Claude Debussy: A First Book Of Debussy: For The Beginning Pianist: Piano:

SKU: AP.0034B

ISBN 9781576239483. UPC: 029156607673. 9x12 inches. English.

This volume in our new series features 29 compositions by Claude Debussy, including such famous pieces as 'Clair de Lune,' 'Reverie,' 'The Girl with the Flaxen Hair,' 'Golliwogg's Cake Walk,' and others. It includes pieces from the French master's wealth of piano compositions, including the 'Arabesques,' PETITE SUITE, CHILDREN'S CORNER SUITE, both books of 'Preludes,' and individual pieces. A wide variety of music from the French impressionistic genius! 29 titles on 160 pages.

SKU: FA.MFCD017B

8.27 x 11.69 inches.

Contains Le Roi Lear: Prelude,Premiere Fanfare, and La Mort de Cordelia,Toomai des elephants, Rodrigue et Chimene: Prelude a l'acte 1p. Le Martyre de Saint Sebastien: La Passion , and No-ja-li ou Le Palais du Silence

From Robert Orledge's notes:

My interest in the wonderful music of Claude Debussy began in the 1980s when I researched and published a book with Cambridge University Press entitled Debussy and the Theatre. During the course of my studies in Paris, I was amazed to discover that Debussy planned over 50 theatrical works but only finished two of these entirely by himself (the opera Pelleas et Melisande in 1893-1902 and the ballet Jeux for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes in 1912-13). Of the rest, many were never started musically (like Siddartha and Orphee-roi with the Oriental scholar Victor Segalen, 1907); some had a few tantalising sketches (like the Edgar Allan Poe opera Le Diable dans le beffroi, 1902-03); some were half-finished (like his other Poe opera La Chute de la Maison Usher, 1908-17); while others were musically complete but had their orchestrations completed by other composers (like Khamma, by Charles Koechlin, 1912-13; or Le Martyre de Saint Sebastien and La Boite a joujoux by his 'angel of corrections' ['l'ange des Corrections'] Andre Caplet in 1911 and 1919 respectively).

For it has to be admitted that what some scholars call Debussy's 'compulsive achievement' could equally well be viewed as laziness, especially as far as the minute detail required for calligraphing his orchestral scores was concerned. It was as if creating the music itself was of greater importance than controlling its final sound, even if Debussy was an imaginative orchestrator when he found the time and energy to do it. It also seems true that Debussy also preferred inventing ideas to turning them into complete pieces. However, despite the lack of detail in many of his sketches (missing clefs, key signatures, dynamics, phrasing, etc.) the notes themselves are surprisingly accurate, whether or not they can be compared with a later draft. Thus, a large number of sketches exist for his Chinese ballet No-ja-li ou Le Palais du Silence and it is not too difficult to see which parts of Georges de Feure's 1913 scenario (see below) inspired which ideas. But Debussy hardly made any attempt to join them together after the first few bars.

It was usually up to his publisher, Jacques Durand, to find solutions when Debussy risked a breach of contract. Debussy was supposed to supervise the orchestrations completed by others, but this supervision was usually very light and restricted to quiet, sensitive moments in which problems were easier to spot. Far from jealously guarding every one of his created notes, as Ravel did, Debussy once even went as far as to ask Koechlin to 'write a ballet for him that he would sign' on 26 March 1914 when he was hard-pressed to fulfil his lucrative contract for No-ja-li with Andre Charlot at the Alhambra Theatre in London. In the end, Debussy (through Durand) sent Charlot the symphonic suite Printemps instead, whose orchestration had been completed by Henri Busser in the Spring of 1912.

So, when I was offered early retirement as Professor of Music at Liverpool University in 2004, I seized the opportunity it would give me to spend time trying to reconstruct some of Debussy's lost potential masterpieces from his existing sketches and drafts--then orchestrating them in Debussy's style when this was appropriate. I had begun this mission in 2001 with the most promising project, the missing parts of Scene 2 of La Chute de la Maison Usher and the sheer joy it gave me at every stage persuaded me to tackle other projects, especially when Debussy experts were unable to identify exactly where I took over from Debussy (and vice versa) in Usher.

SKU: SP.MP017

ISBN 9781585606160. UPC: 635344000173.

The Essential Composer Series published for Piano by Minstrel Press and distributed by Santorella Publications features the original works from some of the greatest composers that ever lived. The selections have been carefully chosen to give the user a source of essential core literature from that specific composer. This transcribed series by Avis Fedge Romm has only had minor editing when seen as a valuable aid in facilitating the musician in authentically interpreting the composer's music. The Essential Composer Series has become a staple stock item for many music retailers throughout the world. Each edition includes a performance CD, which is also a great tool for younger players to hear the melodies that they have been practicing so diligently. This particular edition features the following works of Claude Debussy; La fille aux cheveux de lin (The Girl with the Flaxen Hair) - Reverie - First Arabesque - Clair de Lune - Golliwogg's Cakewalk.

SKU: FA.MFCD011PN

8.27 x 11.69 inches.

In January 1913, Debussy struggled to complete Toomai des elephants as the 11th prelude in Book2, finally replacing it by a rather Stravinskian study Les Tierces alternees. However, his daughter Chouchou was fascinated by elephants and in the summer of 1913, Debussy wrote her a 'Toybox Ballet' (La Boite a joujoux) which contains a 'Pas de l'elephant' and an 'old Hindu chant which is still used to train elephants [in India]. It is constructed on the scale of 5 o'clock in the morning,which means it must be in 5/4 time.' My reconstruction of this lost prelude is based around this material and it evokes a day in the life of Toomai, the young mahout, and his faithful elephant Kala Nag from one dawn to the next, incorporating the legendary 'Elephants' Dance' from Rudyard Kip ling's First Jungle Book (1894) which only Toomai was ever privileged to witness. The version presented here is the revised second version of this prelude which contains an effect of piano harmonics as the dawn returns towards the end.

SKU: CY.CC2515

Debussy composed this breathtaking unaccompanied work in 1913, and it became the first solo work for the Bohm flute and the first solo work by a major composer since C.P.E. Bach almost 150 years earlier!

The music allows wide latitude for interpretation and can really show off the musical imagination of the performer.

The great French flautist Marcel Moyse is credited with adding phrasing and barlines to his friend Debussy's new work.

In classical mythology, Syrinx was a nymph and a follower of Artemis, known for her chastity. Pursued by the amorous Greekgod Pan, she ran to a river's edge and asked for assistance from the river nymphs. In answer, she was transformed into hollow water reeds that made a haunting sound when the god's frustrated breath blew across them. Pan cut the reeds to fashion the first set of pan pipes, which were thereafter known as syrinx.

This work of 2 1/2 minutes for advanced performers can add a new dimension to your recital, as it is often performed offstage.

The sample performance was recorded by Ralph Sauer in May 2012.

SKU: BT.EMBZ40015

Debussy decided in 1892, at the age of thirty, to compose a work for orchestra after Mallarmé's poem, L'aprés-midi d'un faune. Originally he had thought of writing three movements (Prélude - Interlude - Paraphrase) but when the first movement was completed in September 1894 he came to the conclusion that the continuation would be superfluous.The Prélude was first performed in Paris with Gustave Doret as conductor on 22 December of the same year yet, as it achieved immediate succes it had to be repeated. Source for the present edition was the first printed score (1895) which had been revised by the composer. Debussy's original, French expressions and markings have been retained.