Claude Debussy Research Paper

Claude Debussy was a composer in the impressionist period. Many people view him as the founder of musical impressionism. The musical impressionist era was in the late 19th century. This was about the time that the lightbulb was invented by Thomas Edison. The impressionist era lasted from the 1870’s and the 1880’s. Claude Debussy was born August 22, 1862 in Germain-en-Laye France. He lived there for about eight years before he moved to Cannes due to the France Prussian War in 1870. In 1971 his father was arrested and Antoinette Maute’ was granted guardianship of Claude. It is believed that Antoinette started teaching him music lessons before entered the Paris Conservatoire in 1872. When he was first there, he wanted to study to become a solo pianist. He was unable to achieve this, so he began studying harmony and he did much better in this than his original focus. He would later become known for his unusual treatment of harmony.

While he worked for her, he spent summers in Italy, Vienna, and Moscow and he began composing songs. In 1883 he was awarded Prix De Rome runner-up for Le Gladiateur. A Prix De Rome was an art scholarship awarded by the French Government between 1663 and 1968. It was about this time when the well known French composer, Charles Gounod, started to mentor Debussy. The next year, Claude’s cantata, L 'enfant Prodigue won him a Grand Prix de Rome. He continued to stay in Rome after receiving this award and wrote songs for choruses and orchestras. Claude’s “unusual treatment of harmony” did not always satisfy the academy that sponsored him, so in 1887 Claude returned to Paris. When he returned to Paris he composed songs for piano and orchestra, influenced by Richard Wagner’s composition style. Claude, even though being influenced by Richard Wagner was attracted to Symbolists poets and Impressionist painters so he began to deny