Google Doodle celebrates 151st birthday of French composer Claude Debussy

 
Kathryn Bromwich22 August 2013

Google has celebrated 151 years since the birth of French composer Claude Debussy, whose work was seminal in influencing 20th Century classical music.

The latest Google graphic depicts a moonlit riverside scene with streets lights, a windmill and various vehicles including boats, bicycles and cars, set to the composer's Clair de lune piece. Rain begins to fall, and the scene ends with two people in different rowing boats sharing a red umbrella.

Composed around 1890, Clair de lune was part of a piano suite entitled Suite bergamasque.

Born on August 22 1862 in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France, Achille-Claude Debussy began learning the piano at the age of seven and entered the Paris Conservatoire at the age of ten.

In 1884, aged 22, he won the prestigious Grand Prix de Rome with his cantata L’Enfant prodigue (The Prodigal Child).

The composer went on to become a prominent figure in Impressionist music due to his original system of harmony and musical structure.

He famously described his approach to composition as: "Music is the space between the notes."

Debussy's musical development was shaped by influences as diverse as the French symbolist literary movement, German composer Richard Wagner, and Javanese gamelan music.

Debussy was made Chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 1903, and died of rectal cancer in his Paris home on 25 March 1918.

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