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Claude Debussy

 

 

Claude Debussy Turns 150 In August 2012
 
Biography
by Allen Schrott

Claude Debussy (born Achille-Claude Debussy) was among the most influential composers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His mature compositions, distinctive and appealing, combined modernism and sensuality so successfully that their sheer beauty often obscures their technical innovation. Debussy is considered the founder and leading exponent of musical Impressionism (although he resisted the label), and his adoption of non-traditional scales and tonal structures was paradigmatic for many composers who followed.

The son of a shopkeeper and a seamstress, Debussy began piano studies at the Paris Conservatory at the age of 11. While a student there, he encountered the wealthy Nadezhda von Meck (most famous as Tchaikovsky's patroness), who employed him as a music teacher to her children; through travel, concerts and acquaintances, she provided him with a wealth of musical experience. Most importantly, she exposed the young Debussy to the works of Russian composers, such as Borodin and Mussorgsky, who would remain important influences on his music.

Debussy began composition studies in 1880, and in 1884 he won the prestigious Prix de Rome with his cantata L'enfant prodigue. This prize financed two years of further study in Rome -- years that proved to be creatively frustrating. However, the period immediately following was fertile for the young composer; trips to Bayreuth and the Paris World Exhibition (1889) established, respectively, his determination to move away from the influence of Richard Wagner, and his interest in the music of Eastern cultures.

After a relatively bohemian period, during which Debussy formed friendships with many leading Parisian writers and musicians (not least of which were Mallarmé, Satie, and Chausson), the year 1894 saw the enormously successful premiere of his Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune (Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun) -- a truly revolutionary work that brought his mature compositional voice into focus. His seminal opera Pelléas et Mélisande, completed the next year, would become a sensation at its first performance in 1902. The impact of those two works earned Debussy widespread recognition (as well as frequent attacks from critics, who failed to appreciate his forward-looking style), and over the first decade of the twentieth century he established himself as the leading figure in French music -- so much so that the term "Debussysme" ("Debussyism"), used both positively and pejoratively, became fashionable in Paris. Debussy spent his remaining healthy years immersed in French musical society, writing as a critic, composing, and performing his own works internationally. He succumbed to colon cancer in 1918, having also suffered a deep depression brought on by the onset of World War I.

Debussy's personal life was punctuated by unfortunate incidents, most famously the attempted suicide of his first wife, Lilly Texier, whom he abandoned for the singer Emma Bardac. However, his subsequent marriage to Bardac, and their daughter Claude-Emma, whom they called "Chouchou" and who became the dedicatee of the composer's Children's Corner piano suite, provided the middle-aged Debussy with great personal joys.

Debussy wrote successfully in most every genre, adapting his distinctive compositional language to the demands of each. His orchestral works, of which Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune and La mer (The Sea, 1905) are most familiar, established him as a master of instrumental color and texture. It is this attention to tone color -- his layering of sound upon sound so that they blend to form a greater, evocative whole -- that linked Debussy in the public mind to the Impressionist painters.

His works for solo piano, particularly his collections of Préludes and Etudes, which have remained staples of the repertoire since their composition, bring into relief his assimilation of elements from both Eastern cultures and antiquity -- especially pentatonicism (the use of five-note scales), modality (the use of scales from ancient Greece and the medieval church), parallelism (the parallel movement of chords and lines), and the whole-tone scale (formed by dividing the octave into six equal intervals).

Pelléas et Mélisande and his collections of songs for solo voice establish the strength of his connection to French literature and poetry, especially the symbolist writers, and stand as some of the most understatedly expressive works in the repertory. The writings of Mallarmé, Maeterlinck, Baudelaire, and his childhood friend Paul Verlaine appear prominently among his chosen texts and joined symbiotically with the composer's own unique moods and forms of expression.

  
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 Jardins Sous La Pluie (Dd0632603)  Product Information
Burtcode LEN50560845
Instrument Piano Solo
Format Book
Composer Debussy
Publisher Durand
Price Your Price: $8.96
Discounted 10%
  
 Jardins Sous La Pluie (Extrait Des Estampes)  Product Information
Burtcode LEN50564745
Instrument Piano Solo
Format Book
Composer Debussy
Publisher Durand
Price Your Price: $14.36
Discounted 10%
  
 Jardins Sous La Pluie Gardens In The Rain  Product Information
Burtcode INT1881
Instrument Piano Solo
Format Book
Composer Debussy
Publisher International
Price Your Price: $8.07
Discounted 5%
  
 Jardins Sous La Pluie, Urtext  Product Information
Burtcode ALFMk617
Instrument Piano Solo
Format Book
Composer Debussy
Publisher Carisch
Price Your Price: $6.60
Discounted 5%
  
