Essential Repertoire,
Piano Sheet Music Essentials: Claude Debussy
In our Piano Sheet Music Essentials series, we aim to offer recommendations for some of the most popular piano pieces by a selection of celebrated composers, broken up into general difficulty level, so pianists of all ages and abilities can begin to explore the works of great classical composers. This article focuses on the work of Claude Debussy, one of the most influential composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Claude Debussy
Claude Debussy was born in a Parisian suburb in 1862. He began music lessons at the age of seven, and by the young age of ten he had already shown sufficient musical talent to be admitted to the Paris Conservatoire. Originally studying as a piano student, Debussy soon found his specialty as an innovative composer. Debussy is often described as the first impressionist, though he fiercely shunned this term at the time. He died in Paris in 1918.
Easy - Intermediate Pieces
The pieces listed below are suitable for beginner to early intermediate pianists. As with all sheet music, some basic music theory, and an understanding of how to read and interpret sheet music is required. Including arrangements of more difficult pieces, this collection provides accessible choices for beginners and offers an introduction into the world of Debussy.
Debussy's music can be daunting to beginning pianists: his abstract sense of composition sometimes makes listeners feel lost, the harmonies are more chromatic than traditional works, and often his use of advanced keys is beyond the grasp of even more experienced players. This compilation, however, makes the composer's works highly accessible to beginning pianists. These introductory arrangements focus on Debussy's melodies and style.
Available Format: Sheet Music/Downloads
Easy arrangements of popular Debussy works by Jeremy Birchall, Christopher Hussey & Simon Townley.
Available Format: Sheet Music
The Great Music Made Easy series for solo piano is a unique combination of simplified piano arrangements of music by some of history's greatest composers. These arrangements capture the essence of the original compositions in easier-to-play versions that stay true to the original musical intent.
Available Format: Sheet Music
Intermediate – Early Advanced Pieces
The following pieces are suitable for intermediate to early advanced pianists. Some publications will include pieces that are easier to master, and some that are much more advanced. Our selections below include popular works such as Arabesque No. 1, Clair de Lune, and Rêverie.
A selection of Debussy's easiest piano pieces including The Little Shepherd from 'Children's Corner', Rêverie (1890), Clair de lune from 'Suite bergamasque' (1890), and many more.
Available Format: Sheet Music
The series Easy Piano Pieces and Dances offers first repertoire books for young players. It includes easier pieces by many of the most famous composers of piano music. All works appear in their original form and are not arranged or simplified in any way. Each volume includes tried and tested fingering, and no awkward page turns.
Available Format: Sheet Music
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 possessing poetic depth, even with simple technical means.
Available Format: Sheet Music
more than the score… is a series of classic piano music, covering much of the essential repertoire from Bach through Mozart, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Chopin and Debussy, right up to John Cage. Each volume focuses on one piece, with written masterclasses and background information encouraging an exploration of the music – beyond the printed score.
Available Format: Sheet Music
Schirmer Performance Editions are designed for piano students and their teachers as well as for professional pianists. Pedagogical in nature, these editions offer insightful interpretive suggestions, pertinent fingering, and historical and stylistic commentary. Prepared by renowned artists and teachers, these publications provide an accurate, well-informed score resource for pianists.
Available Format: Sheet Music/Audio Download
Thirty-nine intermediate to advanced piano pieces by Debussy.
Available Format: Sheet Music
Ease away the stresses of the day with two collections of beautiful, tranquil music. Put your feet up and enjoy the best-selling Chillout With Debussy CD from Naxos, containing fourteen favourite masterpieces. Then explore the complementary collection of piano music, with a hand-picked selection of your favourite slow movements and gentle themes by this great composer.
Available Format: Sheet Music
A collection of easy pieces by Claude Debussy. A detailed preface by the editor Wilhelm Ohmen introduces the specific problems arising in connection with the interpretation of Debussy's works, such as pedalling.
A second volume with further piano works is also available here.
