French composer Claude Debussy was born on this date 150 years ago, August 22, 1862 and died in 1918. Considering that Debussy is one of the most influential composers, it's interesting that there isn't more recognition of this date than there seems to be, as noted by New York Times columnist Anthony Tommasini recently in his more comprehensive appreciation. This post, however, is a more personal "impression" of how I came to appreciate Debussy's music. Bach, Mozart and Beethoven had an immediate and profound appeal when I really began to listen to classical music a lot more that 30 years ago, having begun my own musical journey with rock, blues and jazz. For me, though, some of the classical music from around the beginning of the 20th Century took more getting used to. The unusual harmonies, dissonant sounds and indefinite rhythms seemed at first odd in what was still called "classical " music, although some of these elements are in those other forms of music as well, especially jazz. It turns out, Debussy was the perfect bridge for me to begin to appreciate more of the "modern" music of the 20th Century, more so than Mahler or Sibelius, whom I both love, but whose music is more rooted in the 19th Century Romantic Era. Debussy may have been influenced by Wagner, as many composers were, but he had a strong independent streak right from the start. Even his earlier works, such as the two Arabesques for piano show an originality more akin to fellow Frenchman Erik Satie, also noted for his unique musical vision. Hokusai's Wave (Photo: (Wikipedia)
"The Suite bergamasque for piano (1890) blends old and new and contains one of Debussy's most beautiful pieces, Claire de lune. The brilliant, impressionistic Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun (1894) made him an important composer in France, but it was his symphonic suite La Mer (1905) that really got me fascinated with his music. Although cinematic in its effect, this depiction of the sea in three movements is not an attempt to be "realistic" but instead, the composer said he was portraying his memory of having seen the ocean. There's a strong subjective aspect to this music that suggests the term "impression," although Debussy later disavowed the word. He rejected the traditional approach to composition in order to evoke sensory experience in a more inward way. Eventually, I found myself listening to and relishing the unusual melodic ideas, harmonies and rhythmic conundrums in the two books of Preludes for Piano (1910 and 1913). Book One has another of those gorgeous pieces, The Girl With the Flaxen Hair, and Book Two is even more progressive and full of surprises and audacious musical sounds. After that, I was on my way and able to listen to Stravinsky and even ventured into some of the more avant-garde pieces of Schoenberg, Berg and Webern. It's easy to forget that Debussy was writing music in a time that brought huge changes to our view of the world and society, in general. Einstein's theory of relativity radically altered our picture of the physical universe, sociological and anthropological studies resulted in new ideas about human culture that were sometimes unsettling, and Sigmund Freud and his theories of the unconscious were certainly unsettling to many. Modernism in music was (and still is to some) unsettling, but Claude Debussy made the leap from Romantic to Modern much easier and pleasurable for me. For that I say thank you, Claude Debussy, and a Happy 150th! http://youtu.be/jsmCU73gAhs
Impressions of Claude Debussy at 150
