Debussy: Volume 2, 1902-1918: His Life and Mind

by Edward Lockspeiser

1972 MCGRAW-HILL SOFTCOVER

Genres: Music

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1972

Reviews

[Robert Poortinga · Rating 4 out of 5]

a highly intelligent writer who did an extremely thorough research and created this biography which i find one of the better composer-biographies that I have read until now.

The only little minor point I would give is that the writer expects the reader to understand especially French, which I do not... and assumes that reader has a major background knowledge about the epoch and Debussy+acquaintances.

Bravo for the writing style, nearly no analysis of pieces, which is often a bore in books like this, but all about his thoughts, life, friendships and musical ideas.

[Stéphane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Très technique, scolaire, avalanche de détails parfois insignifiants. J'attendais autre chose de la biographie du compositeur du Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune...

[Muzzy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. If you can read music, you will probably get more out of this book than I did.

The basic facts of Debussy's biography are all here, and told in a fairly straightforward manner. As an intro to the life, this book gets the job done.

But that's about the limit of its usefulness. If you want a more profound look into Debussy's music, you might want to look elsewhere.

[Sandy Schmidt · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know what I expected on reading a bio of a Frenchman but my French is not good enough to make out all the quotes so I'm sure I missed a lot. His biography is told mostly through correspondence and gives an intriguing look at the world in the last half of the 19th century and its many artists. The second and larger "half" is a detailed commentary on his extensive works.

[Steve Schoenbeck · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read only the first volume of this two-volume work, and was soemwhat disappointed. This was more on the "mind" of the composer than his life, and I found it rather difficult to follow (particularly when he lapses so often into French!)

[Butch Lazorchak · Rating 3 out of 5]

Heavy on day-to-day details, a little too heavy, perhaps. Helps to know French! Overall a good look at his life and times, less a critical review of his work.