Book Description
A major new critical edition of important standard repertory with 61 songs in 2 volumes. All songs are presented only in the original key, with no transpositions. All the song cycles and groupings appear in one of the two volumes. Years in preparation, this edition is based on the most reliable sources available in the world, with most of the research centered at the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris. Each song is presented with a line-by-line translation and full critical notes citing the research as it applies to specifics in the songs. Also includes a glossary of French terms.Contents: Deux romances (Romance: L'eme evaporee; Les cloches) * Les angelus * Trois melodies de Paul Verlaine (La mer est plus belle; Le son du cor; L'echelonnement des haies) * FEtes galantes, serie I (En sourdine; Fantoches; Clair de lune) * Proses lyriques (De rEve; De greve; De fleurs; De soir) * Trois chansons de Bilitis (La flte de Pan; La chevelure; Le tombeau des Naiades) * Dans le jardin * FEtes galantes, serie II (Les ingenus; Le faune; Colloque sentimental) * Trois chansons de France (Rondel: Le temps a laissie; La grotte; Rondel: Pour ce que Palisance) * Le promenoir des deux amants (Crois mon conseil, chere Climene; Je tremble en voyant ton visage) * Trois ballads de Francois Villon (Ballade de Villon a s'amye; Ballade que Villon feit a la requeste de sa mere; Ballade des femmes de Paris) * Trois poemes de Stephane Mallarme (Soupir, Placet futile, Evantali) * Noel des enfant qui n'ont plus de maisons. ... Read more

Book Description
Victor Lederer explores the sophistication, refinement and inspirations of Debussy's music, pointing out subtleties that otherwise could take years of careful listening to fully appreciate. Includes a full-length CD of the maestro's masterworks. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

His approach is perfect for any newcomer
Debussy's music ranks among the most challenging: his influence on other composers makes it essential to understand his approach, but typically music students find such analysis a daunting proposition. Not so Debussy: The Quiet Revolutionary, which pairs a cd of music with an analysis of the subtleties of his works and analyzing Debussy's approach and contributions. The author is a New York critic on music and culture: his approach is perfect for any newcomer to Debussy and is especially recommended for middle to high school students receiving a strong introduction on Debussy's art and achievement.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

wonderful series/book
I have some of the other books from this Unlocking the Masters series, and they are WONDERFUL!!!Not only are they factual and informative, but they are easy to read and really show you what to look/listen for in the music!It comes with a CD which has musical examples of pieces that are talked about in the book!This book is a wonderful tool for any student! ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (6)

Not an authorative reference, but still a beautiful book...
Bought this book of Debussy's more accessible piano works because it was the book I used as a child taking piano lessons.There are more authorative references out there and better collections of Debussy's works, but this remains a sentimental favorite.The book itself is very well built, will not yellow with age and has a gorgeous full color cover.

Great music, no fingerings
I've had this edition for about 15 years, and physically it's held up very well.No tearing, binding is still strong, pages are as white as the day I got it.

This is a generous sampling of Debussy's piano music.Some pieces, like L'isle Joyeuse, are not easy listening, though none are as experimental as Debussy became later in life.That said, many pieces, notably the Arabesques and Suite Bergmasque, are pretty and accessible.

Difficulty ranges from moderate (Reverie, Claire De Lune) to virtuosic (Reflets dans l'eau, Mouvement)

The major downside for the pianist is that there are no fingerings at all.

Beautiful but difficult music
This book has a collection of Claude Debussy music for the advanced piano player. The music has many instances of two-against-three patterns with triplets in the right hand and eighth notes in the left hand. That said, this is a beautiful collection of music, with sweeping melodic lines, and beautiful harmonies that one can only expect from Claude Debussy. I give this four out of five stars for the difficulty of the music. One needs to be very proficient to be able to play these daunting left hand passages. Debussy originally trained to be a virtuoso piano player, and it shows in these works.

An old friend
I remember this was the first volume of Dover piano music I ever bought, back when I was in high school in 1970 when it was first published. Then it cost exactly four dollars. I have played from it in all the years since then. The front cover long ago disappeared, but true to Dover's standards of sewing the pages in with thread like the best books, the volume is still intact.

This is an generous collection of Debussy's earlier piano music, all from the original editions. A warning however, the original editions come with the original misprints, but most of these are obvious to the eye and ear.

