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{{Short description|French classical composer (1862–1918)}}
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[[File:Claude Debussy by Atelier Nadar.jpg|thumb|{{center|Debussy {{circa|1900}} by Atelier [[Nadar]]}}|alt=head and shoulders photograph of middle-aged, white, dark-haired, bearded man]]

'''Achille Claude Debussy'''{{refn|Debussy was addressed by various permutations of his names during the course of his life. His name was officially registered at the ''[[mairie]]'' on the day of his birth as "Achille Claude".<ref name=lc>Lesure and Cain, p. 18</ref> Many authorities hyphenate "Achille-Claude".<ref name=grove/><ref>Lesure, p. 4; Fulcher, p. 101; Lockspeiser, p. 235; and Nichols (1998), p. 3</ref> As a little boy he was addressed as "Claude"; his baptismal certificate (he was not baptised until July 1864) is in the name of "Claude-Achille";<ref>Lesure, p. 4</ref> as a youth he was known as "Achille"; at the beginning of his career he sought to make his name more impressive by calling himself "Claude-Achille" (and sometimes rendering his surname as "de Bussy").<ref>Lockspeiser, p. 6; Jensen, p. 4; and Lesure, p. 85</ref> He signed himself as "Claude-Achille" between December 1889 and 4 June 1892, after which he permanently adopted the shorter "Claude".<ref name=timeline2/>|group=n}} ({{IPA|fr|aʃil klod dəbysi}};<!--SEE TALK PAGE{{refn|English pronunciations: {{refn|{{IPAc-en|UK|d|ə|ˈ|b|(|j|)|uː|s|i}}, {{IPAc-en|US|ˌ|d|eɪ|b|j|u|ˈ|s|iː}}{{sfn|Wells|2008}}{{sfn|Jones|2011}}</ref>|group=n}}--> 22 August 1862&nbsp;– 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first [[Impressionism in music|Impressionist]] composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influential composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Born to a family of modest means and little cultural involvement, Debussy showed enough musical talent to be admitted at the age of ten to France's leading music college, the [[Conservatoire de Paris]]. He originally studied the piano, but found his vocation in innovative composition, despite the disapproval of the Conservatoire's conservative professors. He took many years to develop his mature style, and was nearly 40 when he achieved international fame in 1902 with the only opera he completed, ''[[Pelléas et Mélisande (opera)|Pelléas et Mélisande]]''.

Debussy's orchestral works include ''[[Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune]]'' (1894), ''[[Nocturnes (Debussy)|Nocturnes]]'' (1897–1899) and ''[[Images pour orchestre|Images]]'' (1905–1912). His music was to a considerable extent a reaction against [[Richard Wagner|Wagner]] and the German musical tradition. He regarded the classical [[symphony]] as obsolete and sought an alternative in his "symphonic sketches", ''[[La mer (Debussy)|La mer]]'' (1903–1905). His piano works include sets of 24 [[Préludes (Debussy)|Préludes]] and 12 [[Études (Debussy)|Études]]. Throughout his career he wrote ''[[mélodie]]s'' based on a wide variety of poetry, including his own. He was greatly influenced by the [[Symbolism (movement)|Symbolist]] poetic movement of the later 19th century. A small number of works, including the early ''[[La Damoiselle élue]]'' and the late ''[[Le Martyre de saint Sébastien]]'' have important parts for chorus. In his final years, he focused on chamber music, completing three of [[Six sonatas for various instruments|six planned sonatas for different combinations of instruments]].

With early influences including Russian and Far Eastern music and works by [[Chopin]], Debussy developed his own style of harmony and orchestral colouring, derided – and unsuccessfully resisted – by much of the musical establishment of the day. His works have strongly influenced a wide range of composers including [[Béla Bartók]], [[Igor Stravinsky]], [[George Gershwin]], [[Olivier Messiaen]], [[George Benjamin (composer)|George Benjamin]], and the [[jazz]] pianist and composer [[Bill Evans]]. Debussy died from [[colorectal cancer|cancer]] at his home in Paris at the age of 55 after a composing career of a little more than 30 years.

== Life and career ==
[[File:Maison natale de Debussy.jpg|alt=Old postcard showing French street scene in a not very upmarket area|thumb|upright|Rue au Pain, [[Saint-Germain-en-Laye]], street of [[Musée Claude-Debussy|Debussy's birthplace]]]]

=== Early life ===
Debussy was born on 22 August 1862 in [[Saint-Germain-en-Laye]], [[Seine-et-Oise]], on the north-west fringes of Paris.<ref>Lockspeiser, p. 6; and Trezise (2003), p. xiv</ref>{{refn|Debussy's birthplace is now a museum dedicated to him. In addition to displays depicting his life and work, the building contains a small auditorium in which an annual season of concerts is given.<ref>[https://www.saintgermainenlaye.fr/506/maison-natale-claude-debussy.htm Maison Natale Claude-Debussy] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180614165926/https://www.saintgermainenlaye.fr/506/maison-natale-claude-debussy.htm |date=14 June 2018 }}, Saint Germain en Laye municipal website, retrieved 12 June 2018 (in French)</ref>|group= n}} He was the eldest of the five children of Manuel-Achille Debussy and his wife, Victorine, ''née'' Manoury. Debussy senior ran a china shop and his wife was a seamstress.<ref name=grove>Lesure & Howat, 2001</ref><ref>Jensen, pp. 3–4</ref> The shop was unsuccessful, and closed in 1864; the family moved to Paris, first living with Victorine's mother, in [[Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine|Clichy]], and, from 1868, in their own apartment in the [[Rue Saint-Honoré]]. Manuel worked in a printing factory.<ref name=fy>
[http://www.debussy.fr/encd/bio/bio1_62-82.php "Formative Years"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140926042121/http://www.debussy.fr/encd/bio/bio1_62-82.php |date=26 September 2014 }}, Centre de documentation Claude Debussy, Bibliothèque nationale de France, retrieved 18 April 2018
</ref>

In 1870, to escape the [[Siege of Paris (1870–71)|siege of Paris]] during the [[Franco-Prussian War]], Debussy's pregnant mother took him and his sister Adèle to their paternal aunt's home in [[Cannes]], where they remained until the following year. During his stay in Cannes, the seven-year-old Debussy had his first piano lessons; his aunt paid for him to study with an Italian musician, Jean Cerutti.<ref name=grove/> Manuel Debussy remained in Paris and joined the forces of the [[Paris Commune|Commune]]; after its defeat by French government troops in 1871 he was sentenced to four years' imprisonment, of which he only served one year. His fellow Communard prisoners included his friend Charles de Sivry, a musician.<ref>Lockspeiser, p. 20</ref> Sivry's mother, Antoinette Mauté de Fleurville, gave piano lessons, and at his instigation the young Debussy became one of her pupils.<ref>Jensen, p. 7</ref>{{refn|Biographers of Debussy, including Edward Lockspeiser, Stephen Walsh and Eric Frederick Jensen, comment that although Antoinette Mauté de Fleurville was a woman of some affectations, with the assumed manner of a grande dame, she was a fine teacher. She claimed to have studied with [[Chopin]], and although many of Debussy's biographers have been sceptical about this, her artistic prowess was vouched for not only by Debussy, but by her son-in-law, [[Paul Verlaine]].<ref>Lockspeiser, pp. 20–21; Walsh (2003), Chapter 1; and Jensen, pp. 7–8</ref>|group= n}}

Debussy's talents soon became evident, and in 1872, aged ten, he was admitted to the [[Conservatoire de Paris]], where he remained a student for the next eleven years. He first joined the piano class of [[Antoine François Marmontel]],<ref>Lockspeiser, p. 25</ref> and studied [[solfège]] with [[Albert Lavignac]] and, later, composition with [[Ernest Guiraud]], harmony with [[Émile Durand]], and organ with [[César Franck]].<ref name="Prod'homme">Prod'homme, J. G. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/737880 Claude Achille Debussy], ''The Musical Quarterly'', October 1918, p. 556 {{subscription}}</ref> The course included music history and theory studies with [[Louis-Albert Bourgault-Ducoudray]], but it is not certain that Debussy, who was apt to skip classes, actually attended these.<ref>Fulcher, p. 302</ref>

At the Conservatoire, Debussy initially made good progress. Marmontel said of him, "A charming child, a truly artistic temperament; much can be expected of him".<ref>Lockspeiser, p. 26</ref> Another teacher was less impressed: Émile Durand wrote in a report, "Debussy would be an excellent pupil if he were less sketchy and less cavalier." A year later he described Debussy as "desperately careless".<ref>Nichols (1980), p. 306</ref> In July 1874 Debussy received the award of ''deuxième accessit''{{refn|That is, fourth prize, after the ''premier accessit'', the runner-up (''second prix'') and the winner (''premier prix'').<ref>[http://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/cgi-bin/bluemtn?a=d&d=bmtnabh19080815-01.2.13.2&e=-------en-20--1--txt-IN----- "Concours du Conservatoire"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180614165925/http://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/cgi-bin/bluemtn?a=d&d=bmtnabh19080815-01.2.13.2&e=-------en-20--1--txt-IN----- |date=14 June 2018 }}, ''Le Mercure Musical'', 15 August 1908, p. 98 (in French)</ref>|group= n}} for his performance as soloist in the first movement of [[Piano Concerto No. 2 (Chopin)|Chopin's Second Piano Concerto]] at the Conservatoire's annual competition. He was a fine pianist and an outstanding [[sight-reading|sight reader]], who could have had a professional career had he wished,<ref>Schonberg, p. 343</ref> but he was only intermittently diligent in his studies.<ref>Lockspeiser, p. 28</ref> He advanced to ''premier accessit'' in 1875 and second prize in 1877, but failed at the competitions in 1878 and 1879. These failures made him ineligible to continue in the Conservatoire's piano classes, but he remained a student for harmony, solfège and, later, composition.<ref name=fy/>

With Marmontel's help Debussy secured a summer vacation job in 1879 as resident pianist at the [[Château de Chenonceau]], where he rapidly acquired a taste for luxury that was to remain with him all his life.<ref name=fy/><ref>Nichols (1998), p. 12</ref> His first compositions date from this period, two settings of poems by [[Alfred de Musset]]: "Ballade à la lune" and "Madrid, princesse des Espagnes".<ref name=fy/> The following year he secured a job as pianist in the household of [[Nadezhda von Meck]], the patroness of [[Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky|Tchaikovsky]].<ref>Nichols (1998), p. 13</ref> He travelled with her family for the summers of 1880 to 1882, staying at various places in France, Switzerland and Italy, as well as at her home in Moscow.<ref>Walsh (2018), p. 36</ref> He composed his [[Piano Trio (Debussy)|Piano Trio in G major]] for von Meck's ensemble, and made a transcription for piano duet of three dances from Tchaikovsky's ''[[Swan Lake]]''.<ref name=fy/>{{refn|In September 1880 von Meck sent the manuscript of Debussy's ''Danse bohémienne'' for Tchaikovsky's perusal; a month later Tchaikovsky wrote back, mildly complimenting the work but remarking on its slightness and brevity. Debussy did not publish it, and the manuscript remained in the von Meck family and was not published until 1932.<ref name=ra>Andres, Robert. [https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/classical/raveldebussy/recital1.shtml "An introduction to the solo piano music of Debussy and Ravel"] , BBC, retrieved 15 May 2018</ref>|group= n}}

=== Prix de Rome ===
[[File:Debussy-by-Baschet-1884.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=head and shoulder, semi-profile of young man with dark hair, combed forward into a fringe; he has a small beard|Debussy by [[Marcel Baschet]], 1884]]
At the end of 1880 Debussy, while continuing his studies at the Conservatoire, was engaged as accompanist for Marie Moreau-Sainti's singing class; he took this role for four years.<ref>Nichols (1998), p. 15</ref> Among the members of the class was Marie Vasnier; Debussy was greatly taken with her, and she inspired him to compose: he wrote 27 songs dedicated to her during their seven-year relationship.<ref>Fulcher, p. 114</ref> She was the wife of Henri Vasnier, a prominent civil servant, and much younger than her husband. She soon became Debussy's lover as well as his muse. Whether Vasnier was content to tolerate his wife's affair with the young student or was simply unaware of it is not clear, but he and Debussy remained on excellent terms, and he continued to encourage the composer in his career.<ref>Nichols (1998), p. 29</ref>

