Claude Debussy (1862 – 1918)
Debussy’s compositions form part of an art movement known as French Impressionism that evolved in France at the end of the 19th Century. He was its leading musical exponent and a seminal influence on modern music. The aim of Impressionism was to reflect mood, which Debussy did with the use of unusual chords and modes which nevertheless progress unerringly through evocative landscapes to peaks of tension. His always careful attention to the whole gives the varying, impalpable sentiments a sense of direction and completion. ‘La Fille aux Cheveux de Lin’, from the piano piece, is a charming example.
