Claude Debussy
| Claude Debussy | |
 | |
Portrait by Marcel Baschet (1884) | |
| Birth name | Achille-Claude Debussy |
|---|---|
| Birth | 22 August 1862 Saint-Germain-en-Laye , France |
| Deaths | 25 March 1918 (55 years) Paris , France |
| Principal Activity | Composer |
| Style | Classical music |
| Activities Schedules | Music critic |
| Places of activity | Paris |
| Years Active | 1884 - 1916 |
| Training | Paris Conservatoire |
| Masters | Antoine Marmontel |
| Honours | Legion of Honor |
| Major works | |
| |
Achille-Claude Debussy is a composer French, born 22 August 1862 at Saint-Germain-en-Laye and died on 25 March 1918 in Paris.
Summary |
Biography
Childhood
Achille-Claude Debussy was born in the family home in Saint-Germain-en-Laye on 22 August 1862. His parents, Manuel-Achille, a former soldier, and Victorine (b. Manoury) are sellers of ceramics and pottery (earthenware dealers'). Eleven months later, his sister Adele was born. The Debussy leave their store of Saint-Germain-en-Laye late 1864 for lack of profitability. They spend a while with the maternal grandmother of Achille-Claude, Mrs. Manoury, before moving back to Paris even in September 1867 at 11, rue de Ventimiglia, which is born the third child of the family, Emmanuel. Debussy's father first worked as a broker of household utensils before entering in 1868 to print Paul Smith, which allowed him to move again with his wife and children, this time at 69, rue Saint-Honore. In early 1870 , Claude Achille-hand with her pregnant mother, her brother and sister with her paternal aunt, Clementine de Bussy, living in Cannes , where the fourth child born to the family, Alfred. The father remains in Paris, where the war broke out in July. Dupont Printing dismisses his staff on November 15, and Manuel-Achille is unemployed, before accepting a position in food service at the city hall 1st district , one of the future homes of the Commune.
Meanwhile, Cannes is probably the young Achille-Claude enters for the first time in the musical universe. Her aunt Clementine reportedly found in her musical arrangements, and would have unearthed his first teacher, a modest violin Italian forty-two year old from Cannes, John Cerutti. The latter would not notice anything special about Achille-Claude. In Paris, the insurrection of the Commune broke out, Manuel-Achille engages in the National Guard , which was promoted after many adventures, captain and then finding the head of a battalion, he ends up getting arrested, then release two days later and jailed again 22 May, troops of MacMahon. He finds himself with other Communists in the camp Satory , and must undergo several interviews, followed by a trial, where his trial by the War Council was clear: four years in prison. After one year of imprisonment, the sentence is converted into four-year suspension of his civil rights and family. The rest of the family stayed in Cannes for all these events, eventually returning to Paris, where Victorine Debussy and his four children rented a small two room street Pigalle.
Manuel-Achille meeting in prisons Communards another prisoner, Charles de Sivry, self-taught musician (he was such a conductor ). The two men became friends and share their worries. Manuel-Achille probably few key words Sivry about his son Achille-Claude and his musical facilities, so Sivry proposes giving the little Debussy to his mother, Mrs. Maute. The latter, who was then forty-eight, is an excellent pianist, and was, by his own admission, a student of Frederic Chopin. This statement has not been proven. Still, Achille-Claude became a pupil of Madame Maute, but it is unclear whether the course began before or after the liberation of the camp Sivry Satory (Sivry was released rapidly, benefiting from a non-place). Ms. Antoinette Maute Flora took these lessons to heart, and she was convinced of the talent of Debussy, the latter rising significantly. Debussy himself will keep a good memory, saying later: "My old piano teacher, a small woman with child, that I rushed into the Bach and who never played like now, putting them in life. "
Thus, Claude Debussy was admitted to the Conservatoire on 22 October 1872 , on the one hundred fifty-seven candidates, only thirty-three had been detained.
The years of learning
Debussy spent over ten years at the Conservatory. Upon entry, it did a year that Ambroise Thomas was the director. He was enrolled in piano class of Antoine Marmontel , on 25 October 1872 and November 7 of that year's class notation of Albert Lavignac.