At the Conservatoire, Debussy incurred the disapproval of the faculty, particularly his composition teacher, Guiraud, for his failure to follow the orthodox rules of composition then prevailing.<ref>Jensen, p. 27</ref>{{refn|The director of the Conservatoire, [[Ambroise Thomas]], was a deeply conservative musician, as were most of his faculty. It was not until [[Gabriel Fauré]] became director in 1905 that modern music such as Debussy's or even Wagner's was accepted within the Conservatoire.<ref>Nectoux, p. 269</ref>|group= n}} Nevertheless, in 1884 Debussy won France's most prestigious musical award, the [[Prix de Rome]],<ref>Simeone (2000), p. 212</ref> with his [[cantata]] ''[[L'enfant prodigue (Debussy)|L'enfant prodigue]]''. The Prix carried with it a residence at the [[Villa Medici]], the [[French Academy in Rome]], to further the winner's studies. Debussy was there from January 1885 to March 1887, with three or possibly four absences of several weeks when he returned to France, chiefly to see Marie Vasnier.<ref name=timeline2>
[http://www.debussy.fr/encd/bio/bio2_83-87.php "Prix de Rome"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171016090958/http://www.debussy.fr/encd/bio/bio2_83-87.php |date=16 October 2017 }}, Centre de documentation Claude Debussy, Bibliothèque nationale de France, retrieved 16 March 2018
</ref>

Initially Debussy found the artistic atmosphere of the Villa Medici stifling, the company boorish, the food bad, and the accommodation "abominable".<ref>Thompson, p.&nbsp;70</ref> Neither did he delight in Italian opera, as he found the operas of [[Gaetano Donizetti|Donizetti]] and [[Giuseppe Verdi|Verdi]] not to his taste. He was much more impressed by the music of the 16th-century composers [[Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina|Palestrina]] and [[Orlande de Lassus|Lassus]], which he heard at [[Santa Maria dell'Anima]]: "The only church music I will accept".<ref name=timeline2/> He was often depressed and unable to compose, but he was inspired by [[Franz Liszt]], who visited the students and played for them.<ref name=timeline2/> In June 1885, Debussy wrote of his desire to follow his own way, saying, "I am sure the Institute would not approve, for, naturally it regards the path which it ordains as the only right one. But there is no help for it! I am too enamoured of my freedom, too fond of my own ideas!"<ref>Thompson, p.&nbsp;77</ref>

Debussy finally composed four pieces that were submitted to the Academy: the symphonic ode ''Zuleima'' (based on a text by [[Heinrich Heine]]); the orchestral piece ''Printemps''; the cantata ''[[La Damoiselle élue]]'' (1887–1888), the first piece in which the stylistic features of his later music began to emerge; and the ''Fantaisie'' for piano and orchestra, which was heavily based on Franck's music and was eventually withdrawn by Debussy. The Academy chided him for writing music that was "bizarre, incomprehensible and unperformable".<ref>Fulcher, p. 71</ref> Although Debussy's works showed the influence of [[Jules Massenet]], the latter concluded, "He is an enigma".<ref>Thompson, p.&nbsp;82</ref> During his years in Rome Debussy composed – not for the Academy – most of his [[Paul Verlaine|Verlaine]] cycle, ''[[Ariettes oubliées]]'', which made little impact at the time but was successfully republished in 1903 after the composer had become well known.<ref>Wenk, p. 205</ref>

=== Return to Paris, 1887 ===
A week after his return to Paris in 1887, Debussy heard the first act of Wagner's ''[[Tristan und Isolde]]'' at the [[Concerts Lamoureux]], and judged it "decidedly the finest thing I know".<ref name=timeline2/> In 1888 and 1889 he went to the annual festivals of Wagner's operas at [[Bayreuth Festival|Bayreuth]]. He responded positively to Wagner's sensuousness, mastery of form, and striking harmonies,<ref name=grove/> and was briefly influenced by them,<ref>Holloway, pp. 21 and 42</ref> but, unlike some other French composers of his generation, he concluded that there was no future in attempting to adopt and develop Wagner's style.<ref>Nectoux, p. 39; and Donnellon, pp. 46–47</ref> He commented in 1903 that Wagner was "a beautiful sunset that was mistaken for a dawn".<ref>Donnellon, p. 46</ref>

[[File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Gamelanorkest TMnr 60043216.jpg|thumb|alt=large group of musicians in Javanese costume, with percussion instruments|left|Gamelan orchestra, {{c.|1889}}]]
In 1889, at the [[Exposition Universelle (1889)|Paris Exposition Universelle]], Debussy first heard [[Java]]nese [[gamelan]] music. The gamelan scales, melodies, rhythms, and ensemble textures appealed to him, and echoes of them are heard in "Pagodes" in his piano suite ''[[Estampes]]''.<ref>Cooke, pp. 258–260</ref> He also attended two concerts of [[Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov|Rimsky-Korsakov]]'s music, conducted by the composer.<ref name=timeline3/> This too made an impression on him, and its harmonic freedom and non-Teutonic tone colours influenced his own developing musical style.<ref>Jones, p. 18</ref>{{refn|Debussy's regard for Rimsky-Korsakov's music was not reciprocated. After hearing ''Estampes'' a decade later, Rimsky wrote in his diary, "Poor and skimpy to the nth degree; there is no technique; even less imagination. The impudent decadent – he ignores all music that has gone before him, and&nbsp;... thinks he has discovered America."<ref>''Quoted'' in Taruskin, p. 55</ref>|group= n}}

Marie Vasnier ended her liaison with Debussy soon after his final return from Rome, although they remained on good enough terms for him to dedicate to her one more song, "Mandoline", in 1890.<ref>Johnson, p. 95</ref> Later in 1890 Debussy met [[Erik Satie]], who proved a kindred spirit in his experimental approach to composition. Both were [[Bohemianism|bohemians]], enjoying the same café society and struggling to survive financially.<ref>Moore Whiting, p. 172</ref> In the same year Debussy began a relationship with Gabrielle (Gaby) Dupont, a tailor's daughter from [[Lisieux]]; in July 1893 they began living together.<ref name=timeline3>
[http://www.debussy.fr/encd/bio/bio3_88-93.php "The Bohemian period"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171117105258/http://www.debussy.fr/encd/bio/bio3_88-93.php |date=17 November 2017 }}, Centre de documentation Claude Debussy, Bibliothèque nationale de France, retrieved 16 May 2018
</ref>

Debussy continued to compose songs, piano pieces and other works, some of which were publicly performed, but his music made only a modest impact, although his fellow composers recognised his potential by electing him to the committee of the [[Société Nationale de Musique]] in 1893.<ref name=timeline3/> His [[String Quartet (Debussy)|String Quartet]] was premiered by the [[Ysaÿe Quartet (1886)|Ysaÿe string quartet]] at the Société Nationale in the same year. In May 1893 Debussy attended a theatrical event that was of key importance to his later career – the premiere of [[Maurice Maeterlinck]]'s play ''[[Pelléas et Mélisande]]'', which he immediately determined to turn into an opera.<ref name=timeline3/> He travelled to Maeterlinck's home in [[Ghent]] in November to secure his consent to an operatic adaptation.<ref name=timeline3/>

=== 1894–1902: ''Pelléas et Mélisande'' ===
[[File:Lilly Debussy en pied devant un saule.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=young woman in full-length frock and top coat leaning on a tree|Lilly Debussy in 1902]]
In February 1894 Debussy completed the first draft of Act I of his [[Pelléas et Mélisande (opera)|operatic version]] of ''Pelléas et Mélisande'', and for most of the year worked to complete the work.<ref name=timeline4/> While still living with Dupont, he had an affair with the singer Thérèse Roger, and in 1894 he announced their engagement. His behaviour was widely condemned; anonymous letters circulated denouncing his treatment of both women, as well as his financial irresponsibility and debts.<ref name=timeline4>
[http://www.debussy.fr/encd/bio/bio4_94-02.php "From L'aprés-midi d'un faune to Pelléas"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171117105321/http://www.debussy.fr/encd/bio/bio4_94-02.php |date=17 November 2017 }}, Centre de documentation Claude Debussy, Bibliothèque nationale de France, retrieved 18 May 2018
</ref> The engagement was broken off, and several of Debussy's friends and supporters disowned him, including [[Ernest Chausson]], hitherto one of his strongest supporters.<ref>Jensen, p. 60</ref>

In terms of musical recognition, Debussy made a step forward in December 1894, when the [[symphonic poem]] ''[[Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune]]'', based on [[Stéphane Mallarmé]]'s poem, was premiered at a concert of the Société Nationale.<ref name=timeline4/> The following year he completed the first draft of ''Pelléas'' and began efforts to get it staged. In May 1898 he made his first contacts with [[André Messager]] and [[Albert Carré]], respectively the musical director and general manager of the [[Opéra-Comique]], Paris, about presenting the opera.<ref name=timeline4/>
[[File:Georges_Rochegrosse_-_Poster_for_the_prèmiere_of_Claude_Debussy_and_Maurice_Maeterlinck%27s_Pelléas_et_Mélisande.jpg|thumb|upright|Poster by [[Georges Rochegrosse]] for the premiere of ''[[Pelléas et Mélisande (opera)|Pelléas et Mélisande]]'' (1902).]]
Debussy abandoned Dupont for her friend Marie-Rosalie Texier, known as "Lilly", whom he married in October 1899, after threatening suicide if she refused him.<ref>Dietschy, p. 107</ref> She was affectionate, practical, straightforward, and well liked by Debussy's friends and associates,<ref>Holmes, p. 58</ref> but he became increasingly irritated by her intellectual limitations and lack of musical sensitivity.<ref name=Orledge>Orledge, p. 4</ref> The marriage lasted barely five years.<ref name=timeline5>
[http://www.debussy.fr/encd/bio/bio5_03-09.php "The Consecration"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170630195833/http://www.debussy.fr/encd/bio/bio5_03-09.php |date=30 June 2017 }}, Centre de documentation Claude Debussy, Bibliothèque nationale de France, retrieved 18 May 2018
</ref>

From around 1900 Debussy's music became a focus and inspiration for an informal group of innovative young artists, poets, critics, and musicians who began meeting in Paris. They called themselves ''[[Les Apaches]]'' – roughly "The Hooligans" – to represent their status as "artistic outcasts".<ref>Orenstein, p. 28</ref> The membership was fluid, but at various times included [[Maurice Ravel]], [[Ricardo Viñes]], [[Igor Stravinsky]] and [[Manuel de Falla]].{{#tag:ref|Other members were the composers [[Florent Schmitt]], [[Maurice Delage]] and [[Paul Ladmirault]], the poets [[Léon-Paul Fargue]] and [[Tristan Klingsor]], the painter [[Paul Sordes]] and the critic [[Michel-Dimitri Calvocoressi|Michel Calvocoressi]].<ref>Nichols (1977), p. 20; and Orenstein, p. 28</ref><ref>Pasler, Jann. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/964115 "Stravinsky and the Apaches"], ''The Musical Times'', June 1982, pp. 403–407 {{subscription}}</ref>|group= n}} In the same year the first two of Debussy's three orchestral ''[[Nocturnes (Debussy)|Nocturnes]]'' were first performed. Although they did not make any great impact with the public they were well reviewed by musicians including [[Paul Dukas]], [[Alfred Bruneau]] and [[Pierre de Bréville]].<ref>Jensen, &nbsp;p. 71</ref> The complete set was given the following year.<ref name=timeline4/>

Like many other composers of the time, Debussy supplemented his income by teaching and writing.{{refn|Saint-Saëns, Franck, Massenet, Fauré and Ravel were all known as teachers,<ref name="Prod'homme"/><ref>Nectoux, pp. 43–44 (Saint-Saëns) and pp. 263–267 (Messager and Fauré)</ref> and Fauré, Messager and Dukas were regular music critics for Parisian journals.<ref>Nectoux, Jean-Michel. [http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/09366 "Fauré, Gabriel (Urbain)"], ''Grove Music Online'', Oxford University Press, retrieved 21 August 2010 {{subscription}}</ref><ref>Schwartz, Manuela and G.W. Hopkins. [http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/08282 "Dukas, Paul."] ''Grove Music Online'', Oxford University Press, retrieved 19 March 2011 {{subscription}}</ref>|group= n}} For most of 1901 he had a sideline as music critic of ''[[La Revue Blanche]]'', adopting the pen name "Monsieur Croche". He expressed trenchant views on composers ("I hate sentimentality – his name is [[Camille Saint-Saëns]]"), institutions (on the Paris Opéra: "A stranger would take it for a railway station, and, once inside, would mistake it for a Turkish bath"), conductors ("[[Arthur Nikisch|Nikisch]] is a unique virtuoso, so much so that his virtuosity seems to make him forget the claims of good taste"), musical politics ("The English actually think that a musician can manage an opera house successfully!"), and audiences ("their almost drugged expression of boredom, indifference and even stupidity").<ref>Debussy (1962), pp. 4, 12–13, 24, 27, 59</ref> He later collected his criticisms with a view to their publication as a book; it was published posthumously as ''Monsieur Croche, Antidilettante''.<ref>Debussy (1962), pp. 3–188</ref>

