Etudes - Book I (excerpts)
French
As much studies in composition as in keyboard technique, the Etudes arose out of a final burst of creative energy at the end of Debussy’s life which also produced the three caprices “En blanc et noir” for two pianos, the Cello Sonata, and the Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp. Only the Violin Sonata, written in the early months of 1917, was still to come.
The collection begins, as all serious sets of studies should, in C major. “Pour les cinq doigts,” exaggeratedly adopts the manner of a five-finger exercise “in the style of Monsieur Czerny,” the 19th-century master of piano pedagogy. The pianist is duly instructed to play it sagement (in a well-behaved manner). But a “foreign” note almost immediately intrudes, with both obstinacy and obvious satirical intent; and the piece is soon transformed into a gigue of somewhat nervous disposition. The title of the sixth piece of the set, “Pour les huit doigts,” is explained in a footnote by the composer: “In this study the changing position of the hands makes the use of the thumbs awkward; its performance would thereby become acrobatic.” The two hands, indeed, alternate on the black and white keys with fascinating rapidity.