What is Claude Debussy?
[[File:Claude Debussy ca 1908, foto av Félix Nadar.jpg|thumb|right|Claude Debussy]] '''Achille-Claude Debussy''' (born [[St Germain-en-Laye]], 22 August 1862; died [[Paris]], 25 March, 1918) was a [[French people|French]] [[composer]]. He was one of the most important composers of the early 20th century. Most of his compositions are for [[orchestra]] or for [[piano]]. He also wrote some [[chanson|songs]], [[chamber music]] and one [[opera]]. He made his music very different from the [[Romantic music|Romantic]] style that other composers were using at the time. He is often called an [[Impressionism|Impressionistic]] composer because he was [[influence]]d by the group of [[painter]]s called “Impressionists”. They were not so much interested in making their paintings look exactly like the real world, but preferred to paint things such as the effect of the sunlight shining on [[water]]. Debussy often did this in his music, which creates a special atmosphere. == Life == Claude Debussy did not have an easy childhood. His father was a travelling salesman and his mother worked as a [[seamstress]]. He learned the piano when he was young and was inducted into the [[Paris Conservatoire]] at age 11. For a time it seemed that he would become a concert pianist, but he did not do well enough in his [[examination]]. After winning an important [[prize]], the [[Prix de Rome]], he went to Rome for two years but he did not enjoy it. He visited [[Bayreuth]] in 1888 and 1889 to hear [[Richard Wagner|Wagner’s]] [[opera]]s but he did not like them. He preferred sounds like that of the [[Java]]nese [[gamelan]] which he heard in [[Paris]] at the [[World Exhibition]]. In 1899 he married a young woman named Rosalie Texier. He got a job as [[music critic]] of a [[journal]] called ''La revue blanche''. He wrote his opera ''Pélleas et Mélisande'' which was performed at the [[Opéra-Comique, Paris|Opéra-Comique]]. It was extremely successful and was performed 100 times there during the next ten years. He wrote exciting music for orchestra: ''F