# Favorite Debussy piano piece



## violadude

Just got through a marathon of Debussy's piano pieces. Now I want to know what everyone's favorite is.

Include why it is your favorite if you can. It makes discussion more interesting.


----------



## moody

Itt's the first Debussy piece that I ever heard--La Cathedrale Engloutie.


----------



## Ravndal

I like them all, but Bergamasque, Childrens Corner and Preludes book 1 stand out for me. But I'm sure my opinion will change at least 20 times the next years.


----------



## aleazk

I really like all, but if I have to choose: Preludes Books 1&2.


----------



## EllenBurgess

Estampes Suite Bergamasque are my favorites


----------



## aleazk

_Pour Le Piano_ is also an amazing piece. The _Toccata_ is awesome. There was a great interpretation of the _Toccata_ by Samson François on youtube, but someone deleted it!. . (Fortunately I dowloaded the video before that :devil


----------



## ptr

I dig most if not all of CB's piano works, which that comes on top is usually down to the form of the day, today, I'd pluck Suite Bergamasque if my fingers where willin'! 

/ptr


----------



## maestro57

My favourite is Preludes Livre 1, and specifically "La fille aux cheveux de lin," L. 117/8.


----------



## joen_cph

I like them all a lot, though I have a special fondness for the _Estampes_ and the _Preludes_.

If the _Etudes_ had been given less objective and more illustrative titles, they could probably over time have gained almost as much popularity among the listening public as the _Preludes_ ...


----------



## tdc

Most of his piano music stands out as quite good to me, but _Suite Bergamasque_ I think is his very best. I am not going on what I think is likely his most challenging or innovative work here, just what moves me the most musically. I find this work magical and in my mind it is one of the greatest suites for piano in the repertoire.


----------



## Lisztian

Images. Especially book 2. I also really like the Preludes and a few others. Some of his other works, like the Children's Corner and Suite Bergamasque, I find pretty but also somewhat boring at this point.


----------



## Schubussy

Suite Bergamasque but I chose Children's Corner too, because it's Children's Corner and deserves my vote.


----------



## Skilmarilion

Debussy's piano music is wonderful. My top 3 would be Preludes Book 1, Suite Bergamasque and Deux Arabesques - I voted for the latter since I figured it deserved a vote.


----------



## Mahlerian

I love all of Debussy's solo piano music, but the Preludes Book 2, Etudes Book 2 (the last one is proto-Messiaen!), and Images Book 1 stand out in particular as consistently inventive and excellent.


----------



## Novelette

Preludes Book 2 and Deux Arabesques--in 2008, I was in Vienna in December, a particular concert that I attended at the Musikverein featured Schubert's B Flat Sonata and Debussy's 2nd Book of Preludes. The concert was absolutely thrilling and the associations--and the music itself, of course--remain every bit as compelling.


----------



## hreichgott

The Preludes (both books) because they're beautiful, evocative of images and emotions, some of the most effective pieces in the piano repertoire at using all the colors of the instrument, and also quite varied experiments with rhythm and tonality for their time.


----------



## Turangalîla

Well, it looks like I'm the first one to vote for L'isle joyeuse, which really is an excellent piece. The other piano works from Debussy that I like are the Etudes (beautiful), and of course the Preludes. But this is coming from someone whose taste never really agreed with Debussy for some reason.


----------



## Turangalîla

^ I take that back. Children's Corner is very charming, and I have fond memories of playing Jimbo's Lullaby and Golliwogg's Cake-walk when I was younger.


----------



## Ravndal

Childrens Corner got an incredible atmosphere. Jimbos Lullaby, Serenade for the doll and Golliwogg's cake-walk is my favorites.


----------



## DrKilroy

I chose Preludes and Etudes.

Best regards, Dr


----------



## LiquidCosmic

Debussy is one of my absolute favorite piano composers. His piano works are some of the rare ones that never, ever get old for me, and it's really difficult to pick a favorite. Gun to my head, I'd have to say Preludes I, but it is all SO GOOD.


----------



## hreichgott

^ Same problem. (I also love L'isle joyeuse and lots of the other stuff on the list too.)


