With a capital 'B'!

Welcome DeBussy lovers! I am intrigued by the piano literature group threads I have seen, and I am excited to start a DeBussy work group. I hope many of you will be interested.

This thread is for everything DeBussy... have a piece you're having trouble with? Bring it up here. Have an idea for a piece that you want us all to work on together? Tell us. Just bought a DeBussy book you want to brag about? Want to customize a prelude title? Want to learn the entire Children's Corner suite for your newly born? Well... that's a wonderful idea! You'd be following in DeBussy's footsteps.

Along with everything I mentioned above, let's use this thread to discuss a piece to start. Also... we should use this thread to discuss a possibility of working with the Chopin Cohorts. Anyone have any ideas for a DeBussy and Chopin that compliment each other nicely?

For our own piece, I highly suggest us starting with the finest... Clair de Lune (especially because I myself just started it a few days ago). But even if I did not, I believe it's a good starter.

I am also fresh from the Tarentelle Styrienne... so if anyone needs pointers, ask away. It's a relatively underplayed DeBussy... so that's another good choice for us to learn. Please go here: http://www.classicalmidiresource.com/cmrmp3.html and give it a listen.

Official DeBussy Dilettantes list:[/b]

Chobussy
loveschopintoomuch

Edit: I chose the noun "Dilettante" for our group because one, it's French, and two it means "a lover of the fine arts." Apparently, it also means a dabbler, amateur, and superficial. So.. heh... I like it... but if anyone else has a different group name that more creatively incorporates the name DeBussy in it, then please go ahead.

Hi Dave:

A new learning group! Great! I would like to be the first in your group because I would love to be able to play Clair de Lune.

However, in our Chopin group, it looks like the C# waltz might just be our new piece. Learning that plus getting into Bach a little more plus polishing the Dflat and several other pieces, I just might be spreading myself too thin. But I am willing to give it a try.

So sign me up as a a DeBussy dilettante. I hope Chopin won't mind. You know how he disliked most of his contemporary composers' music. I wonder how he would have felt about DeBussy.

Good luck in helping to rebuild the Gulf Coast. Lord...it is so hot! Take care.

Kathleen

Every time I see this [img]http://images.picsearch.com/is?-GkzyYR0eTi3EmIP2u9oK7NKH8v6gTbITDD21E8Xhoc[/img] beautiful picture of Chopin... I begin to wonder if he'd accept any music other than his own... especially modern-impressioninst DeBussy. He just has that look to him, ya know?

Kathleen... thank you so much for being the first to sign up. Technically you're the first even though I did receive a PM from someone who's interested but who hasn't officially signed up yet.

I suggest taking on Clair de Lune for now, and then out of your handful of pieces you can choose which you would like to work on. I bet Clair de Lune will be one of those. It will suck you in.

Yes... the heat index in the Gulf will be over 100 daily, most likely. Yet, I am VERY excited. Please be sure to check up on the Katrina forum in PianoWorld for my updates when I get back. I will be returning late the 30th... and then my focus is Once on This Island (the musical). The final shows are the 10th, 11th, and 12th. So... let's officially start Clair de Lune on the 13th... and hopefully by then we'll have quite a group! Spread the word!

In Chopin's defense (I will defend him 'til the day I die) that picture was taken just months (perhaps) before he died. As Frycek can tell you, his face was swollen from the fluid he was retaining and his lips pursed in order to breath. I just read today that his face was black in his final hours. I don't like to think about it. It truly pains me.

No, he probably wouldn't like DeBussy. And he probably wouldn't be impressed that DeBussy was (in his own way) trying to keep the Chopin legend alive a little. However, Chopin loved opera. Did DeBussy sing? Just kidding.

I just started going through the first page of the C# waltz and while it won't be a piece of cake, I think I'll have an easier time of it than I first assumed. (Gosh, I hope so.)

I'll get the sheet music for Clair de Lune and perhaps when you return triumphantly from the Gulf Coast, I'll have gone through a few measures. I hope I'm not getting in over my head. I do have a tendency to do this.

Take care,

Kathleen

I'd very much like to learn Clair de Lune but don't know if I'll have the time. I can tentatively say that I might give it a try. How's that for a non-commital response?

Kathleen, when (not if) you work on the C# minor waltz, you'll find that you have a whole team of cheerleaders here. How can we not after what you did for us with the Raindrop thread?

Thank you, Pianolina:

That's very nice of you. Believe me when I say I'm the one who really benefitted; I had a lot of fun. I hope you can find the time for Clair de Lune. But we don't want to lose you in our new Chopin Cohort group.

As I mentioned, the first page of the C# waltz isn't too difficult, but I afraid to turn to the next page. I think I'll wait until I learn the first page fairly well before going any further.

And how great to have some cheerleaders. Many of us in this new group can use all the encouragement we can get. Well, I speak for myself here. Some might not need any at all. Are you joining us? You have certainly conquered the Dflat prelude and play it so beautifully.

Kathleen

I've been working on Clair de Lune this week and loving it, so sign me up. I'm thinking of picking up the other movements of Suite Bergamasque as well. Does anybody play them? Any advice?

I'm part of the Raindrop group and I play a lot of Chopin, but the Waltzes just don't turn me on. I'm working on a couple of preludes instead. I find them to be like little poems, perfect and complete.

I actually haven't played or even heard the rest of the suite unfortunately. I will soon though... I will buy a CD.

