two pieces

[iheartrocky]

i really want to play this first piece by Debussy's "Prelude à l'après-midi d'un faune" and i was wondering where i could find a good website to find a sample of it so i can attempt it on the piano before i buy it ... not abridged or easy... but the real thing... same with Tchaikovsky's "waltz of the flowers"
thanks! or merci!

[bernhard]

Er…

Both of these pieces were not originally written for piano, but for orchestra.

You often find easy transcriptions of them in collections of facilitated piano pieces for adults. I would not encourage you to play such pieces, no matter how much you love them.

Instead try Debussy’s “La fille aux Cheveux de Lin” ( no. 8 from the first book of Preludes) which is similar, not very difficult and written for piano. You can get it for free here:

https://www.sheetmusicarchive.net/

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[mosis]

Why do you discourage people from playing them? You are always saying that one should only play what one loves. 

[bernhard]

Why do you discourage people from playing them? You are always saying that one should only play what one loves. 

Because I am in principle against arrangements. One should play what one loves as long as it is the original piece. As far as I know neither Debussy nor Tchaikovsky ever wrote a piano version of the pieces, so chances are that s/he will end up with some facilitated non-idiomatic and awful version of pieces that wound wonderful in their intended set-up, but sound terrible in the piano. Just get any beginner’s collection of pieces and sight-read through the versions for Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy”, for instance.

I do not know the level of the person asking the question. But most adult beginners who spend time and effort learning things like easy arrangements of “Ode to Joy” live to regret it once they realise how impoverishing musically such arrangements are. Then they wish they had used their time by learning instead an equally easy piece but far more satisfying musically (since it was originally written for piano and for that level).

Given the huge amount of pieces originally written for piano, I see no need to play “Ode to Joy” or “Waltz of the flowers” or “Prelude a l’apres midi d’un faune” on it. I am sure s/he can find amongst real piano pieces some that s/he loves just as much or even more.

Best wishes,
Bernhard.