is described in the. [74][n 12] In the same month the composer's only child was born at their home. Both were bohemians, enjoying the same café society and struggling to survive financially. 1: Le martyre de Saint-Sébastien", "Strength in numbers: How Fibonacci taught us how to swing", "The Art of French Piano Music: Debussy, Ravel, Fauré, Chabrier", "Signification, Objectification, and the Mimetic Uncanny in Claude Debussy's 'Golliwog's Cakewalk'", "George Benjamin–Conductor, Composer and Knight", “Written on Skin is one of the operatic masterpieces of our time – review”, "Debussy orchestrations point towards 2018 centenary", " Debussy: The Complete Works review – a comprehensive and invaluable survey", Website of Debussy museum, St. Germain-en-Laye, International Music Score Library Project, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Claude_Debussy&oldid=996639768, Pages containing links to subscription-only content, Short description is different from Wikidata, Pages using Sister project links with wikidata namespace mismatch, Pages using Sister project links with hidden wikidata, Articles with French-language sources (fr), Articles with Encyclopædia Britannica links, Articles with International Music Score Library Project links, Wikipedia articles with BIBSYS identifiers, Wikipedia articles with CANTIC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with CINII identifiers, Wikipedia articles with Léonore identifiers, Wikipedia articles with MusicBrainz identifiers, Wikipedia articles with PLWABN identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SELIBR identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SNAC-ID identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with Trove identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 27 December 2020, at 20:39. Lesure comments that they range from the frolics of minstrels at Eastbourne in 1905 and the American acrobat "General Lavine" "to dead leaves and the sounds and scents of the evening air". We must at all costs preserve this magic which is peculiar to music and to which music, by its nature, is of all the arts the most receptive. [101] It influenced composers as different as Stravinsky and Puccini. [92] A more characteristically Debussian work from his early years is La Damoiselle élue, recasting the traditional form for oratorios and cantatas, using a chamber orchestra and a small body of choral tone and using new or long-neglected scales and harmonies. Debussy's body was reinterred the following year in the small 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. He took many years to develop his mature style, and was nearly 40 when he achieved international fame in 1902 with the only opera he completed, Pelléas et Mélisande. [95], Musicians from Debussy's time onwards have regarded Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune (1894) as his first orchestral masterpiece. The military situation did not permit the honour of a public funeral with ceremonious graveside orations. They favoured poetry using suggestion rather than direct statement; the literary scholar Chris Baldrick writes that they evoked "subjective moods through the use of private symbols, while avoiding the description of external reality or the expression of opinion". For other uses, see, 19th and 20th-century French classical composer, Composed in 1890, performed by Laurens Goedhart in 2011. [28], At the Conservatoire, Debussy incurred the disapproval of the faculty, particularly his composition teacher, Guiraud, for his failure to follow the orthodox rules of composition then prevailing. In the same year, Debussy was diagnosed with colorectal cancer, from which he was to die nine years later. Claude Debussy was an influential French composer of the late Romantic era and early Twentieth-century. [2] In 1912 Sergei Diaghilev commissioned a new ballet score, Jeux. "[141] He was not in sympathy with Schubert, Schumann, Brahms and Mendelssohn, the latter being described as a "facile and elegant notary". He was greatly influenced by the Symbolist poetic movement of the later 19th century. We don’t have any upcoming events for this artist right now. [2][9] The shop was unsuccessful, and closed in 1864; the family moved to Paris, first living with Victorine's mother, in Clichy, and, from 1868, in their own apartment in the Rue Saint-Honoré. In 1890 he began work on an orchestral piece inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher and later sketched the libretto for an opera, La chute de la maison Usher. Let us know what you think of the Last.fm website. (They were not published until 1911). As well as Maeterlinck for Pelléas et Mélisande, he drew on Shakespeare and Dickens for two of his Préludes for piano – La Danse de Puck (Book 1, 1910) and Hommage à S. Pickwick Esq. Debussy was born on 22 August 1862 in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Seine-et-Oise, on the north-west fringes of Paris. [10][n 5], At the end of 1880 Debussy, while continuing in his studies at the Conservatoire, was engaged as accompanist for Marie Moreau-Sainti's singing class; he took this role for four years. [46], Like many other composers of the time, Debussy supplemented his income by teaching and writing. Orledge considers the last a pre-echo of the marine textures of La mer. [152] Stravinsky was more ambivalent about Debussy's music (he thought Pelléas "a terrible bore ... in spite of many wonderful pages")[153] but the two composers knew each other and Stravinsky's Symphonies of Wind Instruments (1920) was written as a memorial for Debussy. 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