Debussy's life is of extraordinary interest because, like Wagner and
Stravinsky, he crossed artistic boundaries, associating as much with
poets and artists as with musicians. His father was active in the 1871
Paris Commune and the composer's childhood was thus unsettled, his
musical preparation erratic, and his subsequent lifestyle somewhat
bohemian by the bourgeois norms of the French musical establishment.
He never went to a proper school, but was enough of a pianist to enter
the Paris Conservatoire at the age of 10. Whilst still a student he
rebelled against the academy-taught "rules of composition" and
constructed a language of his own, in constant rebellion against the
heavy Wagnerian influence prevalent at that time.
In the early 1900s he worked in Paris as a music critic. His own music
during these years includes some of the greatest and most influential
works of the early twentieth century: the opera _Pelléas et
Mélisande_, his orchestral masterpieces _La Mer _and _Images_, a
series of profoundly original piano works (including two books of
_Préludes)_, and the ballet _Jeux_, premiered in Diaghilev's 1913
season just before Stravinsky's _Rite of Spring_ (which Debussy
attended). His later years were plagued by the rectal cancer that
eventually killed him in 1918. But he continued to compose until 1917
This was a period of political and cultural turmoil in French life,
the Franco-Prussian war and its aftermath, the Dreyfus affair with its
religious and military undercurrents, the general instability of the
Third Republic, and the First World War. Stephen Walsh's study
combines chronological biography with a contextualised picture placing
Debussy in the broad artistic and social environment of
turn-of-the-century France, making this a significant contribution to
the cultural history of the time.
Les mer
Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9780571330188
Publisert
2018
Utgiver
Vendor
Faber & Faber
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter