NEW LITERATURE ON DEBUSSY

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DEBUSSY'S biographers are blessed with a pioneer whose long and patient research work was exemplary. None of the numerous biographies of the last twenty-five years could possibly have been written without Leon Vallas's monumental 'Claude Debussy et son temps' (I932). Before his death in 1956 Vallas had completed an amended and enlarged edition of this basic work which has now been published under its original title (Albin Michel, Paris). The thoroughness of his method was amazing. He tracked down the son of Achille Arosa, the wealthy art-lover and friend of Gauguin who was Debussy's godfather, thus uncovering the extraordinary background of Debussy's childhood. Unfortunately, this valuable information was set out in the earlier edition in terms which Vallas now frankly admits were un peu mysterieux, with the result that reams of fanciful literature have been written suggesting that Debussy was Arosa's illegitimate son. This misinterpretation of the facts was long ago shown to have no more foundation than the wild rumour that Debussy was the illegitimate son of Gounod. These fanciful theorizings have now been finally demolished by Vallas's timely rectification of his account of this relationship. Vallas was also alone in having had access to fascinating revelations from Debussy's first wife, Lily Texier. It was this attractive dressmaker, to whom Debussy was married during the composition of 'Pelleas et Melisande', who retained one of his most sentimental possessions: the palette he cherished from the time of his boyhood ambition to be a painter. Lily Texier revealed to Vallas Debussy's feverish correspondence with her concerning their marriage, contracted under the threat of suicide, a recurrent spectre in his life, and she entrusted him with a remarkable unpublished score (for harps, flutes and celesta, first performed only a few years ago) of incidental music for a recitation of Pierre Louvs's 'Chansons de Bilitis'. He was also fortunate in having first-hand information on the origin of Debussy's works from several of the composer's friends, among them Charpentier, Vincent d'Indy and Paul Poujaud. In the earlier edition of his work he emphasized the importance of'Rodrigue et Chimene', the unpublished, incomplete opera based on 'Le Cid', preceding 'Pelleas'. The new edition gives a detailed description of