11 - Pierre Louÿs; The Lean Years: 1895–96

Summary

In comparison with 1894, which had been a year full of promise, the subsequent years seemed empty and almost fruitless. Some projects, following the String Quartet and the Prélude, were too undeveloped to bring to fruition, and there were no premieres or even minor public attention in the offing. It seemed that the composer's fame was on the decline. This momentary lull affords us the opportunity to explore more closely his relationship with Pierre Louÿs, who played a key role at this time in Debussy's life. A considerable part of their correspondence has been published, and much has been written about their friendship from both sides. Surprisingly, the sustained exchange between writer and composer—each so creative, albeit in different ways—yielded virtually no fruit, even though they often dreamed of the two of them monopolizing the colonnes Morris.

In November 1893, Pierre Louÿs wrote to his brother that for the past two months he had been seeing Debussy nonstop. They had even considered the crazy idea of living together in a large, eight-room house (one that could be divided) at the end of a path in Neuilly. They had met each other at Mallarmé's, then again at Bailly's; but Debussy's dedication of a copy of La damoiselle élue (in July 1893) was still rather impersonal, as he simply wrote: “With my deepest regards for Pierre Louÿs.” It was on the occasion of a trip to Brussels and Ghent that their friendship truly blossomed. On the following 1 January, Louÿs settled into a three-room apartment at 1 rue Grétry, where on Wednesdays he received his friends—Henri de Régnier, Pierre Quillard, Ferdinand Herold, Jean de Tinan, André Lebey, and Paul Valéry. Debussy was also one of the regulars at the house, and, when Louÿs left Paris, it was to Debussy that he gladly handed over the keys to his flat. It was also to him that Louÿs would propose, to no avail, a trip to Biskra in July 1894. As the composer was very busy with Pelléas, and also perhaps because he did not want to desert Gaby, he thus missed sharing with his friend the charms of Meryem bent Ali.