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Debussy: Works
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From 1902 to 1910 Debussy wrote chiefly for the piano. Among the most important works of this period were Estampes (Engravings, 1903), L'île joyeuse (The Isle of Mirth, 1904), Images (two series, 1905 and 1907), and many preludes. He rejected the traditionally percussive approach to the piano, instead emphasizing the instrument's capabilities for delicate expressiveness. In 1909 Debussy learned that he was afflicted with cancer, from which he died on March 25, 1918. Most of the works he produced during his last years were for chamber ensembles.
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During this period, as Debussy gained more popularity, he was engaged as a conductor throughout Europe, most often performing Pelléas, La Mer, Iberia, and Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune. He was ... an occasional music critic to supplement his conducting fees and piano lessons. Debussy avoided analytical dissection and attempts to force images from music, "Let us at all costs preserve this magic peculiar to music, since of all the arts it is most susceptible to magic." He could be caustic and witty, sometimes sloppy and ill-informed. Debussy was for the most part enthusiastic about Richard Strauss and Igor Stravinsky, worshipful of Chopin, Johann Sebastian Bach and Mozart, and found both Liszt and Beethoven geniuses who sometimes lacked "taste". Schubert and Mendelssohn fared much worse, the latter he described as a "facile and elegant notary".[7] He also admired the works of Charles-Valentin Alkan.
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Two years later Debussy abandoned his wife of 5 years, Rosalie Texier, to live with and eventually marry Emma Bardac, a woman of some means. The first taste of existence free from material worry seems to have had a beneficial effect on his productivity. During these years he wrote some of his most enduring works: La Mer (1905) and Ibéria (1908), both for orchestra; Images (1905), Children's Corner Suite (1908), and two books of Préludes (1910-1912), all for piano solo.
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Influenced by the contemporary symbolist poet Stéphane Mallarmé, Debussy wrote one of his most famous works, the revolutionary Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune. In contrast to the large late-romantic orchestra, Debussy wrote this piece for a smaller ensemble, emphasizing orchestral colours and timbres of the instruments. Even if Mallarmé himself and Debussy's colleague and friend Paul Dukas were impressed by this piece, the work caused controversy at its premiere; the composer Camille Saint-Saëns for example thought it "pretty" but lacking any "style". It subsequently launched Debussy into the spotlight as one of the leading composers of the era.
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Drawing from his exposure to Impressionism in painting, Debussy attempted to recreate the subtle, nuances in shading, light which made this new type of artform unique. Starting with l'Apres-midi d'un faune (Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun) impressionistic imagery and style becomes characteristic of Debussy's works. This type of imagery can ... be found in the symbolist movement of the time in literature which was also among the major influences upon Debussy.
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Debussy's first large-scale piece of his mature period, the Nocturnesfor orchestra (1893-1899), is contemporaneous with the work on his only completed opera, Pelléas et Mélisande (1894-1902), based on a play by Maurice Maeterlinck. The notoriety surrounding the premiere of Pelléasin 1902 made Debussy the most controversial figure in musical France and divided Paris into two strongly partisan camps.
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