Claude Debussy

Ravel had limitless admiration for Debussy's famous orchestral work, going so far as to say in an interview that it was his innermost wish to die to the sounds of this 'unique marvel in the whole of m...

Slow waltzes enjoyed a special vogue in Parisian salons of the early twentieth century, leading Debussy - with a twinkle in his eye - to produce his piano waltz 'La plus que lente' ('The Slower-than-S...

Debussy intentionally did not place titles at the top of his Préludes for piano (HN 383), published in 1910, but merely wrote them at the end and in parentheses - almost as a belated comment on the pi...

In the “Nocturnes” for orchestra and women’s chorus, composed between 1897 and 1899, Debussy realised his concept that the musical form should emerge freely from the material. With the tripartite stru...

This piece, presumably composed around 1890, belongs to a whole series of Debussy’s early works that are indeed still far removed from the seminal piano compositions of his mature period, but, for all...

You do not need to be a piano virtuoso to enter into the dream world of French Impressionism. With Debussy this is especially straightforward because he knows how to create masterly miniatures possess...

Debussy had originally planned the work with the Suite bergamasque (HN 381) in mind, but then published it separately in October 1904, with good reason. He was so taken with the brilliance and inventi...

The cycle with three movements, composed at the end of 1907 and published at the beginning of the next year, contains a singular innovation: Debussy notated the highly differentiated piano part that g...

Debussy composed this cycle, and other masterful late works, in the summer of 1915. He had withdrawn to a country house near Dieppe with his family and composed with fevered concentration. The self-cr...

Debussy's early piano piece Tarentelle styrienne was published by Choudens in 1891. In 1903 the composer had it reissued under the new title Danse, with a few small revisions, by Fromont, with whom he...

Around 1900 Debussy composed 12 short pieces for two flutes, two harps and celesta as incidental music for the Chansons de Bilitis (recitation of ancient Greek poems by the courtesan Bilitis) by Pierr...

Debussy's piano cycles and more substantial single pieces are listed as single editions in our catalogue. A further twelve, mostly shorter pieces have been collected in this little volume. The pieces...

Debussy occasionally reacted to musical trends in his compositions, as was the case with American ragtime. Aside from Golliwogg's Cakewalk, in Children's Corner (HN 382), The little Negro is even toda...

The work was originally intended as part of the Suite bergamasque (HN 381), like L'Isle joyeuse (HN 386). Yet in the end Debussy chose other pieces for the Suite, and published Masques and L'Isle joye...

Between the years 1880-1882 Debussy occasionally accompanied Nadescha von Meck, Tchaikovsky's patroness, on journeys, also working as her house pianist. At the beginning of 1881 she thanked Debussy fo...

Around 1900 Debussy composed 12 short pieces for two flutes, two harps and celesta as incidental music for the Chansons de Bilitis (recitation of ancient Greek poems by the courtesan Bilitis) by Pierr...

This single edition - it is number 10 in the first volume of the Préludes (HN 383) of 1910 - shows the extent of Debussy's imagination as he conjures up the old city of Ys that has sunk into the sea....

This work only has the title in common with the well-known 'Images” I and II from 1905 and 1908. Debussy dedicated the three-part cycle to the daughter of a painter friend, writing: 'These pieces shy...