anyone played debussy's passepied?

[Tash]

i've just started learning it, and when i heard the recording i'm like yeah that doesn't sound too difficult and the score looked ok, but then i get around to attempting to play it and it sucks! i can get chopin works together much easier than this piece, and so am wondering is the passepied really quite a difficult piece (for an Amus girl anyway), like moreso than say chopin's berceuse, etude op25 no1 and waltz op64 no3? or am i just having issues with my sightreading and being a moron?

also if you have played it, can you give me any advice on how to go about learning it and things to watch out for- i'm on massive holidays at the moment and thus don't have a teacher for another 2 months so am teaching myself which is a recipe for disaster! thanks heaps

[DarkWind]

Be sure to have a flexible, strong wrist for the left hand arpeggios. I find it a rather easy piece, sight-reading it on occasion. It's not too difficult, and it's a really beautiful piece over-shadowed by the terrible "Clair de Lune" before it. I personally find the Passepied much better though.

[Daniel_piano]

Be sure to have a flexible, strong wrist for the left hand arpeggios. I find it a rather easy piece, sight-reading it on occasion. It's not too difficult, and it's a really beautiful piece over-shadowed by the terrible "Clair de Lune" before it. I personally find the Passepied much better though.

Arghhh !!!
Don't offend the beautiful "Clair de Lune"
I was in love with it before it became so famous and its fame is not a good reason to consider it bad

Daniel

[richard w]

Well, you'll probably have noticed already that it is the left hand which makes it rather hard. It would be so easy to stick the pedal down and cover one's indiscretions, but I prefer to keep it very dry, reserving the pedal only for the moments where slurs appear in both hands. Arrival at these sections is something of a relief!

This is a piece I have always liked, but I've only recently learned it properly, and I've been playing the other movements for years. I've had several abortive attempts at Passepied, so I completely understand your troubles. But, with the piano most barriers are psychological, and this one is no exception. Once you get it going you'll wonder what all the fuss was about.

Start by convincing yourself that you can play the left hand - perfect the first two bars. Then focus on the harder moments (two-bar sections?) of the first two pages (or 35 bars). When you can do those, you will know the first two pages are within your grasp. If you can do the first two pages you really are home and dry, so to speak.

Please avoid the pedal until you get to bar 36, except for occasional dabs where it would otherwise be impossible to achieve the directed legato in the right hand.

Good luck, and enjoy. Learn the other movements as well. Menuet is great.


Richard.

[Tash]

oh thanks you're all bril! yeah silly left hand, i have'n tplayed anything staccato in ages so i'm like agh. but yes i think if i perfect the HS then it should get better i hope!

[DarkWind]

Arghhh !!!
Don't offend the beautiful "Clair de Lune"
I was in love with it before it became so famous and its fame is not a good reason to consider it bad

Daniel

Hmm, the piece is ok, but the reputation it garners is terrible. People ignore all the other movements of the Suite Bergamasque, such as the Menuet and Passepied. I personally find them tons better, and I never even liked the Clair de Lune before hand, to begin with. But oh well, each to his own tastes.

[richard w]

One other thought, Tash... I was inspired to dust off Suite Bergamasque again, earlier today. Once again, I think I need to put a bit of extra work into the left hand. One thing you can try, which you've probably thought of, is to play through just the left hand with both hands. Take the last three of each group of four with the right hand and the first with the left. Like this you can easily get the control you want, and once you have that sound in your head try and achieve it with your left hand alone. It is so easy to 'bump' the thumb, and to have general unevenness of touch, but I found it much easier to get the LH under control once I knew what I was aiming for. It is a bit like archery - I'm not all that likely to ever hit the target, but if I didn't know where it was I'd almost certainly kill somebody! Is that a useful analogy?



Next, Clair De Lune is one of those poor pieces which so frequently gets played out of context, ie on its own. The Largo from Dvorák's New World symphony is another example. Overplayed, and awful - until, that is, you hear the whole thing, and you realise Dvorák's 9th Symphony is a superb work, and even the Largo fits in perfectly. Listen to all of Suite Bergamasque and I think Clair De Lune plays its role very satisfactorily. Just my opinion.


Richard.







PS It is definitely best if I don't say what my spelling checker wanted to replace the word 'Tash' with. 

[Tash]

ok i've been practicing my lovely left hand and it's starting to work now. i think just getting some tips from all of you inspired me to work a bit harder and have some faith that i will get it! haven't thought of doing the LH with the RH hand as well hmmm might try that. but the LH does seem to be going well, practice makes perfect i guess. but thanks!
oh i love clair de lune i'm not surprised it's overplayed. the only reason why everyone knows it is cos they play it in too many movies- my friends all know it as 'that song from ocean's 11 with the fountain'. but it's beuatiful all the same
and i can't think of what your spelling checker wanted to replace my name with and do i want to know...

[frederic]

Next, Clair De Lune is one of those poor pieces which so frequently gets played out of context, ie on its own. The Largo from Dvorák's New World symphony is another example. Overplayed, and awful - until, that is, you hear the whole thing, and you realise Dvorák's 9th Symphony is a superb work, and even the Largo fits in perfectly. Listen to all of Suite Bergamasque and I think Clair De Lune plays its role very satisfactorily. Just my opinion.

Would you not say the same for Rachmaninoff's famous, or should i say infamous, Prelude in C# minor?

[bearzinthehood]

I played this maybe 6 years ago.  If you can play the first 2 pages or so you can play the whole thing.