In January 1902 rehearsals began at the Opéra-Comique for the opening of ''Pelléas et Mélisande''. For three months, Debussy attended rehearsals practically every day. In February there was conflict between Maeterlinck on the one hand and Debussy, Messager and Carré on the other about the casting of Mélisande. Maeterlinck wanted his mistress, [[Georgette Leblanc]], to sing the role, and was incensed when she was passed over in favour of the Scottish soprano [[Mary Garden]].<ref name=hcs>Schonberg, Harold C. [https://www.nytimes.com/1970/03/15/archives/maeterlincks-mistress-assumed-she-was-going-to-sing-melisande-but.html "Maeterlinck's Mistress Assumed She Was Going to Sing Melisande. But&nbsp;..."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180520123924/https://www.nytimes.com/1970/03/15/archives/maeterlincks-mistress-assumed-she-was-going-to-sing-melisande-but.html |date=20 May 2018 }}, ''The New York Times'', 15 March 1970, p. 111</ref>{{refn|Mary Garden was Messager's mistress at the time, but as far as is known she was chosen for wholly musical and dramatic reasons. She is described in the ''[[Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians]]'' as "a supreme singing-actress, with uncommonly vivid powers of characterization&nbsp;... and a rare subtlety of colour and phrasing."<ref>Turnbull, Michael T.R.B. [http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000010659 "Garden, Mary"], ''Grove Music Online'', Oxford University Press, retrieved 18 May 2018 {{subscription}}</ref>|group= n}} The opera opened on 30 April 1902, and although the first-night audience was divided between admirers and sceptics, the work quickly became a success.<ref name=hcs/> It made Debussy a well-known name in France and abroad; ''[[The Times]]'' commented that the opera had "provoked more discussion than any work of modern times, excepting, of course, those of [[Richard Strauss]]".<ref>"Music: Pelléas et Mélisande", ''The Times'', 22 May 1909, &nbsp;p. 13</ref> The Apaches, led by Ravel (who attended every one of the 14 performances in the first run), were loud in their support; the conservative faculty of the Conservatoire tried in vain to stop its students from seeing the opera.<ref>McAuliffe, pp. 57–58</ref> The vocal score was published in early May, and the full orchestral score in 1904.<ref name=timeline5/>

=== 1903–1918 ===
[[File:Emma Debussy after Léon Bonnat.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=drawing of profile head of youngish woman|Emma Bardac (later Emma Debussy) in 1903]]
In 1903 there was public recognition of Debussy's stature when he was appointed a Chevalier of the [[Légion d'honneur]],<ref name=timeline5/> but his social standing suffered a great blow when another turn in his private life caused a scandal the following year. One of his pupils was [[Raoul Bardac]], son of [[Emma Bardac|Emma]] and her husband, Parisian banker Sigismond Bardac. Raoul introduced his teacher to his mother, to whom Debussy quickly became greatly attracted. She was sophisticated, a brilliant conversationalist, an accomplished singer, and relaxed about marital fidelity, having been the mistress and muse of [[Gabriel Fauré]] a few years earlier.<ref>Nectoux, pp. 180–181</ref> After despatching Lilly to her parental home at Bichain in [[Villeneuve-la-Guyard]] on 15 July 1904, Debussy took Emma away, staying incognito in [[Jersey]] and then at [[Pourville]] in Normandy.<ref name=timeline5/> He wrote to his wife on 11 August from [[Dieppe]], telling her that their marriage was over, but still making no mention of Bardac. When he returned to Paris he set up home on his own, taking a flat in a different [[arrondissement]].<ref name=timeline5/> On 14 October, five days before their fifth wedding anniversary, Lilly Debussy attempted suicide, shooting herself in the chest with a revolver;<ref name=timeline5/>{{refn|A fictionalised and melodramatic dramatisation of the affair, ''La femme nue'', played in Paris in 1908.<ref>Orledge, p. 21</ref> A myth grew up that Lilly Debussy shot herself in the Place de la Concorde, rather than at home. That version of events is not corroborated by Debussy scholars such as Marcel Dietschy, [[Roger Nichols (musical scholar)|Roger Nichols]], [[Robert Orledge]] and Nigel Simeone;<ref>Dietschy (1990), p. 125; Nichols (1998), p. 94; Orledge (2003), p. 21; and Simeone (2000), p. 54</ref> and no mention of the Place de la Concorde appeared in even the most sensational press coverage at the time.<ref name=j85/><ref>"Un drame parisien", ''Le Figaro'', 4 November 1904, p. 4</ref> Another inaccurate report of the case, in ''[[Le Figaro]]'' in early January 1905, stated that Lilly had made a second attempt at suicide.<ref name=j85>Jensen, p. 85</ref>|group= n}} she survived, although the bullet remained lodged in her [[vertebra]]e for the rest of her life.<ref>Nichols (2000), p. 115</ref> The ensuing scandal caused Bardac's family to disown her, and Debussy lost many good friends including Dukas and Messager.<ref>Nichols (2000), p. 116</ref> His relations with Ravel, never close, were exacerbated when the latter joined other former friends of Debussy in contributing to a fund to support the deserted Lilly.<ref>Nichols (2011), pp. 58–59</ref>

The Bardacs divorced in May 1905.<ref name=timeline5/> Finding the hostility in Paris intolerable, Debussy and Emma (now pregnant) went to England. They stayed at the [[Grand Hotel, Eastbourne]] in July and August, where Debussy corrected the proofs of his symphonic sketches'' [[La mer (Debussy)|La mer]]'', celebrating his divorce on 2&nbsp;August.<ref name=timeline5/> After a brief visit to London, the couple returned to Paris in September, buying a house in a courtyard development off the Avenue du Bois de Boulogne (now [[Avenue Foch]]), Debussy's home for the rest of his life.<ref name=timeline5/>
[[File:Debussy's house, Sq. de l'av. Foch.jpg|thumb|left|upright|alt=exterior of large Parisian house|Debussy's last home]]

In October 1905 ''La mer'', Debussy's most substantial orchestral work, was premiered in Paris by the [[Orchestre Lamoureux]] under the direction of [[Camille Chevillard]];<ref name=grove/> the reception was mixed. Some praised the work, but [[Pierre Lalo]], critic of ''[[Le Temps (Paris)|Le Temps]]'', hitherto an admirer of Debussy, wrote, "I do not hear, I do not see, I do not smell the sea".<ref name=lalo>Lalo, Pierre. "Music: ''La Mer'' – Suite of three symphonic pictures: its virtues and its faults", ''Le Temps'', 16 October 1905, ''quoted'' in Jensen, p. 206</ref>{{refn|Lalo objected to what he felt was the artificiality of the piece: "a reproduction of nature; a wonderfully refined, ingenious and carefully composed reproduction, but a reproduction none the less".<ref name=lalo/> Another Parisian critic, Louis Schneider, wrote, "The audience seemed rather disappointed: they expected the ocean, something big, something colossal, but they were served instead with some agitated water in a saucer."<ref>Parris, p. 274</ref>|group= n}} In the same month the composer's only child was born at their home.<ref name=timeline5/> Claude-Emma, affectionately known as "Chouchou", was a musical inspiration to the composer (she was the dedicatee of his ''[[Children's Corner]]'' suite). She outlived her father by scarcely a year, succumbing to the [[diphtheria]] epidemic of 1919.<ref name=timeline7/> Mary Garden said, "I honestly don't know if Debussy ever loved anybody really. He loved his music – and perhaps himself. I think he was wrapped up in his genius",<ref name = Garden>Garden and Biancolli, p. 302</ref> but biographers are agreed that whatever his relations with lovers and friends, Debussy was devoted to his daughter.<ref>Jensen, p. 95</ref><ref>Hartmann, p. 154</ref><ref>Schmidtz, p. 118</ref>

Debussy and Emma Bardac eventually married in 1908, their troubled union enduring for the rest of his life. The following year began well, when at Fauré's invitation, Debussy became a member of the governing council of the Conservatoire.<ref name=timeline5/> His success in London was consolidated in April 1909, when he conducted ''Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune'' and the ''Nocturnes'' at the [[Queen's Hall]];<ref>"M. Debussy at Queen's Hall", ''The Times'', 1 March 1909, p. 10</ref> in May he was present at the first London production of ''Pelléas et Mélisande'', at [[Royal Opera House|Covent Garden]]. In the same year, Debussy was diagnosed with [[colorectal cancer]], from which he was to die nine years later.<ref name=timeline5/>

Debussy's works began to feature increasingly in concert programmes at home and overseas. In 1910 [[Gustav Mahler]] conducted the ''Nocturnes'' and ''Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune'' in New York in successive months.<ref name=timeline6>
[http://www.debussy.fr/encd/bio/bio6_10-14.php "From Préludes to Jeux"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120628052255/http://www.debussy.fr/encd/bio/bio6_10-14.php |date=28 June 2012 }}, Centre de documentation Claude Debussy, Bibliothèque nationale de France, retrieved 18 May 2018
</ref> In the same year, visiting Budapest, Debussy commented that his works were better known there than in Paris.<ref name=grove/> In 1912 [[Sergei Diaghilev]] commissioned a new ballet score, ''[[Jeux]]''. That, and the three ''[[Images pour orchestre|Images]]'', premiered the following year, were the composer's last orchestral works.<ref name=timeline6/> ''Jeux'' was unfortunate in its timing: two weeks after the premiere, in March 1913, Diaghilev presented the first performance of Stravinsky's ''[[The Rite of Spring]]'', a sensational event that monopolised discussion in musical circles, and effectively sidelined ''Jeux'' along with Fauré's ''[[Pénélope]]'', which had opened a week before.<ref>Simeone (2008), pp. 125–126</ref>

[[File:Claude Debussy portrait.jpg|thumb|upright|Debussy in 1908]]

In 1915 Debussy underwent one of the earliest [[colostomy]] operations. It achieved only a temporary respite, and occasioned him considerable frustration ("There are mornings when the effort of dressing seems like one of the twelve labours of Hercules").<ref>Vallas, p. 269</ref> He also had a fierce enemy at this period in the form of [[Camille Saint-Saëns]], who in a letter to Fauré condemned Debussy's ''[[En blanc et noir]]'': "It's incredible, and the door of the [[Institut de France|Institut]] [de France] must at all costs be barred against a man capable of such atrocities". Saint-Saëns had been a member of the Institut since 1881: Debussy never became one.<ref>Nichols (1980), p. 308</ref> His health continued to decline; he gave his final concert on 14 September 1917 and became bedridden in early 1918.<ref name=timeline7>[https://web.archive.org/web/20171117105415/http://www.debussy.fr/encd/bio/bio7_15-18.php "War and Illness"], Centre de documentation Claude Debussy, Bibliothèque nationale de France, retrieved 18 May 2018</ref>

Debussy died of colon cancer on 25 March 1918 at his home, aged 55. The [[First World War]] was still raging and Paris was under German [[German spring offensive|aerial and artillery bombardment]]. The military situation did not permit the honour of a public funeral with ceremonious graveside orations. The funeral procession made its way through deserted streets to a temporary grave at [[Père Lachaise Cemetery]] as the [[Paris Gun|German guns]] bombarded the city. Debussy's body was reinterred the following year in the small [[Passy Cemetery]] sequestered behind the [[Trocadéro, Paris|Trocadéro]], fulfilling his wish to rest "among the trees and the birds"; his wife and daughter are buried with him.<ref>Simeone (2000), p. 251</ref>

== Works ==
{{see also|List of compositions by Claude Debussy}}
In a survey of Debussy's oeuvre shortly after the composer's death, the critic [[Ernest Newman]] wrote, "It would be hardly too much to say that Debussy spent a third of his life in the discovery of himself, a third in the free and happy realisation of himself, and the final third in the partial, painful loss of himself".<ref name=en>Newman, Ernest. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/910277 "The Development of Debussy"], ''The Musical Times'', May 1918, pp. 119–203 {{subscription}}</ref> Later commentators have rated some of the late works more highly than Newman and other contemporaries did, but much of the music for which Debussy is best known is from the middle years of his career.<ref name=grove/>

The analyst David Cox wrote in 1974 that Debussy, admiring Wagner's attempts to combine all the creative arts, "created a new, instinctive, dreamlike world of music, lyrical and pantheistic, contemplative and objective – a kind of art, in fact, which seemed to reach out into all aspects of experience".<ref>Cox, p. 6</ref> In 1988 the composer and scholar [[Wilfrid Mellers]] wrote of Debussy:
{{blockquote|Because of, rather than in spite of, his preoccupation with chords in themselves, he deprived music of the sense of harmonic progression, broke down three centuries' dominance of harmonic tonality, and showed how the melodic conceptions of tonality typical of primitive folk-music and of medieval music might be relevant to the twentieth century<ref>Mellers, p. 938</ref>|}}
Debussy did not give his works [[opus number]]s, apart from his [[String Quartet (Debussy)|String Quartet]], Op. 10 in G minor (also the only work where the composer's title included a [[key (music)|key]]).<ref>Parker, Roger. [https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/debussy-quartet-in-g-minor-op-10 Debussy Quartet in G minor Op 10] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612141542/https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/debussy-quartet-in-g-minor-op-10 |date=12 June 2018 }}, Gresham College, 2008, retrieved 18 June 2018</ref> His works were catalogued and indexed by the musicologist [[François Lesure]] in 1977 (revised in 2003)<ref>
[http://www.debussy.fr/encd/catalog/alpha.php "Alphabetical order"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171027170300/http://www.debussy.fr/encd/catalog/alpha.php |date=27 October 2017 }}, Centre de documentation Claude Debussy, Bibliothèque nationale de France, retrieved 16 May 2018
</ref> and their [[List of compositions by Claude Debussy by Lesure number|Lesure number]] ("L" followed by a number) is sometimes used as a suffix to their title in concert programmes and recordings.

