Claude Debussy Research Paper

Myravanni Alefosio

June 1, 2018

Period 4

Mr.DeAngelis

“Claude Debussy”

Achille-Claude Debussy was born on August 22, 1862, in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France, the oldest of five children. He grew up in a poor family but his love for the piano, sparked the beginning of his career and future success. When Claude turned 7, he started taking piano lessons and by the time he was 10, he was entered into the Paris conservatory where his talents were recognized by his fellow instructors and peers. Claude Debussy spent most of his life with Nadezhda von Meck, who was a russian business woman/musician that wanted Claude to teach her children how to play piano. With her and her children, Debussy traveled Europe and began accumulating musical

He took home the top prize, which allowed him to study for three years in the Italian capital. While in Rome, he was an apprentice to German composer, Richard Wagner. When returned to paris a few years after, he fell in love with a singer, Blanche Vasnier, the beautiful young wife of an architect; she inspired many of his early works. It is clear that he was torn by influences from many directions. Claude Debussy and Richard Wagner were both considered impressionists, which was a movement among various composers in Western classical music during the late 19th and early 20th centuries whose music focuses on suggestion and atmosphere, "conveying the moods and emotions aroused by the subject rather than a detailed tone‐picture". Clair de Lune was one of the most-loved piano pieces by Claude Debussy. This piece speaks of “au calme clair de lune triste et beau” (the still moonlight sad and lovely). It also describes “charmante masques et bergamasques”, which may have inspired the name of the whole suite. “Bergamasques” refers to masked festivals in the ancient Italian Theatre Tradition, common also through France, using archetypal

Another well known piano piece by Claude was called “La Fille Aux Cheveux De Lin” but in translation means the girl with linen hair, and also written between the years 1909 and 1910. His choice of simplicity for this piece was highly unusual, since it deviated from his style at the time and brought back the simple harmonies that he had utilized in his earlier musical compositions, which were more traditional. This piece stood out due to the fact that it didn’t meet the expectations of an artist who is labeled as an “impressionists”, but it still was an amazing traditional piano piece. Lastly in 1890, Debussy's Reverie was one of his first solo piano works to make an impact. In this composition, the gentle repetitive theme opens this working feeling like a descent sleepy dreamy-world (as the title suggests), and as the textures become ever richer the dreams only become more lush and addictive. Debussy was known as one of the first musical impressionist and he later'd inspired Joseph Maurice Ravel who was a French composer, pianist and conductor. There were not many of these impressionist during his era, which is Maurice was influenced by his work because he also went to the same Paris