Claude-Achille Debussy (French pronunciation: [klod aʃil dəbyˈsi]) August 1862 25 March 1918) was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of
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Claude Debussy Claude Debussy (1908) Claude-Achille Debussy (French pronunciation: [klod aʃil dəbyˈsi]) August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions. Debussy is among the most important of all French composers, and a central figure in European music of the turn of the 20th century. He was made Chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 1903. His music is noted for its sensory component and for not often forming around one key or pitch. Often Debussy's work reflected the activities or turbulence in his own life. His music virtually defines the transition from late-Romantic music to 20th century modernist music. In French literary circles, the style of this period was known as symbolism, a movement that directly inspired Debussy both as a composer and as an active cultural participant. 1.Early life and studies Claude Debussy was born in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France, 22 August 1862, the eldest of five children. His father, Manuel-Achille Debussy, owned a shop where he sold china and crockery, and his mother, Victorine Manoury Debussy, was a seamstress. The family moved to Paris in 1867, but in 1870 Debussy's pregnant mother sought refuge from the Franco-Prussian war with a paternal aunt of Claude's in Cannes. Debussy began piano lessons there at the age of seven years with an elderly Italian violinist named Cerutti; his lessons were paid for by his aunt. In 1871 he drew the attention of Marie Mauté de Fleurville, who claimed to have been a pupil of Frédéric Chopin. Debussy always believed her, although there is no independent evidence of her claim. His talents soon became evident, and in 1872, at age ten, Debussy entered the Paris Conservatoire, where he spent eleven years. During his time there he studied composition with Ernest Guiraud, music history/theory with Louis-Albert Bourgault-Ducoudray, harmony with Émile Durand, 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 noted pianist Isidor Philipp. After Debussy's death, many pianists sought out Philipp for advice on playing his music. From the start, though clearly talented, Debussy was argumentative and experimental. He challenged the rigid teaching of the Academy, favoring instead dissonances and intervals that were frowned upon. Like Georges Bizet, he was a brilliant pianist and an outstanding sight reader, who could have had a professional career as such had he so wished. The pieces he played in public at this time included sonata movements by Beethoven, Schumann and Weber; and Chopin – the Ballade No. 2, a movement from the Piano Concerto No. 1, and the Allegro de concert, a relatively little-known piece but one requiring an advanced technique (it was originally intended to be the opening movement of a third piano concerto). During the summers of 1880, 1881, and 1882 Debussy accompanied the wealthy patroness of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Nadezhda von Meck, as she traveled with her family in Europe and Russia. The young composer's many musical activities during these vacations included playing four-hand pieces with von Meck at the piano, giving her children music lessons, and performing in private concerts with some of her musician friends. Despite von Meck's closeness with Tchaikovsky, the Russian master appears to have had little or no effect on Debussy. In September 1880 she sent Debussy's 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; the manuscript remained in the von Meck family, and it was sold to B. Schott's Sohne in Mainz, and published by them in 1932. A greater influence was Debussy's close friendship with Madame Vasnier, a singer he met when he began working as an accompanist to earn some money. She and her husband gave Debussy emotional and professional support. Monsieur 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, the son-in-law of his former teacher, Mme. Mauté de Fleurville. As the winner of the 1884 Prix de Rome with his composition L'enfant prodigue, Debussy 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 Madame 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".[Neither did he delight in the pleasures of the "Eternal City", finding the Italian opera 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, Debussy 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." 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"; and the Fantaisie for piano and orchestra. The third piece was the first in which stylistic features of Debussy's later style emerged. The fourth piece was heavily based on César Franck's music and Debussy withdrew it. The Academy chided him for "courting the unusual" and hoped for something better from the gifted student. Even though Debussy's works showed the influence of Jules Massenet, Massenet concluded, "He is an enigma." During his visits to Bayreuth in 1888-9, Debussy was exposed to Wagnerian opera, which had a lasting impact on his work. Richard Wagner had died in 1883 and the cult of Wagnerism was still in full swing.