Good buy
I have used this particular edition for well over 20 years, and am constantly pleased by its sturdiness and legibility. I heartily recommend the Dover edition, not only of the Debussy, but of any work they maypublish. ... Read more

Book Description
A major new critical edition of important standard repertory with 61 songs in 2 volumes. All songs are presented only in the original key, with no transpositions. All the song cycles and groupings appear in one of the two volumes. Years in preparation, this edition is based on the most reliable sources available in the world, with most of the research centered at the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris. Each song is presented with a line-by-line translation and full critical notes citing the research as it applies to specifics in the songs. Also includes a glossary of French terms.Contents: Nuit d'etoiles * Fleur des bles * Zephyr * Aimons-nous et dormons * Jane * Pierrot * Rondeau * FEte galante * Beau soir * FEtes galantes pour Madame Vasnier (Pantomime; En sourdine; Mandoline; Clair de lune; Fantoches) * Apparition * Recti et Air de Lia * Ariettes oubliees (C'est l'extase langoureuse; Il pleure dans mon coeur; L'ombre des arbres; Chevaus de bois; Green; Spleen) * Cinq poemes de Charles Baudelaire (Le balcon; Harmonie du soir; Le jet d'eau; Recueillement; La mort des amants) * Trois melodies (La beele au bois dormant; Voici que le printemps; Paysage sentimental). ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

Customer Reviews (3)

The only one to buy...
If you are considering playing either of these difficult quartets, you need this score.The spacing of notes is excellent and helpful as the rhythms are often complex.The score is large enough to play from at the piano. A Glossary of French Terms is included which is helpful as not all the musical instructions are found in standard music dictionaries.

Excellent reference
This is the definitely the edition to buy if you're studying/playing either of these two quartets.It's a reprint of the Durand edition, so it's about as official as you can get.and CHEAP, too!It's a nice small size- sort of halfway between a normal paperback book and a standard big Dover score.

Good Source!
Good to get the Debussy/Ravel String Quartet Cd, Emerson of course, and this handy book.
Good for composition to study and easy to open.
Go for it~! ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (4)

Debussy: Complete Preludes, Books 1 and 2
So far in the playing through this album: an excellent compilation of favorite Debussy piano pieces. Thoroughly enjoyable. Clear pages and easy to read.

good for reading, bad for playing
This is an affordable book that is fine for following along while listening to the music being played by someone else, but very frustrating to play from for oneself.The book does not open flat on a piano stand, and keeps falling when the pages are turned.It needs constant propping up by other books, which interrupts passages that have not been memorized (especially for non-professional pianists like me with a poor memory).The Schirmer editions are a bit better in this regard, and the Peters and Kalmus editions open even more flatly than the Schirmer volumes.I will not buy a Dover piano book again for playing -- only if I intend merely to follow a score while listening. Dover editions are cheap compared with those published by other companies, but you get what you pay for.

Great Composer, Great Value
The Preludes of Debussy are from a different planet.The sounds that he got from the piano are still like no other composer, even after over 100 years since their composition.Dover yet again has printed a most economical edition that is very affordable for the pianist that would like to delve into these gems.Recommended!

Piano essential for advanced students
This is one of those sets that I think, if I were stranded on a desert island with a Steinway (and a good piano tuner), I could delve into for years with little other music.

These short pieces are excellent for sight-reading difficult passages with many key changes and unexpected accidentals, for intricate harmony and for expression of mood. The names are evocative of feelings and sights, such as an underwater cathedral, bells in the evening air, wind through heather and the like.

Though short pieces of a few pages, each provides a particular challenge to the piano student, as well as being appropriate for concert encores or intimate playing. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (3)

Outstanding republication of first-class Debussy piano music!!
What can one say?As a composer, Debussy is just right up there with anybody else one wishes to name - his music is definitely a product of genius and puts him in the very first rank of composers - and his piano music is top notch also in terms of how it uses the instrument while not being all that awkward to play even if it's difficult enough!

These pieces (2 of which I had the pleasure to read through a few days ago!) ought to be in every pianist's library and ought to be known by any serious musician - and how better than in this cheap yet top-quality republication of original editions by firms like Durand, Leduc, Eschig, etc.??An ABSOLUTE STEAL!!!

Great Edition for the Price
This edition includes a lot of great Debussy music, including La Plus que Lente, Children's Corner, and the Etudes.The book is worth it for the Etudes alone, which were written towards the end of Debussy's life and which are simply amazing.They are as masterful as Chopin's etudes, in my opinion.I recommend buying both this and the other Dover edition of Debussy piano music to have basically (or actually, but I haven't checked to be absolutely sure) everything that Debussy wrote for solo piano.

Some of Debussy's best music
For years, due to copywrite issues, "The Children's Corner" suite was only available in a French edition. Now it's here, in an affordale Dover edition, along with some rarer piano solos.

"Children's Corner" ranges from playable ("Dr. Gradus ad Parnassum" and "The Little Shepherd" and "Doll's Lullaby" to the evilly tricky "Snow is Dancing" made famous by Tomita in an electronic version. The suite was written for Debussy's daughter and is utterly charming and really fun to play. The etude's from Book II are incomplete here, but have some of the nices works, along with a beautiful berceuse.

