Claude Debussy - Portraits et Études

Many traits of Debussy’s life and work are still unknown. By offering a diversified view on the man and his cultural and social environment, as well as on his compositions, this book aims to shed light on certain aspects of his artistic personality. The first section ‘Portraits’, adopts a cross-disciplinary approach, exploring the literary world Debussy encountered, his relationship to works of the past, and his attitude towards money. The second part, ‘Études’, examines, through the analysis of manuscript and printed sources, the many changes that Debussy made to his musical or critical works, and focuses on the melodies of his youth, the Proses lyriques, the Nocturnes, L’Enfant prodigue and Monsieur Croche Antidilettante. Finally, Debussy’s relationships with authors, composers and performers are the subject of the final chapters. Director of Research at the CNRS (IReMus), Denis Herlin is, among others, the author of about forty studies on the work of Claude Debussy. General editor of Debussy’s Œuvres complètes de Debussy since 2002, in 2005 he and François Lesure published the edition of the composer’s general Correspondence. Former President of the Société française de musicologie, he has also held the International Chair in Musicology at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester since 2017.