Debussy- The Girl with the flaxen hair

[adamanwar123]

Two questions for those who have played this piece - 1. How to play the large chords throughout the piece, as they are too large to physically play all the notes at the same time. I've heard some performers roll them and others who play the bottom two notes in the bass clef followed by the rest of the chord.
2. Pedaling technique for measure 10, how to prevent a bleeding sound while the G and D flats are held for 1 and a half measures?

[nanabush]

You can definitely roll them, or do the latter and get the bass of the chord down and then fill the rest.  Just find which recording you think does it most effectively, and use that as a starting point.

Chord 'bleed' is a nightmare in a lot of Debussy's stuff, because a lot of it can be embellished with pedal but it is SO easy to over pedal his music. 

For the measure 10 thing, learn the melodic scale part without pedal, and play it as legato as possible.  You can divide it between the hands.  Just practice it without pedal - I guarantee you can find a way to make it work.  Add pedal after you've gotten really good fingering and motion here; try not using the pedal as a crutch, that's what will cause the section to sound a little mushy.

[adamanwar123]

Thanks for the reply! I found that less pedaling greatly improved the overall sound

[j_menz]

Also, don't forget that the pedal is not an on/off switch. Use it's gradations.