Before 1879
Everyone agrees that Debussy was a student dissipated, often arriving late, and in that suffering the wrath of his mother, very strict on this point. This does not change much. Debussy was also seen by his teachers as a bright child, and quite talented. About a toccata of Bach played by Debussy in January 1873 in Marmontel, Alphonse Duvernoy wrote: "Nice sound. " In Marmontel add a year later in an overall assessment: "Charming child, real temperament of artist ; become a distinguished musician, a great future. " However, in the class of Lavignac, Debussy was considered far behind the theory. He soon, however, not improve, so that Marmontel writes in June 1874 : "Very good reading, dictation and theory. " These developments, both in piano theory, led him naturally to the competition, he won a 2nd accessit piano (following the interpretation of the Concerto No. 2 in F minor by Chopin) and the 3rd medal notation. Her parents were present at the awards ceremony, and were very proud of him. His father was released from prison almost two years, and had found a job as assistant to the books to the company Fives-Lille, and the whole family had moved to 13 rue Clapeyron.
In 1875, Debussy was, at thirteen, the youngest student in the class Lavignac, who seemed satisfied, however, still having some reservations about the theoretical principles. In piano , Marmontel was, meanwhile, quite enthusiastic about his pupil. During retesting, this time Debussy won the 2nd medal in music theory. Piano, he shared the first runners up with two other candidates, there was no first prize but two seconds (the test was a total of fourteen candidates and, in particular the first Ballade of Chopin). A Critique of Musical Art, now that day, wrote on Debussy as "a child 12 years and first-rate virtuoso in the future. " Moreover, in terms of Satie , nobody has played better than Chopin Debussy.
However, 1876 was a year that for Debussy, an academic point of view, did not keep its promises. Change that some say is to the account of adolescence. This did not Marmontel Debussy as an accompanist to send a student to singing class, Leontine Mendes, at a concert in the province ( Chauny , in the Aisne ). This concert performance organized by the fanfare of Manufactures ice was held on 16 January 1876. It was the first public performance of Debussy conservatory off, there Leontine accompanied on an air of La Juive , with Halvy , and on an air of Mignon , with Ambroise Thomas. He also played a Fantasy for cello and piano Donizetti joined by cellist Samary followed, among other things, a trio for piano, violin and cello by Haydn. It was not until after the concert, he was again asked to hold the piano in an operetta of Offenbach given by the local theater. The local press was also enthusiasm for it, "
Following this remarkable performance, Debussy was again called upon to give a concert at the Chauny 18 March 1876 , this time organized by Music City. Conservatory teachers were less enthusiastic. Marmontel writes in a note dated 22 June 1876 : "Does not at all what I expected; dizzy, inaccurate, he could do much better. "Lavignac is more complacent ( 9 June 1876 ): "perfect for reading and dictation, dazed to the theory, although he understands it very well. As if on cue, two trends were verified in their respective events. In music theory, was the consecration, Debussy won the first medal with two other candidates by cons, piano, no reward. It must be said that the compulsory work did not help really, the allegro op. 111 of Beethoven , one critic said of Musical Art "piece very severe and absolutely devoid of any sort of charm. "This explains to some that Debussy has subsequently kept his distance from the works of Beethoven. In the jury, we can note the presence among others of Saint-Saens and Massenet. As regards the technique of Debussy's piano, his comrades were still considered somewhat academic. As described by Gabriel Pierne , one of his classmates: "He surprised us by his bizarre play. Natural shyness or awkwardness, I do not know, but it literally bearing down on the keyboard and forced all the effects. He seemed taken with rage against the instrument, with the sudden impulsive acts, blowing noisily running hard lines. "Opinion contrasting with that of his teachers; except" pretty sound "(cited above) provided by Duversnoy, it adds:" intelligent game ", qualifying, however," playing too fast, "" hurry too " . Nevertheless, Piern recognizes that "these defects would subside and by the time he obtained the effects of smooth mellow amazing."
