At the Paris exhibition in 1889, Debussy was attracted to the spontaneous music of the Javanese gamelon and this was to have a decisive and lasting effect on his music.

His highly characteristic musical language extended the contemporary limits of harmony and form, with a remarkably delicate command of nuance, both in piano-writing and in the handling of a relatively large orchestra.

Debussy attempted many operas, two based on stories by Edgar Allan Poe.

He completed only one, "Pelléas et Mélisande", a version of the medieval play by Maurice Maeterlinck, with its story of idealised love perfectly matched with the composer's musical idiom.

Debussy’s first major success, the "Prèlude à l'après-midi d'un faune" ("Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun"), is an orchestral evocation of a poem by Mallarmé.

This was later used for a ballet, with choreography by Nijinsky. Its apparent formlessness caused a great stir among the critics.

The music evokes a pagan world, as the satyr of the title takes his ease in the afternoon shade on a summer day.

His three symphonic sketches comprising "La mer" ("The Sea"), published with a famous woodcut known as "The Wave", from the Japanese artist Hokusai's views of Mount Fuji, offer evocations of the sea from dawn to midday, of the waves and of the dialogue of wind and sea.

Other orchestral works by Debussy include the three movements of Nocturnes, "Nuages" ("Clouds"), "Fètes" ("Festivals") and "Sirènes".

"Images", a work in 3 movements completed in 1912, includes "Gigues", "Ibèria" and "Ronde de printemps", the last a celebration of spring.

His "Le martyre de Saint Sèbastien", finally scored by Andrè Caplet, was in origin a theatrical and choreographic collaboration with Gabriele d'Annunzio.

Debussy sketched out orchestration for his Rapsodie for saxophone and piano, completed after his death by Roger-Ducasse, an interesting addition to the repertoire of an instrument more often neglected by classical composers.

Debussy's chamber music includes a fine string quartet, known as the first, although the second, like so much of the composer's work, existed only as a future project.

Somewhat reluctantly he wrote a Rapsodie for saxophone, later orchestrated, while "Syrinx", for unaccompanied flute, in which the pagan god Pan plays his flute, was originally written as incidental music for the theatre.

Towards the end of his life Debussy planned a series of six chamber works.

He completed three of these: a violin sonata, a cello sonata and a sonata for flute, viola and harp.

Debussy made a significant addition to the French song repertoire, capturing the spirit, in particular, of the work of poets such as Verlaine and Mallarmé, but also turning to earlier poets, including Villon and Charles d'Orlèans.

His "Chansons de Bilitis", settings of verses by Pierre Louys, turn again to the pagan world, while the settings of the Verlaine Fètes galantes capture the nostalgia of the poems, yearning for an unattainable past.

In his writing for the piano Debussy proved himself a successor to Chopin; his debt to Chopin was openly expressed in his two books of Etudes (Studies), completed in 1915.

The two Arabesques, early works, enjoy continued popularity, as does the "Suite bergamasque", with its all too popular "Clair de Lune".

"Estampes" ("Prints") evokes the Far East in Pagodes, Spain in "La soirèe dans Grenade" ("Evening in Granada"), and autumnal sadness in "Jardins sous la pluie" ("Gardens under the Rain"), while "L'isle joyeuse" turns to Watteau for inspiration.

Two sets of "Images" offer further delicate pictures, while the two books of "Prèludes" offer still more varied images, from "La fille aux cheveux de lin" ("The Girl with Flaxen Hair") and "La cathèdrale engloutie" ("The Engulfed Cathedral") to the final "Feux d'artifice" ("Fireworks").

The single "La plus que lente" ("More than slow") of 1910 and the light-hearted "Children's Corner" suite, which includes the well known "Golliwog’s Cake Walk", form a further part of a larger series of works.