HAENDEL Georg Friedrich
(1685 - 1759)
A naturalized English composer of
German origin, Haendel was adept at
drawing on all the influences of his
time for the types of repertoire he
worked in. As a result, he would
mark the end of the Baroque era
with his own unique musical style.
Haendel composed more than forty
opera seria in the Italian style,
twenty-two oratorios, two passions
and various instrumental works. His
elegant music was also powerfully
dramatic, less rigorous than the
contemporary Bach's, and was well-
known throughout all of Europe.
Georg Friedrich Haendel was born on the 23rd of
February, 1685 in Halle, Germany. He was the second-
born child of a barber-surgeon and the young daughter
of a minister. His father did not intend him to pursue
music as a career, but saw to it that he received
training on the organ and harpsichord because his
talents were so obvious. As a result, Handel was placed
under the tutelage of the most celebrated organist of
his city, Friedrich Wilhelm Zachau.
In 1702, after proving his talent for composition by
completing a few sonatas, he was engaged as the
organist for the cathedral at Halle. At the same time, he
enrolled at the university in order to study law. It was
here that he encountered Telemann. But the discovery
of opera drew him away from his career as a church
musician. Motivated by an ambition to work in this
genre, Handel, Handel left Halle in 1704 to move to
Hamburg, one of the great musical capitals of Europe
and a place where the operatic genre dominated. At the
opera, he worked as a second violin player, and later as
a harpsichordist. He composed his first two operas at
this time, including Almira, which afforded him some
relative success. Later in 1706, he undertook a journey
to Italy, from Florence to Rome, where encountered the
works of Domenico Scarlatti as well as opera seria. he
wrote several oratorios including The Resurrection
(1708) and Il triomfo del tempo that was later
conducted by Arcangelo Corelli.
He also wrote the serenade Aci Galatea e Polifemo for
the wedding of Duke Alvito and several operas of which
Agrippina enjoyed a triumphant premiere in Venice on
the 26th of December, 1709.
In 1710, Haendel left Italy for the court of Hanover in
Germany where he was appointed Kappelmeister. But no
sooner had he arrived than he took advantage of a first
leave to travel to London. There he wrote the opera
Rinaldo for the Queen's Theatre in Haymarket. He also
wrote specifically for the Queen, who endowed him with
a stipend.
.
.
In 1712, Haendel returned temporarily to Hanover and
then left the city permanently for London where his
Utrecht Te Deum and Jubilate, in the tradition of Purcell,
were performed at Saint Paul's Cathedral during the
following year. In 1714, the Elector of Hanover succeeded
to the British throne as George the First of England, an
incident that coincided with the doubling of Haendel's
stipend. The composer later wrote the music for a
nautical party hosted by the king, a group of works that
we now refer to simply as Water Music (1717). Under the
patronage of the Duke of Chandos between 1717 and
1720, Haendel also composed several harpsichord suites,
a collection of psalm settings called the Chandos
Anthems, the sacred oratorio Esther (1718), the secular
oratorio Acis and Galatea (1718) and grand motets for
choir, soli and orchestra (1717-20).
In 1719, Haendel became the Director of the Royal
Academy of Music and devoted much of his attention at
this time to recruiting musicians. In the following year,
the Academy opened its doors, and enjoyed considerable
success. However, financial problems began to emerge
fairly quickly and the Academy eventually crumbled in
bankruptcy in 1728. But during this period, Haendel wrote
some of his most important operas, Radamisto (1720),
Julius Cesar (1724), Tamerlano (1724), and Rodelinda
(1725). He also complete the four Coronation Anthems
for the coronation of George the Second in 1727.
In 1728, the year in which he became a naturalized
English citizen, Haendel put together his own theatrical
company. But problems of competition and rivalry lead
him once again into financial straits and he was obliged to
give up the company in 1734. In addition, an attack of
paralysis suffered in 1736 prevented him from further