Overall, the year 1876-1877 was a year much more encouraging than the previous academically. Marmontel think Debussy abandoned his "stupidity" and picked "taste at work '. What Manuel and Victorine Debussy take as a reliever (they are still reeling from the loss of their youngest child, Eugene, born in 1873 and died in 1877 of meningitis ). At this year's competition, held in camera, found the first movement of the Sonata in G minor by Schumann , as 21 candidates were required to perform. Debussy is doing with the second prize, which is a success (there were two second prizes and three first one of which went to Jose Jimenez, a native of Trinidad ). During 1877-1878, Debussy, who is 16, enters the class of harmony with Emile Durand (November 27, 1877 precisely). Harmony taught at the conservatory was a discipline that Debussy was virtually no interest. He considered it futile and did not attach much credence. As he relates himself later: "I assure you that the harmony class, I did not much" or: "The study of harmony as practiced in the school is the most solemn sounds ridiculous to assemble. It has, moreover, the serious defect of unifying writing to such an extent that all musicians, with few exceptions, align in the same way. "
To support this hypothesis, we could mention a score of Francois Lesure in his biography of Claude Debussy: "On a small sheet that I have, Debussy noted, probably when he was appointed to the Board of the Conservatory" reduce education to a year of harmony. " However they had a very correct with Emile Durand, and both liked each other. So it sometimes happened to Durand retain Achille-Claude after school and take a look at the paper set of the student. He brought those corrections, criticisms issued before adding an enigmatic smile on his lips: "Obviously, all this is unorthodox, but it is ingenious" . Debussy, however, did not receive any reward in harmony during his first year in this class. What appears logical in view of evidence of these comrades, so Paul Vidal expressed "instead of finding the expected accomplishments of Professor harmonics, it still exceeded the goal, inventing ingenious solutions, elegant, charming, but no school, and mile Durand, who was a good teacher but lacks flexibility, it made him bitterly reproach "which coincides with the memories of Raymond Bonheur," be it a song or a low data, it was rare than it should bring a realization relevt ingenious and not the usual banality of a subtle and unexpected harmony. " The traditional annual piano competition, with the program the allegro of the sonata Op. 39 of Weber , Debussy was lean and left without any money. This disillusionment announcement follows the year 1878-1879 as the worst of his years at the Conservatoire , although his notes from Marmontel were positive.
However, most of his comrades were ahead, being more rigorous and applied in the workplace, and collecting numerous awards. He had none this year, even in the piano competition, where he played yet Chopin (Allegro de Concert, op. 46), composer befitting perfectly normally. The atmosphere became tense. Fortunately, Marmontel knew him find a distraction that was timely.
He sent it to the Castle of Chenonceaux in Margaret Wilson, a rich lady from Scotland who had the habit of receiving pianists to enliven the evenings. It was an eccentric blonde, big fan (to fanaticism apparently) of Wagner. She also held in high esteem Flaubert (she had also invited the summer before the arrival of Debussy) and Italian painting. One can imagine the impression left in Debussy 17 years by the huge castle, which landed him two pieces of his family. He seems to have mostly had to play chamber music. But he had to soak especially Wagnerian music through the hostess, and his first real contact with the composer and enthusiastic of Bayreuth probably dates from this period (although it has quite naturally wind be it at the Conservatoire).
Meeting with Mrs. von Meck
The first compositions of Debussy probably also date from the year 1879, although there is no music manuscript from his hand dated before 1880. Although like any musician, he probably sketched a few pieces on the piano from his musical beginnings. But the first compositions are certainly accomplished those of 1879 - is the date specified Paul Vidal in his memoirs, speaking of Debussy melodies composed especially from texts Musset. Most are lost but some were found, such as Madrid. Still according to Vidal, he came to sing him to Debussy and other comrades his melodies, received with enthusiasm. Meanwhile, Debussy had left Chenonceaux , returned to Paris in 1880 and was entering its seventh year of the Conservatoire. The failures of the previous year had not encouraged to enroll immediately in the class composition. Thus he went to the class piano accompaniment (established a year earlier) under the tutelage of Auguste Bazille , organist and former head of voice at the Opera-Comique. In this class Debussy gets the first prize only those 10 years of academy. Bazille said of his pupil: "Very easy, good drive, very good fingers (might work better) good harmony, a little whimsical, a lot of initiative and verve." Debussy also continued to study harmony with Emile Durand and during an event, the realization of the "low data", the jury pointed out half a dozen errors fifths or octaves. His name was removed from class and he was not even ranked.
To conceal this failure, Marmontel found him again a critical occupation, in fact, a lady Russian came to look at the Conservatory for a pianist to play music during the summer, and it was natural that Marmontel appointed Achille-Claude. The lady in question was none other than Nadezhda von Meck , wealthy widow in his fifties and a mother of five boys and six girls. A world traveler, she had known the Rubinstein and Liszt , but especially his passion for platonic Tchaikovsky that made her famous. It paid the composer a pension of about 2000 rubles per month (before cutting the bridges much later, probably because of homosexuality 's alleged composer Russian ). Every summer she set a specific place of residence, and July 20, 1880 is in Switzerland to Interlaken , in the mountains, that Debussy joined her and her children. They played a lot of works by Tchaikovsky, including transcriptions for four hands. Nadezhda was that Debussy was a brilliant technique but was a little insensitive.
Some time later they changed their place and settled in Arcachon in the Villa Marguerite. In his correspondence of that time with Tchaikovsky and Madame von Meck is repeatedly mentioned by Debussy. Speaking in particular of a meeting of deciphering the piano of the 4 th symphony by Tchaikovsky, she wrote to him: "My partner ) back to Paris in November 1880.
