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DEBUSSY, CLAUDE ACHILLE (1862– )

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Originally appearing in Volume V07, Page 907 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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DEBUSSY, See also:CLAUDE ACHILLE (1862– ) , See also:French composer, was See also:born at St Germain-en-Laye on the 22nd of See also:August 1862, and educated at the See also:Paris See also:Conservatoire under See also:Marmontel, Lavignac, See also:Massenet and See also:Guiraud. There between 1874 and 1884 he gained many prizes for solfege, See also:pianoforte playing, accompanying, See also:counterpoint and See also:fugue, and, in the last-named See also:year, the coveted See also:Grand Prix de See also:Rome by means of his See also:cantata L'Enfant prodigue. In this See also:composition already were thought to be noticeable the germs of unusual and " new " See also:talent, though in the See also:light of later developments it is not very easy to discern them, for then Debussy had not come under the See also:influence which ultimately turned his mind to the See also:system he afterwards used, not only with See also:peculiar distinction but also with particular individual and See also:complete success. Nevertheless, the mind had clearly been prepared by nature for the reception of this influence when it should arise; for, in See also:order to fulfil that See also:condition of the Prix de Rome which entails the submitting periodically of compositions to the See also:judges, Debussy sent to them his symphonic See also:suite Printemps, to which the judges took exception on the ground of its formlessness. Following in the See also:wake of Printemps came La damoiselle See also:glue for See also:solo, See also:female See also:voice and orchestra—a setting of a French version of See also:Rossetti's "The Blessed Damosel "—which in the eyes of the judges was even more unorthodox than its predecessor, though, be it said, See also:fault was found as much with the libretto as with the See also:music. Both See also:works were denied the customary public performance. The. Rome See also:period over, Debussy returned to Paris, whenceshortly he went to See also:Russia, where he came directly under the influence referred to above. In Russia he absorbed the native music, especially that of See also:Moussorgsky, who, recently dead, had See also:left behind him the reputation of a " musical nihilist," and on his return to Paris Debussy devoted himself to composition, the stream of his muse being even in 1908 as fluent as twenty years before. To him public recognition was slow in coming, but in 1893 the Societe Nationale de Musique performed his Damoiselle due, in 1894 the See also:Ysaye Quartet introduced the See also:string .quartet, while in the same year the Prelude d l'apresmidi d'un Faune was heard, and brought Debussy's name into some prominence. As See also:time passed the prominence See also:grew, until the See also:climax of Debussy's creative career was reached by the See also:production at the See also:Opera Comique on the 3oth of See also:April 1902 of his masterpiece Pelleas et Melisande. Herein See also:lay the whole strength of Debussy's system, the perfection of his See also:appeal to the mind and See also:imagination as well as to the emotions and senses.

Since its production the See also:

world has been enriched by La Mer, and by the Ariettes oubliees, but the lyric See also:drama remains on its own lofty See also:pedestal, a See also:monument of elusive and subtle beauty, of emphatic originality and of See also:charm. In an Apologia Debussy has declared that in composing Pelleas he " wanted to dispense with parasitic musical phrases. See also:Melody is, if I may say so, almost See also:anti-lyric, and powerless to See also:express the See also:constant See also:change of emotion or See also:life. Melody is suitable only for the chanson, which confirms a fixed sentiment. I have never been willing that my music should hinder, through technical exigencies, the change of sentiment and See also:passion See also:felt by my characters. It is effaced as soon as it is necessary that these should have perfect See also:liberty in their gestures or in their cries, in their joy, or in their sorrow." The See also:list of Debussy's works is a lengthy one. Several of them have been referred to already. Among the others, of which the complete list is too See also:long to See also:print here, are the dances for See also:chromatic See also:harp or pianoforte; Images; incidental music to See also:King See also:Lear; the Petite Suite; Trois Nocturnes; innumerable songs, as Proses Lyriques (See also:text by Debussy); two See also:series of See also:Verlaine's Fetes gal See also:ant es; Cinq Poemes de See also:Baudelaire; many pianoforte pieces. In 1891 Debussy was appointed critic of the Revue See also:Blanche. In his first See also:notice he expressed his faith thus: " I shall endeavour to trace in a musical See also:work the many different emotions which have helped to give it See also:birth, also to demonstrate its inner life. This, surely, will be accounted of greater See also:interest than the See also:game which consists in dissecting it as if it were a curious timepiece." As to the theories, so much debated, of this remarkable musician—probably in the whole range of musical See also:history there has not appeared a more difficult theorist to " See also:place." Unquestionably Debussy has introduced a new system of See also:colour into music, which has begun already to exert widespread influence. Roughly, Debussy's system may be summarized thus: His See also:scale basis is of six whole tones (enharmonic), as (I) See also:middle C ,D,E,Gb,A1 ,B1 , which are of excellent See also:sound when super-imposed in the See also:form of two augmented unrelated triads.

Bb A# GIs or enharmonically F# D {Ats [G# E C E C used frequently incomplete (i.e. by the omission of one See also:

note) by Debussy. Now, upon the basis of an augmented triad a tune may be played above it provided that it be based upon the six-See also:tone scale, and a fugue may be written, the re-entry of the subject of which ma be made upon any note of the scale, and the See also:harmony will be E complete. To See also:associate this scale with the See also:ordinary diatonic C scale let a See also:major 9th be taken, e.g.: one may conventionally A flatten or sharpen the fifth of this (A becoming # See also:orb as F# desired) : if both the flattened and sharpened fifths be taken D in the one chord this chord is arrived at: E* C Bb AI? (A# enharmonically altered to Bb) F$$ D which is composed of the notes of the aforesaid scale (1), and Debussy thereby proves his See also:case to belong to the " primitifs." It will be noticed that chords of the 9th in sequence and in all forms occur in Debussy's music as well as the augmented triad harmonics, where the melodic See also:line is based on the tonal scale. This, in all likelihood, is the outcome of Debussy's instinctive feeling for the association of his so-called See also:discovery with the ordinary scale. The " See also:secret," it may be added, comes not from Annamese music as has been frequently stated, but probably from Russia, where certainly it was used before Debussy's rise. (R. H.

End of Article: DEBUSSY, CLAUDE ACHILLE (1862– )

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