Claude Debussy was born in St. Germaine en Laye in France. His father and mother owned a china shop. He entered the Paris Conservatiore and studied with Antoine Marmontel for piano and Ernest Guiraua for composition. Debussy rarely ever followed the rules of harmony. In 1885, he won the Prix de Rome for the Cantata, Prodigal Son. He was able to stay in Rome to study. Debussy had to adapt to the idea of fantasy of dreams with his own style and breakaway from western harmony and form.
Gabriel Faure and Debussy were good friends and they influenced each other. Faure was also one of the compositional professors of Ravel. Much of Debussy's music contains unresolved chords. This is also shown in Eric Satie's music. They were influenced by one another as well. As a student, Debussy initially saw Wagner as the future of music from his musical dramas. While travelling in Italy, he lived at the house of Badezhda von Meck, where he tutored her children. Debussy even fell in love with one of her daughters. He also encountered the Indonesian Ganmon orchestra in the Paris World Exposition in 1889. Much of his music is oriental and Russian because of this encounter. Maurice Maeterlinck was a symbolist Belgian Poet. Debussy used his work Peileas and Melisande and adapted it into an opera. It was continuously revised and when it came out it was considered a lack of harmonies. But eventually, the opera became a success. Once Debussy because famous from the opera, he traveled all over Europe to conduct and write articles. He worked at revue blanche as a critic for music.
Debussy's first wife was named Lily. Emma Bardac was his second wife and they met through Faure. Claude-Emma is their daughter. Maurice Ravel is often compared to Debussy, and was an important disciple of Debussy. In Paris 1918, he had cancer and it made him lose interest in music. He died in 1918 when Germans bombed France. Claude Debussy always signed his music with: Claude Debussy, Musicien Francais. (French Musician)
Like Impressionistic painters, the symbolist poets revolted against grandiose subjects of the Romantic period. They wanted to strike for a direct poetic experience. They preferred to present a symbol rather than state the object, also sensitive to sound of words. The poets used free verse form, which brought out language and abstract quality. Thus, giving music a free symbolic approach. This influenced Debussy's symbolic approach.
