We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2009
Life
The sea's influence seems to have been with Debussy from his earliest years, for references to it recur like a leitmotif through his correspondence and writings. In 1889, as a young man a few years away from his first great successes, he was asked in a questionnaire what he would like to be if not himself, to which he replied, ‘a sailor’. René Peter, a friend, recounted this colourful portrait of the composer during a sea trip from St Lunaire to Cancale, described here by Keith Spence:
To get to Cancale by sea you have to round the dangerous headland of the Pointe de Grouin into the Bay of Mont St Michel, and the party was presumably at about this stage of the voyage (20 minutes from Cancale, says Peter), and feeling thoroughly miserable … A storm was getting up, and the boatowner and his mate were grumbling. First Germaine was sick, then the other passengers, except for Debussy and René himself. There was a cloudburst overhead, and in the midst of freezing rain the boat danced up and down ‘like a porpoise’. Debussy was thoroughly enjoying himself, but the boatman got furious and accused him of risking all their lives for the sake of ‘sensations fortes’. To which Debussy replied: ‘There is one powerful sensation I have never experienced, the sensation of danger! It is not unpleasant. You are alive!’
They recovered and had lunch in Cancale, after which all but Debussy went for a walk.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
