Claude Debussy (1862 – 1918)
His parents were running a china
shop in St Germain-en-Laye, just outside Paris, when Achille Claude was born on
the 22nd of August 1862. His birthplace, a C17th building in two
parts, joined by a beautiful balustrade staircase, is now the Maison Claude
Debussy.
The ground floor now houses the
Office de Tourisme and the first floor is a museum dedicated to Debussy.
Personal souvenirs, letters, photographs, manuscripts and ornaments reflecting
his life, tastes and personality were bequeathed to the museum by his
daughter-in-law. An auditorium room on the second floor regularly presents
various recitals, readings and lectures on Debussy and other composers and the
town holds a festival every year in his honour. A fitting tribute to one of
France’s most influential and popular composers.
His childhood was very unsettled;
his father changed jobs many times and was imprisoned for a short time after
Commune of 1871 for his revolutionary activities. His mother, a seamstress,
took him to Cannes to stay with her friends at the Arosa Mansion. Here the sea
and the Early Impressionist Art collection at the mansion fascinated Debussy.
The colour and light of the Midi at first inspired him to paint and would later
influence his compositions.
The family eventually settled in Paris, where his
father frequented the infamous “Chat Noir” café and knew many cabaret
composers. His literary and artistic connections and the restlessness of his
childhood would influence all of Debussy’s life.
His first piano lessons were
given by Madame Mauté, the mother-in-law of the poet Paul Verlaine, and she
prepared him for entry in at Paris Conservatoire, where he was accepted in
1872. Debussy joined the piano class of Marmontel but was briefly and
unofficially tutored also by César Franck. He abandoned his dreams of a
virtuoso career after unsuccessful exams in 1878-9, but in 1884, he won the
prestigious Prix de Rome and travelled to Italy, Vienna and Russia with
Tchaikovski’s patron, Madame von Meck.
He hated his obligatory stay at the Villa Medici in Rome
and returned to Paris after the minimum 2-year stay in Rome. He was unhappy to
be separated from the woman he loved, Madame Vasnier, and was irritated by the
pretentiousness of fellow students and officials.
It was at a soirée of Madame
Vasnier, a talented amateur singer, that he first encountered the poems of
Mallarmé and was re-acquainted with those of Verlaine. Here Debussy discovered
the musical quality of words and how poetry was composed like music.
His early influences were like so many of his generation,
overshadowed by the legacy of Wagner. Debussy visited Bayreuth in 1888 and
1889. He became anti-Wagnerian at a time when Wagner dominated French music,
preferring the symbolist poems of Mallarmé and dreamy languor in his music. He
wished to capture the mysteriousness of Nature rather than portray a literal
representation, an Impressionist influence.
At the 1889 Paris Exhibition, began a new fascination. In the booths and reconstructions of ethnic
streets on the Champ de Mars, Debussy heard Balinese and Annamite gamelan
orchestras playing for the performance of shadow puppet plays and legendary
dramas, mimed by dancers in exotic and colourful costumes.
Eric Satie was a great lifelong
friend. They met at the “Auberge du Clou” in Montmartre in 1891 and found a
mutual interest in the occult and mysticism, which was fashionable at that
time. Even after celebrity and scandal lead to desertion by many of Debussy’s
friends, the faithful Satie would call to play his piano, entertain his
children and stay for dinner, on his long walk from the suburbs to the cabarets
of Montmartre.
It was a performance of “La
damoiselle élue” at the Société Nationale in 1893, which brought Debussy’s
music to public attention, followed in December 1894 by the premiere of his
“Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune”. His world famous opera “Pelléas et
Mélisande” was already in its first draft by spring 1895. The “Trois Chansons
de Bilitis” were completed in the summer of 1897.
This was a most difficult time for
Debussy. That year his mistress, singer Gabrielle Dupont, attempted suicide. He
had been engaged to Thérèse Roger, another singer, but it was broken off in
unpleasant circumstances and it ended his friendship with the composer
Chausson. In October 1899 he married Rosalie Texier, a mannequin and friend of
Gabrielle Dupont. He seemed to be reckless in affairs of the heart and this
would lose him many friends, even those who frequented the bohemian cafés of
Montmartre.
The new century brought both further success and
alienation. He became a music critic for “La Revue Blanche” and his “Pelléas et
Mélisande” was premiered at the Opéra Comique. It was performed 100 times
between 1901 and 1911 and made him internationally famous. In 1903 he was made
a Chevalier of the Legion d’Honneur. He composed many of his works during this
period, but it was his affair with Emma Bardac and the desertion of his wife
that most of Paris was discussing.
