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This note annoys me so much. I understand why it is there, but boy do I want to play a C# SO badly! I had actually played a C# for years without really noticing it was a B; I must have subconsciously changed it based on sound.

Why can't it just be a C#? I'm going to play a C#, sorry Claude.

That is all.

Why should the B "annoy" you? It's what Debussy wrote, according to all editions I have. The B certainly "feels" better in the hand. Don't re-write Debussy; play it as written!

Regards,

I know! I just wish it was a C#. To my ears it sounds "right" and B sounds "wrong." I know that I am the one that is wrong, but it feels so right! Should I deny myself this note? I am usually not one for altering the score but I feel very strongly about it in this case.

Hey, it's not like I'll be performing it at Carnegie Hall!

didyouget,

I've had similar thoughts in other pieces. (There's a note in Ravel's Jeux d'Eau that always sounded off, and a note in the last movement of the Pathetique that jars me.) In all cases, I've lived with the composer's choice, and I've been better for it.

Here are a few reasons why the B really works. I think they're at least compelling enough to try it Debussy's way for a while. Since you've been hearing and playing C# for so long, you've never given B a chance. Give it room to grow.

-- The B helps to resolve the harmony in the last beat as E major (instead of C# minor), which is beautiful, especially in setting up the A major harmony of the next measure's first beat.

-- If you play C#, that C# -> G# in the right hand sounds a little thin, because it's the interval of a fifth. B -> G# sounds warmer.

-- Look at the A -> F# in the right hand in the next measure's first beat. We really want to hear the B -> G# followed by this A -> F#. It's a beautiful pattern, and you can make a lot of the lower notes' resolution (B to A) and the upper notes' (G# to F#).


So try the B for a while, even if you don't like it at first. Debussy really did make the right call here!


-Jason

Beet,

Yeah, I been doing it that way to get used to it. I had learned this piece a while back, and was relearning it and I guess I finally caught the B and thought it was a mistake. But now that I know it's not I will try to live with it!

Just curious, what note in Jeux d'Eau did you think sounded off?

The B is supposed to be a transition note to the A in the following bar!

Yeah, it can be really annoying when your mind is anticipating a certain note or chord and the composer puts a different one! (Surprisingly enough, it never bothered me in modern or impressionistic music, but only in classical or baroque)
That's why I can't stand picardy thirds.

Try the B and listen to some recordings.
If you really don't like it, just change it to what you like

I like the Picardy thirds in some pieces (like Bach), but in something like the Kreisler Praeludium and Allegro it doesn't make any sense musically.

It's in the measure right before the return of the main theme (i.e. right before the "recapitulation"). At the end of that measure the right hand has a couple two-note clusters. One of them is a G-A, which is the last note of a set of four 32nd notes. That G-A, especially its placement with the other 32nd notes, always seemed a little clunky to me. (I have no problem with the second cluster, the A-B.)

I minimize its effect and it's no big deal. But it's always felt to me like a slight slight blemish in an otherwise-perfect piece.


-Jason

Yes, I can see how that can seem strange. I always slowed down a lot at that point though, so the rhythm I ended up doing felt right. I almost play the last two 16th notes as 8th notes.

I connect it more with the G sharp.

I have never played this piece before, so I just sat down to play the passage you quoted, and I must say the B also hits me in a slightly strange way. I would have preferred the C# too, but I could get used to the B. I don't think there is a compelling voice-leading reason for using B. The resolution to the following chord works either way, IMO.

Sure, it works both ways. But I think it's richer, more subtle, and slightly more evocative of a kind of nostalgia to use the B. More Debussy-ish.

It's thousands of small decisions like this that separate this piece from the world of New Age and video game music.


-Jason

" One is often betrayed by so-called pianists! I mean it, I can't tell you the extent to which my piano music has been deformed"

Claude Debussy quoted in the July/August 2012 edition of International Piano.

To be honest the quote made me laugh out loud. Does Debussy think people set out to "betray" him?

Is he so important that many pianists are going around the world deliberately betraying Claude Debussy?

So a conversation between two piano students might go as this:

Pianist No 1 (P1)"What shall we do tonight, play a little Beethoven?"

Pianist No2 (P2) "No.... not really"

(P1) "Shall we play some Brahms, perhaps?"

(P2) "No, no, I don't think so..."

(P1) "What then, Mozart, Chopin, Gershwin, Lennon and McCartney? You say what you would like us to do".

(P2) "I have an excellent idea, why don't we just spent the entire evening betraying Debussy?"

(P1) "Oh..... I wish I'd thought of that!"

I am sure most of us play what Debussy we can to the best of our abilities rather than set out to deliberately "betray" him. Could he REALLY have been unaware of that? Did he really think his music was so easy that there should be no problems playing what he had written as he had written it?

The man was a great composer lost to the world too soon, far too soon.

He does seem a bit pompous though. Of course there will be those who feel he has every right to be. But I'm not one of them. Nobody is "deformed" by exhibiting a little humility occasionally, even if their name was Claude Debussy.

I see no reason why a pianist should not play music as they want to, if that is not exceeding their abilities and to be honest, don't we all want to play better?

I once saw a concert pianist who claimed all Chopin's work sounded half a tone out (I think it was flat but am not certain after all these years) and he could and did demonstrate the fact to Robin Ray one night on the BBC with remarkable ability.

I would like to think that we are free to perform our own interpretations of great works of art
and that we should always be able to do so.

Yes, I will be in the minority, but it is YOU sitting at the piano, not anybody else, do it as YOU wish, (IMO)

BTW, I was very amused to see you say you had been playing the wrong note without realising it. So I'm not the only one (Thank God!) who sometimes does that!

At least the notation is correct in your score. I discovered two major notation errors in my sheet music for Clair de Lune. Very irritating! However, I guess this frustrating situation helped me sharpen up my listening skills.

1) As per my prior posts, this whole section is to be arpeggiated in the left hand, with pedaling on every beat, or like Earl Wild suggests, depending on the hall you are playing it in, you can just hit the next left hand chord increasingly louder.

2) It is an E Major Chord, carrying on into the next measure. The last time I checked C# is not a note in an E Major triad.

3) I finger it with the fourth finger on the upper "E" and the forefinger on the next 'B."

Most important is to pay attention to the upper stem notes. That is the melody line, leading into the next section. The "B" is not one of those melody notes.

This means you play, in the third beat, the "G#" melody note with the fifth finger, and then the "E" melody note with the fourth finger.

The "B" is just filling out the harmony leading into the next "G#" melody note of the next section. This is a crucial part in the piece which eventually leads into a major crescendo.

Compositionally, that means that the ear wants to hear clean and clear normal harmony, preceding it.

I disagree. You will lose a certain feeling of movement if you take it all in the left hand.

Here I thought you were going to say it's this note in Jeux D'eau



which really should be a G# but is written as a "A".

I play this as an "G#" when people come over and ask what the extra keys are for....

sk :

Please keep in mind that this is a translation from the French. The original, whether Debussy used the verb trahir or not would have to be looked into, and might give a totally different tone to his comment when viewed in the original context. There's much truth to the statement that "much is lost in translation."

Regards,