Sarabande (Pour le piano No. 2)

Claude Debussy · Level 5 (Advanced) · Impressionist · Piano

The central movement of the suite Pour le piano (1901), a slow, solemn old dance, “with grave, slow elegance”: parallel chords with modal colours, like an echo of 18th-century French music. A piece by Debussy, a leading figure of musical Impressionism. C♯ minor, 3/4, 72 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 chords must sound together and connected, with the top note singing: prepare each hand shape in advance and keep a slow dance pulse. Key signature with 4 sharps: name them aloud before playing and spot the places where accidentals cancel them. 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.

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)
• Valse romantique
• Clair de lune (Suite bergamasque)

Source : PDMX / MuseScore · CC0 1.0