Claude Debussy

Ten years old when he entered the Paris Conservatoire, Claude Debussy studied there from 1872 to 1884. He took the Prix de Rome in 1884 and disliked his stay in Rome. His influences included Mallarmé's poetry, Asian music heard at the Exposition Universelle of 1889 and Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov. His works include Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune, the Nocturnes, La mer and the single completed opera, Pelléas et Mélisande of 1902. His piano works include Estampes, the two sets of Images, Children's Corner, the twenty-four Préludes and, at the end, the twelve Études. He objected to being called an Impressionist. He died in Paris in 1918. Ibéria and the Suite bergamasque belong to the same catalogue, as do two rhapsodies: the first, of 1910, for clarinet and piano, written as a test piece for the end-of-year examinations at the Paris Conservatoire, and the other, begun before it, for saxophone and orchestra. Jean Roger-Ducasse prepared the piano and orchestral versions of the saxophone Rhapsodie after Debussy’s death, working from the composer’s completed short score.