After 1880
Upon his return, he ended up enrolling in a composition class. The logic would have liked it to go towards that of Massenet , who had a very good reputation. Especially as Debussy had told Mrs. von Meck that he was already a pupil of Massenet. But it is oriented towards that of Ernest Guiraud , freshly named. The latter class of only three students, including Debussy. Also in this year 1880-1881 as Debussy entered the class of organ of Cesar Franck , apparently as a pupil free class he attended only a few months. He also began as a private teacher giving lessons to a student 10 years that Albert Lavignac (professor of music theory) gave him, George Cuignache. Needing more stable income, he was hired as an accompanist for voice lessons from Ms. Moreau-Saint, a position he held for 4 years every Tuesday and Friday at 3:00 p.m. (Taibout Street, then to the Rue Royale International School of Music). The course of Ms. Moreau-Saint (41 years at the time) are mostly frequented by women of the world, and it is there that Debussy met a married woman of 32 years, redhead with green eyes, mother of two children Mary Vasnier.
At 19, Debussy fell in love with this woman and he wrote many songs on poems by Theophile Gautier , Leconte de Lisle and Theodore de Banville. So many songs that are mostly evidence of love. On one of the partitions , you can find this dedication: "To Mrs. Vanier, these melodies, designed in a way that your memory can only belong to you, as you are the author belongs." This budding love does not mean he took the desire to spend a summer away from Paris. Cuignache confident his pupil at one of his comrades, and singing classes are on leave, he wrote to Nadezhda von Meck again for a stay with her and her family. It did not refuse and that is this time joined them directly to Debussy Moscow. It was an opportunity for him to discover Russia for the first time. He spent two months before going with Von Meck in Florence through Vienna , Rome , Trieste and Venice , especially when traveling in cars luxury lounges.
He returned to Paris in early December 1881 and spent more time at the Conservatory at Vasnier. When the mother of Debussy learned that he had set his sights on a married woman, she was dismayed. Most of his classmates were already aware, and were at least admire the courage of their friend. Besides, to be forgiven his late return, Debussy dedicated his opening Diana for piano four hands to his teacher mile Durand. At the same time he accompanied on piano Marie Vasnier (Debussy, himself, wrote, "Vanier" no "s" in his autograph) at numerous public concerts, and published his first work Night Stars (composed for two years already and Dedicated to Ms. Moreau St.) from Emil Bulls, small publisher Catalan and relationship to his father, to whom he sold the score to 50 francs.
The years 1880 to 1882 were decisive years for Debussy. Despite its relative failure at school, his travels with the Von Meck filled experience and insurance. In addition, he composed at that time with ease and had serious hopes of success. Proof of this confidence in him, he printed business cards in his name "A. Bussy. "
The stay in Rome
In 1884 , the young musician wins a first prize of Rome with his cantata The Prodigal Son and in accordance with the regulations, obtain a scholarship and spent three years at the Villa Medici. He left for the Eternal City in January 1885. Debussy discovers Music Palestrina and the splendors of Italy but remains tight in bel canto. He meets several important musicians of the era, including Verdi and Liszt. He befriends his companions of the Academy of France in Rome that are the architect Gaston Redon (brother of Odilon ), painter and sculptor Marcel Baschet Lombard.
However, the artist has a hard exile with difficulty and fails to compose four parts: the ode Symphony Zuleima (from a text by Heinrich Heine ), the orchestral piece Printemps and the cantata The Blessed Damozel (1887 - 88). These works sent to the Conservatory were considered, especially Zuleima, as "bizarre, incomprehensible and impossible to enforce." Still under the influence of Cesar Franck , the fourth piece is a fantasy for piano and orchestra, which subsequently was removed from its catalog by the composer.
Return to France
After two years, resigned in Debussy Conservatory and returned to France. He settled in the district of Saint-Lazare and begins a relationship with Gabrielle Dupont , he likes to call "Gaby green eyes." They will live together for nearly ten years at 42 rue de Londres.
Around 1887 , Debussy frequented Mallarm's famous Tuesday. In 1888 , he went to Bayreuth , where he attended several operas of Richard Wagner : Die Meistersinger von Nrnberg ( The Master Singers of Nuremberg ), Tristan and Isolde , Parsifal. If these works provoke in him a mixed feeling, they will treasure forever.
It is, above all, the World Expo in 1889 and his discovery of patterns and associations of sounds "exotic", more specifically through those of gamelan Javanese , who are impressed and profoundly affect its future composition : range , "colors" sound, rhythmic breaks.
