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Debussy
French composer. Born into near-poverty, he showed an early gift for the piano. He entered the Paris Conservatoire in 1873, and soon thereafter was employed as pianist by Nadezhda von Meck, P. Tchaikovsky's patroness. Influenced by the Symbolist poets and Impressionist painters, he was early led toward a compositional style of great originality, shunning the strictures of traditional counterpoint and harmony to achieve new effects of great subtlety through unusual voice leading and timbral colors to evoke pictorial images and moods especially of languor and hedonism. He is regarded as the founder of musical Impressionism. His significance in weakening the hold of traditional tonal harmony equals that of F. Liszt, R. Wagner, and A. Schoenberg. Given his effect on such composers as M. Ravel, I. Stravinsky, B. Bartó k, A. Berg, A. Webern, and P. Boulez, he can be seen as the most influential French composer of the last three centuries. His works include the opera Pellé as et Mé lisande (1902); the orchestral works Prelude to The Afternoon of a Faun (1894), Nocturnes (1899), La mer (1905), Images (1912), and the ballet Jeux (1913); a string quartet (1893); the piano sets Estampes (1903), Images (1905, 1907), Children's Corner (1908), 24 Pré ludes (1910, 1913), and 12 É tudes (1915); and many songs.
decapod
Any of more than 8,000 species (order Decapoda) of crustaceans having five pairs of legs attached to the thorax. The shrimplike species, which can be as small as 0.5 in. (12 mm), have a slender body with a long abdomen, a well-developed fantail, and, often, long, slender legs. The crablike types, whose claw span can measure 13 ft (4 m), have a flattened body and, frequently, stout short legs and a reduced tail fan. Decapods are primarily marine and are most abundant in shallow tropical waters, but they are commercially valuable throughout the world. Some species (e.g., hermit and fiddler crabs) are adapted to terrestrial environments. See also crab, crayfish, lobster, shrimp.
Decatur
U.S. naval officer. Born in Sinepuxent, Md., he entered the navy in 1798. In the Tripolitan War he led a daring 1804 expedition into the harbor of Tripoli to burn a captured U.S. ship. In the War of 1812 he commanded the USS United States and captured the British ship Macedonian. In 1815 he commanded a squadron in the Mediterranean that forced a peace with the Barbary states on U.S. terms. At a banquet on his return he gave a toast that included the words "Our country, right or wrong." In 1815 he was made a navy commissioner, an office he held until killed in a duel.
City (pop., 1996 est.: 81,000), central Illinois. Situated on the Sangamon River east of Springfield, it was founded in 1829. In 1860 it was the site of A. Lincoln's first endorsement by a party convention for the presidential nomination. It is a commercial center for the surrounding agricultural region. Industries include the ...
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