On this day in 1918, composer Claude Debussy died from cancer at his home in Paris at the age of 55. Born Achille-Claude Debussy on 22 August 1862 in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionist composer, although he rejected the term. In my opinion, he was among the most influential composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Born to a family of modest means and little cultural involvement, Debussy showed enough musical talent to be admitted at the age of ten to France’s leading music college, the Conservatoire de Paris. He originally studied the piano, but found his vocation in innovative composition, despite the disapproval of the Conservatoire’s conservative professors. He took many years to develop his mature style, and was nearly 40 when he achieved international fame in 1902 with the only opera he completed, Pelléas et Mélisande.
Debussy’s orchestral works include Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune (1894), Nocturnes (1897–1899) and Images (1905–1912). His music was to a considerable extent a reaction against Wagner and the German musical tradition. He regarded the classical symphony as obsolete and sought an alternative in his “symphonic sketches”, La mer (1903–1905). His piano works include two books of Préludes and two of Études. Throughout his career he wrote mélodies based on a wide variety of poetry, including his own. He was greatly influenced by the Symbolist poetic movement of the later 19th century. A small number of works, including the early La Damoiselle élue and the late Le Martyre de saint Sébastien have important parts for chorus. In his final years, he focused on chamber music, completing three of six planned sonatas for different combinations of instruments.
With early influences including Russian and far-eastern music, Debussy developed his own style of harmony and orchestral colouring, derided – and unsuccessfully resisted – by much of the musical establishment of the day. His works have strongly influenced a wide range of composers including Béla Bartók, Olivier Messiaen, George Benjamin, and the jazz pianist and composer Bill Evans.
The Final Footprint
At the time of his death, the First World War was still raging and Paris was under German aerial and artillery bombardment. The military situation did not permit the honour of a public funeral with ceremonious graveside orations. The funeral procession made its way through deserted streets to a temporary grave at Père Lachaise Cemetery as the German guns bombarded the city. Debussy’s body was reinterred the following year in the small Passy Cemetery sequestered behind the Trocadéro, fulfilling his wish to rest “among the trees and the birds”; his wife and daughter are buried with him. Other notable final footprints at Passy include; Gabriel Fauré, Hubert de Givenchy, Édouard Manet, Octave Mirbeau, and Berthe Morisot.
#RIP #OTD in 1931 journalist, educator, and early leader in the civil rights movement, Ida B. Wells died of kidney failure in Chicago at the age of 68. Oak Woods Cemetery on Chicago’s South Side
On this day in 2006, singer and songwriter, Buck Owens died in his sleep at his ranch in Bakersfield, California at the age of 76. Born Alvis Edgar Owens, Jr. on 12 August 1929 in Sherman, Texas. Evidently Buck was a donkey on the Owens farm and one day Alvis, Jr. announced that his name was also Buck and it stuck. Owens settled in Bakersfield in 1951 and pioneered what came to be known as the Bakersfield sound. From 1969 to 1986, Owens co-hosted the TV series Hee Haw with Roy Clark. My favorite Owens’ songs are “Together Again” and “Love’s Gonna Live Here.”
Owens was married four times all ending in divorce; Bonnie Campbell, Phyllis Buford, Jana Jae Greif, Jennifer Smith.
The Final Footprint – Owens is entombed in the The Buck Owens Family Private Mausoleum “Buck’s Place” at Greenlawn Southwest Mortuary and Cemetery in Bakersfield.
#RIP #OTD on this day in 2009 singer (“Meet Me in Montana”, “Everything That Glitters (Is Not Gold)”), songwriter, musician Dan Seals died from lymphoma at his daughter’s home in Nashville, age 61. Woodlawn Memorial Park and Mausoleum, Nashville
#RIP #OTD 2022 musician, best known as the drummer of the rock band Foo Fighters, Taylor Hawkins died from cardiac arrest in the Four Seasons Casa Medina hotel in Bogotá, Colombia, aged 50. Cremated remains scattered at sea
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