Debussy's "Trois Chansons de Bilitis" are settings of erotic poems by his friend Pierre Louÿs, which Louÿs falsely claimed were translations of ancient Sapphic texts.
Composer Biography
Olivier Messiaen, as a gifted nine-year-old, discovered Debussy's genius through a score of "Pelléas et Mélisande," which confirmed his musical vocation.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Messiaen's early works, such as the Préludes for piano, showed him to be an imitator of Debussy, but he later found his own creative voice while retaining immense admiration for Debussy's originality.
Composition History
Messiaen's "Poèmes pour Mi" are a series of love songs, with texts written by the composer himself, dedicated to his first wife, Claire Delbos, whose pet-name was 'Mi'.
Composer's Artistic Vision
For Messiaen, love and faith were inseparable, as demonstrated in "Poèmes pour Mi," where the bond of marriage is compared to that of Christ and the Church.
Compositional Technique
Debussy's "5 poèmes de Charles Baudelaire" show the influence of Wagner, which is unsurprising given Debussy's visits to the Bayreuth Festival in 1888 and 1889.
Composition History
Debussy's "5 poèmes de Charles Baudelaire" were initially published in a private edition of only 150 copies because no major Parisian music publishers were interested in them.
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