[citation needed] Debussy, like many young musicians of the time, responded positively to Wagner's sensuousness, mastery of form, and striking harmonies. Wagner's extroverted emotionalism was not to be Debussy's way[citation needed], 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, Debussy met Erik Satie, who proved a kindred spirit in his experimental approach to composition and to naming his pieces. During this period, both musicians were bohemians enjoying the same cafe society and struggling to stay afloat financially. In 1889, at the Exposition Universelle in Paris, Debussy heard Javanese gamelan music. Although direct citations of gamelan scales, melodies, rhythms, or ensemble textures have not been identified in any of Debussy's compositions, the equal-tempered pentatonic scale appears in his music of this time and afterward 2.Private life Debussy's private life was often turbulent. At the age of 18 he began an eight-year affair with Blanche Vasnier, wife of a wealthy Parisian lawyer. The relationship eventually faltered following his winning of the Prix de Rome and obligatory incarceration in the eponymous city. On his permanent return to Paris and his parents' home on the av. de Berlin in 1889, he began a tempestuous nine-year relationship with Gabrielle ('Gaby') Dupont, a tailor's daughter from Lisieux, with whom he later cohabited on the Rue Gustave Doré. During this time he also had an affair with the singer Thérèse Roger, to whom he was briefly engaged. He left Dupont for her friend Rosalie ('Lilly') Texier, a fashion model whom he married in 1899. 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. In 1904, Debussy was introduced to Emma Bardac, wife of Parisian banker Sigismond Bardac, by her son Raoul, one of his students.[16] In contrast to Texier, Bardac was a sophisticate, a brilliant conversationalist, and an accomplished singer. After despatching Lilly back to her father's home in Bichain on 15 July 1904, Debussy secretly took Bardac to Jersey for a holiday. On their return to France, Debussy wrote to Texier from Dieppe on 11 August, informing her their marriage was over, but still making no mention of Bardac. On 14 October, five days before their fifth wedding anniversary, Texier attempted suicide, shooting herself in the chest while standing in the Place de la Concorde; she survived, although the bullet remained lodged in her vertebrae until her death in 1932. The ensuing scandal was to alienate Debussy from many of his friends, whilst Bardac was disowned by her family. In the spring of 1905, finding the hostility towards them intolerable, Debussy and Bardac (now pregnant) fled to England, via Jersey, settling at the Grand Hotel in Eastbourne from 24 July to 30 August 1905, where Debussy was to correct proofs to his symphonic suite La mer, and celebrate his divorce from Texier on 2 August. After concluding their holiday with a brief visit to London, they returned to Paris, soon setting up home on the Avenue du Bois de Boulogne (now Avenue Foch), where he was to reside for the rest of his life. Their daughter (and the composer's only child), Claude-Emma, was born there on 30 October.[17] More affectionately known as 'Chouchou', Claude-Emma was the dedicatee of Debussy's Children's Corner suite; she outlived her father by scarcely a year, succumbing to the diphtheria epidemic of 1919. Her parents were eventually married in 1908, their troubled union enduring until Debussy's death in 1918. 3.Death Debussy's grave at Passy Cemetery  Debussy died of rectal cancer in Paris on 25 March 1918. He had been diagnosed with the cancer in 1909 after experiencing haemorrhaging, and in 1916 underwent one of the first 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 of World War I. The funeral procession made its way through deserted streets to Père Lachaise Cemetery as shells from the German guns ripped into his beloved city. At this time, the military situation in France was desperate, and circumstances did not permit the honour of a public funeral or ceremonious graveside orations. It was just eight months before France would celebrate victory. Debussy's body was reinterred shortly afterwards in the small Passy Cemetery sequestered behind the Trocadéro; his wife and daughter are buried with him 4.Musical style 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".  Rudolph Reti points out these features of Debussy's music, which "established a new concept of tonality in European music": Glittering passages and webs of figurations which distract from occasional absence of tonality; Frequent use of parallel chords which are "in essence not harmonies at all, but rather 'chordal melodies', enriched unisons"; some writers describe these as non-functional harmonies; Bitonality, or at least bitonal chords; Use of the whole-tone and pentatonic scale; Unprepared modulations, "without any harmonic bridge." He concludes that Debussy's achievement was the synthesis of monophonic based "melodic tonality" with harmonies, albeit different from those of "harmonic tonality". 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 Debussy 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 Turner, the finest creator of mysterious effects in all the world of art."[23] The opposing side argues that Debussy may have been reacting to unfavorable criticism at the time, and the negativity that critics associated with impressionism. It can be argued that he would have been pleased with application of the current definition of impressionism to his music. 5.List of compositions by Claude Debussy by Lesure Numbers This is a list of compositions by Claude Debussy, organized by the catalogue created by musicologist François Lesure in 1977. The catalogue was necessary because Debussy did not use opus numbers, except for his String Quartet (labeled Opus 10). For a list organized by genre, see List of compositions by Claude Debussy.
