Claude Debussy was a famous French composer and classical musician. He is best known for being an influential French composer associated with Impressionism in music. Popular Claude Debussy compositions include “Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun”, “Three Nocturnes”, “Images pour orchestre”, “Children’s Corner”, “Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien”, “First Rhapsody”, “String Quartet in G minor”, “Two Arabesques”, and “Estampes”.
Mini biography: Born Claude Debussy on the 22nd of August, 1862 in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Seine-et-Oise, France. His mother was Victorine Manoury and his father Manuel-Achille Debussy worked in a print factory. Debussy married Marie-Rosalie Texier in 1899 and they divorced in 1905. He married his second wife Emma Bardac in 1908 and they had one child: Claude-Emma Debussy. The musician died on the 25th of March, 1918 in Paris, France at the age of 55. Claude Debussy is buried at the Cimetière de Passy, Paris, Île-de-France, France.
List of Famous Claude Debussy Music Quotes
When I gaze at a sunset sky and spend hours contemplating its marvellous ever-changing beauty, an extraordinary emotion overwhelms me. Nature in all its vastness is truthfully reflected in my sincere though feeble soul. Around me are the trees stretching up their branches to the skies, the perfumed flowers gladdening the meadow, the gentle grass-carpeted earth. Claude Debussy
Music should humbly seek to please; within these limits great beauty may perhaps be found. Extreme complication is contrary to art. Beauty must appeal to the senses, must provide us with immediate enjoyment, must impress us or insinuate itself into us without any effort on our part. Claude Debussy
People don’t very much like things that are beautiful — they are so far from their nasty little minds. Claude Debussy
We must agree that the beauty of a work of art will always remain a mystery. Claude Debussy
There’s no need either for music to make people think! It would be enough if music could make people listen, despite themselves and despite their petty mundane troubles, and never mind if they’re incapable of expressing anything resembling an opinion. Claude Debussy
Composers aren’t daring enough. They’re afraid of that sacred idol called “common sense”, which is the most dreadful thing I know — after all, it’s no more than a religion founded to excuse the ubiquity of imbeciles! Claude Debussy
Have I succeeded in expressing all that I felt? It is for others to decide. Is the faith which my music expresses orthodox? I do not know; but I can say that it is my own, expressed in all sincerity. Claude Debussy
The color of my soul is iron-grey and sad bats wheel about the steeple of my dreams. Claude Debussy
I confess that I am no longer thinking in musical terms, or at least not much, even though I believe with all my heart that Music remains for all time the finest means of expression we have. It’s just that I find the actual pieces — whether they’re old or modern, which is in any case merely a matter of dates — so totally poverty-stricken, manifesting an inability to see beyond the work-table. They smell of the lamp, not of the sun. And then, overshadowing everything, there’s the desire to amaze one’s colleagues with arresting harmonies, quite unnecessary for the most part. In short, these days especially, music is devoid of emotional impact. Claude Debussy
Collect impressions. Don’t be in a hurry to write them down. Because that’s something music can do better than painting: it can centralize variations of color and light within a single picture — a truth generally ignored, obvious as it is. Claude Debussy
Portrait of Claude Debussy
More on French Composer Claude Debussy
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Related or similar popular artists and celebrities include: Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, Ludwig van Beethoven and other Famous French Musicians.
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