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He had a profound impact upon music and musicians in his day, and created new genres for the piano and orchestra, this week Donald Macleod explores Claude Debussy through his chamber music.

The composer, Chausson and Debussy became good friends. The composers discovered they had shared interests, not only in music, and Chausson became an older brother figure to Debussy. In the summer of 1893, Chausson rented a house at Luzancy, where Debussy joined him and, together, they spent weeks studying the score of Mussorgsky's opera, Boris Godunov. The experience was a great influence on Debussy's own opera, Pelleas and Melisande.

Chausson, though, disapproved of Debussy's scandalous lifestyle and their friendship came to an end. Debussy went on to befriend another composer and performer, Eugène Ysaÿe, who brought his own ensemble to Paris to give the premiere of Debussy's String Quartet in G major. It was during this period of the early 1880s that Debussy also composed his famous Afternoon of a Faun.