Thank you very much for the response! I look forward to working at learning this piece!

Hugh, I need to take you back to measure 21 (also measures 11 and 13 apply to my question). My question is, in measure 21, the first note (D flat) is a quarter note, and the following notes are eighths. Shouldn't the D flat be struck first and held thru the G and A octaves, and then the G Flat (also a quarter note) struck and held thru the end of the measure?

I have been playing measures 11 and 13 this way and like the "sound" it provides when played that way. However, I'd just like to know if this is correct or not. Thanks for your response in advance. Appreciate all your doing on this forum.

Sorry for the delayed response, Liber Ouchy. Great question! The dotted quarter note D-flat should be played simultaneously with the eighth note octave - it's just written a little off kilter to make it easier to see the voicing. Technically, it's actually impossible to hold the D-flat (or the G-flat) for their full values, as they get cut off with identical eighth notes before they officially end, but the implication is that the sound continues through. You can certainly hold the dotted and regular quarter note as long as you can, but the pedal can just as easily sustain it through. If you're enjoying the sound of the suspension the way you're doing it, then that's great! Hope this helps.

Bump

Bump?
Bump what? Bump who? I must be too old to get it.
If you haven't seen the tread "Music as a Release", in one of the posts, Morodiene has a link to Claude Debussy playing Clare de Lune. Its worth a listen. I think I've listened to Clare de lune about 6 times a day for the last 3 months. This may run contrary to popular opinion, but I think he plays it too fast and parts sound choppy. 3 minutes 40 seconds. I'll take the version at the bottom of page 1. About 4 minutes 43 seconds. Much smoother. Much more beautiful.
Happy Thanksgiving
Julius

Bump:

In message board terms, to move a post to the top of the forum with a pointless reply.

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!
You bring up an interesting observation, Julius - some of the old piano roll recordings of Debussy reveal a much "fresher" take of his own music than the collective "traditions" that generally tend to weigh things down over time. I remember hearing an old recording of Gershwin playing his own version of "Rhapsody in Blue" with a big band accompaniment as opposed to a full orchestra, and man, did that piece zip through!
Making music is so much like working with clay - infinitely malleable and wonderfully expressive!

Thanks Hugh, and same to you.

Is there a second pdf file with the Clair notes available (the first file stops with measure 16)?

If I've missed it, I sure would appreciate a link to it here.

By the way, when I returned to working on a few of the pieces more appropriate for my level of skill, the tools and tricks absorbed in your lessons (cookie cutters, isolating the hardest transitions for practice, tai chi landings, etc.) all worked wonders in speeding up my learning process. Even if I never finish Clair de lune I will have profited greatly from your lessons. Thanks again.

Jim

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Happy Thanksgiving, Hugh.
Rec'd the Thanksgiving eCard I sent you? I hope you & David like the card. How was your turkey?

Thank you so much for the lovely Thanksgiving eCard! I overcooked my turkey, but still had a wonderful time with my family! The next day, we had vegetarian guests over, so I prepared my first-ever Tofurkey - a tofu ball with stuffing inside, complimented with mushroom gravy and apple/cranberry potato dumplings! It was AWESOME!
Hope you had as wonderful a holiday as we did - take care!

Fallen back to page 5.
Is anyone still working on this and how far are you?
I'm all the way thru, but have been spending the last few weeks trying to get faster, smoother and softer with the left hand.
My Zoom H4n arrived. Hearing myself play this convinced me that I have a long long way to go. My foot is on the peddle too much, my timing is off, and every hesitation can be clearly heard. Oh well, I'm not giving up!
I will still post as soon as I can get a decent one or by Christmas whichever comes first. At this point, I've given up on flawless.
Julius

I am, I am! I am 2 measures beyond Hugh's last lesson, anxiously awaiting the next one. I am in the same position as you are. I have all the notes down, it's just a matter of playing it cleanly at the proper speed. It's pretty frustrating, as I can play it perfectly at half speed, but once I get up to full speed the last 10 or so measures are just not up to snuff, especially at the key change. I guess this is pretty much with every piece though, I could probably play a lot of pieces perfectly at a very slow pace, but they will fall apart as the speed increases.

This one will be a long project for me. I am still working the first 26 measures and will not move on until I have them complete(getting close). I will then bite off the next 3rd and do the same. I have a couple of other projects that are more pressing so CDL may take a year to complete.

I've read a lot of posts that say the best way to improve is to keep playing thru a piece slowly and before you realize it you will be playing it faster.
This is the only difficult piece I'm working on since I wanted to have it down before resuming with a teacher in January (after 36 years).
The one thing that I've found is that I can play it over and over for a couple of hours a day and not get tired of it. Sooner or later things will fall into place.
Julius

Thanks a lot for doing this.
You're a great person and a great person with so much depth and I think your attitude and your life philosophy are great.

I have a question: why in the first measure the left and the right hand are connected by that strange vertical beam?

