Claude Debussy (1862 - 1918)

Debussy's music opened new worlds similar to those explored in painting by impressionists Claude Monet and Pierre Auguste Renoir, and in literature by Stéphane Mallarmé and Maurice Maeterlinck.

The music Debussy created as a young man was of a typically Gallic grace, charm and elegance. As his style developed, however, he began to strive for colorful sounds at the softer end of the dynamic spectrum. He employed whole-tone and pentatonic scales that do not attempt resolution, and broke standard rules of counterpoint by allowing all parts of the texture to drift in parallel motion. He had the vision necessary to paint pictures in sound rather than tell stories. His roots in Richard Wagner and the 19th century are obvious, but his interest in texture and wisps of sound make him an essential predecessor of 20th-century music.

Debussy created a body of work including songs, piano music, chamber music, operas and orchestral music that contains some of the most haunting and evocative music ever written.

"Composer of the Month" is made possible by a grant from the Nebraska Humanities Council, with research notes and materials by David Breckbill, professor of music at Doane College in Crete, Neb.