His later years were marred by the pain of the cancer that would keep him housebound and eventually kill him.ĭebussy was a dreamer whose music dreamed with him. He had a few scandalous affairs (his first wife and one paramour attempted suicide), two wives and one daughter. His means were limited, and he was often in debt. He was not terribly active except when composing. He was in fact a lover of cats, a hedonist who was quite the Bohemian and café-goer. Several major piano works appeared in the following years (Préludes, Études, En Blanc et Noir, and others), a major orchestral work ( Jeux), and three instrumental sonatas, including his last work, the Violin Sonata in 1917.ĭebussy was often described as catlike in his physical manner. In 1909 the cancer that would eventually kill him made its first appearance, but Debussy continued to work. Nocturnes (1890s), La Mer (1905), the piano Images (1905 & 1907), and in 1912, the three-movement orchestral Images (the two Images are different works). The String Quartet appeared in 1893, and his opera Pelléas et Mélisande in 1895. Two were based on Symbolist writings: Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun (Mallarmé) and Fêtes Galantes, a song cycle with texts by Verlaine. In the 1890s he encountered the French Symbolist movement and joined the circle of its leader, Stephane Mallarmé, who neatly summed up its attractions this way: "To name an object is to sacrifice ¾ of that enjoyment…that comes from the guessing bit by bit." Symbolism led him to the Impressionism of painters like Claude Monet, and that helped lead him to applying Impressionist techniques to music.ĭebussy's first significant works appeared in the 1890s.
#Claude debussy compositions free#
That same year he was captivated by the free melodies and rhythms of the Javanese music he heard at the Universal Expedition in Paris (as was the younger Ravel).
A trip to Bayreuth in 1888 helped make him a devotee of Wagner a visit a year later began his retreat. Winning the Prix de Rome sent him to Rome for study in 1884, though he did not enjoy his stay there and returned to Paris before the end of his term.
Later he would discover the nativism of Mussorgsky. A trip to Russia exposed him to the exotic harmony of composers like Rimsky-Korsakov and Borodin. His abilities were obvious, as were yearnings to break free from the composition restraints taught at the Conservatory. The boy began as a pianist, but switched to composition. It was the pianist Antoinette Maute, a student of Chopin, who discovered his musical talent and prepared him for entrance to the Paris Conservatory at age 11. Young Claude thought of being a painter, while his father initially hoped his son would enter the navy. (He eventually would drop the Achille.) The family soon moved to Clichy, closer to Paris. Achille-Claude Debussy (1862-1918) was born in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, about 20 miles outside of Paris, the son of shopkeepers.
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