Hugh, I'm not a total beginner, but let me tell you that I wish I had a teacher like you when I started learning piano. Just by watching these videos I would've learned easily in a week what I learned in six months, never really understanding what was going on. Your explanations of duplets, clefs, holding notes, tied notes are brilliant and so clear. I had a teacher that expected me to figure out those things or my own or refused to explain them always claiming they were for later lessons, go figure.

You make piano playing look easier and more logical and just watching you dissecting each bar like that helps me to feel less intimidated about approaching a sheet full of notes and blackness. You elevate piano teaching to a new level of understanding and depth and give it a boost with the use of modern technology; my piano teacher was a traditionalist hidebound.

So thank you, thank you, thank you!

Well I've been doing this beautiful piece for a month now and the hardest two measures so far are definitely measures 29 and 30. My left hand isn't quick enough to get that "ocean of sound" but these lessons have been great and I will keep persevering by taking it slowly.

What a great piece of music!

I don't know if this helps, but I have long fingers and found the fingering easier by not playing the base clef notes at the top of the run with the right and playing 4 notes before crossing over. I play ( M29 d flat) 5, 3, 2, 1(f), 3, 2, 1(f), 2, 1(f), 2, 3, 1(f), 3, 1(f), 2, 3, 2, 3. That has thumb under on all the f's. I do the same for measure 30 e flat 5, 3, 2, 1(g), 3, 2, 1(g), 2, 3, 1(g), 2, 3, 5(e flat), 3, 2, 1(g), 2, 3. 30 has thumb under on all the g's.
I tried to play CDL all the way thru for my piano tuner last week and froze. The positive outcome was I learned how to use the Zoom H4n that Santa brought early so I could post it and send her the link. The 152 page manual wasn't as bad as it first looked.
In August my wife loved Clare de lune. At this point she's had enough. Oh well.
Julius

Many thanks for that tip, my hand can reach a tenth, so those larger jumps shouldn't be too hard and should hopefully make it easier. My family is like that with CDL and I've only been playing it a month!! I love it though.

Back on 12-12-09 I said I'd post by Christmas or if I got a decent recording. This is the link to what I have so far. Not flawless. Not the latest (I seem to have entered a phase of revolving mistakes. Parts that were played well find new places to have a mistake).
I suppose I'll call this decent but far from flawless.

http://www.box.net/shared/bc8mbaf36a

Julius
PS for some reason, when I try to play it from the box player it comes out fine on my lap top, but garbled on my home PC. It plays fine on the home PC downloaded. I've encountered the same problem with some of the other posts to box.net

Bravo Julius!
I think that is a very decent performance. I certainly would be happy with your progress. I feel there are some areas where you could let the music breathe and evolve a bit more slowly, but other areas you are spot on. Very good job!




I have found this to be the usual with longer pieces. I find re-working and breaking it down into different parts, helps to solidify the piece.

Well Done Julius. And thanks for posting it.

Julius, good job on the whole piece! I agree with Carl's comments, and you just need some fine tuning to get it really good!

I'm way behind, with all the holiday hoopla, so getting caught up and trying to get to a point where I can maybe post my progress. So, I haven't given up on this, just lagging.

Carl Mc, JimF, & CMohr
Thanks for the response.
I'm back to practicing parts slowly and getting the kinks out. The version I posted was from 12-18-09. I'm getting the hang of the H4n, but I still get the jitters when I try to record. Have to keep 3 dogs quiet and turn off the chime of the grandfather's clock. Not as bad as trying to play for others, but I'm still concious of the fact that others will be listening at some point. I've read a lot of posts that discuss recital jitters. I still haven't figured out whether I want to try to work towards getting over the jitters or just play for myself.
No rush to figure that one out.
Now that I've posted, the pressure is off.
Next on my list is my favorite, The Warsaw Concerto. Probably above my level, but I don't really care. Where there is sufficient will, there is a way (and I'm not in a hurry).
Julius

Record everything for a while, even practice, and then you won't even notice it is there.

Good idea
Thanks
Julius

All,
It's good to see that there are still some people visiting the thread and that the work started still goes on. Work has been hell this past month or so but it's started to ease back. I'm looking forward to working on CDL once again. Good job Julius and thank you all for keeping the thread alive.
Woody

Hello,

I have been quietly following the lessons for the last several months. Am now current with the last lesson and can play CDL reasonably well up to that point. I sure hope that Hugh will return to finish this piece in the near future????

Regards,

Bob

Bob,

I too am anxiously awaiting the next lesson from Hugh. I have started to teach myself the rest, but I just can't get the two measures two measures after where he stopped to work right. Anyway Hugh started this project in the summer, when he had a lot more free time. Since his teaching duties at Curtis started he has had a lot less time to continue on this generous free project. I am fairly sure he will finish, but in the mean time, I am using his principles and lessons to get a leg up on the rest. If you break it down like he does, and try some different fingerings that best fit your hand I think you will be able to get most of it down on your own. Good luck.

Chris