Recognition difficult
Arrived in 1890 , his Bergamo Suite for piano, his first success probably due to his inspiration and influence Verlaine Faur, followed by the String Quartet , founded 29 December 1893 at the Societe Nationale de Musique by Quatuor Ysaye , and the Prelude the afternoon of a faun for orchestra, paraphrasing from a poem by Mallarme. The first in Paris, 22 December 1894 , was poorly executed and the work incurred the wrath of much of the criticism while making a good impression on some art circles there. This composition won a great success throughout Europe.
Debussy in 1894 to tackle his only complete opera (his first attempt, Rodrigue and Chimene, will be completed in 1993 by the Russian composer Edison Denisov , and two one-act operas based on Edgar Allan Poe remained unfinished to date). Already been in gestation for ten long years a href = "% C3% Pell A9as_et_M% C3% A9lisande_ (Debussy)" title = "Pelleas et Melisande (Debussy)" class = "mw-redirect"> Pelleas et Melisande mixture of poetry (with a libretto by Maeterlinck ) and music. His reputation was greatly increased in the meantime, he can afford a first in the Opera-Comique in Paris in 1902. First it was a disastrous failure because the music unique and extremely slow pace of the opera baffled the public and some of the criticism. Fortunately, a few performances later, it was a triumph that enabled him to stop worrying about financial problems for a while, as he had been a few years earlier in Montmartre.
And yet during the preparations of the representation, incidents occurred that could have done a dismal failure; Debussy had received permission to use his Maeterlinck libretto only on condition that his girlfriend, Georgette Leblanc (sister of Maurice LeBlanc , author of the adventures of Arsene Lupin ), sings the role of Melisande. But the Opera Comique and the composer accordrent role to Mary Garden , a young soprano US-Scottish. Debussy was unmistakable: evanescent endowed with a physical, a pre-Raphaelite face, Mary Garden was undoubtedly the ideal interpreter, within the meaning of the word, the heroine of Maeterlinck. It is not up to the tip of an English accent which should contribute to give him in this role as a critic of the time, really "look like a bird that was not here," according the very words of the libretto. Unfortunately, the librettist took it very badly eviction of Georgette and almost even, according to several testimonies, Debussy provoke a duel. And April 14, 1902, on the eve of the first, Maeterlinck, confided in an interview with Le Figaro: "The Pelleas in question is a work that I become a stranger, almost hostile, and, thus stripped of all control over my work I am reduced to hope that his fall was swift and resounding ... " Octave Mirbeau , who launched Maeterlinck in 1890, had the greatest difficulty and had to calm his anger, very diplomatically, to share his admiration between poet and composer. It also followed tampering, such deterioration of orchestral parts on the sheet music during rehearsals, making impossible the identification of flats or sharps.
Other external events took place. Thus, a few days before the premiere, Claude Debussy had composed orchestral interludes long as it was found that the time needed for changes of scenes and scenery, as written in the score, were not sufficient. To top it all, pamphlets against the same book were distributed at the entrance by its critics. The day of the rehearsal, one could read a book entitled pederast and slander. Recent years Meanwhile, Debussy separates Gabrielle Dupont (he left in 1899) to marry Rosalie (Lilly) Texier, a dressmaker Bichain, a hamlet of Villeneuve la Guyard (Yonne). Claude Debussy remained there during the summers from 1902 to 1904. He composed most of The Sea and the house where he lived is still visible along the national 6-80 km south of Paris. Four years later, he met Emma Bardac , wife of a banker who had been the mistress of Gabriel Faur and with whom he began a new relationship, while neglecting his wife. This break pushes it to a suicide attempt, a bullet in the chest, which she survives. The affair caused a scandal, Debussy was strongly criticized for his attitude in this story, even by close friends. However, he obtained a divorce and married Emma in 1908. They have one daughter, Claude-Emma Debussy, nicknamed Chouchou, to whom he dedicated his piano suite Children's Corner , written between 1906 and 1908. Born October 30, 1905, she died of diphtheria July 14, 1919. The album is dedicated Claude Debussy this dedication: "To my dearest Darling ... with tender apologies of her father for what will follow." After the death of his father, the pianist Alfred Cortot plays these pieces in his presence. She would have said: "Dad listened more." She is buried in the tomb of his father, Passy , without the monument are wearing distinctive. In the early twentieth century, and to ensure the comfort of his home, Debussy somewhat diversified its activities. It publishes so many articles in newspapers or magazines as a music critic and under the pseudonym "Monsieur Croche." He collaborated with Diaghilev on an idea of Nijinsky , when creating the ballet Games that knew no success. Among his new friends, you can highlight a friendship with Igor Stravinsky , a young man. It sets to music some poems of French writer Paul Bourget (Romance, Landscape sentimental). By 1910, the Faculty Debussy diagnosed a cancer. His health is rapidly deteriorating and his sufferings are more difficult to bear. It then comes out only rarely, and completes his latest works. However, he finally agrees to go to Russia before dying. He toured in November 1913 in St. Petersburg. Like many musicians and personalities of the time, it comes down to the hotel Europe, on the corner of Nevsky Prospekt and in front of the Assembly of the Nobility, where concerts are held . His performances are successful, society music lover Capital tribute. He was invited to an evening of tribute by the magazine Apollo, which Prokofiev began piano for him, thanked by Debussy. He also met during this trip his first love, the daughter of Madame von Meck, Sonia, now Princess Galitzine. "It seems to me that we have changed," she said, "Oh no Madame, we have not changed, it's time that changed. We stayed as before, "he replied . Claude Debussy died on 25 March 1918 , as a result of the cancer discovered in 1910. First buried in the cemetery of Pre-Lachaise , and free speech under the shelling of Kanonen Pariser , Claude Debussy now rests in the cemetery of Passy , in the sixteenth arrondissement. Beside him lie his daughter, who died in 1919 , and his wife, Emma, died in 1934. Even more than the romantic , Debussy marks a break with the form classic , although the formal perfection and the sense of unity that structure in his compositions do, somehow, a "classic". His music distinguishes itself by a secret architecture but sovereign: Oriental music sometimes inspired, sometimes it anticipates jazz, contemporary music sometimes, but often expresses his own mystery. The themes are scattered, scattered, harmonic daring research, the nuances infinite and complex rhythms. His works are at first sensory, they seek to awaken the listener feel special by bringing music and pictures accurate prints. The evocative titles of her pieces also illustrate this ambition quite well, even if they are only indicative and does not constitute a "program" Footsteps in the snow, The Girl with the Flaxen Hair, What the Having regard to the West Wind, The Sunken Cathedral, etc.. (Preludes). It replaces the colors in this way the notes (and thus heralds the kaleidoscope of timbres that the Second Viennese School Klangfarbenmelodie call): it is to listen Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli , probably the best interpreter of his piano works, for access this synesthesia. Thus, although it is difficult to link it to an artistic movement, it is generally referred to as " impressionistic , "a label he himself has never claimed, and instead dropped today. These Preludes, "foreword of eternal words that never come about" ( Vladimir Janklvitch ) illustrate rather a new conception of time and space music that transcends the aesthetic categories previously known, and s' frees both the early post-Romanticism Impressionism as a strictly decorative. Alberto Saviano Debussy laugh "and his ear soft marine animal", but it is a clear and strong construction that informs the works of this composer, whose musical thinking is untimely, to use a formula of Friedrich Nietzsche, "a European event. " Mobility and unpredictability of permanent musical discourse are essential characteristics of aesthetics Debussy, and not indicative of any defect in form, "everything is on the edge transition," writes this about Harry Halbreich. Therefore one could relate this artistic revolution in spiritual energy news: fragmentation, dissolution and dispersion of data of consciousness, all of which would direct us towards the idea of Bergson heterogeneity of time to space, which Proust's work is, in literature, the most striking example (Richard Wagner's Parsifal was already to say: "Here time becomes space"). Without going to draw historical parallels (the modern and fast walking) or scientific (quantum physics and the liquidation of the linear temporality), it is certain that the forces of weightlessness and uprooting, which emphasize Music Debussy, and one might believe produced by evaporation and relativization of the architectural structures of the partition, are actually part of the overall scheme of his work, and contribute to the expression of a worldview which scope is of immeasurable depth to the only aesthetic analysis. So that Debussy's music is anything but air, and carries with it a force of expression and a radically new form of beauty and singularly powerful. As Nietzsche said that "the Greeks were superficial in depth," the work of Debussy's light gravity: it can be accused of impressionist or pointillist of fauvist, provided we do not mean an arbitrary configuration forms, but a gateway to the very being of things as the possibility of opening a narrow door on