Achille-Claude Debussy was born on 22 August 1862 at 4:30 a.m. in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, a small town near Paris, France. His parents, Manuel-Achille Debussy and Victorine Manoury, owned a small china shop. Music was respected in this small town: concerts were held everywhere and all the time and the music ranged from Verdi to Gluck to Rossini (Dietcschy 5). In December 1871 when Claude was just nine years old, his father was tried for “revolutionary activities” and sentenced to four years in prison (Sadie 292). With her husband in prison and his safety in jeopardy (as the state of prisons was unstable and dangerous in the latter part of the 19th century), Mme. Debussy found herself in both a financially and socially difficult position. Her work as a seamstress didn’t pull in enough money to support her and her four children, and she had to borrow money from friends and family (Nichols 295). Debussy rarely spoke about this dark period in his life, but it is important to know this part of his history as it was a driving force of ambition and left a stain on his view of anything of “official” nature

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