File:Claude Debussy ca 1908, foto av Félix Nadar.jpg

Photo by Nadar from Wikimedia

Top 10 Interesting Facts about Claude Debussy


 

Achille-Claude Debussy was born on August 22, 1862 in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France. He was the firstborn Son of Manuel-Achille Debussy and Victorine Debussy.

A graduate of the Paris Conservatory, Debussy was a composer, a pianist, and the winner of the Grand Prix de Rome in 1884. His music was of great influence in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Here are the top 10 interesting facts about Claude Debussy.

1. Claude Debussy didn’t have a Music Background

Unlike most musicians of the 19th century who came from families with music backgrounds, Debussy grew up in a poor, working-class family. His mother was a seamstress and his father owned a china shop.

Claude Debussy’s passion and skill for music were very evident in his childhood. His family made the sacrifices necessary to start him in piano lessons when he was seven years old.

2. Claude Debussy Enrolled at the Conservatoire de Paris at the age of Eleven

 

Claude Debussy had become interested in music at a very early age and learned to play piano at the age of 7 years.

In 1873 at the age of eleven years, he was enrolled in the Paris Conservatory, an elite music college in France, where he studied the art of playing piano and music composition.

The college was founded in 1795, and it offers exclusive tuition and executive training at the highest level in music and sound technologies.

A highly competitive school and has produced some of the best French music composers in its 300 years of history.

3. Claude Debussy won the Prix de Rome Award at the age of 22

File:Von Meck Trio. From left, Pyotr Danilchenko (violin), Władysław Pachulski (cello) and Claude Debussy (piano).jpg

Photo Source: Wikimedia

In 1884 at the age of 22, Debussy won the Prix de Rome award. It was a prestigious prize awarded to the best students of art in France.

He was awarded a full scholarship financed by the French government to go for further music studies in Rome, the capital of Italy. Winners were allowed to stay for five years in Rome at the French government’s expense.

The Prize was established in1663 by the French King Louis IVX, it was later extended to the students of painting and sculpture in1720.

4. Claude Debussy Introduced Impressionism in Music

Claude Debussy was amongst the notable music composers who remained affiliated with impressionist music, but he rejected the term for himself.

He considered himself a modernist. Irrespective of whatever his music was named, his composition and harmonies helped to shape the composers and musicians who emerged later on.

5. Claude Debussy Denied  Impressionism

File:Pinta.Debussy.jpg

Photo by Henri Pinto from Wikimedia

Debussy hated having his compositions labeled as impressionist music. He felt that impressionism was a way critics tried to box his innovative works of art into a fixed mindset.

According to Debussy, he was trying to do something different apart from everyone around him, and the style was good.

However, because critics were stuck in their old ways of thinking, they couldn’t understand what he was doing and had to rely on this moniker to make sense of his works.

Until his death, Debussy did not accept the impressionist artist title.

6. Claude Debussy Learned to Play the Piano at the age of 7 

In 1870, during the Franco-Prussian War, 7 years old Debussy and his sister were sent to live with their paternal aunt in Cannes.

His aunt paid for his piano lessons, which he started to study with Jean Cerutti, who was an Italian music composer.

Debussy’s preliminary learning experience was great, and from there, he became a pupil of Marie Maute de Fleurville.

7. Claude Debussy was a Piano Instructor

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Image by Debussy from Wikimedia

Debussy got a job as a piano instructor at the court of rich and wealthy composer Tchaikovsky, He was introduced by the patroness, Nadezhda von Meck, to him.

 He used to teach piano lessons to her children while she and her family were on vacation to Europe during the summers of the 1880s. During this time, Debussy also performed at hotel concerts along with his group fellows.

Debussy’s music compositions were refined over the years, but when Tchaikovsky got a chance to review one of Debussy’s music compositions, the old composer criticized Debussy for his work.

8. Claude Debussy Married Twice

Debussy married Rosalie Lilly Texier in October 1899, a beautiful woman he had met in the spring of the same year. The couple stayed together for six years and they dissolved their marriage in 1905.

Debussy met a fellow musician Emma Bardac in October 1903. They started a romantic relationship and sired a kid while they were both still married.

The couple married on 20th January 1908, the couple stayed married until Debussy’s death in 1918. Emma Bardac died on 20th August 1934 at the age of 72 years.

9. Claude Debussy Loved Good Life

Debussy was highly irresponsible when it came to spending money, and the lifestyle of the rich people amazed him. He spent beyond his means while his family struggled financially

Claude Debussy became an addict to the comforts of life. He purchased a lavish house in a posh locality and hired several domestic servants and got a car.

He was pleased with all these comforts and considered it to be his right, and his obligations continued to surpass his earnings.

10. Claude Debussy Died of  Cancer

File:Plaque rue Claude Debussy.jpg

Photo by William Jexpire from Wikimedia

In 1916, a doctor diagnosed Debussy as suffering from colorectal cancer. He underwent surgery and got cured by getting his colon removed partially.

Unfortunately, he was diagnosed with cancer again and died on March 25, 1918. He was laid to rest in Passy Cemetery.

 

 

 

 

 

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