Debussy

[MagicBrowser]

Hi everyone! I played Debussy's "Dr. Gradus ad Parnassum" a while ago and fell in love with it. I also listened to some of his other works (Valse Romantique, Reverie, Golliwogg's Cakewalk, and a few others) and I like them, too.

After Dr. Gradus, I learned Mozart Fantasia in D minor, and right now I'm learning Beethoven Opus 2, Number 1. So I was wondering if anyone knows any Debussy songs that are about my level that I could learn. Thanks!

[eddie92099]

Have a look at the two arabesques (they are not songs though!),
Ed

[thomas_williams]

I am currently working on Dr. Gradus ad Parnassum and the hard part is the 16th note passages where the right hand plays Cegc Degd Cegc Begb Aega Gceg etc.  The first note of each group must be brought out as the melody and the others are accompaniment.  My trouble comes mainly in the last note of each group-- I tend to accent it: CegC DegD...  My teachers advice is to practice them by accenting the first note and ghost playing the last to take away the tendency to accent it.  He also recommends blocking the triads and ghost playing the last note.  Did you have these problems?

P. S.  I have also worked on Jimbo's Lullaby.  If you would like to learn more Debussy, I would suggest you look at the Chhildren's Corner Suite (from which Dr. Gradus comes).

[shatteringpulse]

You might want to try some of the more "serious" Debussy compositions...not that "Children's Music" isnt' serious...but there are more profound compositions--technically simple but musically profound!

Maybe...

Prelude 6 of Book I, "des pas sur la neige" (this is the one of the greatest soundworlds into which one can delve...loneliness, snow, you can see the landscape--even lost in a white wood)

Prelude 10, Book I, "the sunken cathedral" (what a story! it draws the mind upward...and never quite brings it back down, even though it's supposed to!)

Prelude 12, Book I might be getting a bit more technically dififcult--but in "ministrels" is a neat effect of the cakewalk!

Ondine is rising to some technical peaks...Prelude 8 or 9 of Book II.

If you are up for a challenge, Prelude 12, Book II, "Feux d'artifice"...I'd say it's more difficult than most of Rachmaninoff and Chopin, maybe even Ravel!

Good luck...! (Claire de lune, perhaps? or not into wooing girls?)

[bernhard]

You may try:

1. Le Petit Negre - usually the first Debussy piece everyone learns (similar to Golliwog's cakewalk, but easier)

2. Reverie.
I think it is a beautiful piece (easier than the Arabesques - also beautiful).

However, check out what Debussy himself thought ot it:
"I wrote it in a hurry years ago, purely for material considerations. It is a work of no consequence and I frankly consider it no good."

Best wishes,
Bernhard

[The Tempest]

La Plus que Lente - absolutely beautiful.

Submerged Cathedral Prelude

And one other prelude about footsteps in the snow or something like that. I don't remember which one.

Also, Prelude and Clair de Lune from Suite Bergamasque are two of my favourite pieces in the piano literature.

[Clare]

Debussy rocks!

Yeah, I'd try learning some preludes too. I also think the first part of suite bergamasque is lovely and not too hard.