----------



## PetrB

I never cared for the early arabesques, or that reverie, may have liked Girl with the Flaxen Hair for one time when I first heard it in childhood, but don't care for that now either. Cathedrale Engloutie has been exposed to death.

BUT, the majority of this literature is so outstanding I cannot choose but a big bunch of it....

I am still mesmerized by the prelude, Book I, No. 6, Des pas sur la neige, because it is made of nearly nothing, has a maximum expressive strength while using the minimum of materials, and includes a very Satie-like non musical directive -- perhaps the only like it in all of Debussy -- "like an old (or remembered?) regret."

If anything is "music for other musicians," Des pas sur la neige has got to be one of those. I believe there is none other quite similar from Debussy.

The piece is masterly, and displays the most quiet kind of virtuosity in its writing.


----------



## Pianoxtreme

CarterJohnsonPiano said:


> Well, it looks like I'm the first one to vote for L'isle joyeuse, which really is an excellent piece. The other piano works from Debussy that I like are the Etudes (beautiful), and of course the Preludes. But this is coming from someone whose taste never really agreed with Debussy for some reason.


Thank you! I knew I wasn't the only one! Definitely my favorite Debussy piece. It's a gorgeous, forward-looking work with lots of whole-tone scale and chord progressions.


----------



## hreichgott

PetrB said:


> Des pas sur la neige


I adore this piece too! I am preparing it for performance in the fall. 
The rhythm of the "footsteps" makes me think of walking alone expecting someone else to be there, who isn't there any longer. There is the footstep you can hear, then an equal amount of time for the footstep that's absent, then one heard, then one absent. Debussy was genius not to cover up that experience with too many notes.


----------



## PetrB

hreichgott said:


> I adore this piece too! I am preparing it for performance in the fall.
> The rhythm of the "footsteps" makes me think of walking alone expecting someone else to be there, who isn't there any longer. There is the footstep you can hear, then an equal amount of time for the footstep that's absent, then one heard, then one absent. Debussy was genius not to cover up that experience with too many notes.


It is one of many deeply abstract pieces from this composer, and I think one of the most elegantly spare from his entire output... all the more amazing for where it goes, how it does it, and its haunting effect upon almost any listener.

Break a leg!


----------



## PetrB

I'd like to put in a word for the brilliantly quirky and dark Masques....


----------



## Ravndal

PetrB said:


> I'd like to put in a word for the brilliantly quirky and dark Masques....


Interesting piece!! working on it atm. I love it.


----------



## PetrB

Ravndal said:


> Interesting piece!! working on it atm. I love it.


_*Formidable!*_


----------



## Weston

Suite Bergamasque is featured prominently on the Isao Tomita synthesizer Debussy album, and so I became fond of it as among the earliest Debussy works I became aware of. But it was Images 1 and 2 I heard on the radio that opened my ears to colorful possibilities of solo piano for the first time.


----------



## Nariette

I actually really enjoy reverie. It's difficult to find an interpretation that suits your likings though, it was played one way and recorded by someone, and everyone just copied that version. It's way too fast in that one. I did like Kathryn Scott's interpretation, and Xavier de maistre played it wonderfully on the harp. I also really like la valse romantique. It's just a shame that Debussy's pieces go from the difficulty of le petit negre, to a much higher difficulty like la valse romantique. I love Debussy, but I am not able to play a lot of his pices, but I hope to do so in the future.


----------



## Novelette

PetrB said:


> I never cared for the early arabesques, or that reverie, may have liked Girl with the Flaxen Hair for one time when I first heard it in childhood, but don't care for that now either. *Cathedrale Engloutie has been exposed to death.*


I could not agree more. If I have to endure another concert in which the _Cathedrale_ is performed, usually as an encore...


----------



## Rehydration

I like the Two Arabesques, because they're so bouncy and happy and fun to play.


----------



## kv466

The Engulfed Cathedral, Passepied, Reverie, Gardens In The Rain, The Girl With The Flaxen Hair


----------



## MrCello

The Preludes and Les Images!


----------



## atmplayspiano

My first Debussy piece was "La Puerta del Vino." I fell in love with that piece.


----------



## omega

_La Cathédrale Engloutie_ (from the 1st book of the _Préludes_), _Suite Bergamasque_ and then _En Blanc et Noir_ for two pianos (this is maybe why it was not mentionned in the choices...)


