And because I love it, I try to free it from barren traditions that stifle it. It is a free art gushing forth, an open-air art boundless as the elements, the wind, the sky, the sea. It must never be shut in and become an academic art."" Achille-Claude Debussy (a-kill-ee clod day-buse-say) was born near Paris in the town of St. Germain-en-Laye. Young children are usually not capable of, nor are they mature enough to understand passion. However Achille-Claude Debussey was as far from "usual- as a child can be. As a small child Debussey found his life's passion to be music and wasted little time paying attention to anything else. While attending the Paris Conservatory, he shocked his professors when at the tender age of ten he was already composing and reading music at an adult level. As unusual of a child Debussey was, so too his musical style became. He crafted and mastered his unique musical style to the point at which it now serves as a model that is followed by many contemporary composers. He was a tonal composer yet his harmonies were not within the tradition of that time. He strived to break the molds of traditional musical structures. He wanted his music to sound like it was improvised. Improvisation is a sign of musical mastery; it shows that anywhere a person is, no matter the situation, they can play a musical "rip."" And not be confined by the traditional rules that are normally followed. Debussy formed a fresh new tonal outlook without losing the musical tonality; his works consisted of poetic images, color values and his chords are very freely changed. Most authors tend to depict a story with their music. For example Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's writing and composing of The Nutcracker Suite depicts a story of a symbolic dream with a young girl with a mouse king and giant nutcracker. Debussy did not follow this tradition of telling a story. He wrote his music in order to inspire a deep feeling or hidden emotion.