(Ah finally, a man with an actual photograph instead of a painting.)
We are so dang close to spring break I can almost taste my dad’s carrot cake. Just a couple more days of projects and exams and then we’re there! And then we most likely get to do homework over spring break too! Woohoo! (Sorry, I know that’s not exciting, but we really need some positivity up in here.)
Luckily, Claude Debussy can provide us with some greatly relaxing tunes to calmly wind down our last couple days on campus before break. He’s one of my favorite Romantic era composers – so many good pieces for piano!!
Although Debussy is more late Romantic verging on Contemporary (and is ahead of some other composers I will cover in coming weeks), his music is so fascinating that I just had to cover him before break.
Debussy took styles from other Romantic composers, especially Wagner, and reinterpreted them to form his original (and quite different) style of musical harmony and structure. He blurred musical edges, used scales quite outside the major and minor norms, and created sensuous and colorful melodies. He was also drawn to the paintings and poems of the Impressionist and Symbolist art periods, often using them as reflections for his music.
As a child, Debussy started learning piano at age eight and entered the Paris Conservatory (a very prestigious music school) at age ten. While there, he developed his skills as a pianist and composer, so much so that he eventually won the Conservatory’s Grand Prix de Rome (not a MarioKart race) for his composition of “The Prodigal Son.”
During his years in the Conservatory, he unexpectedly earned the patronage of the wealthy Nadezhda von Meck (also the patron of Tchaikovsky), who took the lucky Debussy on a tour of Europe. Winning the Grand Prix de Rome obligated him to a four-year residency at Villa Medici, an academy of music, to continue his compositions. However, he was unhappy there and moved out after just two years.
Back in Paris, his hometown, Debussy associated with Symbolist poets and painters, often using their work as inspiration for his music (like his famous symphonic poem Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun). He was constantly exploring new styles of music, experimenting with meter and melody, sometimes thought of by critics as inharmonious.
One of Debussy’s most famous works is his Suite Bergamasque, which includes my all-time favorite piano piece, Clair de Lune. No, it’s not just that music from Twilight (*eye roll*). After I learned how to play it, I realized that Debussy is a master of conveying feeling through music, holding back and letting loose at just the right times.
Impressionist painters also inspired Debussy to write pieces like his Nocturnes as well as his Preludes for Piano, each of which have vivid titles of imagery, such as “Footsteps in the Snow.” However, the first edition of Debussy’s Preludes included his titles at the end of his pieces, so that the pianists could comprehend the music themselves without the composer’s influence.
Debussy challenged traditional norms of orchestral division of instruments. Instead of using strings for typically lyrical parts and woodwinds and brass for the explosive parts, Debussy made all instruments have different colors and feels. For example, in his standout composition La Mer (The Sea), he employs the strings section to demonstrate the sound of roiling ocean waves.
Speaking of roiling waves, Debussy’s private life was quite tempestuous. I feel like he was kind of a player, in modern terms. He dated a singer, Blanche Vasnier, in Paris for a while, then had several other mistresses of “doubtful reputation” and married Lily Texier, who ended up shooting herself, although not fatally (Lockspeiser). Debussy’s private life was one of extreme indulgence. He eventually had an affair with Emma Bardac, divorced Lily, and married Emma, who was pregnant with his daughter. Because of this scandal, he and his new family were forced to flee to the coast of England for a time! Yikes.
However, his tumultuous personal life does not diminish the genius of his music. He experimented on so many instruments and paved the way for other contemporary artists to do the same. He died from cancer at age 56, with still so much left unfinished (like an opera based on Edgar Allan Poe’s poem The Fall of the House of Usher). But he also gave us so many incredible pieces to explore, and the music world is very grateful to him. Happy spring break!
Check out some more of Debussy’s pieces:
Deux Arabesques, No. 1 (one of my other favorites)
Children’s Corner (written for his daughter)
Pelléas et Mélisande (his one and only opera, though quite a successful one!)
Reverie (a master of the piano he was)
12 Etudes (Debussy thought of these as a warning that professional pianists must have remarkable hands – these are insanely hard)
And of course, our musical meme of the week!
And here are my sources:
“Debussy, Claude.” San Francisco Classical Voice, San Francisco Classical Voice, 2020, www.sfcv.org/learn/composer-gallery/debussy-claude.
Lockspeiser, Edward. “Claude Debussy.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 18 Aug. 2019, www.britannica.com/biography/Claude-Debussy.
Spencer, Mel. “Debussy: 20 Facts About the Great Composer.” Classic FM, Global, 21 Aug. 2012, www.classicfm.com/composers/debussy/pictures/debussy-20-facts-about-great-composer/.