forays into the business of operatic production even
though he had already recruited a new troupe. He left
England to recover in the more temperate climes of Aix-
la-Chapelle. During this period, from 1728 to 1740,
Haendel composed between one and two Italian operas
per year, and oratorios including Deborah (1733), Athalia
(1733) and Saul (1739). He also completed works for the
concert stage, such as the Solo Concertos (1736), the
twelve Concerti grossi (1739), and the Ode to Saint
Cecilia (1739)
After 1741 and his fortieth and final opera Deidamia,
Haendel turned entirely towards English oratorio and in
the space of twenty-four days produced Messiah, a work
that conquered its Dublin audience of 1742 no less than
its London counterpart of the following year. Until 1751,
Haendel turned out about twenty oratorios including
Samson (1743) and Solomon (1749), but he also wrote
six organ concerti as well as the Dettingen Te Deum and
the Fireworks Music as part of the celebrations for the
victory of George the Second in France and the peace of
Aix la Chapelle respectively.
In 1750, Haendel's health was further compromised by a
carriage accident. In the following year, he underwent a
failed cataract operation and he suffered progressive
blindness as a result. Nonetheless, he continued to
perform as an organ improviser and to conduct from
memory. In 1759, he slipped into unconsciousness during
a performance of Messiah and died shortly afterwards on
April 14th in London.
Haendel was one of the first figures of music history to
have his biography (1760), as well as his entire works
published. His operas and oratorios were written for an
enlightened bourgeois society. His dramatic oratorios,
which he created by drawing on the traditions of opera,
served as models for composers of the Classic and
Romantic eras (of Joseph Haydn and Felix Mendelssohn),
while his operas languished in obscurity until their
revivals during the twentieth century, an era in which he
would be most well-known for the Water Music and
Messiah.
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH
(1686 - 1750)
Organist, multiple
instrumentalist and composer,
Johann Sebastian Bach figures
amongst the greatest
geniuses in the history of
Western music.
His work, particularly prolific,
testifies to his mastery of the
arts of counterpoint and
chorale and to the influence of
more than two centuries of
music.
Johann Sebastian Bach was born on the 21st of March,
1685 in Eisenach, Germany. He was descended from a long
line of musicians, and from a tender age, his father, uncle
and elder brother undertook to teach him string
instruments, organ, harpsichord, and voice respectively.
The young Bach showed his talents early. By the age of
ten, he lost both of his parents and was taken under the
care of his elder brother at Ohrdruf where he became a
choir boy. At the same time, he progressively assimilated
the art of composition in an auto didactical study of the
works of composers of his era and through attempts to
imitate them. At the age of fifteen, he left for Lunenburg,
where he became a violinist and chorister, studied
composition and discovered the works of French
composers, Louis Marchand and Franois Couperin the
Great in particular.
In 1703, Bach was engaged as organist at the church of
Arnstadt. There he composed his first cantatas and
acquired a solid reputation as a virtuoso and improviser. in
1707, he married a distant cousin, Maria Barbara Bach and
left Arnstadt in order to take up the position of organist at
Mlhausen. One year later, Bach became part of the
entourage at the court of the Duke of Weimar, where he
worked for nine years as organist, solo violinist and
composer. It was during this period that he composed the
majority of his works for organ, as well as works and
concerts for harpsichord and cantatas. Bach was gifted with
virtuosic skill on the organ, capable of monumental
improvisations for which he earned a considerable
reputation. His work for organ was tremendously
influenced by organists from the North of Germany, such
as Dietrich Buxtehude with whom he studied in 1707, as
well as great Italian composers such as Antonio Vivaldi,
Tomaso Albinoni and Arcangelo Corelli whom he discovered
in Weimar.

