French composer, founder of Music Impressionism: Short profile of the life and works of Claude Debussy. He is mainly famous for piano music Clair de lune and orchestral La mer and Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune.
French composer Claude Debussy reached his career peak when the late Romantics like Liszt and Wagner were coming to an end. He is often called a musical 'Impressionist' as aligned with French impressionism painters Monet, Renoir, and Degas.
Beginnings
Debussy did not come from a musical family but was encouraged to take up music at an early age. He was born on August 22, 1862 in St Germain-en-Laye. At the age of 10, he studied with Guiraud at the Paris Conservatoire.
Initially, he planned to be a virtuoso pianist but he abandoned it when won the coveted Prix de Rome competition twice.
Early Impressions
In his early years, he travelled extensively to Vienna, Italy and Russia. He also spent some years in Rome but often he was not happy. He was known to be unsociable even as a youth.
I've chosen to feature Claude Debussy's "Clair de lune" beautifully performed on the piano by composer and pianist Sally Whitwell. Sal is an ARIA Award-winning Australian pianist.
I've chosen to feature Claude Debussy's "Clair de lune" beautifully performed on the piano by composer and pianist Sally Whitwell. Sal is an ARIA Award-winning Australian pianist.
More important impressions came from Debussy's visits to Bayreuth and from hearing Javanese music in Paris. He broke with German Romanticism and initiated new qualities on the whole-tone scale, evoking oriental music in harmony and melody.
Debussy and Influence of School
of Impressionism
Claude Debussy's
interest in the arts was focused particularly on the painters of the
Impressionist school headed by Claude Monet. Critics hailed Debussy as a French
musical “impressionist” in comparing his music with the impressionist painters
Monet, Renoir and Pissarro, although he preferred the term Symbolism to
Impressionism.
Orchestral Prélude à l'après-midi
d'un faune
At 30, Debussy began one
of his best known orchestral works Prélude
à l'après-midi d'un faune, a beautiful and sensual music based on a poem by Stéphane Mallarmé,
describing the dreams and desires of a faun enjoying in an afternoon heat. The
first performance was a great success given an immediate encore.
Family and Financial Life
Debussy had two marriages and many love affairs. On his first wedding, in 1899, he had to give a piano lesson to pay for the reception. His second wife was wealthy, and at 46 years old, he was achieving financial security. Unfortunately, his health began to deteriorate a year later. He died of cancer in 1918, 25th March, at the age of 56.
Debussy's major works
Preludes L’Apres-midi d’un faune (The Afternoon of a
Faun), illustrating a poem by Mallarme and La fille aux cheveaux de lin (The Girl with the Flaxen Hair)
Opera Pelleas et Melisande in 1902, the turning point in his career and considered as the most important opera that Impressionism ever produced.
Children’s Corner, for piano in 1908: Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum, Jumbo's Lullaby, Doll's
Serenade, snow is Dancing, Little Shepherd, Golliwog's Cake-walk
Reverie,
1890
Orchestral pieces
Songs
Debussy's Orchestral
Music are in the realm of nature such as:
Trois Nocturnes, 1899
La Mer (The Sea), 1903
Clair de Lune (Moonlight), 1890
Jeux (Games),
1910, ballet.
Video Credit:
Clair de lune performed by Sally Whitwell. Youtube, uploaded by standrewsday. Accessed August 22, 2017. (Included in Sally Whitwell's captivating album "The Good, the Bad and the Awkward."
Image Credit:
Claude Debussy. Karadar / Public Domain.
Resources:
Oxford Dictionary of Music, Edited by Michael & Joyce Kennedy & Tim Rutherford-Johnson. Oxford: OUP. 2012.
Note: This article was originally written for publishing media Suite101.com (now close), 17 Sept 2007. I've republished it here, abridged, with an additional video. / Tel
(c) August 2017. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.
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