the truth of the world. The style, also said Marcel Proust, is a matter not of technique but of vision. Of a non-conformist and iconoclastic creator, Debussy and have had no real predecessors or successors proclaimed, but it owes much to the music of Wagner that constantly jeered, and a whole piece of music of the twentieth century it is in turn accountable. Its main innovation lies in the refusal of development and the sonata form of ABA, which despite the changes and innovations that have made him among others Beethoven , Brahms and Bruckner , forcing the composer to move according to a fixed and predefined ( "Help!" It will grow! ", the alarm is sometimes attributed to the auditor of Debussy concert). But at the same time, Debussy faces more than any other absolute freedom of the designer itself determining the rules of the work he invented. This is why it definitely belongs in this twentieth century that begins with him than with Wagner, whose Tristan and Isolde was his own words "a beautiful sunset that was mistaken for a dawn." It is remarkable that Debussy, Baudelaire faithful as "the clouds that pass, the wonderful clouds" (Nocturnes), never adopts fixed formulas or arbitrary system of composition, as will also the case in the serialism of Schoenberg while building works of extraordinary internal consistency (Games, his most audacious, is the culmination of this revolution formal). It will also be found in a thousand echoes scrupulous attention to physical and poetic sounds and the transgression of the traditional musical rhetoric, a unique and expressive form of sensuality that does not lead hermetic nor intellectualism (Prelude to the post- midi d'un faune). Whereas previously the melody and conduct "horizontal" music trumped all other parameter, Debussy gives the tone of each instrument in itself a dramatic role: with him, the sound itself makes sense, and not just the overall architecture of the work. This change represents a revolution in European mental attitude which usually identifies the beauty in the development of a rational work built, from which all improvisation is ruthlessly banished. And if the music of Debussy is anything but improvised, but it may feel that even in his most scholarly studies such as where the systematic exploration of piano technique yet magically combines the feeling of utter freedom. In his only opera completed, Pelleas et Melisande, perhaps his masterpiece, he manages to express the inexpressible and creating a climate of "uncanny" reinvented through a lyricism and a temporality based on inner experience of consciousness. His genius for orchestration and his keen attention to instrumental color makes a worthy heir to Debussy Berlioz and equal to less than Ravel. Most importantly, the art of the snapshot "fixed dizziness" (Images for Orchestra) and freed of rational logic in favor of a "derangement of all the senses" (L'Isle happy), until adopt the perspective of the child "love maps and prints (prints), make him a spiritual brother of Baudelaire and Rimbaud , but Verlaine: "Music before all else / And it prefers Odd / vaguer and more soluble in the air, / with nothing in it that weighs or posing. "The break between Debussy deliberately introduces the classic taste, with musicians and music lovers have the codes, and New Music he defends, is one of the root part of the divorce between the public and contemporary music. In a daring unpredictable but a taste of absolute security, harmony and playwright unclassifiable subtle as Debussy was Rameau which he paid tribute in his Images for piano, a very French composer of mind (he also signed some of his scores Claude de France). But thanks to the revolution he has done in history of music through the bridges that launches towards the other arts and multiple sensations they arouse (the sounds and smells, words and colors ), it is probably better access than any other the French music to the universality of the body, nature and space. As such, the conductor Sergiu Celibidache , who through the use of the phenomenology of music, was able to return the sounds of the orchestra as they reach us, regardless of analytical frameworks and formulas learned inherited has contributed perhaps more than anyone to reveal the raw emotional power that contain the most beautiful pages of Debussy (including La Mer, "Bible French music," according to him). Messiaen, Takemitsu, Dutilleux and many leading figures of the twentieth-century music by Debussy recognized if it is their common master, at least one through which the whole of Western music could find a new and masterful Renaissance. V. For octaves - VI. For the eight fingers IV. Opposed to the sounds - V. For arpeggios compounds - VI. For agreements He was awarded the Legion of Honour. Claude Debussy was one, with Erik Satie , about Kabbalistic the Rosicrucians of Stanislas de Guaita and Josphin Pladan. And, like Erik Satie , he sometimes had some personal way to reclaim the best known tunes, so in the "Heroic Berceuse," although we recognize a small parody of the Belgian national anthem, The Brabant. 