Between 1717 and 1723, Bach lived in Kthen, where he

became Kappelmeister at the court of Prince Leopold.
Here Bach enjoyed truly excellent working conditions as
well as ties of friendship with the Prince. This allowed him
to compose some of his most impressive instrumental
works.

In 1720, his wife, Maria Barabara died after giving him

seven children. Bach remaried in the following year with
Anna Magdalena Wilcken, a soprano and daughter of a
trumpet player. Together the couple had thirteen children.
Bach was Lutheran by faith and possessed an unshakable
faith in God. It was this faith that let him to compose for
the church. In 1723, on the outs with Prince Leopold, he
decided to take up a position at Leipzig where he
succeeded Georg Philipp Telemann as cantor of the
Lutheran Church of Saint Thomas.

After 1723, his work forced him to produce a cantata for

each Sunday and feast of the year. In total, he composed
enough cantatas for five annual cycles, but unfortunately
only about two hundred have come down to us. During
this period Bach also composed some of his most beautiful
sacred works, the Magnificat (1723), The Saint John
Passion (1723), The Saint Matthew Passion (1729), the
Mass in B Minor (1733), the Christmas Oratorio (1734),
the second book of the Well-Tempered Clavier (1740-43),
and the Goldberg Variations (1742)
BEETHOVEN Ludwig Van
(1770 - 1827)
Widely known and recognized
as a genius without equal, to
Beethoven is the sole
incarnation of an important era
placed between the nineteenth
and twentieth centuries. From
the Classic to the Romantic
era, he was the first to exalt
individual sentiments in his
music, and came to personify
a Romantic ideal through his
own extraverted and idealist
character. Imbued with
immense personal tragedy,
scarred by sentimental trials,
rejecting the path society had
taken in his lifetime,
Beethoven sought in his works
an ideal that his existence had
denied him. This search
spawned one of the most
significant body of works in the
history of music.
During this period, Beethoven's previous assimilation of
Mozart's style, combined with his gleanings from the
lessons he had learned from both Mozart and Haydn were
united in a style at once individual and innovative. He
wrote numerous works for the piano (sonatas and
concertos) including the Piano Sonata no. 8, "Pathetic"
(1799), and Piano Sonata no. 14, "Moonlight" (1802). In
1800, his Symphony no. 1 in C major was premiered and
he also completed the Opus 18 string quartets, a reputed
difficult genre in which to compose. His success was
growing, and his reputation would soon spread all over
Europe.
But his worsening deafness resulted in a continually
increasing sense of social isolation, and in the fall of 1802,
he wrote his famous Heiligenstadt Testament to his two
brothers, a document he never sent to them (it was found
among his personal effects after his death). This act
marks the near conclusion of his own existence as a
hearing person, and his music would later come to us,
gradually, as a direct expression of his soul, an expression
the composer could only imagine.
Beethoven's earliest works, such as the Cantata on the
Death of Emperor Joseph the Second (1790), were written
under the guidance of his mentor Christian Gottlob Neefe.
At the same time, Beethoven worked as a viola player with
the Bonn opera, and this experience afforded him an
introduction to the operas of Mozart, including The
Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni. In 1808, Beethoven
heard the premiere of Joseph Haydn's Creation, the most
famous composer of the time. Moved by Haydn's work, he
introduced himself to the composer. In November of 1792,
eleven months after the death of Mozart, Beethoven
traveled again to Vienna to study with Haydn. He would
never again leave the Austrian capital, where he also
studied with the composer Antonio Salieri. This is also the
time in which he embarked on the dual career of piano
virtuoso-improviser and composer.
In 1795, at the age of twenty-five, Beethoven played one
of his concerti for the first time, in the presence of Haydn.
The next year he undertook a series of tours (Prague and
Berlin). Although possessing a naturally blithe
temperament, he was on the brink of personal tragedy that
would progressively envelop him in deafness and silence,
and would elicit a split in his outward personality that
oscillated between depression and feigned joviality.
In works composed after this, he further developed the
Viennese Classical style that he had earlier assimilated. The
period between 1802 and 1812, often referred to as the
"heroic period," witnessed a remarkable flowering of
Beethoven's personality, manifested in a wealth of
production. This period was also heightened by love
interests (Theresa and Josephine von Brunswick and
Bettina Brentano) even as cruel emotional disappointments
depressed it, and finally brought to life a number of major
works such as Symphony no. 3, "Eroica" (1802-04), Piano
Sonata, "Appassionata" (1804), his only opera, Fidelio
(1805), Symphony no. 5 in C minor (1808), Symphony no.
6, "Pastoral" (1808) and Piano Concerto no. 5, "Emperor"
(1809). Throughout this period of emotional highs and lows
and staggering compositional achievement, Beethoven
occupied a privileged place in the musical life of the time.