Good luck on the Clair de Lune. Keep us updated.

Who's the man next to Depp? His director?

Kathleen

The one, the only... Tim Burton.

Johnny and Tim have made a handful of movies now.

Edward Scissorhands
Ed Wood
Sleepy Hollow
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Corpse Bride

and rumored soon-to-be a movie adaptation of the incredible musical Sweeny Todd.

Johnny takes on some very strange characters, to say the least. The first pirate movie was on TV a few nights ago. He is hilarious.

Kathleen

Agreed. He's nothing like any actor/actress I know. Especially when he's doing something with Tim. I do believe he is one of the best actors this generation... very diverse and well-rounded. He can take on anything.

Well Dilettantes... I will be leaving tomorrow to spend a week in New Orleans. Wish me luck.

I hope you are all hard at work on the Lune... what, a whoping 3 of you? When I get back, it'd be nice to find a handful of more people interested to join our study group. I only officially have Kathleen and I signed up.

When I return... hopefully we'll have more people and we can seriously start to work on the Clair de Lune. In the meantime, look it over please. It's a very emotional, deep, and rewarding song... we'll take our time with it.

Keep me updated when I get back... and ummm, Kathleen... you're in charge. But that probably won't be an issue because if the trend continues, this thread will drop to the bottom of this forum like La Cathédrale Engloutie again.

I'm going to Kinko's today and get my copy enlarged. I'll start working on it on Monday. Don't forget I also have that Nocturne to work on also. So my progress on the lune may be somewhat slower than most.

Kathleen

I thought I signed up for Clair de Lune weeks ago, but maybe not. Anyway, put me on the list, because I'm making good progress on it.

Wonderful. Please MaryAnna, tell us what where you're at currently.

Well, I can play through it fairly smoothly. The roughest part is at the top of the second page (in my edition), because I haven't worked out a good fingering for all those thick chords. The last couple of pages, where the initial theme returns, seem harder than they should be. It's tough to get the rhythm right agaainst the left-hand arpeggios. And I'll never play four sharps as well as I do five flats. :p

Still, it sounds sorta like music when I play it, which is always a good point in working on a new piece.

Top of the second page...

For my left... I hit the first chord with 321, and then I work the rest of the chords from there.

For the right... I hit the first with 531... but 521 works too depending on which is more comfortable for you. And then once again, working your way for the chords afterwards comes pretty naturally.

I'm figuring this at work with out a keyboard in front of me... so maybe I'll update this later.

Keep up the good work.

Yikes....I am certainly going to be bringing up the rear in this project.

I don't even know enough to ask any questions...yet.

Kathleen

This is working for me for the first passage. I had to adapt the left hand for the seond one--if I start with 245, it helps. I'm still puttering with that passage.

I played Claire de Lune for my teacher today and it went well. She encouraged me to hold the notes for their full duration, even when the pedal is depressed and, thus, doing it for me. I see how playing legato might change the way I attack a note. (After the attack, what a pianist does with his/her hands is sorta immaterial, when the damper pedal is down.) So I'm going to try playing it in a more legato style this week.

She also pointed out some places where I was counting wrong. Man, you'd think you wouldn't have to count so much when you're playing something as familiar as Clair de Lune.

I think she's giving you good advice there. Someone here told me the same thing a couple of years ago when we discussed this piece. I've found it a very helpful point in this and so much else. Seems to me that holding the notes for the full duration (instead of pedaling) leads to more relaxed playing, gets you more clearly to feel arm weight--and use it, and invariably leads to better tonal control. I've watched a few good pros' hands as they play and one thing that always stands out to me about how they make it "look easy" is that they never move their hands a moment before it is necessary, arriving "just in time" (which means never leaving too soon and pedalling to cover) with the most economical motion that gets the most out of the attack through arm weight and not finger-derived attack, and not pedal. I spend a lot of time playing intentionally no-pedal until I get something as close as I can without and only add pedal sparingly to get that last bit where it's actually only sympathetic string resonance of unplayed notes I'm after. I don't think of the purpose of pedalling as a means to achieve *duration* except in rare cases where I may use the sostenuto when there is no other way by fingering.

That little bit of advice about playing that piece was maybe the most helpful thing I ever read and took to heart here. When musician friends came to visit after a two-year separation, and I played for them, one of them literally exclaimed, "Look at his hands! They're so relaxed and fluid! You've really learned a lot!" And I think I did. From that simple, "Legato. Not pedal."

Very good... congratulations on your progress.

I agree with your teacher... holding out the duration is important... Clair de Lune is emotional and deep, letting things drag a tiny bit to emphasize on the emotion is important.

Ah... after I re-read what your teacher was getting at, I realize he/she wants you to keep your fingers pressed even if the damper is holding a note/chord for you. I just misread... but yes, that is important too.

Good luck, and keep up the good work!

I'm happy to join the bunch. Debussy is probably my favorite composer. On the other hand, I'm not likely to start working in Clair de Lune anytime soon. I've got too many other things going on.

I may give The Girl with the Flaxen Hair a run though. It seems easy enough technically.

Probably for the best... Clair de Lune is not one to rush, plus it's lengthly. The Girl With the Flaxen Hair is a good choice. I also enjoy how traditional it is compared to most DeBussy. The cadences are standard, more or less... and it has a nice feel to it.