Claude Debussy (b. Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Aug. 22, 1862 � d. Paris, March 25, 1918)

In 1907 Debussy told Durand that in his opinion, and after many attempts to free his own music from formal convention, he was convinced that �Music is made up of colours and barred rhythms�. Anyone who has really studied Debussy�s music must have seen how neat it is. It may sound vague (many of course regard him as an impressionist in music � although he hated the sobriquet) but when one looks into it one sees there are no spare notes-that every note has its purpose. Perhaps this is why, although a very influential composer during the period of the Impressionist School in Paris, he would never accept that in his music he did not attempt to include all the details that one hears in a composition. It is very difficult to define �Impressionism� but what we may call the �misty� effect in his music is particularly due to his taking his notes not from the ordinary Major and Minor Scales, with their mingled tones and semitones, but from the �Whole-tone� Scale, which has no semitones at all. An example of this �Impressionistic� style is to be found in his orchestral piece L� Apres-midi d�un faune which received its first performance when the composer was 32, and brought him fame.