MOZART Wolfgang Amadeus
(1756 - 1791)
A child prodigy, and
prolific and gifted
composer, Mozart is
considered as one of the
most outstanding
geniuses in Western
music. He work in all
musical genres with
equal talent and an
apparent ease. His style
is one of high
"Classicism" marked by
balance, clarity and
concision.
Between 1769 and 1772, Wolfgang continued his tours
with his family, mainly in Italy, in order to nurture artistic
contacts. In 1770, he wrote his first opera seria of
classical inspiration, Mitridate Re di Ponte, a work that
afforded him international success. Two years later, his
opera Lucio Silla was premiered in Milan.
In 1773, he worked as first violin at the court of the
Prince Archbishop in Salzburg, and wrote more than two
hundred opus numbers. He began to realize the
expressive power of music and discovered Antonio Salieri
and Joseph Haydn, who would have a certain amount of
influence over his style. He experienced several difficult
years until 1779 after the failure of his romance with
Aloysia Weber, to whom he was greatly attached but who
preferred another to him. Financial grief, the death of his
mother and the hypocrisy of the aristocracy were all
sources of stress to Mozart. He composed a great deal
and gradually found his style with Symphony no. 29 in A
major and the first five piano sonatas in 1774; the opera
Il Re Pastor, the Piano Sonata no. 6 (Durmitz), the
Srnade in D major and five violin concerti in 1775. In
1779, he returned to Salzburg at the height of his artistic
development with the composition of masses, sonatas,
concerti, and symphonies. In 1782, Mozart married
Constanza Weber, the sister of Aloysia, who subsequently
gave birth to two daughters and four sons of whom only
Carl Thomas and Franz Xavier Wolfgang survived. In the
same year, he wrote The Abduction from the Seraglio, a
Singspiel commissioned by the Emperor of Austria,
followed by the Symphony no. 35, "Haffner" (1782) and
Symphony no. 36, "Linz" (1783). The Mozart family
experienced a number of pecuniary difficulties, and
Wolfgang regressed several times back into the
tuberculosis that he had contracted as an child
In 1784, he discovered and integrated himself in the
society of Free Masons by a spiritual undertaking. There
he found a certain ideal of values. In the following year,
he dedicated six string quartets to Joseph Haydn, who
affirmed that he considered Mozart to be one of the
greatest composers known to him.
.
.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born on the 27th of January, 1756 in
Salzburg (Austria). His father, Leopold Mozart was a well-known and
highly regarded musician and took his son's musical education upon him
from an early age. Between 1762 and 1769, Leopold put his son on display
for the courts of Europe--audiences that were quick to recognize his
virtuoso talent at the harpsichord, organ, and violin. At this time, Mozart
wrote his first works: a minuet (1762), a sonata for harpsichord and violin
(1763), a symphony (1764), an opera buffa La Finta Semplice (1768) and
the Singspiel Bastien et Bastienne (1769).
In 1769, after having performed for the greater part of
Europe, notably before Louis the 16th, he was appointed
concert master for the Archbishop of Salzburg, and
decorated by the Pope with the Order of the Golden Spur.
.
.
After 1786, Mozart collaborated with
the celebrated librettist Lorenzo Da
Ponte and experience rather qualified
successes, mainly in Prague (but still
somewhat in Vienna) with the opera
The Marriage of Figaro (1786), the
Symphony no. 38 in D major,
"Prague" (1787), the opera Don
Giovanni (1787) and the opera Cosi
fan tutte (1790).
who had come to study in Vienna. During this period and in
spite of numerous successes, Mozart experienced continual
financial difficulties and was literally crushed by his work
load.
In 1791, the last year of his life, Mozart wrote a number of
masterworks: the Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (K.
595), the String Quintet in B-flat Major, the opera La
Clemenza di Tito. While working at a furious pace on The
Magic Flute, a new Singspiel on a magical theme which
would enjoy great success, Mozart received a commission
for a requiem mass. He attacked the work but his general
state of health was rapidly deteriorating. He became
depressed and persuaded of a plot to poison him. Deprived
of all physical energy, he dictated the Requiem to his
student Sssmayer but would not have time to complete
the work before his death on the 5th of December, 1791 of
renal failure. After a pauper's funeral, his few faithful
admirers could not find the courage to confront the rain
and storm to witness his burial in the common grave of the
Saint Marx cemetery.
This was the death of a genius, a master of every genre
who became the chief representative of the "Classic" period
of music history.
.
CHOPIN Frdric .

