# Debussy Died 100 Years Ago Today



## classical yorkist (Jun 29, 2017)

My life would be poorer without his music in it.


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## BiscuityBoyle (Feb 5, 2018)

classical yorkist said:


> My life would be poorer without his music in it.


I second that, though can't say Barenboim is one of my favorite Debussy players on the strength of his new release











Some more of the greatest Debussy pieces/recordings


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## classical yorkist (Jun 29, 2017)

I totally agree about Barenboim, I just wanted a video of one of my favourite Debussy pieces and couldn't find a nice performance video I liked.


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## LezLee (Feb 21, 2014)

BBC Radio 3 has really done him proud this week. Not just Composer Of The Week but a high proportion of the rest of the week’s programming focused on his life and work. Plenty of unusual and rarely heard works and insights into his fascinating life. 
I’ve been thoroughly hooked and will be listening again to the podcasts.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

Thanks for reminding me! I'm going to dig out Clair de Lune right now and play through it. Then put the Tomita disk in the car and go for a Sunday drive.


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## Michael Diemer (Nov 12, 2017)

Let others argue about performers. I will take the time to acknowledge one of the greatest composers of all time, the greatest French composer, and the composer who had the greatest influence on the 20th century. After all, that is his due. 

Debussy died as the bombs were falling on the outskirts of Paris, in "The war to end to end all wars." He had been suffering with cancer for 10 years or so. His only child died two years later. Yet this man, falsely portrayed as a womanizer, gave us some of the the most sublime music this world has been graced to receive. He was a profoundly unhappy man who struggled with depression. He admitted he would have committed suicide except for his beloved daughter, Chou Chou. 

It is hard to believe it has been 100 years since he left this world. But in his brief life he enriched it beyond measure. How many students were charmed by pieces like Reverie, Claire De Lune, and Golliwog's Cakewalk? How many jazz musicians have felt his influence? How many composers found new paths, since Afternoon Of A Faun changed everything they thought they knew about composing?

Rest In Peace, great, great man of music. I cannot observe the Sea without thinking of you. I cannot look at moonlight without thinking of you. You have not been forgotten.


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## Guest (Mar 25, 2018)

A great anniversary to commemorate. Debussy's influence cannot be overstated. And he was so very different from everybody who came before. This:


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## Mal (Jan 1, 2016)

LezLee said:


> BBC Radio 3 has really done him proud this week...


Building a Library did Preludes Book 1. It's available on the BBC website and well worth a listen. A couple of big names were missing or underdone, but overall it was a very interesting comparison between many different pianists. Got me playing my Gordon Fergus-Thompson CD.


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## BiscuityBoyle (Feb 5, 2018)

Brouillards (mists), the first preludes from Book II, is one of the first pieces of music in the Western tradition that arguably doesn't have a harmonic center of gravity, a hugely important modernist milestone, and an incomparable piece of music.


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

Have always loved his atmospheric _Nocturnes_ since I first heard them many years ago... I was entirely captivated. He played by his own rules. R.I.P.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

My Classical radio station playing him all day today, deviating from the normal program, which is nice. They announced a piece by the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, but failed to mention the conductor


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Phil loves classical said:


> My Classical radio station playing him all day today, deviating from the normal program, which is nice. They announced a piece by the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, but failed to mention the conductor


That's neat! A true visionary, may he rest in peace and his pieces keep his legacy alive for all eternity.


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## laurie (Jan 12, 2017)

Debussy's music has aged so well ( or should I say, not aged at all?!); it still sounds so fresh today that I can never believe I'm listening to things written over a century ago! So many beautiful pieces ~
& La Mer is a masterpiece.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

I liked his Hip Hop works best


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## Boston Charlie (Dec 6, 2017)

It took me some time to like Debussy; but once I caught on to it, Debussy's style seemed to capture my imagination. Debussy's popular orchestral works are my favorites: "Afternoon of a Faun", "La Mer", "Iberia", "Jeux", the orchestrated version of "Clair de Lune"...

Boulez w/the Philharmonia Orchestra is the finest IMO; but Munch is also good; and to my ears (and my surprise) Karajan is not bad. While Bernstein is my favorite conductor, Bernstein's enthusiastic and energetic approach couldn't capture Debussy's ethereal quality.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

Jean Martinon’s Debussy are my favourites for orchestral, especially Prelude of an Afternoon of a Faun.


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## BiscuityBoyle (Feb 5, 2018)

Phil loves classical said:


> My Classical radio station playing him all day today, deviating from the normal program, which is nice. They announced a piece by the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, but failed to mention the conductor


My guess is that it was because that conductor's name is highly "toxic" these days...






Dutoit did some really fine Debussy with the OSM back in the day.