=== Early works, 1879–1892 ===
{{Listen|type=music|
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|filename2=Claude_Debussy_-_Première_Arabesque_-_Patrizia_Prati.ogg|title2=''Première Arabesque'' (4:53)|
filename3=Claude_Debussy_-_Deuxième_Arabesque_-_Patrizia_Prati.ogg|title3=''Deuxième Arabesque'' (4:00)|description3=Both [[Arabesque (classical music)|arabesques]] performed in 2016 by Patrizia Prati}}
Debussy's musical development was slow, and as a student he was adept enough to produce for his teachers at the Conservatoire works that would conform to their conservative precepts. His friend [[Georges Jean-Aubry]] commented that Debussy "admirably imitated Massenet's melodic turns of phrase" in the cantata ''[[L'enfant prodigue (Debussy)|L'enfant prodigue]]'' (1884) which won him the Prix de Rome.<ref name= mq/> A more characteristically Debussian work from his early years is ''[[La Damoiselle élue]]'', recasting the traditional form for [[oratorio]]s and cantatas, using a chamber orchestra and a small body of choral tone and using new or long-neglected scales and harmonies.<ref name=mq>Jean-Aubry, Georges. (trans. Frederick H. Martens). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/737879 "Claude Debussy"], ''The Musical Quarterly'', October 1918, pp. 542–554 {{subscription}}</ref> His early ''[[mélodie]]s'', inspired by Marie Vasnier, are more virtuosic in character than his later works in the genre, with extensive wordless ''[[vocalise]]''; from the ''[[Ariettes oubliées]]'' (1885–1887) onwards he developed a more restrained style. He wrote his own poems for the ''Proses lyriques'' (1892–1893) but, in the view of the musical scholar [[Robert Orledge]], "his literary talents were not on a par with his musical imagination".<ref name=ro>Orledge, Robert. [http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199579037.001.0001/acref-9780199579037-e-1846 "Debussy, (Achille-)Claude"], ''The Oxford Companion to Music'', Oxford University Press, 2011, retrieved 21 May 2018 {{subscription}}</ref>

The musicologist [[Jacques-Gabriel Prod'homme]] wrote that, together with ''La Demoiselle élue'', the ''Ariettes oubliées'' and the ''[[Cinq poèmes de Charles Baudelaire]]'' (1889) show "the new, strange way which the young musician will hereafter follow".<ref name="Prod'homme"/> Newman concurred: "There is a good deal of Wagner, especially of ''Tristan'', in the idiom. But the work as a whole is distinctive, and the first in which we get a hint of the Debussy we were to know later – the lover of vague outlines, of half-lights, of mysterious [[Consonance and dissonance|consonances and dissonances]] of colour, the apostle of languor, the exclusivist in thought and in style."<ref name=en/> During the next few years Debussy developed his personal style, without, at this stage, breaking sharply away from French musical traditions. Much of his music from this period is on a small scale, such as the ''[[Two Arabesques]]'', ''[[Valse romantique]]'', ''[[Suite bergamasque]]'', and the first set of ''[[Fêtes galantes (Debussy)|Fêtes galantes]]''.<ref name=en/> Newman remarked that, like [[Frédéric Chopin|Chopin]], the Debussy of this period appears as a liberator from Germanic styles of composition – offering instead "an exquisite, pellucid style" capable of conveying "not only gaiety and whimsicality but emotion of a deeper sort".<ref name=en/> In a 2004 study, Mark DeVoto comments that Debussy's early works are harmonically no more adventurous than existing music by Fauré;<ref>DeVoto (2004), p. xiv</ref> in a 2007 book about the piano works, Margery Halford observes that ''Two Arabesques'' (1888–1891) and "Rêverie" (1890) have "the fluidity and warmth of Debussy's later style" but are not harmonically innovative. Halford cites the popular [[Debussy's Claire de Lune|"Clair de Lune"]] (1890), the third of the four movements of ''Suite Bergamasque'', as a transitional work pointing towards the composer's mature style.<ref name=h12>Halford, p. 12</ref>

=== Middle works, 1893–1905 ===
[[File:Comoedia illustré L'après-midi d'un faune.jpeg|thumb|upright|alt=drawing in the style of a bas-relief showing two dancers, one as a young woman, one as a faun in semi-human form|Illustration of ''[[Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune|L'après-midi d'un faune]]'', 1910]]
Musicians from Debussy's time onwards have regarded ''[[Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune]]'' (1894) as his first orchestral masterpiece.<ref name=grove/><ref name=en/><ref>Sackville-West and Shawe Taylor, p. 214</ref> Newman considered it "completely original in idea, absolutely personal in style, and logical and coherent from first to last, without a superfluous bar or even a superfluous note";<ref name=en/> [[Pierre Boulez]] observed, "Modern music was awakened by ''Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune''".<ref>Rolf, p. 29</ref> Most of the major works for which Debussy is best known were written between the mid-1890s and the mid-1900s.<ref name=en/> They include the String Quartet (1893), ''[[Pelléas et Mélisande (opera)|Pelléas et Mélisande]]'' (1893–1902), the ''[[Nocturnes (Debussy)|Nocturnes for Orchestra]]'' (1899) and ''[[La mer (Debussy)|La mer]]'' (1903–1905).<ref name=grove/> The suite ''[[Pour le piano]]'' (1894–1901) is, in Halford's view, one of the first examples of the mature Debussy as a composer for the piano: "a major landmark&nbsp;... and an enlargement of the use of piano sonorities".<ref name=h12/>

In the String Quartet (1893), the gamelan sonorities Debussy had heard four years earlier are recalled in the [[pizzicato]]s and [[Cross-beat|cross-rhythms]] of the [[scherzo]].<ref name=ro/> Debussy's biographer [[Edward Lockspeiser]] comments that this movement shows the composer's rejection of "the traditional dictum that string instruments should be predominantly lyrical".<ref>Lockspeiser, Edward. [https://www.britannica.com/biography/Claude-Debussy "Claude Debussy"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180522050610/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Claude-Debussy |date=22 May 2018 }}, ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', retrieved 21 May 2018</ref> The work influenced Ravel, whose own [[String Quartet (Ravel)|String Quartet]], written ten years later, has noticeably Debussian features.<ref name=n52>Nichols (1977), p. 52</ref> The academic and journalist [[Stephen Walsh (writer)| Stephen Walsh]] calls ''Pelléas et Mélisande'' (begun 1893, staged 1902) "a key work for the 20th century".<ref name=sw>Walsh (1997), p. 97</ref> The composer [[Olivier Messiaen]] was fascinated by its "extraordinary harmonic qualities and&nbsp;... transparent instrumental texture".<ref name =sw/> The opera is composed in what [[Alan Blyth]] describes as a sustained and heightened [[recitative]] style, with "sensuous, intimate" vocal lines.<ref>Blyth, p. 125</ref> It influenced composers as different as [[Igor Stravinsky|Stravinsky]] and [[Giacomo Puccini|Puccini]].<ref name=sw/>

Orledge describes the ''Nocturnes'' as exceptionally varied in texture, "ranging from the Musorgskian start of 'Nuages', through the approaching brass band procession in 'Fêtes', to the wordless female chorus in 'Sirènes{{'"}}. Orledge considers the last a pre-echo of the marine textures of ''La mer''. ''[[Estampes]]'' for piano (1903) gives impressions of exotic locations, with further echoes of the gamelan in its [[pentatonic]] structures.<ref name=grove/> Debussy believed that since [[Ludwig_van_Beethoven|Beethoven]], the traditional symphonic form had become formulaic, repetitive and obsolete.<ref name=d49/>{{refn|He described the symphonies of Schumann and Mendelssohn as "respectful repetition"<ref name=d49>Donnellon, p. 49</ref>|group= n}} The three-part, cyclic [[Symphony in D minor (Franck)|symphony by César Franck]] (1888) was more to his liking, and its influence can be found in ''La mer'' (1905); this uses a quasi-symphonic form, its three sections making up a giant [[sonata-form]] movement with, as Orledge observes, a cyclic theme, in the manner of Franck.<ref name=ro/> The central "Jeux de vagues" section has the function of a symphonic [[Musical development|development section]] leading into the final "Dialogue du vent et de la mer", "a powerful essay in orchestral colour and sonority" (Orledge) which reworks themes from the first movement.<ref name=ro/> The reviews were sharply divided. Some critics thought the treatment less subtle and less mysterious than his previous works, and even a step backward; others praised its "power and charm", its "extraordinary verve and brilliant fantasy", and its strong colours and definite lines.<ref>Thompson, pp. 158–159</ref>

=== Late works, 1906–1917 ===
Of the later orchestral works, ''[[Images pour orchestre|Images]]'' (1905–1912) is better known than ''[[Jeux]]'' (1913).<ref name=jp/> The former follows the tripartite form established in the ''Nocturnes'' and ''La mer'', but differs in employing traditional British and French folk tunes, and in making the central movement, "Ibéria", far longer than the outer ones, and subdividing it into three parts, all inspired by scenes from Spanish life. Although considering ''Images'' "the pinnacle of Debussy's achievement as a composer for orchestra", Trezise notes a contrary view that the accolade belongs to the ballet score ''Jeux''.<ref name=t250>Trezise (2003), p. 250</ref> The latter failed as a ballet because of what Jann Pasler describes as a banal scenario, and the score was neglected for some years. Recent analysts have found it a link between traditional continuity and thematic growth within a score and the desire to create discontinuity in a way mirrored in later 20th century music.<ref name=jp>Pasler, Jann. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/746232 "Debussy, ''Jeux'': Playing with Time and Form"], ''19th-Century Music'', Summer 1982, pp. 60–75 {{subscription}}</ref><ref>Goubault, Christian. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/947173 "''Jeux''. Poème dansé by Claude Debussy"], ''Revue de Musicologie'', No 1, 1990, pp. 133–134 (in French) {{subscription}}</ref> In this piece, Debussy abandoned the [[whole-tone]] scale he had often favoured previously in favour of the [[octatonic scale]] with what the Debussy scholar [[François Lesure]] describes as its tonal ambiguities.<ref name=grove/>
{{Listen|type=music|header=Pieces from first book of ''Préludes'' (1909–1910)|
filename=The Girl with the Flaxen Hair.ogg|title= ''La fille aux cheveux de lin''|description=Performed by Mike Ambrose|
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Among the late piano works are two books of ''[[Préludes (Debussy)|Préludes]]'' (1909–10, 1911–13), short pieces that depict a wide range of subjects. Lesure comments that they range from the frolics of minstrels at Eastbourne in 1905 and the American acrobat "General Lavine" "to dead leaves and the sounds and scents of the evening air".<ref name=grove/> ''[[En blanc et noir]]'' (In white and black, 1915), a three-movement work for two pianos, is a predominantly sombre piece, reflecting the war and national danger.<ref>Wheeldon (2009), p. 44</ref> The ''[[Études (Debussy)|Études]]'' (1915) for piano have divided opinion. Writing soon after Debussy's death, Newman found them laboured – "a strange last chapter in a great artist's life";<ref name=en/> Lesure, writing eighty years later, rates them among Debussy's greatest late works: "Behind a pedagogic exterior, these 12 pieces explore abstract intervals, or – in the last five – the sonorities and timbres peculiar to the piano."<ref name=grove/> In 1914 Debussy started work on a planned set of [[six sonatas for various instruments]]. His fatal illness prevented him from completing the set, but those [[Cello Sonata (Debussy)|for cello and piano]] (1915), flute, viola and harp (1915), and violin and piano (1917 – his last completed work) are all concise, three-movement pieces, more [[diatonic]] in nature than some of his other late works.<ref name=grove/>

''[[Le Martyre de saint Sébastien]]'' (1911), originally a five-act musical play to a text by [[Gabriele D'Annunzio]] that took nearly five hours in performance, was not a success, and the music is now more often heard in a concert (or studio) adaptation with narrator, or as an orchestral suite of "Fragments symphoniques". Debussy enlisted the help of [[André Caplet]] in orchestrating and arranging the score.<ref>Orledge, Robert. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/960380 "Debussy's Orchestral Collaborations, 1911–13. 1: Le martyre de Saint-Sébastien"], ''The Musical Times'', December 1974, pp. 1030–1033 and 1035 {{subscription}}</ref> Two late stage works, the ballets ''[[Khamma (ballet)|Khamma]]'' (1912) and ''[[La boîte à joujoux]]'' (1913), were left with the orchestration incomplete, and were completed by [[Charles Koechlin]] and Caplet, respectively.<ref name=grove/>

==Style==
=== Debussy and Impressionism ===
[[File:Impression-soleil-levant.jpg|thumb|alt=painting of a sunrise over a seascape|[[Claude Monet|Monet]]'s ''[[Impression, Sunrise|Impression, soleil levant]]'' (1872), from which "Impressionism" takes its name]]
The application of the term "Impressionist" to Debussy and the music he influenced has been much debated, both during his lifetime and since. The analyst [[Richard Langham Smith]] writes that Impressionism was originally a term coined to describe a [[Impressionism|style of late 19th-century French painting]], typically scenes suffused with reflected light in which the emphasis is on the overall impression rather than outline or clarity of detail, as in works by [[Claude Monet|Monet]], [[Camille Pissarro|Pissarro]], [[Pierre-Auguste Renoir|Renoir]] and others.<ref name=rls>Langham Smith, Richard. [http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199579037.001.0001/acref-9780199579037-e-3397 "Impressionism"], ''The Oxford Companion to Music'', Oxford University Press, 2011, retrieved 17 May 2018 {{subscription}}</ref> Langham Smith writes that the term became transferred to the compositions of Debussy and others which were "concerned with the representation of landscape or natural phenomena, particularly the water and light imagery dear to Impressionists, through subtle textures suffused with instrumental colour".<ref name=rls/>

Among painters, Debussy particularly admired [[J. M. W. Turner|Turner]], but also drew inspiration from [[James Abbott McNeill Whistler|Whistler]]. With the latter in mind the composer wrote to the violinist [[Eugène Ysaÿe]] in 1894 describing the orchestral ''Nocturnes'' as "an experiment in the different combinations that can be obtained from one colour – what a study in grey would be in painting."<ref>Weintraub, p. 351</ref>

Debussy strongly objected to the use of the word "Impressionism" for his (or anybody else's) music,{{refn|In a letter of 1908 he wrote: "I am trying to do 'something different' – an effect of reality&nbsp;... what the imbeciles call 'impressionism', a term which is as poorly used as possible, particularly by the critics, since they do not hesitate to apply it to [J.M.W.] [[J. M. W. Turner|Turner]], the finest creator of mysterious effects in all the world of art."<ref>Thompson, p.&nbsp;161</ref>|group= n}} but it has continually been attached to him since the assessors at the Conservatoire first applied it, opprobriously, to his early work ''Printemps''.<ref>Jensen, p. 35</ref> Langham Smith comments that Debussy wrote many piano pieces with titles evocative of nature – "Reflets dans l'eau" (1905), "Les Sons et les parfums tournent dans l'air du soir" (1910) and "Brouillards" (1913){{refn|Respectively, Reflections in the Water, Sounds and Perfumes Swirl in the Evening Air, and Mists.<ref name=rls/>|group= n}} – and suggests that the Impressionist painters' use of brush-strokes and dots is paralleled in the music of Debussy.<ref name=rls/> Although Debussy said that anyone using the term (whether about painting or music) was an imbecile,<ref>Fulcher, p. 150</ref> some Debussy scholars have taken a less absolutist line. Lockspeiser calls ''La mer'' "the greatest example of an orchestral Impressionist work",<ref name=s109/> and more recently in ''The Cambridge Companion to Debussy'' Nigel Simeone comments, "It does not seem unduly far-fetched to see a parallel in Monet's seascapes".<ref name=s109>Simeone (2007), p. 109</ref>{{refn|[[Roy Howat]] writes that Debussy, like Fauré "often juxtaposes the same basic material in different modes or with a strategically shifted bass" which, Howat suggests, is "arguably his most literal approach to true Impressionist technique, the equivalent of Monet's fixed object (be it cathedral or haystack) illuminated from different angles".<ref name=grove/>|group= n}}

In this context may be placed Debussy's [[pantheism|pantheistic]] eulogy to Nature, in a 1911 interview with [[Henry Malherbe]]:
{{blockquote|I have made mysterious Nature my religion&nbsp;... 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,&nbsp;... and my hands unconsciously assume an attitude of adoration.<ref>Vallas, p. 225. The interview was published in ''Excelsior'' magazine on 11 February 1911.</ref>|}}

In contrast to the "impressionistic" characterisation of Debussy's music, several writers have suggested that he structured at least some of his music on rigorous mathematical lines.<ref>Iyer, Vijay. [https://www.theguardian.com/music/2009/oct/15/fibonacci-golden-ratio "Strength in numbers: How Fibonacci taught us how to swing"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160510101435/http://www.theguardian.com/music/2009/oct/15/fibonacci-golden-ratio |date=10 May 2016 }}, ''The Guardian'', 15 October 2009</ref> In 1983 the pianist and scholar [[Roy Howat]] published a book contending that certain of Debussy's works are proportioned using mathematical models, even while using an apparent classical structure such as [[sonata form]]. Howat suggests that some of Debussy's pieces can be divided into sections that reflect the [[golden ratio]], which is approximated by ratios of consecutive numbers in the [[Fibonacci sequence]].<ref>Howat (1983), pp. 1–10</ref> Simon Trezise, in his 1994 book ''Debussy: La Mer'', finds the intrinsic evidence "remarkable", with the caveat that no written or reported evidence suggests that Debussy deliberately sought such proportions.<ref>Trezise (1994), p. 53</ref> Lesure takes a similar view, endorsing Howat's conclusions while not taking a view on Debussy's conscious intentions.<ref name=grove/>

=== Musical idiom ===
[[File:Debussy's chords for Guiraud.png|thumb|alt=musical score showing a sequence of 22 different chords, each with 3, 4 or 5 notes|upright=1.0|Improvised chord sequences played by Debussy for Guiraud<ref>Nadeau, Roland. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/3395721 "Debussy and the Crisis of Tonality"], ''Music Educators Journal'', September 1979, p. 71 {{subscription}}; and Lockspeiser, Appendix B</ref>]] [[File:Chords from dialogue with Ernest Guiraud.wav|thumb|Chords from dialogue with Ernest Guiraud]]Debussy wrote "We must agree that the beauty of a work of art will always remain a mystery [...] we can never be absolutely sure 'how it's made.' We must at all costs preserve this magic which is peculiar to music and to which music, by its nature, is of all the arts the most receptive."<ref name=n198010>Nichols (1980), p. 310</ref>

Nevertheless, there are many indicators of the sources and elements of Debussy's idiom. Writing in 1958, the critic [[Rudolph Reti]] summarised six features of Debussy's music, which he asserted "established a new concept of tonality in European music": the frequent use of lengthy [[pedal point]]s – "not merely bass pedals in the actual sense of the term, but sustained 'pedals' in any voice"; glittering passages and webs of figurations which distract from occasional absence of tonality; frequent use of [[parallel chord]]s which are "in essence not harmonies at all, but rather 'chordal melodies', enriched unisons", described by some writers as non-functional harmonies; bitonality, or at least [[bitonal]] chords; use of the [[Whole-tone scale|whole-tone]] and [[pentatonic scale]]s; and [[unprepared modulation]]s, "without any harmonic bridge". Reti concludes that Debussy's achievement was the synthesis of monophonic based "melodic tonality" with harmonies, albeit different from those of "harmonic tonality".<ref>Reti, pp. 26–30</ref>

In 1889, Debussy held conversations with his former teacher Guiraud, which included exploration of harmonic possibilities at the piano. The discussion, and Debussy's chordal keyboard improvisations, were noted by a younger pupil of Guiraud, Maurice Emmanuel.<ref name=Nichols1980/> The chord sequences played by Debussy include some of the elements identified by Reti. They may also indicate the influence on Debussy of [[Erik Satie|Satie]]'s 1887 ''[[Sarabandes (Satie)|Trois Sarabandes]]''.<ref>Taruskin (2010), pp. 70–73.</ref> A further improvisation by Debussy during this conversation included a sequence of whole tone harmonies which may have been inspired by the music of [[Mikhail Glinka|Glinka]] or [[Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov|Rimsky-Korsakov]] which was becoming known in Paris at this time.<ref>Taruskin (2010), p. 71.</ref> During the conversation, Debussy told Guiraud, "There is no theory. You have only to listen. Pleasure is the law!" – although he also conceded, "I feel free because I have been through the mill, and I don't write in the [[fugue|fugal]] style because I know it."<ref name=Nichols1980>Nichols (1980), p. 307</ref>

== Influences ==
=== Musical ===
{{Quote box |bgcolor=#FFFFF0 |salign=right|quote ="Chabrier, Moussorgsky, Palestrina, voilà ce que j'aime" – they are what I love. | source = Debussy in 1893<ref>Howat (2011), p. 34</ref>|align=right| width=20%}}
Among French predecessors, [[Emmanuel Chabrier|Chabrier]] was an important influence on Debussy (as he was on Ravel and [[Francis Poulenc|Poulenc]]);<ref>Orenstein, p. 219; and Poulenc, p. 54</ref> Howat has written that Chabrier's piano music such as "Sous-bois" and "Mauresque" in the ''[[Pièces pittoresques]]'' explored new sound-worlds of which Debussy made effective use 30 years later.<ref>DeVoto, Mark. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/40856242 "The Art of French Piano Music: Debussy, Ravel, Fauré, Chabrier"], ''Notes'', June 2010, p. 790 {{subscription}} {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180614165927/https://www.jstor.org/stable/40856242 |date=14 June 2018 }}</ref> Lesure finds traces of [[Charles Gounod|Gounod]] and [[Jules Massenet|Massenet]] in some of Debussy's early songs, and remarks that it may have been from the Russians – [[Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky|Tchaikovsky]], [[Mily Balakirev|Balakirev]], [[Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov|Rimsky-Korsakov]], [[Alexander Borodin|Borodin]] and [[Modest Mussorgsky|Mussorgsky]] – that Debussy acquired his taste for "ancient and oriental modes and for vivid colorations, and a certain disdain for academic rules".<ref name=grove /> Lesure also considers that Mussorgsky's opera ''[[Boris Godunov (opera)|Boris Godunov]]'' directly influenced Debussy's ''Pelléas et Mélisande''.<ref name=grove/> In the music of [[Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina|Palestrina]], Debussy found what he called "a perfect whiteness", and he felt that although Palestrina's musical forms had a "strict manner", they were more to his taste than the rigid rules prevailing among 19th-century French composers and teachers.<ref name=j146>Jensen, p. 146</ref> He drew inspiration from what he called Palestrina's "harmony created by melody", finding an [[arabesque]]-like quality in the melodic lines.<ref>Jensen, p. 147</ref>

Debussy opined that [[Frédéric Chopin|Chopin]] was "the greatest of them all, for through the piano he discovered everything";<ref>Siepmann, p. 132</ref> he professed his "respectful gratitude" for Chopin's piano music.<ref name=w261>Wheeldon (2001), p. 261</ref> He was torn between dedicating his own Études to Chopin or to [[François Couperin]], whom he also admired as a model of form, seeing himself as heir to their mastery of the genre.<ref name=w261/> Howat cautions against the assumption that Debussy's Ballade (1891) and Nocturne (1892) are influenced by Chopin – in Howat's view they owe more to Debussy's early Russian models<ref>Howat (2011), p. 32</ref> – but Chopin's influence is found in other early works such as the ''Two arabesques'' (1889–1891).<ref>DeVoto (2003), p. 179</ref> In 1914 the publisher [[Durand (publisher)|A. Durand & fils]] began publishing scholarly new editions of the works of major composers, and Debussy undertook the supervision of the editing of Chopin's music.<ref name=timeline6/>{{refn|Debussy examined some existing editions, and chose to base his on that of [[Ignaz Friedman]]. He wrote to Durand: "In Friedmann's [''sic''] preface (Breitkopf Edition, which is quite superior to the Peters), Chopin's influence on Wagner is indicated for the first time".<ref>Evans, p. 77</ref>|group=n}}