Emma Bardac was an amateur singer and the wife of a
wealthy banker. She was supposed to have been Fauré’s mistress and was the
dedicatee of his “La Bonne Chanson”. It was her son Raoul, a pupil of Debussy,
that introduced them to each other in 1903 and, much to her son’s dismay, they
fell in love. The following year Debussy left his wife and moved into an
apartment of the Avenue du Bois de Boulogne with Emma. His wife shot herself in
the stomach and many of Debussy’s friends abandoned him to avoid the scandal.
Rosalie survived the “accident” but Debussy’s friendship with Ravel did not.
Ravel was outraged by the immorality of Debussy’s affair with Bardac, and sent
small allowance to Debussy’s first wife. This would embitter their relations
permanently, but not as much as the gossip in the press implied. Although
Debussy referred to Ravel’s “Histoires Naturelles” as “factitious Americanism”,
Ravel always revered Debussy as a master.
Emma gave birth to their daughter
in 1905 but they were not married until 1908. Her uncle had cut off her
allowances and inheritance when she had refused to return to her husband; the
Debussys’ would experience many years of financial struggle. Debussy began
touring Europe, playing piano and conducting his works to improve their
situation. In 1908 he finished “Ibéria” and had a year of musical success.
He met Stravinski backstage after
the premiere of “The Firebird” in 1910 and was very impressed by him. A close
friendship followed but after the premiere of “The Rite of Spring” Debussy
began view him as a spoilt child.
Debussy’s cancer, that would later prove
fatal, was starting to give him pain. In 1914 he made his last visit abroad to
London and although he had planned more tours, by 1915 he was in acute pain.
The devastation of World War One
and his illness made him introspective and he feared for the survival of French
Culture. He died in Paris, during an air raid in March 1918, in despair and
confined to his room.
“He was an ironic and sensual figure, melancholy and
voluptuous... Highly strung, he was master of his nerves, though not of his
emotions…Irony was part of his nature…he had a mischievous sense of humour and
acknowledged a love of good living…Debussy was as much a bohemian of Montmartre
as he was a man of the world.” André Suarès.
Trois
Chansons de Bilitis
Listen on YouTube
Debussy completed these three
mélodies in 1897. At this time, he was an influential member of the Fin de
Siècle artistic movement in Paris. Symbolism in poetry, Impressionism in
painting, Art Nouveau and the Pre-Raphaelite movement were his influences. The
fascination with the play of light and pagan imagery are prevalent in his
music. The French artists of this period were looking for new C20th definitions
and wished to move away from the Wagnerian influences of the late C19th.
Pièrre Louÿs was one of the
Symbolist poets, who found their inspiration in nature and Classical mythology.
Even though he was a close friend and collaborator of Debussy, these three
songs are the only ones Debussy set to music. The dream world of “Pelléas et
Mélisande” is reflected in these songs. The poet lends a certain dignity to
erotic situations by placing them in a mythological setting. Like Mélisande,
Bilitis is so innocent that one is almost persuaded to believe in her enduring
chastity.
They were originally to be
declaimed with a harp, flute and celesta accompaniment and this is still
evident within the revised voice-piano format. The style is a mellifluous
recitatif-parlé with piano music reminiscent of his “Prélude à l’après-midi
d’un faun”. Debussy’s shimmering harmonies, chromaticism and rhythmical
fluidity evoke the eroticism of the pseudo-Greek poems, freeing the voice to
express the innocence of Bilitis.
The three songs are the expression of
Bilitis’ love, from its first awakenings, to her emotional response to the
passion of her lover’s dream, to the dimming of their passion and her wish to
escape worldly realities.
Bilitis “born at the beginning of
the sixth century preceding our era, in a mountain village on the banks of the
Melas forming the eastern boundary of Pamphylia”, was the perfect hedonist for
Debussy, who said that: “therein, in beautiful language, is all that is
ardently tender and cruel in acts of passion; so true, in fact, is this that
the most craftily voluptuous of people are obliged to admit the childishness of
their play by the side of this terrible, fascinating Bilitis.”
The songs were first performed by Blanche Marot at the
Société Nationale on 17th March 1900 accompanied by Debussy.
©
H Kean
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