Debussy, C :: Two Debussy Pieces

Musicians Publications presents Two Debussy Pieces including two of the composer s most famous works, Des Pas Sur La Neige and Rondel arranged for woodwind quintet by Bill Holcombe Jr. These two short arrangements scored for flute, oboe, clarinet, French horn, and bassoon are advanced in difficulty.

Debussy indicated in the score that the rhythm of the weary, step-wise repeated figure that shuffles incessantly through Des pas sur la neige ( Footsteps in the Snow ) should have the sonorous value of a melancholy, ice-bound landscape. With a few deft strokes the recurring ostinato motto, some resonant, widely spaced chords in the left hand, the halting fragments of a nearly forgotten melody in the right Debussy captured a vast, grey, frozen scene, perhaps the pianistic equivalent of the rejected lover s desolate wandering in Schubert s Winterreise ( Winter Journey ). Those solitary footsteps marked out in the bleak snowscape of Des pas sur la neige , asked Edward Lockspeiser in his study of the composer, where do they lead? - Dr. Richard E. Rodda