Claude Debussy Claude Debussy was one of the greatest composers of impressionistic music and considered by many one of the greatest composers of all time. He had a genius mind and portrayed that through his music. He was a man of deep thoughts and showed great emotion through his music. “Although Debussy rarely appeared in public, only to perform, and left behind no pupils, it is clear that Debussy has many imitators (Debussyistes, as they were known), and his death was widely mourned throughout the musical world. Debussy’s works has influenced many new and modern music. The French composer Claude Debussy was born in 1862, the oldest out of five children. He died in 1918. Debussy was born in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France. “He was born …show more content…

The music feels as if it was meant to connect the player to their instrument and to make them one. He wrote music that was meant to be played in a new way and to give the musician a new feel to their instrument as they were playing it. “Impressionistic music for the most part avoids the kind of goal-oriented structures that had dominated music of the preceding century or more” (Bonds). There were many rules that one would usually follow before this era in music and the rules were rarely broken. These guidelines to stay within a strict form did not have to be followed to create a piece of music pleasing to an audience, but breaking outside of specific structures was usually unheard of during previous eras of music. In impressionistic music, the “music flows from one moment to the next, building and receding in tension but without the same sense of striving toward resolution” (Bonds). Debussy’s melodies were often hidden in his works and can be difficult for the player to bring out or can be difficult for the listener to pick out. “Although impressionist composers never abandon tonality, they use ninth, eleventh, and thirteenth chords to an unprecedented degree” (Bonds). Debussy often used scales that broke away from major and minor. “Debussy constructs the melodic ideas of this work primarily from whole-tone and pentatonic scales” (Bonds). Debussy favored many French poets and his music evoked or suggested images, memories, and emotions with the French poetry of his