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Phaidon Press
March 2008
On Sale: March 1, 2008
240 pages ISBN: 0714835129 EAN: 9780714835129 Paperback
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Non-Fiction Biography
Born near Paris in 1862, Claude Debussy was one of the most
influential composers of his age, affecting profoundly the
works of later generations of composers, both in his native
France and elsewhere. He was trained at the Paris
Conservatoire, and decided there on a career as a composer
rather than as a pianist, his original intention. His highly
characteristic musical language, thoroughly French in
inspiration, extended the contemporary limits of harmony and
form, with a remarkably delicate command of nuance, whether
in composition for the piano or in the handling of a
relatively large orchestra. Considered by many to be the
most important composer of piano music since Chopin, Debussy
also produced a single opera, "Pelleas et Melisande", which
brought an entirely new tone to the genre. This, however,
was his only completed opera and instead his work
predominantly comprises orchestral pieces, piano sets and
songs. The orchestral works include "The Three Nocturnes"
(1899), "The Three Images" (1912) and "The Ballet Jeux"
(1913). Debussy's piano music begins with works that,
Verlaine fashion, look back at earlier musical styles with a
modern cynicism (Suite bergamasque, 1890; Pour le piano,
1901). But then, as in the orchestral pieces, Debussy began
to associate his music with visual impressions of the East,
Spain, landscapes etc, in a sequence of sets of short
pieces. His last volume of "Etudes" (1915) interprets
similar varieties of style and texture purely as pianistic
exercises and includes pieces that develop irregular form to
an extreme, as well as others influenced by the young
Stravinsky (a presence too in the suite En blanc et noir for
two pianos, 1915). A planned set of six chamber sonatas was
sadly cut short by the composer's death from cancer in 1918.
Perhaps the most influential composer of his generation (and
certainly one who provoked much contemporary controversy),
Debussy's influence continues to be felt in the twenty-first
century.
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