Facts about Debussy
In 1899, Debussy married Rosalie Texier, who was described as not complementary given his cultural taste and experience.
Debussy lived during a period of chronic political instability.
Instead, the funeral procession made its way through deserted streets as shells from the German guns ripped into Debussy's beloved city, laying him to rest at the Cimetiиre de Passy.
To cite Rudolph Rйti, Debussy's greatest accomplishment was the enrichment of monophony based melodic tonality with harmonies that differed from those of harmonic tonality.
The second set of Preludes' for piano features Debussy at his most avant-garde; dissonant harmonies evoke moods and images.
Ravel once remarked that upon hearing Debussy's music, he first understood what real music was..
Missing from published editions is the instruction to play bars 7-12 and 22-83 at twice the speed of the remainder, exactly as Debussy did himself on a piano-roll recording.
Debussy died of cancer at the age of 55 just before Germany overtook his native France in World War I.
Debussy's last years of life were marked by a struggle with colon cancer and physical pain; he died in Paris during the final German offensive of World War I.
Debussy's compositions questioned the very essence of western forms and thematic organization.
Debussy received piano instruction from Chopin's pupil Madame de Fleurville, and being very gifted, entered the Paris Conservatoire when he was 11 years old.
Debussy's last orchestral work, the ballet Jeux, written for Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, contains some of his strangest harmonies and textures in a form that moves freely over its own field of motivic connection.
Debussy became a close friend of a wealthy composer and member of Franck's circle, Ernest Chausson.
Claude Debussy was born in St Germain-en-Laye near Paris, France.
Nevertheless, the heavy emotionalism exhibited by late-Romantic composers as well as Wagner and his highly elaborate operas was surpassed in Debussy's symbolist opera Pellйas et Mйlisande, his sole completed opera.
Wagner's techniques had a lasting impact on Debussy's subsequent compositions; his influence is evident in the "La damoiselle йlue" and the "Cinq poиmes de Baudelaire."
Debussy had several affairs with married women prior to his own betrothal.
The poem "The Afternoon of a Faun" by the Symbolist Mallarmй inspired Debussy to write one of his most famous works, the revolutionary Prйlude а l'aprиs-midi d'un faune.
Disregarding traditional ideas of chord structure and tonality, Debussy sought above all to evoke light, color, nuance, and atmosphere in his works.
Nevertheless, Debussy protested his label as "Father of Impressionism in music," and academic circles too believe that the term might be a misnomer.
Debussy is considered the most original musical mind of the turn of the century.
Debussy: Orchestral Works, Philips Duo CD 438742 Debussy: Opera/Pelleas Et Melisande.
Achille-Claude Debussy (August 22, 1862 – March 25, 1918) was a French composer who created within the style referred to as Impressionist music, a term which he dismissed.
Debussy's musical style began emerging in full in the 1890s under the influence of Eric Satie, Impressionist painters, who rejected representation in painting, and Symbolist poets, who denounced the importance of ideas.