Piano Études

Early in 1915 Debussy agreed to revise Chopin’s Études for the publisher Jacques Durand, who wished to replace the German editions. His encounter with this music (“some of the most beautiful ever written”) possibly led to his own Études, his last works for piano solo, composed between 23 July and 29 September 1915. Intended as a tribute to Frédéric Chopin, these pieces deal with the most varied technical and musical problems. But while Debussy by no means neglected fingering, he was more concerned with sonorities (as no. 10, the Study in Opposed Sonorities, shows): “Apart from the question of technique, these Études will be a useful warning to pianists not to take up the musical profession unless they have remarkable hands,” he wrote to Durand. Indeed, he explored the sonic potential of an interval or a motif (no. 9, Study in Repeated Notes, no. 12, For Chords). This compositional “game” is evident from the very beginning of the collection, when whimsical incursions disturb the sober writing of the 5-Finger Exercise, “after Monsieur Czerny” (no. 1). The use of semitones (in no. 7, Study in Chromatic Steps), thirds (no. 2), fourths (no. 3), sixths (no. 4) or octaves (no. 5) leads to singular harmonic results, while the Study for Eight Fingers (no. 6) takes up the challenge of an almost monodic texture, with a sobriety and concentration that are typical of Debussy’s mature style. Book II also proposes work on ornamentation (a Study in Ornaments, no. 8, and For Composite Arpeggios, no. 11). Did Debussy also consider the word “étude” in the sense familiar to painters, of “sketch”? Not that his pieces are not perfectly finished, but the discourse gives a feeling of improvisation that is taken here to its highest degree of accomplishment.