“There is no theory. You have only to listen. Pleasure is the law. I love music passionately. And because I love it, I try to free it from the barren traditions that stifle it.” – Debussy
Aug. 22 marks the 150th anniversary of French composer Claude Debussy’s birth. So it is fitting that we honour him with a quotation about his enthusiasm for music and his spirit of innovation. But Debussy was also rebellious, ornery, aristocratic, a philanderer and a spendthrift with a flair for fashion and sophisticated taste in art. He once said he preferred artists to composers.
He was also a genius of a composer who wrote some of the most evocative music ever. He changed the course of music with his revolutionary ideas. He liberated the rules, loosened up form and created sound for sound’s sake.
And Debussy was incredibly opinionated. An invitation to write for Revue Blanche in 1901, and later, two other publications, gave him an outlet for his ideas and biting opinions, however outrageous. But reaction was so strong he eventually took on a pseudonym, Monsieur Croche.
In one article, published in Debussy's Monsieur Croche the Dilettante Hater in 1927, the composer makes no bones about his feelings for the audience:
“Have you noticed the hostility of a concert-room audience? Have you studied their almost drugged expression of boredom, indifference and even stupidity? They never grasp the noble dramas woven into the symphonic conflict in which one is conscious of the possibility of reaching the summit of the structure of harmony and breathing there an atmosphere of perfect beauty.
“Such people always seem like guests who are more or less well bred; they endure the tedium of their position with patience, and they remain only because they wish to be seen taking their leave at the end; otherwise, why come?
“You must admit that this is a good reason for an eternal hatred of music.”
Ouch. So much for loving music passionately.
But given that it’s Debussy’s birthday, let’s not end on a sour note. Here’s one more quote, from The Lives of the Great Composers by Harold C. Schonberg. Yes, it’s a bit snooty, but it also gives us a sense of his patriotism and love of elegance.
“To a Frenchman, finesse and nuance are the daughters of intelligence.”
He certainly filled his music with all of these. Happy birthday, Claude.
Angela Hewitt plays Debussy's Clair de lune at Koerner Hall in Toronto.
Related:
A round-up of concerts celebrating Debussy's 150th
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