Fête Ballet Rêve Bacchanale
C'est l'extase: C'est l'extase langoureuse' Il pleure dans mon cœur: Il pleure dans mon cœur comme il pleut sur la ville L'ombre des arbres: L'ombre de arbres dans la rivière embrumée Chevaux de bois: Tournez, tournez, bons chevaux de bois Green: Voici des fruits, des fleurs, des feuilles Spleen: Les roses étaient toutes rouges
Le balcon: Mère des souvenirs, maîtresse des maîtresses Harmonie du soir: Voici venir les temps où vibrant sur sa tige Le jet d'eau: Tes beaux yeux sont las, pauvre amante Recueillement: Sois sage, ô ma douleur La mort des amants: Nous aurons des lits pleins d'odeurs légères
En bateau Cortège Menuet Ballet
Prélude Menuet Clair de lune Passepied
Romance: L'âme évaporée est souffrante Les cloches: Les feuilles s'ouvraient sur le bord des branches
En sourdine: Calmes dans le demi-jour Fantoches: Scaramouche et Pulcinella Clair de lune: Votre âme est un paysage choisi
La mer est plus belle que les cathédrales Le son du cor s'afflige vers les bois L'échelonnement des haies moutonne à l'infini
De rêve: La nuit a des douceurs de femme De grève: Sur la mer les crépuscules tombent De fleurs: Dans l'ennui si désolément vert De soir: Dimanche sur les villes
La flûte de pan: Pour le jour des Hyacinthies La chevelure: Il m'a dit «Cette nuit j'ai rêvé» Le tombeau des Naiades: Le long du bois couvert de givre
Nuages Fêtes Sirènes
Dieu! qu'il la fait bon regarder! Quand j'ai ouy le tambourin sonner Yver, vous n'estes qu'un villain
Prélude Sarabande Toccata
Chant pastoral Les comparaisons Les contes Chanson La partie d'osselets Bilitis Le tombeau sans nom Les courtisanes égyptiennes L'eau pure du bassin La danseuse aux crotales Le souvenir de Mnasidica La pluie du matin
Pagodes La soirée dans Grenade Jardins sous la pluie
Rondel: Le temps a laissié son manteau La Grotte: Auprès de cette grotte somber Rondel: Pour ce que Plaisance est morte
Danse sacrée Danse profane
Les ingénus:Les hauts talons luttaient avec les longues jupes Le faune: Un vieux faune de terre cuite Colloque sentimental: Dans le vieux parc solitaire et glacé
Reflets dans l'eau Hommage à Rameau Mouvement
Cloches à travers les feuilles Et la lune descend sur le temple qui fut Poisson d'or
Auprès de cette grotte sombre Crois mon conseil, chère Climène Je tremble en voyant ton visage
Ballade de Villon à s'Amye: Faulse beauté qui tant me couste cher Ballade que Villon feit à la requeste de sa mère pour prier Nostre Dame: Dame du ciel, régente terrienne Ballade des femmes de Paris: Quoy qu'on tient belles langagières
Gigues (1909–1912) Ibéria (1905–1908) Rondes du printemps
Soupir: Mon âme vers ton front où rêve, ô calme sœur Placet futile: Princesse! À jalouser le destin d'une Hébé Évantail: Ô rêveuse pour que je plonge
Pour invoquer Pan, dieu du vent d'été Pour un tombeau sans nom Pour que la nuit soit propice Pour la danseuse aux crotales Pour l'égyptienne Pour remercier la pluie au matin
Pour les cinq doigts Pour les tierces Pour les quartes Pour les sixtes Pour les octaves Pour les huit doigts Pour les degrés chromatiques Pour les agréments Pour les notes répétées Pour les sonorités opposées Pour les arpèges composés Pour les accords
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