Claude Debussy
Composer — born 1862
Claude Debussy was one of the most prominent French composers whose music epitomized the shift from late-romantic to 20th century classical.
Claude Debussy was a French composer who became one of the most influential figures of late 19th- and early 20th-century music. Often associated with musical Impressionism, he reshaped harmony, orchestration, and piano writing.
Achille-Claude Debussy was born on August 22, 1862, in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, near Paris. His father, Manuel-Achille Debussy, ran a small china shop, and his mother, Victorine, was a seamstress. The family had limited means, and his early piano lessons were arranged by Madame Mauté de Fleurville.
He entered the Paris Conservatoire at age ten, studying composition with Ernest Guiraud. In 1884 he won the Prix de Rome with the cantata L'enfant prodigue, which sent him to the Villa Medici in Rome. Travels to Bayreuth and exposure to Javanese gamelan music at the 1889 Paris Exposition shaped his style.
His Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune in 1894 announced a new musical language, followed by the opera Pelléas et Mélisande (1902), the orchestral La Mer (1905), and two books of Préludes for piano. He continued composing through World War I and died of cancer in Paris on March 25, 1918.
Their name Claude derives from the Latin family name Claudius, from claudus, meaning lame. Claude has long been used in France as a name for boys and, less often, girls.
About the name Claude
Gender: Male · Origin: English
Lame.