The Moyse and Iffla families

When Claude Debussy left his first wife Lilly for Emma Bardac, a wealthy married Jewish woman, he found the reaction of his friends and acquaintances painful and his own state of mind bewildering. In view of his family background and his childhood, the relationship with a sparkling hostess of a musical salon initially seems unlikely. Although both he and Emma were the children of shopkeepers, parental circumstances and decisions determined the degree and the rate at which they would be able to climb socially, she escaping a modest background in her teens by way of an aspirational arranged marriage, he an even more modest background by developing his innate talent.

Enlightening facts about Emma's childhood or the truth of her domestic life during her first marriage remain obscure. Apart from official documents and occasional references in newspapers, little has survived in the way of family papers to provide clues about her education or transition from provincial to metropolitan life.

Emma Moyse was born in Bordeaux on 10 July 1862, the same year as Claude Debussy, who was born at St. Germain-en-Laye, to the west of Paris, on 22 August. One of the main shopping streets in Bordeaux is the rue Sainte-Catherine, a long artery which has played an important role commercially in the city since medieval times. At the northern end a smart covered arcade called the Galérie Bordelaise was opened in 1834, linking the rue Sainte-Catherine with the rue de la Maison Daurade near its junction with the rue des Piliers de Tutelle. Nowadays the rue Sainte-Catherine runs south all the way to the Place de la Victoire, but in the days of Emma's ancestors this street from where it crosses the Cours Victor Hugo onwards was called the rue Bouhaut. This area was inhabited by a dense population of Jews; all her grandparents lived either in or near this street.

On her father's side, Emma's grandfather was Isaac Jacob Moyse, a merchant (marchand) who had moved from Alsace to Bordeaux, where he married Charlotte Haïm. When Emma's father was born in 1823 their address in Bordeaux was 22 rue des Augustins.