Clair de Lune (with piano fingering as needed) by Claude Debussy Piano Solo - Digital Sheet Music

SKU: A0.553098

Possibly the most beautiful piece of music ever.

This edition presents Debussy's masterpiece with as close to 100% clarity as possible:  no arrangement, no simplification, no abridgement, only solutions to the challenges of how to play this amazing masterpiece.  

In my experience, I would guess that Clair de lune has been the final, unfulfilled and unattained goal of piano students more than any other piece in music history.

If you recognize the truth in this statement, you owe it to yourself to investigate this edition, in which for the first time, all of the technical challenges are clearly identified with their solutions.  

Playing a piece of music is not the same as mastering it.  
Surviving a performance is not the same as playing with confidence.  
There is no joy in being vulnerable to embarrassing mistakes.  It is no way to live.  
You deserve a set of instructions (this edition) that enables you to master your performance, play with confidence and beauty, not an edition which blocks your access.

Clair de Lune is so familiar that it is hard to appreciate just how revolutionary it (and Debussy) are.  The word revolutionary is overused, so we fail to realize that Clair de Lune is difficult to play largely because it was difficult to notate.  If the faculty of the Paris Conservatory didn't understand or appreciate Debussy, why would we expect the staff of a publishing company (as competent as they were) to understand the demands of his music.  Debussy broke the boundaries of conventional piano notation.  That means contradictions and ambiguity, which must be addressed.

A note about fingering:  where and why it is or is not presented.  I've done my best to prepare an edition of this music that will enable the Intermediate Classical pianist to prepare and perform this masterpiece.  My goal is to include information that the pianist needs, but does not already know.  For Claire de Lune, some passages are dependent upon specific hand/fingering solutions, while other passages are either (1) equally playable with different fingering, or (2) only playable by what essentially becomes known as a "self-evident" solution.  For example, m9-24, and m61-62, fall into this category.  Octaves can only practically be played with fingers 1 and 5.  I provide a lot of finger numbers, but that is not the same as  creating an edition that can be played without significant staff reading.  The premise is that an intermediate musician should have access to advanced material--that is a musician is motivated to play pieces "one level more advanced".  Attempting to bridge more than "one level" is not my goal.