Rêverie

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

An early piece (around 1890), published in 1905 against Debussy’s wishes – he called it “bad” – yet it became one of his most played works. A long melody floats over even arpeggios, grows more animated in the middle, then returns, calmer. F major, 4/4, 101 bars (about 4 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 accompanying eighths must stay an even murmur under the melody: practise them alone, very legato, changing the pedal with each harmony. Bar 75 is in 3/4 in the score (a short bar). 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