Impressionism · Main figures
1862 – 1918
Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France → Paris
Life
Claude Debussy was born in Saint- Germain- en-Lay- on August 22, 1862 and entered the Paris Conservatory at only ten years. There he often collided with his teachers for his taste for unorthodox harmonies, although in 1884 he won the Prix de Rome with the cantata L'enfant prodigue. His contact with the symbolist poets, with Mallarmé and Verlaine at the head, and the discovery of the Javanese gamelan at the 1889 Universal Exhibition forever marked his way of understanding the sound.
With the Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune (1894) opened a new door in European music: harmonies that do not seek to be resolved, scales of whole and pentatonic tones, and a use of the bell as if it were color. Although he himself rejected the label of «Impressionist»His opera. Pelléas et Mélisande, The mer and his two books of Préludes for piano are the heart of the movement. He died in Paris on 25 March 1918, during the German bombing of the city.
Featured works
- Suite bergamasque, with «Lune Clair» (1890, revised 1905)
- Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune (1894)
- Nights for orchestra (1899)
- Pelléas et Mélisande, opera (1902)
- Stamps for piano (1903)
- The mer, three symphonic sketches (1905)
- Images for piano (1905-1907)
- Children's Corner (1908)
- Préludes, books I and II (1910-1913)
- Jeux, ballet (1913)
