Rhythm, melody, tonality, these are three things unknown to Monsieur Debussy and deliberately disdained by him. His music is vague, floating, without color and without shape …

—Arthur Pougin, 1902

The music of M. Debussy leads to the emaciation and ruin of our essence. It contains germs not of life and progress, but of decadence and death.

—Camille Bellaigue, Revue des Deux Mondes, 1902

Claude Debussy was maligned by critics throughout his career, an unfortunate treatment that seems almost inevitable when you consider his revolutionary contributions to music.

He’s credited with marking the beginning of modern music. He popularized the use of nonstandard scales and “blue notes”—Duke Ellington cites him as an influence.

There’s no way to have this kind of impact without offending critics. As Debussy himself said:

I am trying to do “something different” … what the imbeciles call “impressionism”, a term which is as poorly used as possible …