Claude Debussy

EARLY YEARS

• Claude Debussy was born August 22, 1862 near Paris, France
• When he was 3, his father went bankrupt so he was sent to his aunts house
• He started playing piano when he was 7, with his aunts support
• When he was 9, his playing attracted Madame Mauté de Fleurville
• At age 11 he entered the Paris Conservatory of Music he studied there for 11 years and began to compose

COMPOSING YEARS

• When he was 21, one of his pieces, L'Enfant Prodigue and won the Prix de Rome
• Since he won this, he had to live in Rome, Italy, for 3 years
• When he went back to France at age 25, he became a part of the arts scene in Paris
• His opera Pelléas et Mélisande, performed in 1902, had mixed reviews but his audience liked it
• This Impressionistic opera made him very famous

COMPOSING YEARS

• The works he composed between 1903-1910 were very popular to his audience
• For the last 10 years of his life, despite the financial and health problems, he contiued working
• His music was called Impressionistic, which he didn't like being applied to his music
• Some of his most famous pieces are, "The Girl With the Flaxen Hair", "The Submerged Cathedral" and
• "Footsteps in the Snow"

LATER YEARS

• Claude Debussy was a popular and recognized figure in the early 20th century Paris
• HIs greatest joy was to spend time with other creative people in the cafés of Paris
• He died March 25, 1918 in Paris, France, he was 56

CLAUDE DEBUSSY