Characteristics of the work
Main works
Period Title Instrumentation Parties / Directions Piano Works 1880 Gypsy Dance Allegro 1888 to 1889 Little Suite I. Boat - II. Parade - III. Minuet - IV. Ballet 1888 to 1891 Arabesques I. Andantino con moto - II. Allegretto scherzando 1890 Ballad Andantino con moto (Tempo rubato) 1890 Reverie Andantino Sognando 1890 Valse romantique Tempo di valse 1890 Night Lento 1890 Tarantella Styrian Allegretto 1890 - 1905 Bergamo Suite I. Prelude - II. Menuet - III. Moonlight - IV. Passepied 1891 Mazurka Scherzando 1891 Scottish Walk On a popular topic 1901 Lindaraja Moderate but slow pace and in a very flexible 1901 to 1902 Piano I. Prelude - II. Sarabande - III. Toccata 1903 Prints I. Nutmeg - II. The evening in Granada - III. Jardins sous la pluie 1903 From a sketchbook Very slow, loosely 1904 Masks Very bright and whimsical 1904 The Isle joyful Quasi una cadenza 1904 Images - Book I I. Reflections in water - II. Homage to Rameau - III. Movement 1906 to 1908 Children's Corner I. Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum - II. Jimbo's lullaby - III. Serenade for the doll
IV. The Snow is Dancing - V. The Little Shepherd - VI. Golliwogg's Cake-Walk 1907 Images - Book II I. Bells through the leaves - II. And the moon descends on the temple that was - III. Gold Fish 1909 to 1910 Preludes - Book I I. Dancers of Delphi - II. Sails - III. The wind in the plain - IV. The sounds and scents
turn in the evening air - V. The hills of Anacapri - VI. Footsteps on the snow - VII. This has seen
the west wind - VIII. The Girl with the Flaxen Hair - IX. The interrupted serenade - X. Cathedral
Sunken - XI. The Dance of Puck - XII. Minstrels 1910 to 1912 Prludes - Book II I. Fog - II. Dead leaves - III. La Puerta del Vino - IV. The fairies are exquisite dancers
V. Heather - VI. General Lavine. Eccentric - VII. Ondine - VIII. The terrace of the hearings clearly
Moon - IX. Canopus - X. Tribute to Samuel Pickwick - XI. The third alternate - XII. Fireworks 1914 to 1915 Six Ancient Inscription I. To invoke Pan, god of the summer wind - II. For an unnamed tomb - III. For the night is
conducive - IV. For the dancer with castanets - V. For the Egyptian - VI. To thank the rain in the morning 1915 Black and white I. Angrily - II. Slow. Dark - III. Scherzando 1915 Study - Book I I. For the five fingers - II. For the third - III. For quads - IV. For sixths 1915 Study - Book II I. For chromatic steps - II. For amenities - III. For repeated notes - Orchestral Works 1887 Spring I. Very moderate - II. Moderate 1889 to 1890 Fantaisie for piano and orchestra I. Andante. Allegro - II. Lento e molto espressivo - III. Allegro molto 1892 to 1894 Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun Very moderate 1897 to 1899 Nocturnes I. Clouds - II. Festivals - III. Sirens 1901 to 1911 Rhapsody Very moderate 1903 to 1905 Sea I. From dawn to noon on the Sea - II. Games waves - III. Dialogue of the wind and sea 1904 Dances I. Sacred Dance - II. Danse profane 1905 to 1912 Images for Orchestra I. Jigs: Moderate
II. Iberia: 1. The streets and paths 2. The perfumes of the night 3. The morning of a holiday
III. Round Spring: Moderately busy 1909 to 1910 First Rhapsody Dreamily slow Chamber Music 1879 Piano Trio in G I. Andantino con moto allegro - II. Scherzo, Intermezzo - III. Andante espressivo - IV. Final Appassionato 1882 Nocturne and Scherzo I. Nocturne - II. Scherzo 1893 String Quartet in G minor I. Lively and very determined - II. Quite lively and well paced - III. Andantino moderately expressive
IV. Very mild - very lively 1909 to 1910 First Rhapsody Dreamily slow 1910 Small room I. Allegro - II. Very bright - III. Slow - IV. Bright, cheerfully 1913 Syrinx Very moderate 1915 Sonata for cello and piano I. Prologue. Slow - II. Serenade. Moderately animated - vivace - III. Final. Anime - Lento - vivace 1915 Sonata for flute, viola and harp I. Pastoral - II. Interlude - III. Final 1916 to 1917 Sonata for violin and piano I. Allegro vivo - II. Interlude. Whimsical and lightweight - III. Final. Lively Ballet music 1911 to 1912 Khamma Legend danced in three stages 1912 Games Dance poem in one act 1913 The Box toys Ballet for children Operas 1890 to 1892 Rodrigue and Chimene Unfinished opera in three acts with libretto by Catullus Mendes 1893 - 1902 Pelleas and Melisande Lyric drama in 5 acts and 12 scenes with orchestra with a libretto by Maurice Maeterlinck 1902 Maiden Elected Cantata for soprano, mezzo-soprano, female choir and orchestra 1908 - 1916 The Fall of the House of Usher The Devil in the Belfry Two short operas (unfinished) in one act, based on these two tales of Edgar Allan Poe translated by Charles Baudelaire 1911 The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian Mystery in five acts with a libretto by Gabriele d'Annunzio Use of Debussy's music in other areas
Distinction
Trivia
Quotes Debussy
Discography
Bibliography
External Links
Opera Portal 
Classical music portal 
Impressionist music portal 
Portal of France in the nineteenth century
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