(1810 - 1849) Between 1828 and 1829, Chopin undertook journeys to

This Polish composer and
pianist, "poet of the piano"
exuding originality and
refinement of style, is the
archetype of the Romantic
composer. He wrote mainly
for the piano and produced
his best works in both
Romantic genres (Nocturnes,
Impromptus, Ballades, etc.)
and traditional forms,
infused with new life.
Berlin and later Prague, and also succeeded in having his
Variations on La ci darem la mano by Mozart (op. 2). This
work drew the admiration of Robert Schumann who
responded with a now-famous quotation, "Hats off, Sirs!
This is a genius!" Upon his return to Poland in 1830, Chopin
premiered his two piano concerti. And after three
triumphant concerts, he took his leave to study further
afield, stopping in Dresden, Prague, Vienna, Munich and
Stuttgart.

Frdric Chopin was born on March 1st, 1810 in Zelazowa

Wola near Warsaw, to a French father and Polish mother.
A child prodigy, he began composing at the age of five
and undertook musical studies very early with the
unassuming Czech piano teacher Adalbert Zywny.
Impassioned by both contemporary and popular music as
well as literature, he pursued studies in both music as well
as traditional scholarly topics. In 1825, the Tzar attended
two of his concerts, and in the same year, Chopin
published his first composition, the First Rondo in C
minor.
From 1826 to 1829, he studied counterpoint and harmony
at the Warsaw Conservatory with the institution's director,
Joseph Elsner. At this time, he wrote several early works,
including the Waltz in A-flat major, a Mazurka in A minor,
a Polonaise in D minor, a Nocturne in E minor and two
piano concerti (one in E minor and another in F minor)
composed in 1830 which are model Romantic works.

In 1830, Chopin left Warsaw for Vienna, one month .

before the onset of the Polish insurrection of 29
November. In July, while en route to Paris, he learned of
the crushing of the revolution and the pillaging of Warsaw
by Russian troops--news that affected him deeply. In
Paris, where he would spend the majority of his time, his
milieu included such notable figures as Franz Liszt, Felix
Mendelssohn, Hector Berlioz, and Niccolo Paganini, but
also Honore de Balzac et Eugene Delacroix. He was
intensely active as a pianist within the intimate salons of
the day and gave much sought after instruction to patrons
belonging to the upper echelons of Parisian society. In
1832, the warm reception accorded to his Variations on a
Theme of Don Juan prompted him to devote himself once
more to composition. He developed a strongly personal
style, informed by the study of Bach and Mozart, and
influenced by Field and Hummel. .

Between 1832 and 1834, he completed the Twelve Etudes
(op. 10), dedicated to Liszt, in which he expressed the
true essence of the piano by exploiting its different
registers, sonorities and harmonic possibilities, and in the
doing brought the pianistic revolution begun by Beethoven
to full fruition. In this period, he also composed six
nocturnes, and several rondos and mazurkas. Liszt, Clara
Wieck and Hiller also contributed in a significant way to an
increased knowledge of his work. In 1835, Chopin became
engaged to Maria Wodzinski even as Liszt introduced him
to his future lover, George Sand. In 1837, he published
his second volume of Twelve Etudes (op. 25, 1832-36).
Between 1838 and 1847, Chopin embarked on a
tumultuous liaison with George Sand. In the winter of
1838, the two journeyed to the Baleares Islands to improve
the composer-pianist's health. This journey also saw the
completion of the Twenty four Preludes (op. 28, 1836 and
1839). Around the same time he produced the second
Ballade, the third Scherzo, some new Polonaises and a
variety of Nocturnes...
The "mature" years of 1840 to 1847 were filled with
teaching, giving concerts and composing, summers at the
home of George Sand in the pastoral setting of Nohant,
and winters in Paris. he wrote a great deal, including the
third and fourth Ballades, new Nocturnes, two piano
sonatas and the Sonata for Cello and Piano (1846).

