New Delhi: The lights on the houses by the riverside turn off and on synchronised to the piano strings playing Claude Debussy's 'Clair de lune'. This is Google's romantic tribute to the French composer on his 151st birth anniversary.
Born on August 22, 1862, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France, Claude Debussy's (his full name was Achille-Claude Debussy) gift as a pianist was evident by the age of nine. He grew up in a poverty-stricken suburb of Paris but then came under the the patronage of a Russian millionairess. He then fell in love with a beautiful young wife of an architect, who was also a singer and his love for her inspired many of his early musical compositions. The 'Clair de lune' played on the Google doodle is a composition from Claude Debussy's early period.
Debussy was grandted a state scholarship Grand Prix de Rome to pursue his creative work and was given a three-year stay at the Villa Medici in Rome, but finding the life there too magnificent for his liking he fled from there after two years and returned to Paris. During that period of his life Claude Debussy lived a life of extreme indulgence and had alliances with several women.
Claude Debussy's works were influenced by Richard Wagner, Aleksandr Borodin and Modest Mussorgsky.
Following the birth of his daughter born out of wedlock, Debussy moved to England to avoid the scandal and subsequently married his daughter's mother. During that period he wrote a piano suite Children's Corner for his daughter.
In Debussy later years, his instrumental writing was marked by his pursuit of illusion. He also created an alter ego, 'Monsieur Croche,' and had imaginary conversations on the nature of art and music. Claude Debussy died from rectal cancer on March 25, 1918 in Paris.
Debussy major works include Clair de lune (Moonlight, in Suite bergamasque, 1890-1905), Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune (1894; Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun), the opera Pelléas et Mélisande (1902), and La Mer (1905; The Sea).
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