What is the hardest part of Clair de Lune?

Both the beginning and the ending sound deceptively simple. The middle section gets progressively more and more difficult and it can be awkward to control properly. It might take a very long time before we're able to play this end to end without making any mistakes.

tommyspianocorner.com - Learning Debussy's Clair de Lune - Tommy's Piano Corner

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Clair de Lune is one of those iconic pieces that many of us decide to learn on piano before we’re really ready. Both the beginning and the ending sound deceptively simple. The middle section gets progressively more and more difficult and it can be awkward to control properly. It might take a very long time before we’re able to play this end to end without making any mistakes. However, that doesn’t mean that we can’t play it beautifully by ensuring the simpler sections are as good as they can be.

Is the middle really fast?

This is a fairly slow piece of music that gets somewhat faster in the middle. So, before we dive into the main part – let’s just spend a couple of moments to consider ‘how fast’ (or indeed how slowly) we should play this. You might be surprised to learn that great pianists take each section of this in very different ways. I did the exercise I described in my post about choosing tempo and here are the results I got. As you can see, there are fairly big variances across each section. Richter on the whole plays this slower than most – even for the ‘en animant’ part in the middle he is around 25% slower than Helene Grimaud and Seong-Jin Cho (and myself). I’d recommend if you are worried about how fast to play these sections, once you have learned the notes record and time each section. You can then make adjustments more easily by comparing to your favourite interpretations. Also remember, as you can see from Richter, you don’t need to play it as fast as you might think !

A difficult key signature?

The piece is written in D-flat major. It’s one of those key signatures that might initially put people off. However, once you’ve got the flats into your head, it actually fits the fingers extremely well on the whole. I find that little excursion into C-sharp minor in the middle less comfortable, but otherwise, it’s nice and ergonomic.

Una corda – not all ‘soft’ pedals are created equal!

Perhaps the first decision to make is about the ‘una corda’ marking. Una corda I don’t believe is to be used to control the volume here. Pianissimo is more than manageable without this pedal.

Una corda on a grand

If you have the luxury of playing on a grand piano, then the left pedal will add a beautiful colour to the piece. If you’re not familiar with how this pedal works on a grand piano, it moves the entire keyboard and action over to the right so that the hammers hit the strings off centre. At the very top end where each note has 3 strings, the hammers actually hit one less string. This is why it is called the una (one) corda (string) pedal.

Soft pedal on an upright

On an upright, this pedal simply pushes the hammer closer to the strings which will make the instrument less loud (hence it is often nicknamed the ‘soft pedal’). Therefore, on an upright, I would practice and perform without this pedal to ensure you can control the volume exquisitely without relying on the ‘soft pedal’ to help. Then, when you have the occasion to play on a grand, use una corda to add in the beautiful sound difference it makes.

Left hand pedal on a digital

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On a digital, the sound will likely be modelled using actual una corda samples. You will likely get an effect closer to a grand piano’s una corda pedal. However, I’d personally be inclined to practice predominantly without using that pedal on a digital and then maybe use it in performance if you like the effect it gives.

Focus on the first section

Next, despite the apparent simplicity of the first section, in many enthusiastic amateur recordings it’s often not played very well. I suspect this is because people have spent most of their time working on the ‘difficult’ parts without devoting the time necessary to this section. First, it’s written pianissimo … which is not easy to do in a controlled manner. Secondly, there are lots of chords here which absolutely must sound perfectly together. Finally, it needs to be very carefully voiced. There is a definite melody and it’s easy to for it to get lost at the pianissimo dynamic if you miss voicing one of the notes. Of course, in reality you are probably going to voice the melody closer to piano or mezzo piano rather than pianissimo. Nonetheless, the remaining notes still need to be kept nice and soft so that the overall pianissimo dynamic is maintained. I’d recommend when you practice this particular section, make a habit of recording yourself very often once you have the notes learned and listen carefully to your voicing. To this day, I still find that I will miss voicing some notes properly when I’m not concentrating hard enough. As an aside, I highly recommend you think about getting yourself a microphone to record. Smartphone Plug and play ones are available (as I’ve posted about before) that enable you to hear every detail of your playing that the built in microphone captures much less well.

Beautiful section section

Debussy maintains the pianissimo dynamic here – initially at least. Now the voicing is even more important as well as maintaining that lightness. However, I made an interesting discovery about this entire section. The right hand is playing octave chords of course – so voicing the top note is important. Now look carefully at the left hand. What you’ll notice is that the bottom note of the left hand is the same one as the octave notes in the right hand all the way through until the broken chords at the end. With this in mind, it seems attractive to me to voice also that bottom left hand note such that you have the ‘melody line’ duplicated two octaves apart I find that when I manage to pull it off, it adds a beautiful depth to this section.

Tricky middle section

Now for the most complex part. I always think of this middle part as being three distinct sections …The first in D-flat major, the next in E-major and then the ‘calmato’ section which returns to five flats. It starts with ‘un poco mosso’ – a little (more) movement, then ‘en animant’ – which I’m interpreting as ‘more animated’ and then ‘calmato’ – so calmly. Within these 3 sections, there are three different left hand figures that for me took some detailed work.

D-flat major

First, the D-flat major arpeggiated figure in Bar 29. Choosing a good fingering for your hand is important here, as well as deciding early on how you are going to move. Given this is is basically held in the pedal, I don’t try to get a legato movement – rather I shift my hand as required. To practice it, I used various rhythms – just left hand practice.

F-sharp minor

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A-flat major

Finally is the A Flat Major figure in bars 45 and 46. This is another one where ensuring you have chosen your fingering well is important so your hand is able to naturally just move up and down the keyboard. It reminded me a little of a crab walking sideways up and down. Also, something that needs particular attention is the way the accompaniment passes from one hand to the other. This happens frequently in this section. It can be difficult to achieve smoothly so I recommend lots of rhythmic practice here. Also, if you find one part specifically awkward (so for me the C-sharp minor chords) consider splitting it down even further. I found it helpful to practice getting the thumbs to coincide properly whilst omitting the remainder of the right hand.

Don’t miss the tenor

Watch out for Debussy’s beautiful curved balls also here. In a couple of areas he adds a distinct ‘tenor’ part to compliment the melody. Getting this part to sing is important – it really elevates the music to a new level. Whilst these are no way as difficult as some Bach counterpoint, they do require detailed work and again, make sure you record these sections frequently to check you are voicing as you believe.

And finally …

Then we have the final section. Basically a reprise of the original theme, at first an octave higher. This is marked as a ‘triple piano’ – so even quieter than the opening. It needs to be very delicately played – however, note the tenuto markings in left hand bass notes. These evoke to me gentle bells chiming so don’t be afraid to bring them out. The C-flat in bar 59 is also important. This is a harmonic change from the opening and Debussy marks it with an accent. Remember to make it sing above the other notes. From bar 66, we’re now winding down to the end. The arpeggios need to remain even as they pass from hand to hand. We mentioned this earlier where it occurs in the middle section, however, here, any unevenness is immediately apparent as there’s no melody to distract the ear as there is elsewhere. Putting in some detailed work here will pay dividends. All that then remains is to see how quiet you can make the final broken chords without missing a single note and you’re home and dry.

Quotes from the masters …

I hope you’ll find these suggestions helpful as you work through this piece. Dare I say, I believe that if you can bring out some of the inner beauty in this piece, the odd wrong note in the more complex sections can be forgiven.

Here are a couple of quotes from the masters:

Watch my YouTube video to see the exercises and ideas demonstrated.

tommyspianocorner.com - Learning Debussy's Clair de Lune - Tommy's Piano Corner

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