Biography
Formative Years
1862
22 August
Birth at Saint-Germain-en-Laye (38, Rue au Pain) of Achille-Claude Debussy, first child
of Manuel-Achille Debussy and Victorine Manoury. Debussy's parents ran a china shop.
1863
September
Birth of their second child, Adèle-Clémentine.
1864
31 July
Christening of Achille-Claude Debussy. Godmother and godfather to the infant were, respectively,
his aunt Clémentine Debussy, and her friend, Achille Arosa.
End of year
The unsuccessful china shop is closed up. The Debussy family move to Clichy in northern
Paris, where they are taken in by Edmée Manoury, Achille-Claude's grandmother.
1867
19 September
Birth in Paris of the third child, Emmanuel.
1868
Manuel Debussy finds work at the Paul Dupont printing shop. The family sets up in Paris (69, Rue Saint-Honoré).
1870
Victorine Debussy takes her children to Cannes to stay with her sister-in-law Clémentine, Claude's aunt. Debussy has his first music lessons with the violinist Jean Cerutti.
16 February
Birth of the fourth child, Alfred.
1871
March-May
Manuel Debussy joins the National Guard and takes part in the Paris Commune. After the
Commune is defeated, he is held prisoner at the Satory camp, where he meets the composer
Charles de Sivry. Sivry recommends Debussy to his mother, Antoinette Mauté, a piano teacher.
For many months, Victorine Debussy and her four children live in a very small apartment
(59 bis, Rue Pigalle). She provides for Debussy's education at home. Unlike his brothers
and sisters, he does not go to school.
December
Trial of Manuel Debussy by the Conseil de Guerre (War Council), which sentences him to
a four-year gaol term.
1872
May
Victorine Debussy petitions the military authorities to reduce her husband's prison sentence.
22 October
After a year under Antoinette Mauté's teaching, Debussy is admitted to the Conservatoire,
joining Antoine Marmontel's piano and Albert Lavignac's solfeggio classes.
1873
Beginning of year
After a year in prison, Manuel Debussy is released, his custodial sentence converted into
a four-year suspension of civic rights.
1 September
The family moves into a two-room apartment at 13, Rue Clapeyron.
10 November
Birth of the fifth child, Eugène-Octave.
1874
13 January
Debussy's piano examination inspires the following comment from his teacher Marmontel:
“Charming child, true temperament of an artist; will become a distinguished musician;
a great future.”
July
Second honorable mention in piano examination, playing Chopin's Second Piano Concerto.
1875
Debussy strikes up friendship with Gabriel Pierné and Paul Vidal.
Juillet
First honorable mention in piano examination, playing Chopin's first Ballade.
1876
16 January
Debussy's first appearance at a public concert at Chauny (Aisne), organised by the local
industry's brass band. He accompanies the singer Léontine Mendès in a program of operatic
extracts and instrumental pieces
18 March
Second concert at Chauny.
June
Awarded first medal in solfeggio exam; no award for piano.
1877
Spring
Claude's brother Eugène dies from meningitis, aged less than 4 years.
July
Second prize in piano examination, playing the first movement of Schumann's Sonata in G
minor. This second prize shared with Camille Bellaigue, who later became a music critic.
27 November
Debussy enters Émile Durand's harmony class.
1878
June
Failure in the piano competition. Debussy receives no prize.
1879
Beginning of year
Makes friends at the Conservatoire with Raymond Bonheur and René Chansarel.
20 June
No prizes for Debussy in his piano and solfeggio examinations. Émile Durand makes the following
assessment: “Extremely gifted in harmony, but desperately careless.”
Summer
Debussy stays at the Château of Chenonceaux with Marguerite Wilson-Pelouze, a woman of
substantial means and an ardent admirer of Wagner. He discovers the charms of a life of
luxury, and decides to become a composer.
October
Debussy enters Auguste Bazille's accompaniment classes, along with Maurice Emmanuel. Definitive
failure in the piano competition.
End of year
First compositions : Madrid, princesse des Espagnes and Ballade à
la lune, songs on poems by Alfred de Musset.
1880
June
First prize as accompanist, but no award in the harmony examination. After three years
of study with Émile Durand, Debussy's name is removed from the class list on 30 September.
20 July - 5 November
Debussy is engaged as accompanist by Nadezhda von Meck, and stays at Interlaken (Switzerland),
Arcachon (Villa Marguerite), Paris, Nice, Genoa, Naples, Florence (Villa Oppenheim). In
September, he composes his first Trio en sol majeur for piano, violin and cello,
for Madame von Meck's small ensemble which he formed with Pachulsky (violin) and Danilchenko
(cello). Transcription for piano duet of three dances from Tchaikovsky's Lac des cygnes,
Act III.
End of year
Debussy becomes piano accompanist for Madame Moreau-Sainti's singing class, a position
he was to keep for four years. Here he meets Marie Vasnier, wife of Henri Vasnier
24 December
Debussy enters Ernest Guiraud's composition class. Attends César Franck's organ class for
a few months, as an auditor.
1881
Beginning of year
Debussy sends his Symphonie en si mineur for piano duet to Madame von Meck. He
gives private lessons to his first pupil, Georges Cuignache.
Debussy is a frequent visitor to the Vasnier household in Paris at 28, Rue de Constantinople.
He composes a dozen songs for Marie Vasnier, with whom he falls in love, among them Caprice,
Aimons-nous et dormons, Les Baisers, Rondel chinois, Jane, La fille aux cheveux de lin,
Fleur des blés.
Mid-July – beginning December
In Moscow until the end of September with Madame von Meck, moving to Rome on 2 October
and then to Florence. Composes Triolet à Philis and Souhait, songs on
poems by Théodore de Banville, and Diane, overture for piano duet.
1882
8 January
Debussy completes Fantoches on a poem by Paul Verlaine in the latter's Fêtes
galantes a collection he must have found at the Vasniers.
12 May
Public concert at Flaxland's, the piano maker, in Rue des Mathurins, where Debussy and
Marie Vasnier give the first rendering of Fête galante and Les Roses,
songs on poems by Théodore de Banville.
Unsuccessful competition entry for the Prix de Rome, with Le Printemps, sung by
the Anatole de Ségur choir for female voices and orchestra.
June
First published work: Nuit d'étoiles on a poem by Banville, published by Société
artistique d'édition d'estampes et de musique (E. Bulla). Counterpoint and fugue examinations:
second honorable mention.
11 July
Composition examination: second honorable mention.
14 July
Death of his aunt, Clémentine Debussy.
8 September - end December
Debussy's third stay with Madame von Meck, at Plechtchevo, some fifty kilometres from Moscow,
and from 3 October in Vienna. He composes En Sourdine (1st
version) and Mandoline on poems by Verlaine.
