Claude Debussy
Claude Debussy, photo by Félix Nadar, ca.
1908.
Achille-Claude Debussy (pronounced [aʃi’l
klo’d dəbysi’]) (August 22, 1862 – March 25,
1918) was a French composer. Along with
Maurice Ravel, he is considered one of the
most prominent figures working within the
field of Impressionist music, though he him-
self intensely disliked the term when applied
to his compositions.[1] Debussy is not only
among the most important of all French com-
posers; he was also a central figure in
European music at the turn of the twentieth
century.
His music is noted for its sensory compon-
ent and how it is not often formed around
one key or pitch. Often Debussy’s work re-
flected the activities or turbulence in his own
life. His music virtually defines the transition
from late-Romantic music to twentieth cen-
tury 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.
Biography
Early life and studies
Debussy at the Villa Médici in Rome, 1885, at
centre in the white jacket
Claude Debussy was born in Saint-Germain-
en-Laye in 1862, the eldest of five children.
His father Manuel-Achille Debussy owned a
china shop and was a salesman and his moth-
er Victorine Manoury Debussy was a seam-
stress. Debussy began piano lessons when he
was four years old with an elderly Italian
named Cerutti; his lessons were paid for by
his aunt. In 1871, the young Debussy gained
the attention of Marie Mauté de Fleurville,[2]
who claimed to have been a pupil of Frédéric
Chopin, and Debussy always believed her, al-
though there is no independent evidence that
she was.[3] 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 com-
position with Ernest Guiraud, music history/
theory with
Louis-Albert
Bourgault-Du-
coudray, harmony with Émile Durand, piano
with Antoine-François Marmontel, organ with
César Fr