It turns out that Claude Debussy lived exactly as any self-respecting artist should. He drank too much, showed unwise taste in women, never got the hang of money and assumed that anyone who didn’t see ...

Stephen Walsh’s fascinating study shows the composer progressing from ‘dainty’ sketches to extraordinary works of our time The young Claude Debussy wrote a dainty music redolent of pink lampshades and ...

Debussy: A Painter in Sound. By Stephen Walsh. Faber and Faber; 368 pages; £20. To be published in America by Knopf in October; $28.95. CLAUDE DEBUSSY was a rarity: an avant-garde composer who was ...

Musical composition is based on a ruse. Ten seconds of music can hide 10 weeks of anguished pen-work. One lively theme can sit on the grave of 20 erased precursors. The ruse of writing points to a key ...

There is a subtle temptation which leads a man on from mere disinterested craftsmanship, through a positive delight in his own virtuosity, to the exquisite private satisfaction of deceiving the elect.

(Achille) Claude Debussy was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influential composers of the ...