22 August: Claude Debussy

Claude Debussy, the French composer best known for Clair de Lune was born on this date in 1862. Here are some things you might not know about him.

1. He was born in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, near Paris, and was named Achille Claude Debussy (He dropped the “Achille” in the 1890s). His father owned a china shop, and his mother was a seamstress.
2. He started Piano lessons when he was seven and by the age of ten was a student at the Paris Conservatoire.
3. One of his early jobs was teaching piano to Tchaikovsky’s wealthy patroness, Nadezhda von Meck. While she was unimpressed with the fact Debussy wanted to marry one of her daughters, and wouldn't give consent, she liked his music enough to send some of his music to Tchaikovsky - Danse Bohémienne. Tchaikovsky didn't like it. His verdict: “It is a very pretty piece, but it is much too short. Not a single idea is expressed fully, the form is terribly shrivelled, and it lacks unity.”
4. Probably his best known piece is Clair de Lune, which is actually part of a suite of music called The Suite Bergamasque. It is the third movement of this suite. The others are Prélude, Menuet and Passepied. He started writing it in 1890, but didn't publish it until 1905. The piece was inspired by Paul Verlaine's poetry.
5. He only ever completed one opera, Pelléas et Mélisande, a five act love story which premiered in 1902. He did work on some other operas, but didn't finish them. Two of his unfinished operas were based on Edgar Allen Poe stories.
6. His music wasn't always well received. One critic wrote, after the premiere of Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un Faune - “The faun must have had a terrible afternoon!” His music was often described as “impressionist”, a label Debussy didn't like. His reaction: “I am trying to do 'something different'...what the imbeciles call 'impressionism', a term which is as poorly used as possible, particularly by the critics.”
7. His love life was complicated. After having an eight year affair with one of his singing pupils, who was married to his patron, he moved in with a tailor's daughter called Gabrielle Dupont (not the done thing at the time). He cheated on her with Therese Roger, to whom he got engaged, but he cheated on her as well with Rosalie Texier. He married Rosalie but cheated on her, too, with Emma Bardac. He got Emma pregnant and was forced to leave Paris because of the scandal. They lived in Jersey for a while and then moved to Eastbourne in England. Gabrielle threatened to commit suicide and Rosalie attempted suicide by shooting herself in the chest in La Place de la Concorde in Paris. She survived, but lived for 28 years with a bullet lodged in her spine.
8. Another of Debussy's best known works is La Mer. Some say he wrote this while living with Emma in the Grand Hotel in Eastbourne, which overlooked the English Channel. That wasn't the case – he'd already written it, but he did bring the publisher's proofs with him and made the final corrections there.
9. He died of cancer in 1918. The streets of Paris were deserted during his funeral because the city had been under attack by the Germans. He was buried in the Pere Lachaise Cemetery, but the cemetery was damaged by German bombs, so he was re-interred in the Passy Cemetery after the war.
10. His favourite piano is still used in performances of his music today. He rented it originally from a piano store in Eastbourne but liked it so much that he bought it.

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