THE PIANIST Walter Rummel is mentioned only sporadically in biographies of Debussy. Newly discovered letters, programmes and other information, however, document an enduring friendship between the pianist and the composer, and establish the important fact that Rummel gave the premieres of at least twelve of Debussy's piano pieces. Walter Morse Rummel (1887-1953) was born in Berlin, the youngest of three sons. His father, Franz Rummel, was a prominent pianist and a teacher at the Sternsches Konservatorium. His mother, Cornelia (Leila) Livingston Morse Rummel, was the daughter of the American painter and inventor Samuel F. B. Morse. Walter began his piano studies in Germany with his father, who had studied with Louis Brassin. When Franz died in 1901, Walter, who was under age at the time, acquired American citizenship through his mother, who moved with her sons to Washington DC. Walter studied there for several years with S. M. Fabian, a former pupil of Moszkowski, Biilow and Liszt. In 1904 he returned to Berlin and studied the piano with Leopold Godowsky and composition with Hugo Kaun. Five years later he left Berlin for Paris, 'yielding to the attraction of the modern school of Debussy and Ravel', according to an autobiographical note.' By 1909 Rummel had reason to regard himself as equally a composer and a pianist. Excellent reviews had followed performances of some of his songs in Chicago in 1907 and of his Sonata for violin and piano in Berlin in 1908. Also, by 1908 some of his early works had been published in New York and Leipzig, including Five Songs, Six Viking Nature-Studies for piano, Three Songs and Prelude for piano. The influences of Liszt, Richard Strauss and to some extent Debussy may be discerned in these works. It is uncertain when Rummel and Debussy first met. Rummel settled in Paris in October 1909, and in December he performed Reger's Introduction, Passacaglia and Fugue for two pianos with his future wife, Therese Chaigneau. By this time, Therese was well known as the pianist of the Chaigneau Trio, which had toured successfully throughout Europe.2 By this time, too, she seems to have been acquainted