Description
The second of the two Arabesques, completed in 1891, three years after the first — and opposite to it in character. Where the first spreads in wave-like broken chords, this one is a piece of short, springing figures following one another, light in gesture. Played in sequence they show the young Debussy writing two contrary things under one title.
In G major and common time, light staccato figures alternate with passages of singing legato, so the touch has to be switched again and again. The harmony is clear, and the eastern scales then in fashion surface here and there. Some 1,800 notes fill just under four minutes.
It is rated intermediate because the technical obstacles are limited. The task is the switching of touch. If the wrist stays locked where legato follows staccato, the singing passages will not connect. Cut the short notes shallowly and lightly; keep the fingers on the keys through the long ones. Learning to move back and forth between the two within one piece is exactly what this arabesque is for.
Works titled "Arabesque," including Debussy's two impressionist pieces and a work by Schumann, all defined by graceful, flowing melodic lines.
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Sheet music provided by Mutopia Project
About the Composer
Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
Claude Debussy was a leading figure of French musical Impressionism, whose distinctive harmonic language, drawing on whole-tone scales and church modes, along with pictorial, poetic musical imagery, had a profound influence on twentieth-century music. His piano works, including the Arabesques, the Preludes, and "Clair de Lune," remain beloved favorites. This site includes his First and Second Arabesques, a piece from Book 1 of the Preludes, and "Clair de Lune."
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