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I want no purely musical developments which are not called for inevitably by the text. In opera there is always too much singing. Music should be as swift and mobile as the words themselves.

— Claude Debussy Debussy (1989)

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More quotes by Claude Debussy

How much has to be explored and discarded before reaching the naked flesh of feeling.

Peter's Quotations: Ideas for Our Time (1979)

To feel the supreme and moving beauty of the spectacle to which Nature invites her ephemeral guests! … that is what I call prayer.

Claude Debussy: His Life and Works (1933)

The worship of Adonis is united with that of Christ.

Music is the arithmetic of sounds as optics is the geometry of light.

Is it not our duty to find the symphonic formula which fits our time, one which progress, daring and modern victory demand? The century of airplanes has a right to its own music.

Music in History : The Evolution of an Art (1957)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Claude Debussy (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.