Claude Debussy was a French composer born in Saint-Germain-en-Laye on August 22, 1862, and died in Paris on March 25, 1918.

Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune, written in 1894, was the first milestone in the development of modern music. He was briefly a Wagnerian in 1889, then a non-conformist for the rest of his life, rejecting all aesthetic academicism. With La Mer, he renewed the symphonic form; with Jeux, he brought a prophetic modernism to ballet music; with Pelléas et Mélisande, French opera broke out of the rut of the lyric-drama tradition, while he gave chamber music, with its string quartet and trio, inspired impressionist accents.

Much of his work is for piano (the most extensive in French music, along with that of Gabriel Fauré), and employs a particularly rich and evocative palette of sounds.

Claude Debussy leaves us with the image of an original and profound creator of music where the wind of freedom blows. His impact will be decisive in the history of music. For André Boucourechliev, he embodies the true musical revolution of the twentieth century.

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