Debussy was also one of the first to master the incorporation of the chromatic scales in the Phrygian modes in his works, as is exemplified by his String Quartet in G Minor. Besides being a prolific and skilled composer, Debussy also taught many students throughout the duration of his life. Claude Debussy died on March 25, of rectal cancer in Paris, France.
Home About List Blog Contact. Claude Debussy. His father, Manuel-Achille Debussy, owned a china shop there; his mother, Victorine Manoury Debussy, was a seamstress. Debussy began piano lessons there at the age of seven with an Italian violinist in his early 40s named Cerutti; his aunt paid for his lessons.
Debussy always believed her, although there is no independent evidence to support her claim. His talents soon became evident, and in , at age ten, Debussy entered the Paris Conservatoire, where he spent the next 11 years. He also became a lifelong friend of fellow student and distinguished pianist Isidor Philipp. Debussy was argumentative and experimental from the outset, although clearly talented.
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 had he so wished. During the summers of , , and , Debussy accompanied Nadezhda von Meck, the wealthy patroness of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, as she travelled with her family in Europe.
Not a single idea is expressed fully, the form is terribly shriveled, and it lacks unity. 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 the son-in-law of his former teacher Mme.
Such cavalier behaviour was widely condemned, and precipitated the end of his long friendship with Ernest Chausson. Moreover, her looks had prematurely aged, and she was unable to bear children.
In contrast to Texier, Bardac was a sophisticate, a brilliant conversationalist, and an accomplished singer. 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. Debussy 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. In the spring of , finding the hostility towards them intolerable, Debussy and Bardac now pregnant fled to England, via Jersey. The couple settled at the Grand Hotel in Eastbourne from 24 July to 30 August , where Debussy was to correct proofs to his symphonic suite La mer , and celebrate 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 was to reside for the rest of his life. He loved his music — and perhaps himself.
I think he was wrapped up in his genius… He was a very, very strange man. Claude-Emma outlived her father by scarcely a year, succumbing to the diphtheria epidemic of after her doctor administered the wrong treatment. Debussy died of rectal cancer at his Paris home on 25 March , at the age of He had been diagnosed with the cancer in after experiencing haemorrhaging, and in December underwent one of the earliest colostomy operations ever performed. The military situation in France was critical, and did not permit the honour of a public funeral with ceremonious graveside orations.
One side argues that the term is a misnomer, an inappropriate label which Debussy himself opposed. It can be argued that he would have been pleased with application of the current definition of Impressionism to his music. In contrast to the enormous works of Wagner and other late-romantic composers, however, around this time Debussy chose to write in smaller, more accessible forms.
Suite bergamasque recalls rococo decorousness with a modern cynicism and puzzlement. In this work he used the Phrygian mode as well as less standard scales, such as the whole-tone, which creates a sense of floating, ethereal harmony. Debussy was beginning to employ a single, continuous theme and break away from the traditional A-B-A form, with its restatements and amplifications, which had been a mainstay of classical music since Haydn.
In contrast to the large orchestras so favoured by late-romanticism, Debussy wrote this piece for a smaller ensemble, emphasizing instrumental colour and timbre. It would be his only complete 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 — essays a more symphonic form, with a finale that works themes from the first movement, although the middle movement, Jeux de vagues , proceeds much less directly and with more variety of colour. Again, the reviews were sharply divided.
Some critics thought the treatment to be less subtle and less mysterious than his previous works and even a step backward. During this period Debussy wrote much for the piano.
The set of pieces entitled Pour le piano uses rich harmonies and textures which would later prove important in jazz music. The evocative Estampes for piano give impressions of exotic locations. Debussy came into contact with Javanese gamelan music during the Paris Exposition Universelle. Pagodes is the directly inspired result, aiming for an evocation of the pentatonic structures employed by the Javanese music. The Preludes are frequently compared to those of Chopin.
Debussy wanted people to respond intuitively to these pieces so he placed the titles at the end of each one in the hope that listeners would not make stereotype images as they listened. A lush and dramatic work, written in only two months, it is remarkable in sustaining a late antique modal atmosphere that otherwise was touched only in relatively short piano pieces.
He was also an occasional music critic to supplement his conducting fees and piano lessons.
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