Claude Debussy
Claude-Achille Debussy (22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures associated with Impressionist music, though he himself disliked the term when applied to his compositions. He was made Chevalier of the Legion of Honour in his native France in 1903. Debussy was among the most influential composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and his use of non-traditional scales and chromaticism influenced many composers who followed.
Debussy's music is noted for its sensory content and frequent usage of non-traditional tonalities. The prominent French literary style of his period was known as Symbolism, and this movement directly inspired Debussy both as a composer and as an active cultural participant.
“How much has to be explored and discarded before reaching the naked flesh of feeling.”
“music is the arithmetic of sounds as optics is the geometry of light”
“Listen to no one's advice except that of the wind in the trees. That can recount the whole history of mankind...”
“People don't very much like things that are beautiful.. they are so far from their nasty little minds.”
“the colour of my soul is iron-grey and sadbats wheel about the steeple of my dreams.”