C.Debussy

(Achille-) Claude b. St.Germain-en-Laye, 22 Aug.1862, d. Paris, 25 March 1918).

C.Debussy is a French composer. He produced a body of orchestral and piano works unusually independent of traditional norms in form, harmony and coloring.

The life of the young Debussy reached a climax with the Commune of 1871, when his father was imprisoned for revolutionary activities. However, during this period Debussy was receiving piano lessons from Mme Mauté. In 1872 he was accepted at the Paris Conservatoire. Already in 1874 he was playing Chopin’s F minor Concerto. At the end of 1883 he won the second Prix de Rome, and the following year he won the first Prix de Rome with his cantata “L’enfant prodigue”.

Debussy travelled a lot in Italy, Vienna and Russia accompanied by Tchaikovsky’s patron Mme von Meck.

In 1893 he attended a performance of Maeterlinck’s play “Pelléas et Mélisande” and began to sketch his opera at once. In 1899 this opera was accepted for performance at the Opéra-Comique”. The first performance was hailed as a landmark in French music.

In autumn of 1903 he met Emma Bardac the wife of a banker and lived with her in a apartment in the Avenue du Bois de Boulogne, where he lived for rest of his life.

The year 1904 and 1905 were especially prolific: new works written at this time included the second set “Fêtes galantes”, the first set of “Images” for piano, “L’isle joyeuse” and “La mer”.

1906 was marked only by the first performance of the first set of “Images”. By this time Debussy had seen his hopes of material prosperity dashed.

In 1907 Emma’s uncle, disinherited her and over the next seven years Debussy was forced to undertake ten journeys to England, Belgium, Holland, Austria, Hungary, Italy and Russia, playing the piano and conducting his own works.

At that time he began to be troubled by the cancer that was to kill him.

In 1914 Debussy made his last visit abroad, to London, although he continued to make plans for tours of the USA, England and Switzerland. On his returning to Paris he began to suffer acute pain because he was seriously ill. From the early days of 1918 he was confined to his room and he died on 25 March 1918.

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.

Answer the following questions.

1. Is C.Debussy French or Italian composer?

2. Where was Debussy born?

3. When did Claude Debussy win the second Prix de Rome?  

4. Where was he accepted in 1872?

5. What years were especially prolific?

6. What music did he compose?

7. Was Debussy in England? Belgium, Holland and other countries?

8. When did Debussy make his last visit to London?