If you play piano and love the Impressionist composers, this is a must-have. ... Read more

Book Description
This is the ultimate source for these beloved piano preludes by Debussy, in a newly engraved and researched critical edition from Durand, the original publisher of this music. This is the paperback edition based on the hardbound Complete Works of Claude Debussy. Includes a foreword in French and English. Printed on quality, ivory-colored stock, the book has a sewn binding for life-long use. ... Read more

Book Description
Two early twentieth-century operas -- Debussy's Pelleas et Melisande (1902) and Bartok's Duke Bluebeard's Castle (1911) -- transformed the traditional major/minor scale system into a new musical language. This new language was based almost exclusively on interactions between folk modalities and their more abstract symmetrical transformations. Elliott Antokoletz reveals not only the new musical language of these operas, but also the way in which they share a profound correspondence with the growing symbolist literary movement as reflected in their libretti. In the symbolist literary movement, authors reacted to the realism of nineteenth-century theatre by conveying meaning by suggestion, rather than direct statement. The symbolist conception included a new interest in psychological motivation and consciousness manifested itself in metaphor, ambiguity, and symbol.In this groundbreaking study, Antokoletz links the new musical language of these two operas with this symbolist conception and reveals a direct connection between the Debussy and Bartok operas. He shows how the opposing harmonic extremes serve as a basis for the dramatic polarity between real-life beings and symbols of fate. He also explores how the libretti by Franco-Belgian poet Maurice Maeterlinck (Pelleas et Melisande) and his Hungarian disciple Bela Balazs (Duke Bluebeard's Castle) transform the internal concept of subconscious motivation into an external one, one in which fate controls human emotions and actions.Using a pioneering approach to theoretical analysis, Antokoletz, explores the new musico-dramatic relations within their larger historical, social psychological, philosophical, and aesthetic contexts. ... Read more

Book Description
A fine collection of 27 Debussy pieces arranged for piano solo, including: Ballade * Clair de Lune * Danse * Deux Arabesques, Nos. 1 and 2 * Hommage a Rameau * Jardins Sous la Pluie * The Maid With the Flaxen Hair * Mazurka * Reflets Dans l'eau * Sarabande from "Pour le Piano" * Valse Romantique * and more. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The only way I can get to YOU is to click the review section
I would like to purchase the book but first I want to see how it is done. Is there any copy of the cover and the first 2-3 pages. Actually, I am looking for a BIOGRAPHY of Claude Debussy !!! do you have any in stock??Please send E-mail ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (4)

Dover's reprints most of the time are outstanding!
Sure, there can occasionally be problems with reprints of older editions (and I've seen some quite poor ones at that, notably with Belwin-Kalmus!);however, this one of Dover (as well as their reprint of the same composer's opera "Pelléas et Mélisande") is not one I'd slight in the least.My copy has very few problems indeed.I recommend this one unreservedly!

The Problem with Reprints
As the earlier reviewer pointed out, this Dover edition is a reprint of the orginal Durand score issued in the first decade of the 20th century. The downside of a reprint edition, especially from French publishers, who had a very distinctive engraving style, is that stems and staves tend to disappear in places, which makes it hard to read. Even so, Dover does a great service by making this masterpiece (I don't use that term lightly!) available at a reasonable price. If you really want to have a clean modern engraving, you'll have to shell out more than $100 for the cloth-bound critical edition.

Dissapointing printing
The music is of course fantastic, but I was dissapointed by the quality of the printing in this volume. Sometimes note stems are virtually nonexistent, and the very small verbal instructions are almost impossible to read. The reason for this is not Dover's fault; it's because this book was printed directly from ancient master plates of the original French editions. In fact, all of Dover's "reproductions of old French editions" series seem to share the same problems. Yet none of Dover's German editions has the problem. Oh well, I guess all I can say is: Let the Buyer Beware.

music
1.Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun 2.Nocturnes (a).Clouds (b).Festivals (c).Sirens 3.La Mer (a).From Down to Noon on the Sea (b).Wave Play (c).Dialogue of Wind and Sea ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (1)

helpful to pianists
This is a helpful book that gives you brief descriptions of all of Debussy's piano works.For pianists. ... Read more

Book Description
Many of Debussy's best-known pieces are assembled in this convenient, affordable collection. Includes: Children's Corner * Deux arabesques * Estampes * Hommage aHaydn * Images * L'isle joyeuse * Masques * Le petit negre * La plus que lente * Preludes, Books 1 and 2 (selections) * Reverie, Suite bergamasque (including "Clair de lune") * Suite: Pour le piano. ... Read more