Claude Debussy: A Critical Biography (Eastman Studies in Music, 159)

Franois Lesure's "critical biography" of Claude Debussy (Fayard, 2003) is widely recognized by scholars as the most comprehensive and reliable account of that composer's life and career as well as of the artistic milieu in which he worked. This encyclopedic volume draws extensively on Debussy's complete correspondence (at that time unpublished), a painstaking tracking of contemporary reviews and comments in the press, and an examination of other primary documents-including private diaries-that had not been available to previous biographers. As such, Lesure's book presents a wealth of new information while debunking a number of myths that had developed over the years since the composer's death in 1918.

The present English translation and revised edition, by Debussy authority Marie Rolf, augments Lesure's numerous notes with several thousand new ones by Rolf, providing more precise information on crucial and sometimes contentious points. It also reflects Debussy scholarship that has appeared since 2003, updating Lesure's seminal work. Rolf's translation-the first ever-will make Lesure's findings accessible to scholars, musicians, and music lovers in English-speaking lands and around the world.

FRANOIS LESURE (1923-2001) was the director of the music division of the Bibliothque nationale de France, professor of musicology at the Université libre de Bruxelles, and chair of musicology at the École pratique des Hautes Études.

MARIE ROLF is senior associate dean of graduate studies and professor of music theory at the Eastman School of Music and a member of the editorial board for the Ouvres compltes de Claude Debussy.

Table of Contents

Preface
An Unsettled Childhood: 1862-72
Failure of a Pianist: 1872-79
Birth of a Composer: 1880-82
The Path to the Prix de Rome: 1882-84
The Villa Medici: 1885-87
Beginning of the Bohemian Period: 1887-89
From Baudelaire to Mallarmé: 1890-91
Esotericism and Symbolism: 1892
The Chausson Year: 1893
A "Fairy Tale" Gone Awry: 1894
Pierre Lous: The Lean Years: 1895-96
Pelléas: The Long Wait: 1895-98
From Bachelorhood to Marriage: 1897-99
Nocturnes: 1900-1901
The Composer as Critic: 1901-3
Pelléas et Mélisande: 1902
From the Ftes galantes to La Mer: 1903
Debussyism; A New Life: 1904
La Mer: 1905
Projects and Skirmishes: 1906-7
Orchestra Conductor: 1908
"The Procrastination Syndrome": 1909
Images and Préludes: 1910
Le martyre de saint Sébastien: 1911
The Year of the Ballets: 1912
Jeux; Travel to Russia: 1913
The Final Trips: 1914
The War; Pourville: 1914-15
The Factories of Nothingness: 1916-18