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## Michael Diemer (Nov 12, 2017)

BiscuityBoyle said:


> Brouillards (mists), the first preludes from Book II, is one of the first pieces of music in the Western tradition that arguably doesn't have a harmonic center of gravity, a hugely important modernist milestone, and an incomparable piece of music.


I have both sets of Preludes with Arrau. wouldn't part with them for the world.


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

When I was a teen, back in the 1980s, I discovered a bunch of old records in a cupboard. One of them was a record by Van Cliburn, titled "My Favorite Encores." It included plenty of war horses by Chopin and Rachmaninov. And also _Reflections on the Water_.






Initially I didn't like the piece at all. It sounded rather bland and lacking in melody compared to tho other pieces. But it was not so easy to skip pieces on a vinyl record, and thank heavens for that: I obligingly sat through it whenever I played that record, and bit by bit the piece grew on me. It remains one of my favorite pieces by Debussy.

I think I discovered _Claire de Lune_ and _Afternoon of a Faun_ etc. only much later. Magical, mystical stuff.


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## regenmusic (Oct 23, 2014)

It's important to remember that he changed harmony in a dramatic way probably more than any other, at least in the top three. And he changed it for the better, as those are the only kinds that matter.


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## Room2201974 (Jan 23, 2018)

Iconoclast with a capital I. He created some great art outside the rules of major/minor tonality and inspired others to push the boundaries even farther. Ab so lute ly gorgeous music!


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## regenmusic (Oct 23, 2014)

Debussy - La fille aux cheveux de lin- Jazz analysis/tutorial


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## Room2201974 (Jan 23, 2018)

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> I liked his Hip Hop works best


I still have the KTEL vinyl with all those hits:

_Straight Outta Composition_
_Notorius C.A.D._
_Qualudes In The Afternoon Of A Fawn_
_Whole Tone State Of Mind_
_Emma Said Knock You Out_
_Nuthin But A G Minor Thang_

Great stuff!


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

Here is the whole documentary the segment in the OP was extracted from. I personally like Barenboim's playing here. This includes many interesting bits of information and quotes from Debussy, as well as some from Satie and Stravinsky - some really nice photos too.

Some of the non musical aspects of this documentary seem a little pretentious to me, aside from that its good. This video includes English subtitles.


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## BiscuityBoyle (Feb 5, 2018)

I'm really partial to the second book of Images, in particular this astonishing slow piece


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)




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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

BiscuityBoyle said:


> My guess is that it was because that conductor's name is highly "toxic" these days...
> 
> Dutoit did some really fine Debussy with the OSM back in the day.


Kind of ironic really. Debussy was involved from an early age in a number of affairs with married women, when he did marry he abused her, cheated on her, dumped her. Another marriage and more affairs and an illicit child. Sound like Debussy and Dutoit would have gotten along famously.


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## larold (Jul 20, 2017)

BBC Music had his as its composer of the month last issue. They had two special articles, neither of which I found illuminating. I thought their choices for recommended Debussy recordings were extraordinarily wanting. For any Debussy completist there is a recent recordings of Jeux, Khamma & La boite a joujoux that is quite wonderful. Lan Shui conducts the Singapore Symphony.


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## BiscuityBoyle (Feb 5, 2018)

mbhaub said:


> Kind of ironic really. Debussy was involved from an early age in a number of affairs with married women, when he did marry he abused her, cheated on her, dumped her. Another marriage and more affairs and an illicit child. Sound like Debussy and Dutoit would have gotten along famously.


Putting aside the vast and obvious differences between the norms governing courtship and sex in France a century ago and in North America today, let's not conflate sex between consenting adults ("cheated on her") with sexual harassment and assault (from the NYT: "his behavior had included physically restraining them, forcing his body against theirs, putting his tongue into their mouths, and, in one case, sticking one of their hands down his pants").


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## Bachiana (Aug 26, 2016)

OK, everybody is right about all those famous compositions of Debussy, but I have a different list of favourites.
First L'île joyeuse played bij Zoltán Kocsis. Especially the end is the most joyfull music I know. 
Then the sonata for violin and piano. My favourite violinist is here Anne Akiko Meyers, with Li Jian, piano. Everytime I hear the first movement, tears come from my eyes. It is very sad, but o so beautiful.
Then the cycle Estampes. Everytime I hear this, I am deeply impressed.If you can't travel, listen to Estampes. You're in China, you're in Spain and you're in France, sheltering for the rain like Marcel Proust and you're totally happy.
His songs by Elly Ameling and Dalton Baldwin and Rudolf Jansen: Beau soir, Noël des enfants qui n'ont plus de maison, Eventail.
And my latest discovery: the Préludes book 1 and 2 by Paavali Jumppanen. This is now my all time favourite.


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

I have listened to Debussy for years but lately have developed an obsession with the Preludes and Etudes


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

I listened to "La Mer" this morning.

Now I listen to "Quatre chansons de jeunesse"


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