Although Debussy was in no doubt of Wagner's stature, he was only briefly influenced by him in his compositions, after ''La damoiselle élue'' and the ''Cinq poèmes de Baudelaire'' (both begun in 1887). According to [[Pierre Louÿs]], Debussy "did not see 'what anyone can do beyond Tristan'," although he admitted that it was sometimes difficult to avoid "the ghost of old [[Parsifal#Act I|Klingsor]], alias Richard Wagner, appearing at the turning of a bar".<ref name=grove/> After Debussy's short Wagnerian phase, he started to become interested in non-Western music and its unfamiliar approaches to composition.<ref name=grove/> The piano piece "[[Golliwogg's Cakewalk]]", from the 1908 suite ''[[Children's Corner]]'', contains a parody of music from the introduction to ''Tristan'', in which, in the opinion of the musicologist [[Lawrence Kramer (musicologist)|Lawrence Kramer]], Debussy escapes the shadow of the older composer and "smilingly relativizes Wagner into insignificance".<ref>De Martelly, Elizabeth. [http://academiccommons.columbia.edu/download/fedora_content/download/ac:178199/CONTENT/current.musicology.90.demartelly.7-34.pdf "Signification, Objectification, and the Mimetic Uncanny in Claude Debussy's 'Golliwog's Cakewalk'"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170816221139/https://academiccommons.columbia.edu/download/fedora_content/download/ac:178199/CONTENT/current.musicology.90.demartelly.7-34.pdf |date=16 August 2017 }}, ''Current Musicology'', Fall 2010, p. 8, retrieved 15 June 2018</ref>

A contemporary influence was Erik Satie, according to Nichols Debussy's "most faithful friend" amongst French musicians.<ref>Nichols (1980), p. 309</ref> Debussy's orchestration in 1896 of Satie's ''[[Gymnopédies]]'' (which had been written in 1887) "put their composer on the map" according to the musicologist [[Richard Taruskin]], and the Sarabande from Debussy's ''Pour le piano'' (1901) "shows that [Debussy] knew Satie's ''[[Sarabandes (Satie)|Trois Sarabandes]]'' at a time when only a personal friend of the composer could have known them." (They were not published until 1911).<ref>Taruskin (2010), pp. 69–70</ref> Debussy's interest in the popular music of his time is evidenced not only by the ''Golliwogg's Cakewalk'' and other piano pieces featuring [[rag-time]], such as ''[[The Little Nigar]]'' (Debussy's spelling) (1909), but by the slow [[waltz]] ''[[La plus que lente]]'' (''The more than slow''), based on the style of the gipsy violinist at a Paris hotel (to whom he gave the manuscript of the piece).<ref name=ra/>

In addition to the composers who influenced his own compositions, Debussy held strong views about several others. He was for the most part enthusiastic about [[Richard Strauss]]<ref>Debussy (1962), pp. 121–123</ref> and Stravinsky, respectful of [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]] and was in awe of [[Johann Sebastian Bach|Bach]], whom he called the "good God of music" ({{Lang|fr|le Bon Dieu de la musique}}).<ref name=w173>Wheeldon (2017), p. 173</ref>{{refn|He remarked to a colleague that if Wagner, Mozart and Beethoven could come to his door and ask him to play ''Pelléas'' to them, he would gladly do so, but if it were Bach, he would be too in awe to dare.<ref name=w173/>|group= n}} His relationship to Beethoven was complex; he was said to refer to him as {{Lang|fr|le vieux sourd}} ('the old deaf one')<ref>Nichols (1992), p. 105</ref> and asked one young pupil not to play Beethoven's music for "it is like somebody dancing on my grave;"<ref>Nichols (1992), p. 120</ref> but he believed that Beethoven had profound things to say, yet did not know how to say them, "because he was imprisoned in a web of incessant restatement and of German aggressiveness."<ref>Nichols (1992), p. 166</ref> He was not in sympathy with [[Franz Schubert|Schubert]], [[Robert Schumann|Schumann]], [[Johannes Brahms|Brahms]] and [[Felix Mendelssohn|Mendelssohn]], the latter being described as a "facile and elegant notary".<ref>Thompson, pp. 180–185</ref>

With the advent of the First World War, Debussy became ardently patriotic in his musical opinions. Writing to Stravinsky, he asked "How could we not have foreseen that these men were plotting the destruction of our art, just as they had planned the destruction of our country?"<ref>Debussy (1987), p. 308.</ref> In 1915 he complained that "since [[Jean-Philippe Rameau|Rameau]] we have had no purely French tradition [...] We tolerated overblown orchestras, tortuous forms [...] we were about to give the seal of approval to even more suspect naturalizations when the sound of gunfire put a sudden stop to it all." Taruskin writes that some have seen this as a reference to the composers [[Gustav Mahler]] and [[Arnold Schoenberg]], both born Jewish. In 1912 Debussy had remarked to his publisher of the opera ''[[Ariane et Barbe-bleue]]'' by the (also Jewish) composer [[Paul Dukas]], "You're right, [it] is a masterpiece – but it's not a masterpiece of French music."<ref>Taruskin (2010), pp. 105–106.</ref> 
On the other hand, [[Charles Rosen]] argued in a review of Taruskin's work that Debussy was instead implying "that [Dukas's] opera was too Wagnerian, too German, to fit his ideal of French style", citing Georges Liébert, one of the editors of Debussy's collected correspondence, as an authority, saying that Debussy was not antisemitic.<ref>Rosen, p. 229</ref>

=== Literary ===
[[File:Pickwick by Kyd 1889.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=19th century watercolour of the Dickens character Samuel Pickwick: a short, portly bald man of mature years, wineglass in hand|[[Hommage à S. Pickwick Esq. P.P.M.P.C.|S. Pickwick Esq. P.P.M.P.C.]]]]Despite his lack of formal schooling, Debussy read widely and found inspiration in literature. Lesure writes, "The development of [[free verse]] in poetry and the disappearance of the subject or model in painting influenced him to think about issues of musical form."<ref name=grove/> Debussy was influenced by the [[Symbolism (movement)|Symbolist]] poets. These writers, who included Verlaine, Mallarmé, Maeterlinck and [[Arthur Rimbaud|Rimbaud]], reacted against the realism, naturalism, objectivity and formal conservatism that prevailed in the 1870s. They favoured poetry using suggestion rather than direct statement; the literary scholar Chris Baldrick writes that they evoked "subjective moods through the use of private symbols, while avoiding the description of external reality or the expression of opinion".<ref>Baldrick, Chris. [http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198715443.001.0001/acref-9780198715443-e-1111 "Symbolists"], ''The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms'', Oxford University Press, 2015, retrieved 13 June 2018 {{subscription}}</ref> Debussy was much in sympathy with the Symbolists' desire to bring poetry closer to music, became friendly with several leading exponents, and set many Symbolist works throughout his career.<ref>Phillips, C. Henry. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/726316 "The Symbolists and Debussy"], ''Music & Letters'', July 1932, pp. 298–311 {{subscription}}</ref>

Debussy's literary inspirations were mostly French, but he did not overlook foreign writers. As well as Maeterlinck for ''Pelléas et Mélisande'', he drew on [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]] and [[Charles Dickens|Dickens]] for two of his Préludes for piano – "La Danse de Puck" (Book 1, 1910) and "[[Hommage à S. Pickwick Esq. P.P.M.P.C.]]" (Book 2, 1913). He set [[Dante Gabriel Rossetti]]'s ''[[The Blessed Damozel]]'' in his early cantata, ''La Damoiselle élue'' (1888). He wrote incidental music for ''[[King Lear]]'' and planned an opera based on ''[[As You Like It]]'', but abandoned that once he turned his attention to setting Maeterlinck's play. In 1890 he began work on an orchestral piece inspired by [[Edgar Allan Poe]]'s ''[[The Fall of the House of Usher]]'' and later sketched the libretto for an opera, ''[[La chute de la maison Usher (opera)|La chute de la maison Usher]]''. Another project inspired by Poe – an operatic version of ''[[The Devil in the Belfry]]'' did not progress beyond sketches.<ref>[http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780192806871.001.0001/acref-9780192806871-e-2066"Debussy, Claude"], ''The Oxford Companion to English Literature'', ed Dinah Birch, Oxford University Press, 2009 retrieved 7 May. 2018 {{subscription}}</ref> French writers whose words he set include [[Paul Bourget]], [[Alfred de Musset]], [[Théodore de Banville]], [[Leconte de Lisle]], [[Théophile Gautier]], [[Paul Verlaine]], [[François Villon]], and Mallarmé – the last of whom also provided Debussy with the inspiration for one of his most popular orchestral pieces, ''Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune''.<ref name=grove/>

== Influence on later composers ==
[[File:Debussy Stravinsky 1910.PNG|thumb|left|Debussy with Igor Stravinsky: photograph by Erik Satie, June 1910, taken at Debussy's home in the Avenue du Bois de Boulogne|alt= two white men, one bearded, middle-aged, standing, one younger, seated, in a book-lined room]]Debussy is widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the 20th century.<ref name=grove/><ref name=odm>[[Michael Kennedy (music critic)|Kennedy, Michael]], and Joyce Bourne Kennedy. [http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199578108.001.0001/acref-9780199578108-e-2488 "Debussy, Achille‐Claude"], ''The Oxford Dictionary of Music'', ed. Tim Rutherford-Johnson, Oxford University Press, 2012, retrieved 17 May 2018 {{subscription}}</ref><ref>Gorlinski, p. 117</ref><ref>Briscoe, James R. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/900196 "Debussy Studies"], ''Notes'' December 1998, pp. 395–397 {{subscription}}</ref> [[Roger Nichols (musical scholar)|Roger Nichols]] writes that "if one omits Schoenberg [...] a list of 20th-century composers influenced by Debussy is practically a list of 20th-century composers ''[[wikt:tout court|tout court]]''."<ref name=n198010/>

[[Béla Bartók|Bartók]] first encountered Debussy's music in 1907 and later said that "Debussy's great service to music was to reawaken among all musicians an awareness of harmony and its possibilities".<ref>Moreux p. 92</ref> Not only Debussy's use of whole-tone scales, but also his style of word-setting in ''Pelléas et Mélisande'', were the subject of study by [[Leoš Janáček]] while he was writing his 1921 opera ''[[Káťa Kabanová]]''.<ref>Taruskin (2010), p. 443</ref> [[Igor Stravinsky|Stravinsky]] was more ambivalent about Debussy's music (he thought ''Pelléas'' "a terrible bore&nbsp;... in spite of many wonderful pages")<ref>Nichols (1992), p. 107</ref> but the two composers knew each other and Stravinsky's ''[[Symphonies of Wind Instruments]]'' (1920) was written as a memorial for Debussy.<ref>Taruskin (2010), p. 469.</ref>

In the aftermath of the First World War, the young French composers of [[Les Six]] reacted against what they saw as the poetic, mystical quality of Debussy's music in favour of something more hard-edged. Their sympathiser and self-appointed spokesman [[Jean Cocteau]] wrote in 1918: "Enough of ''nuages'', waves, aquariums, ''ondines'' and nocturnal perfumes," pointedly alluding to the titles of pieces by Debussy.<ref>Ross, pp. 99–100</ref> Later generations of French composers had a much more positive relationship with his music. [[Olivier Messiaen|Messiaen]] was given a score of ''Pelléas et Mélisande'' as a boy and said that it was "a revelation, love at first sight" and "probably the most decisive influence I have been subject to".<ref>Samuel, p. 69</ref> [[Pierre Boulez|Boulez]] also discovered Debussy's music at a young age and said that it gave him his first sense of what modernity in music could mean.<ref>Boulez, p. 28</ref>

Among contemporary composers [[George Benjamin (composer)|George Benjamin]] has described ''Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune'' as "the definition of perfection";<ref>Service, Tom [https://www.theguardian.com/friday_review/story/0,3605,343060,00.html "Mining for Diamonds"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612141608/https://www.theguardian.com/friday_review/story/0,3605,343060,00.html |date=12 June 2018 }}, ''The Guardian'', 14 July 2000</ref> he has conducted ''Pelléas et Mélisande''<ref>[https://www.operaballet.nl/en/en/opera/composers/george-benjamin "George Benjamin–Conductor, Composer and Knight"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181010153533/https://www.operaballet.nl/en/en/opera/composers/george-benjamin |date=10 October 2018 }}, Dutch National Opera, retrieved 2 June 2018</ref> and the critic Rupert Christiansen detects the influence of the work in Benjamin's opera ''[[Written on Skin]]'' (2012).<ref>Christiansen, Rupert. [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opera/what-to-see/written-skin-one-operatic-masterpieces-time-review/ "Written on Skin is one of the operatic masterpieces of our time – review"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171014191610/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opera/what-to-see/written-skin-one-operatic-masterpieces-time-review/ |date=14 October 2017 }}, ''The Telegraph'', 14 January 2017</ref> Others have made orchestrations of some of the piano and vocal works, including [[John Adams (composer)|John Adams]]'s version of four of the Baudelaire songs (''Le Livre de Baudelaire'', 1994), [[Robin Holloway]]'s of ''En blanc et noir'' (2002), and [[Colin Matthews]]'s of both books of ''Préludes'' (2001–2006).<ref>[http://www.boosey.com/shop/news/Debussy-orchestrations-point-towards-2018-centenary/100803 "Debussy orchestrations point towards 2018 centenary"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190719192655/http://www.boosey.com/shop/news/Debussy-orchestrations-point-towards-2018-centenary/100803 |date=19 July 2019 }}, Boosey & Hawkes, 2016, retrieved 2 June 2018; and [https://colinmatthews.net/works/ "Works"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180605034531/https://colinmatthews.net/works/ |date=5 June 2018 }}, Colin Matthews, retrieved 2 June 2018</ref>

