Debussy Quotes

• Claude Debussy was a rare phenomenon a composer profoundly and subversively revolutionary.

  Claude Debussy

  Revolutionary, Composer, Phenomenon

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• When asked by a grumpily puzzled professor what "rules" he followed, Debussy is said to have retorted, mon plaisir "whatever I please" and he further claimed that more was to be gained by watching the sun rise than by listening to the Pastoral Symphony. Although such remarks were intended to shock, they contain a core of Debussyan verity.

  Claude Debussy

  Past, Symphony, Listening

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• When Claude Debussy studied at the Paris Conservatory from age ten to age twenty-two, many considered him a rebel because of his treatment of dissonance and his disdain for the established forms. He reputedly turned to a fellow student during a performance of Beethoven with the words, "Let's go. He's starting to develop.

  Claude Debussy

  Two, Paris, Age

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• I love Italian opera - it's so reckless. Damn Wagner, and his bellowings at Fate and death. Damn Debussy, and his averted face. I like the Italians who run all on impulse, and don't care about their immortal souls, and don't worry about the ultimate.

  D. H. Lawrence

  Love, Running, Fate

  D. H. Lawrence, James T. Boulton (2002). “The Letters of D. H. Lawrence”, p.247, Cambridge University Press

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• Although I am basically self taught, I consider Debussy my teacher - the most important elements are colour, light and shadow.

  Toru Takemitsu

  Music, Teacher, Self

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• For Debussy the musician and the man I have had profound admiration, but by nature I'm different from him. I think I have always personally followed a direction opposed to that of the symbolism of Debussy.

  Maurice Ravel

  Men, Thinking, Symbolism

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• We all shared an admiration of Debussy both as a musician and as sort of an icon for the 20th century. It seemed like an interesting idea to go right back 100 years to find the source of some new ideas now.

  Anne Dudley

  Years, Ideas, Icons

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• I have no doubt that there are great people about though... the thing of it is, nothing to this day moves me like classical music (Debussy, Vaughn Williams).

  Gary Lucas

  Moving, People, Doubt

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• If you go to Japan for instance, you should know that they have a different way of playing Beethoven or Brahms. But if you play with them Mozart, Debussy, Mendelssohn, they have a wonderful light feeling for that.

  Kurt Masur

  Light, Japan, Play

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• Claude Debussy defined the guitar as an expressive harpsicord. I believe that is the best definition ever given of the Spanish guitar. This phrase is the starting point for my Concierto de Aranjuez Our guitar is the only survivor of the rich and anarchic instrumental wildlife of the Middle Ages.

  Joaquin Rodrigo

  Believe, Guitar, Age

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• I had no idea Stravinsky disliked Debussy so much as this.

  Ernest Newman

  Ideas, Stravinsky, No Idea

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• Do you think Duke Ellington didn't listen to Debussy? Louis Armstrong loved opera, did you know that? Name me a jazz pianist who wasn't influenced by European music!

  Dave Brubeck

  Thinking, Names, Dukes

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• And now, in honour of the 150th anniversary of Beethoven's death, I would like to play 'Clear the Saloon', er, 'Clair de Lune', by Debussy. I don't play Beethoven so well, but I play Debussy very badly, and Beethoven would have liked that.

  Victor Borge

  Play, Saloons, Clear

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• I am a classical fan. I like Debussy a lot, so I was trying to learn it on the piano. I've learned like a third of it, but I think I'm getting to a section that may be beyond my skill level.

  Charlie Day

  Thinking, Skills, Piano

  Source: www.avclub.com

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• The score of Pelleas and Melisande by Debussy, heralds that which will lift man from the earthly to the celestial, from the mortal to the immortal. Once again the ways of the artist and healer are merging.

  Corinne Heline

  Inspiration, Men, Artist

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• I loved Debussy, Stravinsky, Chopin, Tchaikovsky, anything with romantic melodies, especially the nocturnes. Nietzsche was a hero, especially with Thus Spoke Zarathustra. He gets a bad rap; hes very misunderstood. Hes a maker of individuals, and he was a teacher of teachers.

  Joni Mitchell

  Teacher, Rap, Hero

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• Erik Satie does not say the opposite of Debussy; he says the same thing only the other way round.

  Jose Bergamin

  Music, Opposites, Doe

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• Debussy--A pretty girl with one blue eye and one brown one.

  H. L. Mencken

  Music, Girl, Eye

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