In 1847 he was plunged into solitude after ending his

relationship with George Sand. In 1849, after returning
exhausted from his last tour of England and Scotland, he
gave himself up to the tuberculosis which had plagued him
for most of his life on the 17th October in the city of Paris.
BRAHMS Johannes
(1833 - 1897)
A composer and pianist of German
descent, Brahms combined
Romantic inspiration with classical
tradition, the latter aesthetic having
been shunned by the majority of
composers since Beethoven. Little
inclined to gratuitous use of novel
effects in terms of harmony and
orchestration, he championed a
type of music that ran counter to
the artistic current of his time. His
profoundly personal compositional
output makes him one of the most
significant composers of the
nineteenth century.
Johannes Brahms was born into a modest family on the 7th of
May 1833 in Hamburg. His father, bassist, introduced him to
music and specifically the violin and cello. Instinctively attracted
to the piano, young Brahms began to study the instrument with
Otto Cossel, and appeared in public for the first time at the age
of ten. At the same time, music professor Eduard Marxen
initiated him to the world of composition, including the
technique of classical counterpoint. Brahms responded with the
composition of his first two piano sonatas. As early as the age of
thirteen, he began to earn a living playing in local orchestras,
which eased the families pecuniary burdens, all the while
pursuing his musical training.
After several sojourns in different cities, Brahms established
himself in Vienna sometime after 1863, a place where he met
Johann Strauss. Brahms's reputation as a conservative
composer, acquired by his reluctant positioning at the head of a
movement opposed to the "New Germans" and Richard Wagner
in particular, earned him an appointment as the director of the
choral academy (Singakademie). He judged the choir insufficient
and turned himself over entirely to composition during the
summer months and conducting and performing during the
winters. At this stage in his career, Brahms became best known
as a composer for his chamber works, in which he often
produced works in genres perceived as challenging: two
quartets for piano with strings (1861-62) and the piano quintet
of 1862-64.
In 1868, moved by the death of his mother, Brahms produced A
German Requiem, the triumphal success of which contributed
greatly to his renown, along with the reception of the Hungarian
Dances (1854-68). Brahms subsequently composed choral
works that have some affinity with the requiem, including the
Song of Fate (Schickssalslied, 1871) and much later the Gesang
der Parzen of 1882. In 1872, Brahms accepted the directorship
of the Society of the Friends of Music (Gesellschaft der
Musikfreunde), but resigned from his post three years later to
devote himself once again to composition. Until 1873, he wrote
mainly for the piano, his preferred instrument.
After 1849, Brahms made several important contacts
including the Hungarian violinist Eduard Remenyi,
who asked him to be his accompanist during a
concert tour. In the course of this tour, Brahms
would form a lasting alliance with the soon-to-be
acclaimed violin virtuoso Joachim. This individual
eventually cajoled the composer into a meeting with
Franz Liszt in Weimar, but this meeting proved
somewhat uncomfortable for Brahms. (Liszt sight
read his E-flat minor piano Scherzo.) Joachim also
brought him to Dusseldorf where he presented him
to Robert Schumann, who was impressed by his
early works (e.g., sonatas and Lieder) and extolled
them in his New Journal for Music (Neue Zeitschrift
fr Musik) in 1853. Brahms developed a profound
respect for Schumann, and remained a faithful
servant to his wife Clara, celebrated pianist, when
his mentor was committed in 1854 following a new
psychological crisis that accompanied an attempted
suicide. On Schumann's death in 1856, his love for
Clara transformed into an epic love story. This tragic
period is reflected in his music, notably in his Piano
Concerto in D minor (1854-58). He also composed
the opus 5 piano sonata (1853), the four ballades
(1854) and his first chamber work, Trio for Piano and
Strings, op. 8 (1854).
In 1854, Brahms returned to his native city of
Hamburg where he served for two years as a piano
teacher and choirmaster at the court of Detmold, a
position that he made his own by founding his own
women's choir in 1859. During this time, his Piano
Concerto in D minor (no. 1) failed to please when
performed in Liepzig in 1859. At the same time,
Brahms composed, amongst other works, the String
Sextet (1858-60), and the Variations and Fugue on a
Theme by Handel for piano (1861).
After 1888, Brahms turned
to smaller-scale works, and
undertook a concert tour in
1895 to showcase his most
recent works, the clarinet
trio and quintet (1891) as
well as the Sonata for
Clarinet and Piano (1894).
Clara Schumann's death in
1896 dealt him a severe
blow, and he increasingly
retreated into his own
world. His death in Vienna
on April 3rd, 1897 of liver
cancer was marked by great
funeral pomp. His final is
amongst his most well-
known works, the Four
Serious Songs (1896).dn
(1873) for orchestra, a
work that predates h
 is
immanent mastery of inked
with the historical classical
tradiagneriase.