----------



## sankalp

*MIne*

Preludes Book 1


----------



## regressivetransphobe

Because it challenged my ideas of the piano's limitations in terms of painting an image.


----------



## Alypius

I love all of Debussy's piano music. All of it. My two favorite works weren't on the list: "Ballade (Slave)" and "Reverie". Of the complete sets, I enjoy Jean-Efflam Bavouzet's the best, though Paul Jacobs' account of the two books of the _Preludes_ is my favorite there. Often I listen to the Bavouzet set straight through volume by volume, but when walking, I listen to following playlist on my iPod:

1. 2 Arabesques: No. 1 in E major (4:04) (Bavouzet, _Debussy: Complete Works ... vol. 3_)
2. Suite bergamasque: III. Clair de lune (4:50)	(Bavouzet, _Debussy ... vol. 3_)
3. Reverie (4:23) (Bavouzet, _Debussy ... vol. 3_)
4. Ballade (Ballade slave) (Bavouzet, _Debussy ... vol. 2_)
5. Preludes Bk. I, #4: "Les son et les parfums" (3:02)	(Bavouzet, _Debussy ... vol. 1_)
6. Preludes Bk. I, #8: "La fille aux chevaux de lin" (2:26) (Bavouzet, _Debussy: ... vol. 1_)
7. Preludes Bk. I, #10: "La cathedral engloutie" (6:09) (Bavouzet, _Debussy: ... vol. 1_)
8. Images I - Hommage à Rameau (6:09) (Bavouzet, _Debussy: ... vol. 4_)
9. Images I - Mouvement (3:17) (Bavouzet, _Debussy: ... vol. 4_)
10. Preludes Bk. II, #2: "Feuilles mortes" (3:18)	(Bavouzet, _Debussy: ... vol. 1_)
11. Preludes Bk. II, #10: "Canope" (3:00) (Bavouzet, _Debussy: ... vol. 1_)
12. Images (Oubliees): 2. Dans le mouvement (4:14)	(Bavouzet, _Debussy: ... vol. 2_)
13. Estampes - La soiree dans Grenade (4:53)	(Bavouzet, _Debussy: ... vol. 2_)
14. Pour le piano: II. Sarabande (4:12) (Bavouzet, _Debussy: ... vol. 2_)
15. Pour le piano: III. Toccata (3:39) (Bavouzet, _Debussy: ... vol. 2_)
16. Preludes Bk. I, #2: "Voiles" (3:38) (Bavouzet, _Debussy: ... vol. 1_)
17. Children's Corner: IV. Snow is Dancing (2:30)	(Bavouzet, _Debussy: ... vol. 3_)


----------



## hpowders

L'isle joyeuse, especially as performed by Sviatoslav Richter.


----------



## Matsps

Reverie - It's so dreamy and peaceful.


----------



## helpmeplslol

Some of the ones that I love and that haven't been specifically mentioned yet are…

Preludes - Bruyères & La Danse de Puck
Etudes - No. 11 & 8
Images - Reflets dans l'eau & Et la lune descend sur le temple qui fut
Estampes - Pagodes
Images Oubliées - No.1
*La Plus Que Lente* - I guess it's lesser known but according to me it has melancholy, fantasy, and humour. Check out Samson François' rendition.

Clair de Lune from "Suite Bergamesque" is special to me, because it never gets old (but then, I haven't watched Twilight). Some pieces that I have enjoyed but then kind of wore out are La Cathédrale Engloutie and Des Pas sur La Neige (both too sparse).


----------



## LudwigKaramazov

2 Arabesques: No. 1 in E Major has such an expressive, beautiful sound and really has that "Debussy" feel.


----------



## starthrower

I don't know if I could pick a favorite? Debussy is in my top 3 of piano composers.


----------



## Antiquarian

Deux Arabesques does it for me, but I enjoy all his piano works. How can you not like a piece entitled 'Golliwogg's cake-walk'.


----------



## Janspe

Definitely the twelve études - I love them so much! The preludes are great too, but my heart goes to the exciting musical language of the admittedly finger-breaking studies. I really like Uchida's recording of the set.


----------

