Claude DEBUSSY – Autograph musical manuscript signed.

Claude Debussy (1862.1918)

Autographed musical manuscript signed – Little song for the love of Lilly.

One large folio page (30 x 40 cm) on musical staff paper.

Unpublished document. Minor imperfections in the margins.

17th ^day of August 1899.

A precious and moving composition – previously unpublished – by the French artist dedicated to his future wife Rosalie Texier, known as Lilly.

This Little Song for the Love of Lilly was composed in August 1899, a few weeks before the couple's wedding. In a lighthearted tone, Debussy presents his little ballad with playful lyrics:

"My Lilo – I love you – My Lilly – I adore you – (long silence during which we hear) – ran, tan, plan, plan, Rantanplan – the little lion – ran, tan, plan, plan, plan – the little snake – little darling Lilly…"

Claude Debussy met Lilly in May 1898. René Peter, a friend of the musician, recounts their first meeting: " Her first meeting with Debussy , brought about by friends of which I was one, provoked only faint signs of sympathy on both sides. Claude found her quite pretty, but a bit silly; he even amused himself at times by imitating her little mannerisms, which she, being the charming girl she was, took very well."

For several months, Debussy sent numerous love letters to Lilly. On May 15th: " This love has become something that embraces and surrounds my life; I need it as absolutely as I need to breathe. Nothing can hold back this attraction, which resembles that of a mysterious abyss; I don't care at all if I must even die from having gazed too deeply into your eyes and drunk too much of the blood from your lips."

The wedding took place on October 19, 1899 in Paris. Erik Satie was a witness.