 Jeux, Poeme Danse (Set)  Product Information
Burtcode LEN50564932
Instrument Piano Duo (2p/4h)
Format Book
Composer Debussy
Publisher Durand
Price Your Price: $26.96
Discounted 10%
  
 Jimbo's Lullaby (Hache)  Product Information
Burtcode MND10128
Instrument Piano Duo (2p/4h)
Format Book
Composer Debussy
Publisher Piano Teacher's Pres
Price Your Price: $4.75
Discounted 5%
  
 Khamma  Product Information
Burtcode MASW1034
Instrument Piano Solo
Format Book
Composer Debussy
Publisher Masters
Price Your Price: $9.03
Discounted 5%
  
 La Boite A Joujoux  Product Information
Burtcode MASM1600
Instrument Piano Solo
Format Book
Composer Debussy
Publisher Masters
Price Your Price: $9.45
Discounted 5%
  
 La Fille Aux Cheveux (Urtext)  Product Information
Burtcode ALFMk609
Instrument Piano Solo
Format Book
Composer Debussy
Publisher Carisch
Price Your Price: $5.65
Discounted 5%
  
 La Fille Aux Cheveux De Lin  Product Information
Burtcode RICBA132221
Instrument Piano Solo
Composer Debussy Claude
Publisher Ricordi
Price Your Price: $4.50
  
 La Mer 2 Pianos  Product Information
Burtcode LEN50560516
Instrument Piano Duo (2p/4h)
Format Book
Composer Debussy
Publisher Durand
Price Your Price: $35.97
Discounted 40%
  
 La Plus Que Lente  Product Information
Burtcode ALFK09945
Instrument Piano Solo
Format Book
Composer Debussy
Publisher Kalmus
Price Your Price: $5.65
Discounted 5%
  
 La Plus Que Lente  Product Information
Burtcode RICBA9914
Instrument Piano Solo
Format Sheet
Composer Debussy Claude
Publisher Ricordi
Price Your Price: $4.70
Discounted 5%
  
 La Plus Que Lente  Product Information
Burtcode LEN50565077
Instrument Piano Solo
Format Book
Composer Debussy
Publisher Durand
Price Your Price: $14.36
Discounted 10%
  
 La Plus Que Lente (Dd0781700)  Product Information
Burtcode LEN50560400
Instrument Piano Solo
Format Book
Composer Debussy
Publisher Durand
Price Your Price: $14.36
Discounted 10%
  
 La Plus Que Lente /Ed. Hinson  Product Information
Burtcode ALF889
Instrument Piano Solo
Format Sheet
Composer Debussy
Publisher Alfred
Price Your Price: $3.59
Discounted 10%
  
 La Plus Que Lente Original Edition  Product Information
Burtcode PRE51002234
Instrument Piano Solo
Format Book
Composer Debussy
Publisher United Music Pub.'s
Price Your Price: $8.96
Discounted 10%
  
 La Puerta Del Vino  Product Information
Burtcode LEN50564744
Instrument Piano Solo
Format Book
Composer Debussy
Publisher Durand
Price Your Price: $7.16
Discounted 10%
  
 Le Martyre De St Sebastien Suite  Product Information
Burtcode MASM1235
Instrument Piano Solo
Format Book
Composer Debussy
Publisher Masters
Price Your Price: $6.60
Discounted 5%
  
 Le Petite Negre  Product Information
Burtcode KNGAl18709
Instrument Piano Solo
Format Book
Composer Debussy
Publisher Leduc
Price Your Price: $5.37
Discounted 5%
  
 Le Petite Negre  Product Information
Burtcode LEN51480405
Instrument Piano Solo
Format Book
Composer Debussy
Publisher Henle
Price Your Price: $8.50
Discounted 5%
  
 Le Petite Negre  Product Information
Burtcode PETEp7285
Instrument Piano Solo
Format Book
Composer Debussy
Publisher Peters
Price Your Price: $7.65
Discounted 10%
  
 Le Petite Negre (Ed0 9762)  Product Information
Burtcode LEN49009268
Instrument Piano Solo
Format Sheet
Composer Debussy
Publisher Schott
Price Your Price: $9.86
Discounted 10%
  
 Le Petite Negre (Urtext)  Product Information
Burtcode ALFMk618
Instrument Piano Solo
Format Book
Composer Debussy
Publisher Carisch
Price Your Price: $5.65
Discounted 5%
  
 Le Petite Negre /Arr. Small Simply Classics  Product Information
Burtcode ALF14351
Instrument Piano Solo
Format Sheet
Composer Debussy
Publisher Alfred
Level 4-5
Price Your Price: $2.25
Discounted 10%
  
 Le Petite Negre /Ed. Olson  Product Information
Burtcode ALF2547
Instrument Piano Solo
Format Sheet
Composer Debussy
Publisher Alfred
Price Your Price: $2.66
Discounted 10%
  
