The Little Shepherd (Children’s Corner No. 5)

Claude Debussy · Level 4 (Intermediate) · Impressionist · Piano

The fifth piece of Children’s Corner (1908), a suite written for Debussy’s daughter Chouchou: a little shepherd plays his pipe, alone; three times his free, dreamy tune is interrupted by a short dance. A major, 4/4, 31 bars (about 3 minutes), complete score.

▶ Play this piece with the interactive score

How to practise it

• Listen first: the site plays it while the score scrolls.
• Wait mode: the score waits for you at every note, at your own pace.
• Tempo challenge: play in time, with a score and a map of the bars you got right.
• The pipe solo must breathe: respect the rests and fermatas without beating time. The little dance passages, by contrast, are rhythmic and light. The original grace notes are not in the playable score. One hand sometimes plays two voices: hold the long notes for their full value and let the main line sing louder than the accompaniment. Triplets and other tuplets must be perfectly even: count them aloud with the metronome. For chords, shape the hand in the air before landing, all notes together.

More pieces by Claude Debussy

• Danseuses de Delphes (Préludes, Book I, No. 1)
• Les sons et les parfums tournent dans l’air du soir (Préludes, Book I, No. 4)
• Deuxième Arabesque (L66 No.2)
• Arabesque No. 1 in E major
• Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum (Children’s Corner No. 1)
• Jimbo’s Lullaby (Children’s Corner No. 2)
• Sarabande (Pour le piano No. 2)
• Valse romantique

Source : PDMX / MuseScore · CC0 1.0