Editing Claude Debussy (section)

== Influence on later composers ==
[[File:Debussy Stravinsky 1910.PNG|thumb|left|Debussy with Igor Stravinsky: photograph by Erik Satie, June 1910, taken at Debussy's home in the Avenue du Bois de Boulogne|alt= two white men, one bearded, middle-aged, standing, one younger, seated, in a book-lined room]]Debussy is widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the 20th century.<ref name=grove/><ref name=odm>[[Michael Kennedy (music critic)|Kennedy, Michael]], and Joyce Bourne Kennedy. [http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199578108.001.0001/acref-9780199578108-e-2488 "Debussy, Achille‐Claude"], ''The Oxford Dictionary of Music'', ed. Tim Rutherford-Johnson, Oxford University Press, 2012, retrieved 17 May 2018 {{subscription}}</ref><ref>Gorlinski, p. 117</ref><ref>Briscoe, James R. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/900196 "Debussy Studies"], ''Notes'' December 1998, pp. 395–397 {{subscription}}</ref> [[Roger Nichols (musical scholar)|Roger Nichols]] writes that "if one omits Schoenberg [...] a list of 20th-century composers influenced by Debussy is practically a list of 20th-century composers ''[[wikt:tout court|tout court]]''."<ref name=n198010/>

[[Béla Bartók|Bartók]] first encountered Debussy's music in 1907 and later said that "Debussy's great service to music was to reawaken among all musicians an awareness of harmony and its possibilities".<ref>Moreux p. 92</ref> Not only Debussy's use of whole-tone scales, but also his style of word-setting in ''Pelléas et Mélisande'', were the subject of study by [[Leoš Janáček]] while he was writing his 1921 opera ''[[Káťa Kabanová]]''.<ref>Taruskin (2010), p. 443</ref> [[Igor Stravinsky|Stravinsky]] was more ambivalent about Debussy's music (he thought ''Pelléas'' "a terrible bore&nbsp;... in spite of many wonderful pages")<ref>Nichols (1992), p. 107</ref> but the two composers knew each other and Stravinsky's ''[[Symphonies of Wind Instruments]]'' (1920) was written as a memorial for Debussy.<ref>Taruskin (2010), p. 469.</ref>

In the aftermath of the First World War, the young French composers of [[Les Six]] reacted against what they saw as the poetic, mystical quality of Debussy's music in favour of something more hard-edged. Their sympathiser and self-appointed spokesman [[Jean Cocteau]] wrote in 1918: "Enough of ''nuages'', waves, aquariums, ''ondines'' and nocturnal perfumes," pointedly alluding to the titles of pieces by Debussy.<ref>Ross, pp. 99–100</ref> Later generations of French composers had a much more positive relationship with his music. [[Olivier Messiaen|Messiaen]] was given a score of ''Pelléas et Mélisande'' as a boy and said that it was "a revelation, love at first sight" and "probably the most decisive influence I have been subject to".<ref>Samuel, p. 69</ref> [[Pierre Boulez|Boulez]] also discovered Debussy's music at a young age and said that it gave him his first sense of what modernity in music could mean.<ref>Boulez, p. 28</ref>

Among contemporary composers [[George Benjamin (composer)|George Benjamin]] has described ''Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune'' as "the definition of perfection";<ref>Service, Tom [https://www.theguardian.com/friday_review/story/0,3605,343060,00.html "Mining for Diamonds"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612141608/https://www.theguardian.com/friday_review/story/0,3605,343060,00.html |date=12 June 2018 }}, ''The Guardian'', 14 July 2000</ref> he has conducted ''Pelléas et Mélisande''<ref>[https://www.operaballet.nl/en/en/opera/composers/george-benjamin "George Benjamin–Conductor, Composer and Knight"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181010153533/https://www.operaballet.nl/en/en/opera/composers/george-benjamin |date=10 October 2018 }}, Dutch National Opera, retrieved 2 June 2018</ref> and the critic Rupert Christiansen detects the influence of the work in Benjamin's opera ''[[Written on Skin]]'' (2012).<ref>Christiansen, Rupert. [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opera/what-to-see/written-skin-one-operatic-masterpieces-time-review/ "Written on Skin is one of the operatic masterpieces of our time – review"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171014191610/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opera/what-to-see/written-skin-one-operatic-masterpieces-time-review/ |date=14 October 2017 }}, ''The Telegraph'', 14 January 2017</ref> Others have made orchestrations of some of the piano and vocal works, including [[John Adams (composer)|John Adams]]'s version of four of the Baudelaire songs (''Le Livre de Baudelaire'', 1994), [[Robin Holloway]]'s of ''En blanc et noir'' (2002), and [[Colin Matthews]]'s of both books of ''Préludes'' (2001–2006).<ref>[http://www.boosey.com/shop/news/Debussy-orchestrations-point-towards-2018-centenary/100803 "Debussy orchestrations point towards 2018 centenary"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190719192655/http://www.boosey.com/shop/news/Debussy-orchestrations-point-towards-2018-centenary/100803 |date=19 July 2019 }}, Boosey & Hawkes, 2016, retrieved 2 June 2018; and [https://colinmatthews.net/works/ "Works"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180605034531/https://colinmatthews.net/works/ |date=5 June 2018 }}, Colin Matthews, retrieved 2 June 2018</ref>

The pianist [[Stephen Hough]] believes that Debussy's influence also extends to [[jazz]] and suggests that ''[[Reflets dans l'eau]]'' can be heard in the harmonies of [[Bill Evans]].<ref>Pullinger, Mark. [https://www.gramophone.co.uk/feature/the-debussy-legacy "The Debussy Legacy"], ''[[Gramophone (magazine)|Gramophone]]'', 10 April 2018, retrieved 3 June 2018</ref>{{refn|In addition to [[Bill Evans]], other jazz musicians influenced by Debussy include [[Herbie Hancock]], and [[McCoy Tyner]], according to an article in ''Jazz Education in Research and Practice''.<ref>Pamies, Sergio. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/jazzeducrese.2.1.06 "Deconstructing Modal Jazz Piano Techniques: The Relation between Debussy's Piano Works and the Innovations of Post-Bop Pianists"], ''Jazz Education in Research and Practice'', 2021, pp. 76–105</ref>|group=n}}