Claude Debussy

Debussy was born in Saint-Germain-en-Laye and entered the Paris Conservatoire at ten. He won the Prix de Rome in 1884. His music was largely a reaction against Wagner and the German tradition, and he objected to the label "Impressionist", though critics still use it. Symbolist poets such as Verlaine and Mallarmé shaped his approach, and he set many of their poems.

He used whole-tone, pentatonic and later octatonic scales, parallel chords, pedal points and modulations without preparation. The Javanese gamelan, which he heard at the 1889 Paris Exposition, influenced works such as "Pagodes" in Estampes. His orchestration prefers colour and texture to argument. The Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune (1894), after Mallarmé's poem, opens with a solo flute that falls chromatically to a tritone below its starting note. La mer (1903 to 1905) is subtitled "three symphonic sketches", and its motifs grow by derivation from earlier ones.

The piano music includes Suite bergamasque, Pour le piano, Estampes (1903), L'isle joyeuse, two sets of Images, Children's Corner, and two books of Préludes (1909 to 1910 and 1911 to 1913), in which the titles stand at the end of each piece so they do not steer the player. Orchestral and solo works include the Nocturnes (1897 to 1899), the Dances for harp and string orchestra (1904) and the Première rhapsodie (1909 to 1910). The songs include Ariettes oubliées (Verlaine) and Fêtes galantes. The late chamber works are the Cello Sonata and the Sonata for flute, viola and harp (both 1915) and the Violin Sonata (1917), three of six planned sonatas.