13 Quotes & Sayings By Claude Debussy

Claude Debussy was one of the major composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was also a prominent pianist, conductor, and orchestral arranger. His compositions are marked by his innovative use of chromaticism. "His music is marked by a distinctive lyrical quality, owing much to his studies with Jules Massenet." Claude Debussy was born in France on 22 February 1862 Read more

He was the only child of Anna Frédéric Debussy (1820–1906), an opera singer, and Auguste-Louis Debussy (1823–1888), a Parisian dentist. In 1863, his family moved to Paris, where he attended primary school at La Salpetrière. In 1872, aged only twelve, he entered the Conservatoire de Paris, where he studied under François Bizet and won a Premier Prix de Rome for composition in 1878.

After graduating from the Conservatoire in 1881, Debussy left for Italy to study piano with Ferdinando Paër and composition under Antonio Sacchini.

1
There is no theory. You have only to listen. Pleasure is the law. I love music passionately. And because l love it, I try to free it from barren traditions that stifle it. It is a free art gushing forth – an open-air art, boundless as the elements, the wind, the sky, the sea. It must never be shut in and become an academic art. Claude Debussy
2
Music is the silence between the notes. Claude Debussy
3
The attraction of the virtuoso for the public is very like that of the circus for the crowd. There is always the hope that something dangerous will happen. Claude Debussy
4
Art is the most beautiful deception of all. And although people try to incorporate the everyday events of life in it, we must hope that it will remain a deception lest it become a utilitarian thing, sad as a factory. Claude Debussy
5
There is nothing is more musical than a sunset. He who feels what he sees will find no more beautiful example of development in all that book which, alas, musicians read but too little - the book of Nature. Claude Debussy
6
The century of airplanes has a right to its own music. Claude Debussy
7
I love music passionately. And because I love it I try to free it from barren traditions that stifle it. Claude Debussy
8
Music is the expression of the movement of the waters, the play of curves described by changing breezes. Claude Debussy
9
Beauty must appeal to the senses, must provide us with immediate enjoyment, must impress us or insinuate itself into us without any effort on our part. Claude Debussy
10
Art is the most beautiful of all lies. Claude Debussy
11
Works of art make rules rules do not make works of art. Claude Debussy
12
Extreme complication is contrary to art. Claude Debussy