The pianist [[Stephen Hough]] believes that Debussy's influence also extends to [[jazz]] and suggests that ''[[Reflets dans l'eau]]'' can be heard in the harmonies of [[Bill Evans]].<ref>Pullinger, Mark. [https://www.gramophone.co.uk/feature/the-debussy-legacy "The Debussy Legacy"], ''[[Gramophone (magazine)|Gramophone]]'', 10 April 2018, retrieved 3 June 2018</ref>{{refn|In addition to [[Bill Evans]], other jazz musicians influenced by Debussy include [[Herbie Hancock]], and [[McCoy Tyner]], according to an article in ''Jazz Education in Research and Practice''.<ref>Pamies, Sergio. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/jazzeducrese.2.1.06 "Deconstructing Modal Jazz Piano Techniques: The Relation between Debussy's Piano Works and the Innovations of Post-Bop Pianists"], ''Jazz Education in Research and Practice'', 2021, pp. 76–105</ref>|group=n}}

== Recordings ==
In 1904, Debussy played the piano accompaniment for Mary Garden in recordings for the Compagnie française du Gramophone of four of his songs: three ''mélodies'' from the Verlaine cycle ''Ariettes oubliées'' – "Il pleure dans mon coeur", "L'ombre des arbres" and "Green" – and "Mes longs cheveux", from Act III of ''Pelléas et Mélisande''.<ref>Timbrell, pp. 267–268</ref> He made a set of [[piano rolls]] for the [[Welte-Mignon]] company in 1913. They contain fourteen of his pieces: "D'un cahier d'esquisses", "La plus que lente", "La soirée dans Grenade", all six movements of ''Children's Corner'', and five of the ''Preludes'': "Danseuses de Delphes", "Le vent dans la plaine", "La cathédrale engloutie", "La danse de Puck" and "Minstrels". The 1904 and 1913 sets have been transferred to compact disc.<ref>Timbrell, p. 261</ref>

Contemporaries of Debussy who made recordings of his music included the pianists [[Ricardo Viñes]] (in "Poissons d'or" from ''Images'' and "La soirée dans Grenade" from ''Estampes''); [[Alfred Cortot]] (numerous solo pieces as well as the Violin Sonata with [[Jacques Thibaud]] and the ''Chansons de Bilitis'' with [[Maggie Teyte]]); and [[Marguerite Long]] ("Jardins sous la pluie" and "Arabesques"). Singers in Debussy's mélodies or excerpts from ''Pelléas et Mélisande'' included [[Jane Bathori]], [[Claire Croiza]], [[Charles Panzéra]] and [[Ninon Vallin]]; and among the conductors in the major orchestral works were [[Ernest Ansermet]], [[Désiré-Émile Inghelbrecht]], [[Pierre Monteux]] and [[Arturo Toscanini]], and in the ''[[Petite Suite (Debussy)|Petite Suite]]'', [[Henri Büsser]], who had prepared the orchestration for Debussy. Many of these early recordings have been reissued on CD.<ref>Notes to Warner Classics CD 190295642952 (2018)</ref>

In more recent times Debussy's output has been extensively recorded. In 2018, to mark the centenary of the composer's death, [[Warner Classics]], with contributions from other companies, issued a 33-CD set that is claimed to include all the music Debussy wrote.<ref>Clements, Andrew. [https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/jan/03/debussy-the-complete-works-review-a-comprehensive-and-invaluable-survey " Debussy: The Complete Works review – a comprehensive and invaluable survey"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180522041632/https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/jan/03/debussy-the-complete-works-review-a-comprehensive-and-invaluable-survey |date=22 May 2018 }}, ''The Guardian'', 3 January 2018</ref>

== Notes, references and sources ==
=== Notes ===
{{Reflist|group=n|colwidth=24em}}

