Claude Debussy: a short biography of the composer, a story of life, creativity and the best works

The composer Ashil Claude Debussy, who reconciled romanticism with modernism and the nineteenth and twentieth century, is one of the most significant figures in the musical life of this time. In addition to beautiful musical compositions, he wrote a lot of sound music criticism. There are many worthy sons that France is proud of, and one of them is Claude Debussy. A brief biography of him is considered in this article.

Childhood

The composer was born in the suburbs of Paris in August 1862. His father was the owner of a small crockery shop, which he soon sold and got the accountant's place in Paris, where the family moved.

There and spent almost all of the childhood of Claude Debussy. A brief biography notes that there was an important period of absence of the future composer in the city. There was a Franco-Prussian war, and my mother took the child away from the shelling - in Cannes.

Pianoforte

There, at the age of eight, Claude began taking piano lessons, and they liked him so much that, having returned to Paris, he did not abandon them. Here he was taught by Antoinette Mote de Fleurville, the mother-in-law of the poet Verlaine and the student of the composer and pianist Chopin. Two years later (at the age of ten) Claude was already at the Paris Conservatoire: he was taught piano by Antoine Marmontel himself, solfeggio by Aotber Lavignac, and organ by Cesar Frank.

Seven years later, Debussy received a prize for the performance of Schumann's sonata, nothing more was noted during his studies at the conservatory. But in the class of harmony and accompaniment, a real scandal broke out, in which Claude Debussy participated. A brief biography and that necessarily mentions this. The teacher of the old school, Emil Durand, did not allow even the most modest experiments of a harmonious plan, and Debussy called the teacher's harmony a pompously ridiculous way of sorting sounds. He began to study compositions only in almost ten years, in 1880, with Professor Ernest Gyro.

Debussy and Russia

Shortly before that, the work of a home music teacher and pianist in a wealthy Russian family was found. The family traveled to Italy and Switzerland, with her together and Claude Debussy. A brief biography gives details about the patron of Nadezhda von Meck, who helped Tchaikovsky and many other creative people. It was she who hired Claude Debussy. Two years in a row, the composer spent near Moscow - in Pleshcheyevo, where he got acquainted with the latest Russian music and was delighted with this composer's school.

Here he opened and Tchaikovsky, Balakirev, and Borodin. Especially he was impressed by Mussorgsky's music. Together with von Meck in Vienna, Debussy first heard Wagner and was fascinated by "Tristan and Isolde". Unfortunately, soon with this pleasant and useful (and perfectly paid) work had to leave, because suddenly there was a certain love of Debussy in one of the daughters von Meck.

Again Paris

In his native city, the composer found himself an accompanist in the vocal studio, where he became acquainted with the lover of singing Madame Wannier, who greatly expanded his acquaintance in the circle of the Parisian bohemia.

For her, he composed his first masterpieces. Here, at last, begins the real "vocal" Claude Debussy. The biography, which contains a brief description of these relations and the result - exquisite romances "Under the Mute" and "Mandolin," marked the first milestones.

Academic Prizes

Conservatory studies continued at the same time. There, Claude tried to find recognition and success among his colleagues. And in 1883 he was awarded for the cantata "Gladiator" the second Rome Prize. Then he wrote another cantata - "Prodigal Son", and the following year he became a laureate of the Great Roman Prize, and in this (suddenly and touchingly) the composer Charles Gounod helped him.

Such bonuses needed to be worked out without fail, and Debussy, with a scandalous delay of two months, went to the official account in Rome, where for long two years he had to live together with other laureates at the Villa Medici and create such music there that would suit the academic conservatives.

Rome

Life led by Claude Debussy, a brief biography for children is unlikely to hold, so it is contradictory and ambivalent. He wanted to be in the ranks of the conservatives of the Academy, and resisted. I received the prize, but there is no desire to work it out, because I have to reckon with academic requirements.

And instead of beautiful romances write something traditional. And you need your own, original and not like a musical language and style! Here from here and contradictions. Academic professors did not accept or even tolerate anything new.

Impressionism

As expected, the Roman period of creativity did not become very fruitful. Italian music was not close to the composer, he did not like Rome ... However, there is no thin without good. Here Debussy learned the poetry of the Pre-Raphaelites and began to write the poem "Virgin-elect" for voice and orchestra. Poems for her composed Gabriel Rosetti. It was in this work that Debussy showed the features of his musical personality.

A few months later, the Symphony Ode on Heine's "Züleyma" went to Paris, and a year later the suite for the choir (vocal) and the orchestra "Spring" - by the painting of Botticelli. This is the suite and spodvigla Academicians say for the first time in relation to music the word "impressionism." The word was abusive to them. Debussy also did not fall in love with this term and in every possible way disavowed him about his work.

About the style

At that time, impressionism was completely formed among painters, but in music it was not even planned. Even in the above works of the composer, this style has not yet been presented. Just the academic ears of the professors correctly caught the trend and were frightened for Debussy.

But Debussy himself spoke about the same "Züleyme" even with irony, but with sarcasm that reminds him of this music, not that of Meyerbeer, or Verdi. But the last two works he did not cause any irony, and when the "Spring" refused to perform at the Conservatory, after fulfilling the "Virgin Girl", Debussy flared up and broke off relations with the Academy.

