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sai-national.org • Winter 2023 13 SAI Natial Cvention Listen to a playlist curated to accompany this article by using the below link or scanning the QR code. bit.ly/musicartplaylist bit.ly/musicartplaylist Image 2. Claude Monet, Image 2. Claude Monet, Rouen Cathedral, West Façade, Sunlight Rouen Cathedral, West Façade, Sunlight, 1894 , 1894 (National Gallery of Art) (National Gallery of Art) C omposer Claude Debussy has a complex relationship with art. Although Debussy did not explicitly address the influence of music in his work, he was "embedded" in a group of cultural creatives who derived inspiration from each other. As a result of spending so much time with Impressionist artists such as Manet, Degas, and Monet, he, himself, was dubbed an "Impressionist" because, like their art, his music was seen to be lacking in structure and cohesion by the cultural arbiters of that day. Not surprisingly, he found this description offensive (as art critics meant it to be). Nevertheless, his tendency to use titles for his works that recalled visual art (i.e. "Pictures/Images") and his continued attempts to express the visual in music, caused that label to stick. ere are so many associations between Debussy's music and art that entire books have been written on the subject (see Paul Roberts, Images: the Piano Music of Claude Debussy). Impressionist influences in Debussy's music were not so much intentional, but rather the result of a shared response to the same cultural conditions and concerns. To cite just one example, the critic Émile Vuillermoz saw a correlation between Debussy's "La Cathédrale Engloutie," from Preludes, Book 1 (1910), with Claude Monet's paintings of Rouen Cathedral (Image 2) (Roberts: 262), and comparing the two works can lead to a greater understanding of both. Debussy's piece is based on a Breton myth about a cathedral that rises from the sea on clear mornings; the chords and tone color evoke cathedral sounds (bells, organ, and priests), and both the music and Monet's painting have a murky, yet shimmering quality. LISTEN ALONG!