Claude Debussy : a critical biography
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Bibliographic Information
Claude Debussy : a critical biography
（Eastman studies in music, [v. 159]）
University of Rochester Press, 2019
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Claude Debussy : biographie critique
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Note
"Original French-language edition: Claude Debussy: Biographie critique by Francois Lesure" by Librairie Artheme Fayarad 2003
Includes bibliographical references and indexes
Series number from CIP
Description and Table of Contents
Description
English translation and revised edition of the most comprehensive and reliable biography of Claude Debussy.
François Lesure's "critical biography" of Claude Debussy (Fayard, 2003) is widely recognized by scholars as the most comprehensive and reliable account of that composer's life and career as well as of the artistic milieu in whichhe worked. This encyclopedic volume draws extensively on Debussy's complete correspondence (at that time unpublished), a painstaking tracking of contemporary reviews and comments in the press, and an examination of other primary documents-including private diaries-that had not been available to previous biographers. As such, Lesure's book presents a wealth of new information while debunking a number of myths that had developed over the years since the composer's death in 1918.
The present English translation and revised edition, by Debussy authority Marie Rolf, augments Lesure's numerous notes with several thousand new ones by Rolf, providing more precise information oncrucial and sometimes contentious points. It also reflects Debussy scholarship that has appeared since 2003, updating Lesure's seminal work. Rolf's translation-the first ever-will make Lesure's findings accessible to scholars, musicians, and music lovers in English-speaking lands and around the world.
FRANÇOIS LESURE (1923-2001) was the Director of the Music division of the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Professor of Musicology at the Université libre de Bruxelles, and Chair of Musicology at the École pratique des Hautes Études.
MARIE ROLF is senior associate dean of graduate studies and professor of music theory at the Eastman School of Music and a memberof the editorial board for the Ouvres complètes de Claude Debussy.
Table of Contents
- Preface An Unsettled Childhood: 1862-72 Failure of a Pianist: 1872-79 Birth of a Composer: 1880-82 The Path to the Prix de Rome: 1882-84 The Villa Medici: 1885-87 Beginning of the Bohemian Period: 1887-89 From Baudelaire to Mallarmé: 1890-91 Esotericism and Symbolism: 1892 The Chausson Year: 1893 A "Fairy Tale" Gone Awry: 1894 Pierre Louÿs: The Lean Years: 1895-96 Pelléas: The Long Wait: 1895-98 From Bachelorhood to Marriage: 1897-99 Nocturnes: 1900-1901 The Composer as Critic: 1901-3 Pelléas et Mélisande: 1902 From the Fêtes galantes to La Mer: 1903 Debussyism
- A New Life: 1904 La Mer: 1905 Projects and Skirmishes: 1906-7 Orchestra Conductor: 1908 "The Procrastination Syndrome": 1909 Images and Préludes: 1910 Le martyre de saint Sébastien: 1911 The Year of the Ballets: 1912 Jeux
- Travel to Russia: 1913 The Final Trips: 1914 The War
- Pourville: 1914-15 The Factories of Nothingness: 1916-18
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