(Achille-) (1862-1918) French composer. He broke with German Romanticism and introduced new qualities of melody and harmony based on the whole-tone scale, evoking oriental music. His work includes Prélude ŕ l’aprčs-midi d’un faune/Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun 1894, illustrating a poem by Mallarmé, and the opera Pelléas et Mélisande 1902.
Among his other works are numerous piano pieces, songs, orchestral pieces such as La Mer 1903–05, and the ballet Jeux 1910–13. Debussy also published witty and humorous critical writing about the music of his day, featuring the fictional character Monsieur Croche “antidilettante” (professional debunker), a figure based on Erik Satie.