# Fame.am profile — machine-readable export
# Canonical URL: https://fame.am/person/claude-debussy
# Generated: 2026-09-02T22:15:28.200Z

schema: https://schema.org/Person
url: "https://fame.am/person/claude-debussy"
name: "Claude Debussy"
slug: "claude-debussy"
description: "He hated being called an Impressionist, but the label stuck anyway. Debussy dismantled the harmonic rules that had governed Western music for centuries, built something new from Russian scales and Far Eastern color, and left a trail that runs through Stravinsky, Bartók, Gershwin, and jazz."
tagline: "French classical composer (1862–1918)"
image: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Claude_Debussy_by_Atelier_Nadar.jpg"
gender: "male"
country:
  name: "France"
  isoCode: "FR"
category:
  name: "Musicians"
  slug: "musicians"
profileType:
  name: "Singer / Musician"
  slug: "singer"
  entityType: "https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q177220"
birthDate: "1862-08-22"
deathDate: "1918-03-25"
livingStatus: "DECEASED"
scores:
  popularity:           72.83
  momentum:             0
  historical:           26.84454
  currentAttention:     19.39285714285714
  sourceConfidence:     70
  profileCompleteness:  80
  trendDirection:       "STABLE"
ranks:
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  country:  244
  category: null
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    slug: "musicians"
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  - name: "Classical"
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  - name: "Europe"
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  - name: "19th Century"
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platforms:
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# bio (long form, separated for readability)
bio: |
  Born in 1862 to a family with no cultural footprint, Debussy had enough talent to enter the Conservatoire de Paris at ten. He studied piano but turned to composition, where his ideas ran straight into the school's conservative professors. It took years to find his voice — he was nearly 40 when Pelléas et Mélisande brought him international attention in 1902. He rejected Wagner and the German tradition, dismissed the classical symphony as dead weight, and answered with works like La mer and Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune. Drawing on Chopin, Liszt, Russian music, and Far Eastern modes, he built his own harmonic language; the establishment derided it and tried to resist, but failed. In his last years he turned to chamber music, finishing three of six planned sonatas before cancer killed him at home in Paris in 1918, at 55.