Claude Debussy: Douze Etudes

12 Etudes (Piano Solo). By Claude Debussy (1862-1918). Edited by Ernst-Gunter Heinemann. For piano solo. Piano (Harpsichord), 2-hands. Henle Music Folios. Pages: XVII and 75. SMP Level 10 (Advanced). Softcover. 90 pages. G. Henle Verlag #HN390. Published by G. Henle Verlag (HL.51480390). Urtext Edition, paperbound.

Debussy composed this cycle, and other masterful late works, in the summer of 1915. He had withdrawn to a country house near Dieppe with his family and composed with fevered concentration. The self-critical composer was very proud of his Études: “I confess that I am pleased to have created a work which – false vanity aside – will occupy a special niche. In point of technique these Études will usefully prepare pianists for a better understanding of the fact that the portals of music can only be opened with formidable hands.” Debussy’s Études are today a milestone along the path of those desirous of becoming concert pianists.