 Legends Bk 1  Product Information
Burtcode LENW3c
Instrument Piano Duet
Format Book
Composer Debussy
Publisher Durand
Price Your Price: $19.13
Discounted 10%
  
 Les Soirs Illumines Par L'ardeur Du Charbon  Product Information
Burtcode LEN50564543
Instrument Piano Solo
Format Book
Composer Debussy
Publisher Durand
Price Your Price: $10.76
Discounted 10%
  
 Lindaraja  Product Information
Burtcode PRE51001449
Instrument Piano Duo (2p/4h)
Format Book
Composer Debussy
Publisher Jobert
Price Your Price: $38.66
Discounted 10%
  
 Lindaraja ( Pour Deux Pianos)  Product Information
Burtcode LEN50564864
Instrument Piano Duo (2p/4h)
Format Book
Composer Debussy
Publisher Durand
Price Your Price: $9.86
Discounted 10%
  
 L'isle Joyeuse  Product Information
Burtcode LEN51480386
Instrument Piano Solo
Format Book
Composer Debussy
Publisher Henle
Price Your Price: $11.35
Discounted 5%
  
 L'isle Joyeuse  Product Information
Burtcode INT2006
Instrument Piano Solo
Format Book
Composer Debussy
Publisher International
Price Your Price: $5.70
Discounted 5%
  
 L'isle Joyeuse (Hardcover)  Product Information
Burtcode LEN51483224
Instrument Piano Solo
Format Book
Composer Debussy
Publisher Henle
Price Your Price: $86.00
  
 L'isle Joyeuse (Klemm)  Product Information
Burtcode PETEp9159f
Instrument Piano Solo
Format Book
Composer Debussy
Publisher Peters
Price Your Price: $10.76
Discounted 10%
  
 L'isle Joyeuse /Ed. Hinson  Product Information
Burtcode ALF6349
Instrument Piano Solo
Format Sheet
Composer Debussy
Publisher Alfred
Price Your Price: $3.56
Discounted 10%
  
 L'isle Joyeuse /Ed. Howat  Product Information
Burtcode LEN50564738
Instrument Piano Solo
Format Book
Composer Debussy
Publisher Durand
Price Your Price: $8.96
Discounted 10%
  
 Little Negro ( El Negrito ) Petit Negre  Product Information
Burtcode RICBA12868
Instrument Piano Solo
Format Sheet
Composer Debussy Claude
Publisher Ricordi
Price Your Price: $4.99
Discounted 5%
  
 Little Nigar " Le Petite Negre  Product Information
Burtcode LEN50564793
Instrument Piano Solo
Format Book
Composer Debussy
Publisher Durand
Price Your Price: $7.16
Discounted 10%
  
 Little Shepherd (Hache)  Product Information
Burtcode MND10131
Instrument Piano Duo (2p/4h)
Format Book
Composer Debussy
Publisher Piano Teacher's Pres
Price Your Price: $3.80
Discounted 5%
  
 March Ecossaise  Product Information
Burtcode MASM1264
Instrument Piano Duet
Format Book
Composer Debussy
Publisher Masters
Price Your Price: $5.65
Discounted 5%
  
 March Ecossaise Sur Un Theme Populaire (Earl Of Ross March)  Product Information
Burtcode PETEp9158b
Instrument Piano Duet
Format Book
Composer Debussy
Publisher Peters
Price Your Price: $11.66
Discounted 10%
  
 Marche Ecossaise For Piano Four-hands  Product Information
Burtcode LEN51481011
Instrument Piano Duet
Format Book
Composer Debussy
Publisher Henle
Price Your Price: $21.84
Discounted 5%
  
 Masques  Product Information
Burtcode LEN51480406
Instrument Piano Solo
Format Book
Composer Debussy
Publisher Henle
Price Your Price: $14.20
Discounted 5%
  
 Masques  Product Information
Burtcode PETEp7273
Instrument Piano Solo
Format Book
Composer Debussy
Publisher Peters
Price Your Price: $7.43
Discounted 10%
  
 Masques  Product Information
Burtcode LEN50562710
Instrument Piano Solo
Format Book
Composer Debussy
Publisher Durand
Price Your Price: $10.95
  
 Masques  Product Information
Burtcode LEN50564791
Instrument Piano Solo
Format Book
Composer Debussy
Publisher Durand
Price Your Price: $9.86
Discounted 10%
  
 Masques (Casadesus)  Product Information
Burtcode INT3420
Instrument Piano Solo
Format Book
Composer Debussy
Publisher International
Price Your Price: $6.18
Discounted 5%
  
 Masterpieces For Solo Piano  Product Information
Burtcode ALFD424251
Instrument Piano Solo
Format Book
Composer Debussy
Publisher Dover
Price Your Price: $12.30
Discounted 5%
  
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