Question 1

True or false: Debussy once won a prize that required him to live in a villa in Rome for three years.

Accepted Answer

True. He won the Prix de Rome in 1884, which funded a residency at the Villa Medici, though he found the experience stifling and left early.

Question 2

True or false: Debussy's opera 'Pelléas et Mélisande' was based on a play by Maurice Maeterlinck.

Accepted Answer

True. Maeterlinck's symbolist play inspired the only opera Debussy completed. The composer even married the playwright's jilted muse, much to Maeterlinck's fury.

Question 3

True or false: Debussy named his daughter after a character from his opera 'Pelléas et Mélisande'.

Accepted Answer

True. His only daughter was named Claude-Emma, but he called her 'Chou-Chou'—not Mélisande. However, she inspired his 'Children's Corner' suite.

Question 4

True or false: He was a close friend of the painter Claude Monet and they collaborated on a ballet.

Accepted Answer

False. Debussy admired Monet but they never collaborated. The Impressionist label was applied to Debussy's music later, not by choice.

Question 5

True or false: He wrote a famous piece titled 'The Snow Is Dancing' about a blizzard he witnessed in Paris.

Accepted Answer

False. 'The Snow Is Dancing' is a movement from 'Children's Corner', but it depicts a child's playful view of snow, not a real blizzard.

Question 6

True or false: He composed a piece for the theremin, making him one of the first to use electronic instruments.

Accepted Answer

False. Debussy died in 1918, before the theremin was invented in 1920. He never wrote for electronic instruments.

Question 7

True or false: He once disguised himself as a woman to sneak into a concert of his own music.

Accepted Answer

False. This is a myth. Debussy was notoriously reclusive but never resorted to cross-dressing to hear his works performed.

Question 8

True or false: Debussy's 'Clair de Lune' was originally titled 'Promenade sentimentale'.

Accepted Answer

True. The third movement of 'Suite bergamasque' was first called 'Promenade sentimentale' before Debussy changed it to 'Clair de Lune' in 1905.

Claude Debussy Trivia Questions