Available Format: Sheet Music
Playing the greatest works of the great composers has now been made easier thanks to a series of editions in which pieces are singled out, organized according to progressive levels of difficulty, and provided with a whole series of precious support materials such as historical and literary introductions to each work, technical guidelines for pianists, and fingerings. An excellent way to discover the great piano repertoire and a useful teaching aid. This edition, edited by Alfonso Alberti, offers the Debussy pieces most beloved by students and teachers alike.
Available Format: Sheet Music
Twelve (mostly short) pieces have been collected in this little volume. The pieces in this edition cover the whole of the composer’s creative life – from the Danse bohémienne to the demanding D’un cahier d’esquisses. This volume provides players with an introduction to Debussy’s piano works that are not too difficult, but also includes pieces for more advanced players. Warmly recommended for piano teachers.
Available Format: Sheet Music
Advanced – Professional Level Pieces
Lastly, these selections are most suited for advanced to professional level musicians and contain some of the most challenging Debussy compositions. The publications below include complete works such as Suite Bergamesque, Deux Arabesques, Estampes, Children's Corner, and more.
These two jewels of the piano literature were first published in 1891 and made available at the time in a relatively small print run of 300 copies. In 1903 the French publisher Durand published the Arabesque No.1 in an advertisement in Le Figaro, and between 1904 and the new engraving with corrections and revisions in 1912, sold more than 50,000 copies! Bärenreiter’s new Urtext edition, while drawing on all known sources, documents the geneses of the compositions until 1912 and the new edition is based on this corrected 1912 re-engraving.
Available Format: Sheet Music
The four-movement suite, composed in 1890, is characteristic of Debussy's creative period in which he mixed "modern" and "ancient" elements. The expression "bergamasque", originally referring to a rural renaissance dance, is used as a cipher for the "Fêtes galantes" of the 18th century, which inspired Verlaine to write the poetry collection in which the moonlight ("Clair de lune") also plays an important role.
Available Format: Sheet Music
Influenced by the visual arts, Debussy titled Estampes as such to indicate his wish to merge the visual with the aural. In addition to including biographical information regarding the life, times and music of Debussy, Maurice Hinson offers vibrant practice, suggestions and technical direction.
Available Format: Sheet Music
The work was originally intended as part of the Suite bergamasque. Yet in the end Debussy chose other pieces for the Suite, and published Masques and another piece initially intended for the work L’Isle joyeuse separately as new compositions. Masques was written during a particularly turbulent period in Debussy’s life, as he had just left his first wife Lilly for Emma Bardac.
Available Format: Sheet Music
Little is known about the origins of Debussy’s Pour le piano, only that the second movement Sarabande was written in 1894 and that the autograph carries the clear inscription '1901'. Bärenreiter’s new critical scholarly edition relies on all known sources, documenting the genesis of the composition, provides a detailed Critical Commentary, and enlightens with its text passages on performance practice and Debussy’s piano music.
Available Format: Sheet Music
Debussy's six-movement suite for solo piano, Children's Corner was published in 1908. It is dedicated to Debussy's daughter, Claude-Emma, who was three years old at the time. The pieces are not intended to be played by children; rather they are meant to be evocative of childhood and some of the toys in Claude-Emma's toy collection.
Available Format: Sheet Music
Debussy's Preludes for piano, edited by Hans Swarsenski.
Book two is also available here.
Available Format: Sheet Music
Selected piano masterpieces from the French master, including pieces from Children's Corner and Suite Bergamasque.
Available Format: Sheet Music/CD
Containing nearly every piece of piano music Debussy wrote in this giant, 488-page, comb-bound book.
Available Format: Sheet Music
Gift Ideas for Debussy Aficionados
Volume 1 of Durand's Complete Works Series, including Deux Arabesques, Ballade, Suite Bergamasque, and more.
More volumes in the Complete Works Series are available here.
Available Format: Sheet Music
Ellena Taylor - Sheet Music and Books Manager
