One of the most important composers at the turn of the twentieth century, Claude Debussy (1862-1918) was a French composer whose harmonic creativity and original use of color and timbre had a profound influence on those who followed. At the bridge of the Romantic and modern eras, Debussy’s sense of tonality in music was both progressive and unique, incorporating elements of modality and concepts from world music. Though often thought of, along with Ravel, as an “impressionist,” Debussy himself apparently disliked the categorization. The musical ideas Debussy pioneered later became recognizable influences in the music of Stravinsky, Messiaen, Boulez, and many other modern composers.

Debussy composed in a number of genres: ballet, orchestral music, solo piano pieces, songs, and his one finished opera, Pelléas et Melisande. Like Ravel, Debussy thought of orchestration as a key part of composition, and used creative doublings and divisions and wordless choruses to add to his orchestral palette. But for Debussy, an equally important tool was silence: "The empty bars in Pelléas bear witness to my love for this type of emotion," he wrote.