Today is the birthday of French composer, Claude Debussy (1862-1918). Like Bach, Debussy was a composer who broke the rules of his day. And, like Bach, Debussy is considered to have structured parts of his music mathematically. It has been suggested that some of Debussy’s works reflect the golden ratio, using numbers of the standard Fibonacci sequence.
Debussy summed up his respect for Bach in this quote:
“And if we look at the works of J.S. Bach - a benevolent god to which all musicians should offer a prayer to defend themselves against mediocrity - on each page we discover things which we thought were born only yesterday, from delightful arabesques to an overflowing of religious feeling greater than anything we have since discovered. And in his works we will search in vain for anything the least lacking in good taste.”
Happy birthday, Claude.