Support The Quietus
Our journalism is funded by our readers. Become a subscriber today to help champion our writing, plus enjoy bonus essays, podcasts, playlists and music downloads.
Debussy sparked a punk moment for classical music, says Phil Hebblethwaite. He uncluttered it and ensured, as the 20th century began, that none of the old rules applied. He died 100 years ago, after which his radical sounds weaved their way into almost everything we hear today
The chance finding of a 1960 album on a long-gone American indie label led Phil Hebblethwaite into the enormous sound world of the supremely talented French composer Lili Boulanger, who set Psalms to music and might have written a requiem for her own death in 1918 at the tragically young age of 24