Borne to a family of meagre standings, Claude Debussy was borne on 22 August, 1862, at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France. Debussy showed talents as a pianist by the age of nine. His gift was encouraged by Mme. Mauté de Fleurville, who was associated withe Chopin. In 1873, he entered the Paris Conservatoire. There he studied the piano and composition. Further, he eventually won, in 1884, the Grand Prix de Rome withe his cantata entitled L'Enfant prodigue.

During his early year, Debussy was exposed to many extremes. One such extreme was his living conditions. His parents could only afford to reside in a poor French suburb. The world of the upperclass had opened to him when he, unexpectedly, came under the patronage of a Russian millionairess, Nadezhda Filaretovna von Meck. She engaged him to play duets withe her and her children. During his long summers at the Conservatoire, he travelled withe his patron to her palatial estates across Europe. At this time, in Paris, Debussy fell in love withe a beautiful singer, Blanche Vasnier, the young wife of an architect. During this time in his life, she inspired many of his works.

As the winner of the Grand Prix de Rome, Debussy was given a three year stay in the Villa Medici, in Rome, where he was to pursue his creative work. Debussy fled from the Villa Medici, only after two years, and returned to Blanche Vasnier in Paris. During the early years of his life, Debussy was associated withe many women--some of doubtful reputation. One of his mistresses, Gabrielle Dupont, threatened suicide. His first wife, Rosalie Texier, whom he married in 1899, did shoot herself, though not fatally. Also, as is sometimes the case with artists of passionate intensity, Debussy held many thoughts of suicide.

In 1905, Debussy's illegitimate child was borne. He had divorced Rosalie, in 1904, only to marry his daughter's mother, Emma Bardac. The scandal, gossip, and rumours drove him to seek refuge, for a time, in Eastbourne, England. In 1908, for his daughter, nicknamed Chouchou, he wrote the piano suite Children's Corner. The sensitive nature of his perception coupled withe his spontaneity facilitated his acute understanding of the child mind.

Debussy's enquiring mind challenged the traditional orchestral usage of instruments. Hence his development of the "21-note scale" designed to drown the sense of "tonality." Nevertheless, his method was never adhered to in the inflexible manner that was Schoenberg's 12-note scale. During the latter part of his life, Debussy created an alter ego, "Monsieur Croche," with whom he carried on imaginary conversations about the nature of art and music. Debussy died of cancer in Paris on 25 March, 1918, while the city was being bombarded withe German guns. It is certain that he would have taken part in the leading movements in composition of the years following the first World War, had his life not ended.
 

Piano music
 

SOLO PIANO: Deux Arabesques (1888); Suite bergamasque (1890-1905); Estampes (1903); Images, two sets (1905 and 1907); Children's Corner (1908); Douze Préludes, two books (1910 and 1913); Douze Études, two books (1915).
 

TWO PIANOS: En blanc et noir (1915).
 

Orchestral Music
 

Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune (completed 1894); Nocturnes (1899); La Mer (1905); Images (1912).
 

Ballet
 

Jeux (first performed 1913).
 

Vocal Music

OPERA: Pelléas et Mélisande, on a text by Maeterlinck (first performed 1902).
 

CANTATA: L'Enfant prodigue (1884), awarded Grand Prix de Rome; La Damoiselle élue (1888), text by Dante Gabriel Rosetti, trans. By Gabriel Sarrazin.
 

INCIDENTAL

MUSIC: Le Martyre de Saint-Sébastien (first performed 1911).
 

UNACCOMPANIED

CHOIR: Trois Chansons de Charles d'Orléans (1908).
 

SONGS: Ariettes oubliées (1888); Fêtes galantes, two sets (1892 and 1904); Proses lyriques (1892-1893); Chansons de Bilitis (1897); Le Promenoir des deux amants (1904-1910); Trois Ballades de François Villon (1910); Trois Poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé (1913).
 

Chamber Music
 

String Quartet (1893); Syrinx (1912), for unaccompanied flute; Sonata for Cello and Piano (1915); Sonata for Flute, Viola, and Harp (1915); Sonata for Violin and Piano (1917).