Image Courtesy: Google Doodle
Claude Debussy (August 22, 1862 – March 25, 1918) was a prominent French composer. Although he firmly rejected the label, he is often considered the pioneer of Impressionist composition. His influence extended significantly across the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Early Life
Debussy’s birth occurred on August 22, 1862, in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Seine-et-Oise, situated on the outskirts of north-western Paris. He was the eldest among the five offspring of Manuel-Achille Debussy and his wife, Victorine (nee Manoury). Manuel-Achille Debussy operated a china shop, while his wife engaged in seamstress work.[2][9] However, the shop faced difficulties and ceased operations in 1864. This prompted the family’s relocation to Paris, where they initially resided with Victorine’s mother in Clichy. Subsequently, from 1868 onward, they settled in their own apartment on the Rue Saint-Honoré. Manuel-Achille worked at a printing factory.
Works
In an assessment of Debussy’s body of work shortly after his passing, the critic Ernest Newman noted, “It would be almost an understatement to claim that Debussy spent a third of his life discovering himself, another third in joyfully and freely expressing himself, and the final third in experiencing a partial, painful self-discovery.” Subsequent critics have offered higher appraisals of some of his later works than those from Newman’s and his contemporaries’ era. Nonetheless, many of the compositions for which Debussy is most renowned originated during the middle phase of his career.
On 22 August 2013, a Google Doodle was created to celebrate Claude Debussy’s 151st Birthday.