DEBUSSY Claude Achille
(1862 - 1918)
Claude Debussy, a product
of the French musical
environment of his time, is
considered to be the most
significant artist of the early
twentieth century, and a
precursor of the modern
style. His emphasis of
harmonic spheres and colour
over clarity of line and
musical form, often prompts
comparisons with the
"impressionist" visual artists
(Claude Monet, Paul
Cezanne, Edgar Degas,
etc.), even if Debussy
himself felt much closer to
the "symbolism" in his
literary affinities as well as
friends such as Charles
Baudelaire, Paul Verlaine,
and Stphane Mallarm.
Claude Achille Debussy was born in Saint Germain en Lay
on the 22nd of August 1862. His parents were relatively
poor, non musicians. A family friend and former student of
Frdric Chopin advised his parents to allow their young
child of only three years of age to study the piano with
him. In 1873, he entered the Paris Conservatory and
studied, among other topics, the piano, organ and
compositions with such professors as Marmontel, Franck
and de Guiraud. He was relatively undisciplined as a
student but very gifted. Eventually, he decided to put the
piano aside in favour of composition, even though he
appeared to possess the potential to be a virtuoso.
In 1879, he accompanied, as a personal musician,
Nadejda von Meck, patron of the Russian composer
Tchaikovsky. In Moscow, the music of composers such as
Tchaikovsky, Borodine, Balakirev, and above all
Mussorgski made a great impression on Debussy. He
wrote here a the well-known Three Nocturnes for
orchestra (1879).
From 1888 to 1889, Debussy traveled to Bayreuth and
discovered the music of Richard Wagner. He wrote the
Ariette Oublie (1888), two Arabesques (1888), a cycle of
melodies on texts by Baudelaire (1888-89), the Suites
Bergamasque (1890, revised in 1905). At the Universal
Exhibition of 1889, he discovered a new source of
inspiration in the works of Mussorgski, as well as the exotic
sounds of the Javanese gamelan and oriental music.
During the 1890s, Debussy attended a performance of
Maeterlinck's Pellas et Mlisande and decided to compose
an opera with the same title (1892-02). During this period,
Debussy also wrote his first orchestral score Prlude
l'aprs-midi d'un faune (Prelude to the Afternoon of a
Faun,1892-94), inspired by a poem by Stphane Mallarm,
and the String Quartet in G minor (1893). Drawing on the
pentatonic collection, as well as exploiting the whole-tone
scale and chords chosen for their colour instead of their
function, Debussy infuses his work with a dream-like
quality, which invited comparison with the "impressionists,"
referring to an effect obtained by painters of this aesthetic
persuasion.
These works endowed Debussy with a fair share of public
attention. in 1894, the premiere of the Prlude l'aprs-
midi d'un faune sealed the public's opinion of Debussy as
an original artist and marked the end of his material
difficulties. In 1902, the opening of the opera Pellas et
Mlisande projected Debussy into the center of both
polemic and glory. Incidental music that Debussy had
accepted to write for financial reasons were actually
orchestrated by other hands. This is how Andr Caplet
became involved with the completion of La Bote joujoux
et Le Martyre de saint Sbastien, while Charles Kchlin
finished Khamma.
In 1904, Debussy met Emma Bardac-Moyse and each left
their respective spouse in order to move in together. They
had a daughter in 1905, and married in 1908. From 1896
to 1914, Debussy wrote mainly for the piano, Estampes
(1903), Images, books I and II (1905 and 1907), two
books of Prludes (1909-10 and 1911-13). His orchestral
works of this period represent the summit of musical
impressionism, La Mer (1905), as well three arrangements
of Images for orchestra, Gigues, Ibria, and Rondes de
printemps (1908-1912).

In 1884, Debussy won the prestigious Grand Prix de Rome

with the cantata l'Enfant Prodigue, which allowed him to
study in Italy for two years. There he wrote several
works, including the symphonic suite Printemps and the
cantata La Demoiselle Elue, based on a work by the
British poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

Back in Paris in 1887, Debussy set up house with a young

woman and began to frequent the Tuesday gatherings of
Stephane Mallarme. There he met, among others, Paul
Verlaine and Marcel Proust, painters and musicians. He
broadened his cultural references both here and at the
house of Madame Vasnier, where he rubbed shoulders
with numerous artists.