Claude Debussy: A Musical Genius

967 Words2 Pages

Claude Debussy is one of my favorite composers of all time. Claude Debussy’s music has had the ability to alter how I perceive music and, has made me gain a greater appreciation for all types of music. Growing up playing piano my entire life it was always hard for me as a child to follow all of the “rules” of what traditional classic music was interpreted as. Sheet music seemed so dull and boring to me, because I would be playing the piece but certain parts just did not sound appealing to my ear. My instructor always frowned upon me for this because it was different from what every other person was doing at the time. I recognized that Debussy’s style of music was also criticized much in the same way as mine was one day while I was listening to my favorite piece Clair De Lune. The song in my mind is simply perfection, the harmonies all flow beautifully but, according to others it is not what they want to hear because it is considered to be vague and lacks image. My struggle at being restricted to these so called rules of piano made me like Debussy more and more.

Claude Debussy is a French classical music composer. Debussy was born in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France in 1862. Debussy’s music was considered to fall under the impressionism study as he veered away from the traditional musical composition methods of key and pitch and worried about the different intervals in a piece. Debussy started playing the piano at the young age of seven, by age ten it was apparent that Debussy was very gifted in what he did as he was selected to attend a prestigious school for talented musicians, dancers and artists. Debussy stayed at the Conservatoire for eleven years where he perfected his talents with the help of some famous composers such as I...

... middle of paper ...

... believe Claude Debussy has played an affecting role in what classical music is today and should remain greatly respected around the globe for the things he has accomplished. Claude Debussy will forever remain one of my favorite classical composers because I can relate to the criticism one has to endure if you want to do things differently with a classical piece of music, I would know this because I play piano by ear and add my flair to a song. I respect that Debussy stuck with what he believed in and did things in not necessarily a strange, but different way. After all who is to say what is or is not art?

Works Cited

"Claude Debussy." Squidoo.com. Amazon, n.d. Web. 8 Feb. 2012. <. "Claude Debussy." Squidoo : Welcome to Squidoo. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Feb 2012. .>.

Evans, Mark. "Claude Debussy." Listen to This. 2nd ed. N.p.: Prentice Hall PTR, 2010. 1-534. Print.

Open Document