Wagner and Mussorgsky

Few people were so fond of new trends, like Claude Debussy. A brief biography of creativity as a whole can not be covered, but the vocal cycle "Five Poems of Baudelaire" is worth a separate word. This is not an imitation of Wagner, but the influence of this master on Debussy was huge, and it's audible. Much is there and from the memories of Russia, in particular from the adoration of Mussorgsky's music.

According to his example, Debussy decides to find support in folklore, not necessarily native. In 1889, the World Exhibition was held in Paris, where the composer drew attention to the exotic music of Javanese and Annamite orchestras. The impression was postponed, but the formation of his composer style has not yet helped, it took another three years.

Salon Chausson

At the very end of the 1980s, the "impressionistic" biography of Debussy Ashill Claude began to be built. The main dates of the composer's life are not so numerous that they can not be remembered, but this one - especially, because it is important. Debussy gets acquainted with the amateur composer Ernest Chausson and closely converges with many visitors to his artistic salon.

There were legendary celebrities, extremely interesting people, such as the composers Albenis, Foret, Dupark, Polina Viardot singing there, and Ivan Turgenev, the writer, played the violinist Eugene Isaiah and the pianist Alfred Corto-Deni, Claude Monet painted there . It was there that exactly then Stefan Mallarme and Claude Debussy became friends. Biography of the composer was enriched with new meetings, acquaintances, friendships and cooperation. And it was then that Edgar Poe became his favorite writer Claude Debussy for life.

Eric Satie

However, during this period all the above-mentioned people did not influence the formation of the composer's talent so much, as the meeting in Montmartre in 1891 with the usual taper of the "Tavern in Klu". His name was Eric Sati. The improvisations, which Debussy heard in this restaurant, seemed to him unusually fresh, not at all similar to anyone, and certainly not cafe. Having become acquainted with him, Debussy also appreciated the freedom with which this independent man lived and reasoned about life. In his judgments about music there were no stereotypes, he was pocally witty and did not spare the authorities.

Vocal and piano compositions Sati were desperately bold, although they were written not entirely professionally. The relationship between these two people lasted almost a quarter of a century and was never simple, it was a friendship-enmity, a complete quarrel, but always full of understanding. He explained to Debussy the whole need to free himself from the overwhelming creativity of all Wagner and Mussorgsky, since these are not French natural inclinations. He showed Debussy those pictorial means that artists of Cezanne, Monet, Toulouse-Lautrec used for a long time, it remains only to find how to transfer them to music.

Afternoon rest of the faun

In 1893, it was only to begin the long composition of the opera Maeterlinck "Pelleas and Melisandra." And then you can safely add the name "Debussy Claude" to the word "impressionism". Biography - the history of life, creativity, turning meetings on the way to art and much, much more, but it's part of it, but the main one is always one. For Debussia, this is certainly creativity. A year later, in 1894, he was inspired by the eclogue of Mallarme, and he composed a "business card" of Impressionism - "The Afternoon of a Faun", an unsurpassed symphonic prelude.

Work on the opera took nine years of life. In parallel, Debussy wrote less voluminous works, but no less significant: the orchestral triptych "Sea" with a truly symphonic scale, where the elements talk with each other (the ending - "The conversation of wind and sea"). All the music of the composer became really similar to the paintings of Monet - the sound tones - "colors" - are changeable, like patterns in a kaleidoscope.

"Images", "Martyrdom" and "Games"

Orchestral festive paintings dedicated to the three countries - France, Spain and England, were written and executed for seven years, beginning in 1905. Especially good is the Spanish "Iberia" - with bright and cheerful extreme parts and a contrasting nocturne "Aromas of the Night" in the middle.

In 1911, Debussy's music, which was unexpected for listeners, was heard, and they were already used to it, and fell in love with the whimsical play of changeable harmonic interlacings in his last works. Harmony suddenly brought the spirit of antiquity, the texture became harsh and very economical. It was music that designed the mystery of "The Martyrdom of St. Sebastian" by Gabriel d'Annucio. Then, as early as 1913, an order was ordered for the one-act ballet "Games" from S. P. Diaghilev, for which Debussy boldly undertook and coped magnificently with the tasks.

Pianoforte

Suites for piano Debussy has created for inexplicably long centuries, almost every even slightly concert pianist is now armed with this music. This four-part "Bergamas Suite", composed in 1890, and three-part, first sounded in 1901, which traced stylizations for the style of rococo.

From 1903 to 1910 Debussy wrote two notebooks of piano "Preludes" and "Prints". In 1915, a cycle of twelve "Etudes", dedicated to Frederic Chopin, was completed. Acquaintance and friendship with Igor Stravinsky "are audible" in the suite for two pianos "For Black and White", which was finished in 1915, and in some vocal works of this period.

Vocals and chamber music

Much more neo-classical became his vocal works of the last period of his life. Poems of the French Renaissance poets formed the basis for the "Songs of France", which Debussy completed in 1904, "Walks of the Lovers", to which the author put six years of his life, graduating only in 1910, but "Three Ballads" verses Villon They wrote quickly.

In addition to vocal music, Debussy did not abandon the chamber genre: he wrote many small but very bright and ever-popular works for cello and piano, viola, flute and harp - trios, violins and pianofortes. He did not finish the cycle of six chamber sonatas. Claude Debussy died in 1918, in Paris, from cancer. But the world will always remember him.