=== References ===
{{Reflist|colwidth=25em}}

=== Sources ===
{{refbegin|30em}}

* {{cite book | last = Barraqué | first = Jean | author-link = Jean Barraqué | title = Debussy | year = 1977 | publication-place = Paris | publisher = Editions du Seuil | isbn = 978-2-02-000242-4 }}
* {{cite book | last = Blyth | first = Alan | author-link = Alan Blyth | title = Opera on CD | year = 1994 | publication-place = London | publisher = Kyle Cathie | isbn = 978-1-85626-103-6 }}
* {{cite book | last = Boulez | first = Pierre | author-link = Pierre Boulez | title = Entretiens de Pierre Boulez, 1983–2013, recueillis par Bruno Serrou (in French) | editor-first = Bruno | editor-last = Serrou | year = 2017 | publication-place = Château-Gontier | publisher = Éditions Aedam Musicae | isbn = 978-2-919046-34-8 }}
* {{cite book | last = Brown | first = Matthew | title = Debussy Redux: The Impact of his Music on Popular Culture | year = 2012 | publication-place = Bloomington | publisher = Indiana University Press | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=DHiAPGOM7_EC | isbn = 978-0-253-35716-8 }}
* {{cite book | last = Cooke | first = Mervyn | title = The Exotic in Western Music | chapter = The East in the West: Evocations of the Gamelan in Western Music | editor-first = Jonathan | editor-last = Bellman | year = 1998 | publication-place = Boston | publisher = Northeastern University Press | isbn = 978-1-55553-319-9 }}
* {{cite book | last = Cox | first = David | title = Debussy Orchestral Music | year = 1974 | publication-place = London | publisher = BBC | isbn = 978-0-563-12678-2 }}
* {{cite book | last = Debussy | first = Claude | title = Monsieur Croche the Dilettante Hater | url = https://archive.org/stream/threeclassicsina00debu#page/n7/mode/2up | year = 1962 | orig-year = 1927 | publication-place = New York | publisher = Dover | oclc = 613848806 }}
* {{cite book | last = Debussy | first = Claude | editor1-first = François | editor1-last = Lesure | editor2-first = Roger | editor2-last = Nichols | translator-first = Roger | translator-last = Nichols | title = Debussy Letters | year = 1987 | publication-place = Cambridge, MA | publisher = Harvard University Press | isbn = 978-0-674-19429-8 }}
* {{cite book | last = DeVoto | first = Mark | chapter = The Debussy sound: colour, texture, gesture | title = The Cambridge Companion to Debussy | editor-first = Simon | editor-last = Trezise | year = 2003 | publication-place = Cambridge | publisher = Cambridge University Press | isbn = 978-0-521-65478-4 | url = https://archive.org/details/cambridgecompani00trez_0 }}
* {{cite book | last = DeVoto | first = Mark | title = Debussy and the Veil of Tonality | year = 2004 | publication-place = Hillsdale, NY | publisher = Pendragon Press | isbn = 978-1-57647-090-9 }}
* {{cite book | last = Dietschy | first = Marcel | title = A Portrait of Claude Debussy | translator1-first = William | translator1-last = Ashbrook | translator2-first = Margaret | translator2-last = Cobb | year = 1990 | publication-place = Oxford and New York | publisher = Oxford University Press | isbn = 978-0-19-315469-8 | url = https://archive.org/details/portraitofclaude00diet }}
* {{cite book | last = Donnellon | first = Déirdre | chapter = Debussy as musician and critic | title = The Cambridge Companion to Debussy | editor-first = Simon | editor-last = Trezise | year = 2003 | publication-place = Cambridge | publisher = Cambridge University Press | isbn = 978-0-521-65478-4 | url = https://archive.org/details/cambridgecompani00trez_0 }}
* {{cite book | last = Dumesnil | first = Maurice | author-link = Maurice Dumesnil | title = Claude Debussy, Master of Dreams | year = 1979 | orig-year = 1940 | publication-place = Westport | publisher = Greenwood | isbn = 978-0-313-20775-4 }}
* {{cite book | last= Evans | first= Allan | title= Ignaz Friedman: Romantic Master Pianist| year= 2009| location= Bloomington | publisher= Indiana University Press| isbn= 978-0-25-335310-8}}
* {{cite book | last = Fulcher | first = Jane | title = Debussy and his World | year = 2001 | publication-place = Princeton | publisher = Princeton University Press | isbn = 978-1-4008-3195-1 }}
* {{cite book | last1 = Garden | first1 = Mary | author1-link = Mary Garden | last2 = Biancolli | first2 = Louis Leopold | title = Mary Garden's Story | url = https://archive.org/details/marygardensstory00gard | url-access = registration | year = 1951 | publication-place = New York | publisher = Simon & Schuster | oclc = 1001487250 }}
* {{cite book | editor-last = Gorlinski | editor-first = Gini | title = The 100 Most Influential Musicians of All Time | year = 2009 | publication-place = New York | publisher = Britannica Educational Publishing | isbn = 978-1-61530-006-8 }}
* {{cite book | last = Halford | first = Margery | title = Debussy: An Introduction to his Piano Music | year = 2006 | publication-place = Van Nuys | publisher = Alfred | isbn = 978-0-7390-3876-5 }}
* {{cite book | last = Hartmann | first = Arthur | author-link = Arthur Hartmann | title = Claude Debussy as I knew him | year = 2003 | publication-place = Rochester, NY | publisher = University of Rochester Press | isbn = 978-1-58046-104-7 }}
* {{cite book | last = Holloway | first = Robin | author-link = Robin Holloway | title = Debussy and Wagner | year = 1979 | publication-place = London | publisher = Eulenburg | isbn = 978-0-903873-25-3 }}
* {{cite book | last = Holmes | first = Paul | title = Debussy | year = 2010 | publication-place = London and New York | publisher = Omnibus Press | isbn = 978-0-85712-433-3 }}
* {{cite book | last = Howat | first = Roy | author-link = Roy Howat | title = Debussy in Proportion: A Musical Analysis | year = 1983 | publication-place = Cambridge | publisher = Cambridge University Press | isbn = 978-0-521-31145-8 | url-access =  | url =  }}
* {{cite book | last = Howat | first = Roy | chapter = Russian imprints in Debussy's piano music | title = Rethinking Debussy | year = 2011 | editor1-first = Elliott | editor1-last = Antokoletz | editor2-first = Marianne | editor2-last = Wheeldon | publication-place = New York | publisher = Oxford University Press | isbn = 978-0-19-975563-9 }}
* {{cite book | last = Jensen | first = Eric Frederick | title = Debussy | year = 2014 | publication-place = Oxford | publisher = Oxford University Press | isbn = 978-0-19-973005-6 }}
* {{cite book | last = Johnson | first = Graham | author-link = Graham Johnson (musician) | title = A French Song Companion | year = 2002 | publication-place = Oxford and New York | publisher = Oxford University Press | isbn = 978-0-19-973005-6 }}
<!--SEE TALK PAGE* {{cite book | last1 = Jones | first1 = Daniel | author1-link = Daniel Jones (phonetician) | editor1-last = Roach | editor1-first = Peter | editor2-last = Setter | editor2-first = Jane | editor3-last = Esling | editor3-first = John | editor1-link = Peter Roach (phonetician) | editor2-link = Jane Setter | editor3-link = John Esling | title = Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary | year = 2011 | publisher = Cambridge University Press | publication-place = Cambridge | isbn = 978-0-521-15255-6 | edition = 18th}}
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* {{cite book | last = Jones | first = J. Barrie | title = Debussy | year = 1979 | publication-place = Milton Keynes | publisher = Open University | isbn = 978-0-335-05451-0 }}
* {{cite book | last = Lesure | first = François | author-link = François Lesure | translator-last = Rolf | translator-first = Marie | title = Claude Debussy: A Critical Biography | year = 2019 | orig-year = translation of 2003 French ed. | publication-place = Rochester | publisher = University of Rochester Press | isbn = 978-1-580-46903-6 }}
* {{Cite Grove |last1 = Lesure |first1 = François |last2= Howat |first2= Roy |date = 2001 |title = Debussy, (Achille-)Claude |url=https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.07353 |url-access=subscription }}
* {{cite book | last = Lesure | first = François | last2 = Cain | first2 = Julien | author2-link = Julien Cain | title = Claude Debussy, 1862–1918: Exposition organisée pour commémorer le centenaire de sa naissance | year = 1962 | language = fr | publication-place = Bordeaux | publisher = Ville de Bordeaux | oclc = 557859304 }}
* {{cite book | last = Lockspeiser | first = Edward | title = Debussy: His Life and Mind | year = 1978 | orig-year = 1962 | edition = Second | publication-place = Cambridge and New York | publisher = Cambridge University Press | isbn = 978-0-521-22054-5 }}
* {{cite book | last = McAuliffe | first = Mary | title = Twilight of the Belle Epoque | year = 2014 | publication-place = Lanham, MA | publisher = Rowman & Littlefield | isbn = 978-1-4422-2163-5 }}
* {{cite book | last = Mellers | first = Wilfrid | author-link = Wilfrid Mellers | title = Romanticism and the Twentieth Century | year = 1988 | publication-place = London | publisher = Barrie & Jenkins | isbn = 978-0-7126-2050-5 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/manhismusic0000harm }}
* {{cite book | last = Moore Whiting | first = Stephen | title = Satie the Bohemian: From Cabaret to Concert Hall | year = 1999 | publication-place = Oxford | publisher = Oxford University Press | isbn = 978-0-19-816458-6 }}
* {{cite book | last = Moreux | first = Serge | translator1-last = Fraser | translator1-first = G. S. | translator1-link = G. S. Fraser | translator2-last = Mauny | translator2-first = Erik de | translator2-link = Erik de Mauny | title = Béla Bartók | year = 1953 | publication-place = London | publisher = The Harvill Press | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/belabartok0000more|oclc=860355 }}
* {{cite book|last= Nectoux |first= Jean-Michel|authorlink=Jean-Michel Nectoux|year= 1991 |title= Gabriel Fauré: A Musical Life |location= Cambridge |publisher= Cambridge University Press |isbn= 978-0-52-123524-2|others=[[Roger Nichols (musical scholar)|Roger Nichols]] (trans)}}
* {{cite book | last = Nichols | first = Roger | author-link = Roger Nichols (musical scholar) | chapter = Debussy, (Achille-)Claude | title = The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians | editor-last = Sadie | editor-first = Stanley | editor-link = Stanley Sadie | year = 1980 | publication-place = London | publisher = Macmillan | isbn = 978-0-333-23111-1 }}
* {{cite book | last = Nichols | first = Roger|authorlink=Roger Nichols (musical scholar) | title = Debussy Remembered | year = 1992 | publication-place = London | publisher = Faber & Faber | isbn = 978-0-571-15357-2 }}
* {{cite book | last = Nichols | first = Roger | title = The Life of Debussy | year = 1998 | publication-place = Cambridge | publisher = Cambridge University Press | isbn = 978-0-521-57887-5 }}
* {{cite book | last = Nichols | first = Roger | title = Ravel | year = 2011 | orig-year = 1977 | publication-place = New Haven, CN and London | publisher = Yale University Press | isbn = 978-0-300-10882-8 | url = https://archive.org/details/mauriceravel00roge }}
* {{cite book | last = Orenstein | first = Arbie | author-link = Arbie Orenstein | title = Ravel: Man and Musician | year = 1991 | orig-year = 1975 | publication-place = Mineola, US | publisher = Dover | isbn = 978-0-486-26633-6 }}
* {{cite book | last = Orledge | first = Robert | author-link = Robert Orledge | chapter = Debussy the Man | title = The Cambridge Companion to Debussy | editor-first = Simon | editor-last = Trezise | year = 2003 | publication-place = Cambridge | publisher = Cambridge University Press | isbn = 978-0-521-65478-4 | url = https://archive.org/details/cambridgecompani00trez_0 }}
* {{cite book | last = Parris | first = Matthew | author-link = Matthew Parris | title = Scorn | year = 2008 | publication-place = London | publisher = Little | isbn = 978-1-904435-98-3 }}
* {{cite book | last = Potter | first = Keith | title = Four Musical Minimalists | year = 1999 | publication-place = Cambridge and New York | publisher = Cambridge University Press | isbn = 978-0-521-48250-9 }}
* {{cite book | last = Poulenc | first = Francis | author-link = Francis Poulenc | editor-first = Stéphane | editor-last = Audel | translator-last = Harding | translator-first = James | year = 1978 | title = My Friends and Myself | publication-place = London | publisher = Dennis Dobson | isbn = 978-0-234-77251-5 }}
* {{cite book | last = Reti | first = Rudolph | author-link = Rudolph Reti | title = Tonality–Atonality–Pantonality: A Study of Some Trends in Twentieth Century Music | year = 1958 | publication-place = London | publisher = Rockliffe | oclc = 470370109 }}
* {{cite book | last = Rolf | first = Marie | chapter = Debussy's Rites of Spring | title = Rethinking Debussy | year = 2011 | editor1-first = Elliott | editor1-last = Antokoletz | editor2-first = Marianne | editor2-last = Wheeldon | publication-place = New York | publisher = Oxford University Press | isbn = 978-0-19-975563-9 }}
*{{cite book |last=Rosen |first=Charles |author-link=Charles Rosen|date=2012 |title=Freedom and the Arts |url= |location=Cambridge, Mass |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-04752-5}}
* {{cite book | last = Ross | first = Alex | author-link = Alex Ross (music critic) | title =[[The Rest Is Noise]]| year = 2008 | publication-place = London | publisher = Fourth Estate | isbn = 978-1-84115-475-6 }}
* {{cite book | last = Sackville-West | first = Edward | author-link = Edward Sackville-West | last2 = Shawe-Taylor | first2 = Desmond | author2-link = Desmond Shawe-Taylor (music critic) | year = 1955 | title = The Record Guide | publication-place = London | publisher = Collins | oclc = 500373060 }}
* {{cite book | last = Samuel | first = Claude | translator-last = Aprahamian | translator-first = Felix | translator-link = Felix Aprahamian | year = 1976 | title = Conversations with Olivier Messiaen | publication-place = London | publisher = Stainer and Bell | isbn = 978-0-85249-308-3 }}
* {{cite book | last = Schmitz | first = E. Robert | author-link = E. Robert Schmitz | title = The Piano Works of Claude Debussy | year = 1966 | orig-year = 1950 | publication-place = New York | publisher = Dover Publications | isbn = 978-0-486-17275-0 }}
* {{cite book | last = Schonberg | first = Harold C. | author-link = Harold C. Schonberg | title = The Great Pianists | url = https://archive.org/details/greatpianists00scho | url-access = registration | year = 1987 | publication-place = New York | publisher = Simon & Schuster | isbn = 978-0-671-64200-6 }}
* {{cite book | last = Siepmann | first = Jeremy | title = The Piano | year = 1998 | publication-place = Wisconsin | publisher = Hal Leonard Corp. | isbn = 978-0-7935-9976-9 }}
* {{cite book | last = Simeone | first = Nigel | title = Paris – A Musical Gazetteer | year = 2000 | publication-place = New Haven | publisher = Yale University Press | isbn = 978-0-300-08053-7 }}
* {{cite book | last = Simeone | first = Nigel | chapter = Debussy and Expression | title = The Cambridge Companion to Debussy | url = https://archive.org/details/cambridgecompani00trez_0 | url-access = registration | editor-first = Simon | editor-last = Trezise | year = 2007 | publication-place = Cambridge | publisher = Cambridge University Press | isbn = 978-0-521-65243-8 }}
* {{cite book | last = Simeone | first = Nigel | chapter = France and the Mediterranean | title = The Cambridge Companion to Twentieth-Century Opera | editor-first = Mervyn | editor-last = Cooke | year = 2008 | publication-place = Cambridge | publisher = Cambridge University Press | isbn = 978-0-521-78009-4 }}
* {{cite book | last = Taruskin | first = Richard | author-link = Richard Taruskin | title = Stravinsky and the Russian Traditions | year = 1996 | publication-place = Berkeley | publisher = University of California Press | isbn = 978-0-520-29348-9 }}
* {{cite book | last = Taruskin | first = Richard | title = Music in the Early Twentieth Century | year = 2010 | publication-place = Oxford | publisher = Oxford University Press | isbn = 978-0-19-538484-0 }}
* {{cite book | last = Thompson | first = Oscar | title = Debussy, Man and Artist | url = https://archive.org/details/debussymanartist0000thom | url-access = registration | year = 1940 | publication-place = New York | publisher = Tudor Publishing | oclc = 636471036 }}
* {{cite book | last = Timbrell | first = Charles | chapter = Debussy in Performance | title = The Cambridge Companion to Debussy | editor-first = Simon | editor-last = Trezise | year = 2003 | publication-place = Cambridge | publisher = Cambridge University Press | isbn = 978-0-521-65478-4 | url = https://archive.org/details/cambridgecompani00trez_0 }}
* {{cite book | last = Trezise | first = Simon | title = Debussy: La mer | year = 1994 | publisher = Cambridge University Press | publication-place = Cambridge | isbn = 978-0-521-44656-3 }}
* {{cite book | last = Trezise | first = Simon | chapter = Introduction & Debussy's 'rhythmicised time' | title = The Cambridge Companion to Debussy | editor-first = Simon | editor-last = Trezise | year = 2003 | publication-place = Cambridge | publisher = Cambridge University Press | isbn = 978-0-521-65478-4 | url = https://archive.org/details/cambridgecompani00trez_0 }}
* {{cite book | last = Vallas | first = Léon | author-link = Léon Vallas | translator1-last = O'Brien | translator1-first = Maire | translator2-last = O'Brien | translator2-first = Grace | title = Claude Debussy: His Life and Works | url = https://archive.org/details/claudedebussyhis0000vall | url-access = registration | year = 1933 | publication-place = Oxford | publisher = Oxford University Press | oclc = 458329645 }}
* {{cite book | last = Walsh | first = Stephen | chapter = Claude Debussy | title = The Penguin Opera Guide | editor-first = Amanda | editor-last = Holden | year = 1997 | publication-place = London | publisher = Penguin | isbn = 978-0-14-051385-1 | url = https://archive.org/details/operaguidepengui00nich }}
* {{cite book | last = Walsh | first = Stephen | title = Debussy: A Painter in Sound | publication-place = London | publisher = Faber & Faber | year = 2018 | isbn = 978-0-571-33016-4 }}
* {{cite book | last = Weintraub | first = Stanley | author-link = Stanley Weintraub | title = Whistler: A Biography | year = 2001 | publication-place = New York | publisher = Da Capo Press | isbn = 978-0-306-80971-2 }}

<!--SEE TALK PAGE* {{cite book | last = Wells | first = John C. | author-link = John C. Wells | title = Longman Pronunciation Dictionary | year = 2008 | edition = 3rd | publication-place = Harlow, Essex | publisher = Longman | isbn = 978-1-4058-8118-0}}
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* {{cite book | last = Wenk | first = Arthur | title = Claude Debussy and the Poets | year = 1976 | publication-place = Berkeley | publisher = University of California Press | isbn = 978-0-520-02827-2 }}
* {{cite book | last = Wheeldon | first = Marianne | title = Debussy's Late Style | year = 2009 | publication-place = Bloomington | publisher = Indiana University Press | isbn = 978-0-253-35239-2 }}
* {{cite book | last = Wheeldon | first = Marianne | chapter = Tombeau de Claude Debussy | title = Rethinking Debussy | year = 2011 | editor1-first = Elliott | editor1-last = Antokoletz | editor2-first = Marianne | editor2-last = Wheeldon | publication-place = New York | publisher = Oxford University Press | isbn = 978-0-19-975563-9 }}
* {{cite book | last = Wheeldon | first = Marianne | title = Debussy's Legacy and the Construction of Reputation | year = 2017 | publication-place = New York | publisher = Oxford University Press | isbn = 978-0-19-063122-2 }}

{{refend}}

== External links ==
* {{IMSLP|id=Debussy, Claude}}
* {{ChoralWiki|Claude Debussy}}
* {{BBC composer page|debussy|Debussy}}
* [https://www.seine-saintgermain.fr/fr/fiche/797419/un-musee-a-la-gloire-du-celebre-compositeur-claude-debussy/ Website of Debussy museum, St. Germain-en-Laye]

{{Claude Debussy|state=uncollapsed}}
{{Impressionist music}}
{{Modernism}}
{{Subject bar|Classical music|Opera|Biography|Music|d=y|auto=1}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Debussy, Claude}}
[[Category:Claude Debussy| ]]
[[Category:1862 births]]
[[Category:1918 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century French classical composers]]
[[Category:19th-century French male classical pianists]]
[[Category:19th-century French classical pianists]]
[[Category:20th-century French classical composers]]
[[Category:20th-century French male classical pianists]]
[[Category:20th-century French classical pianists]]
[[Category:Ballets Russes composers]]
[[Category:Burials at Passy Cemetery]]
[[Category:Knights of the Legion of Honour]]
[[Category:Composers for piano]]
[[Category:Conservatoire de Paris alumni]]
[[Category:Deaths from colorectal cancer in France]]
[[Category:French ballet composers]]
[[Category:French opera composers]]
[[Category:Impressionist composers]]
[[Category:French male opera composers]]
[[Category:Musicians from Saint-Germain-en-Laye]]
[[Category:Prix de Rome for composition]]
[[Category:Pupils of Antoine François Marmontel]]
[[Category:Pupils of Ernest Guiraud]]