Four Impressions on Debussy (4 Piano Preludes arranged for Full Orchestra) – Score and Parts

Description

From Debussy’s Préludes, Book I:

I: The Wind Over The Plains
II: The Girl With The Flaxen Hair
III: Puck’s Dance
IV: The Sunken Cathedral

Debussy’s piano music is filled with colour, texture, vibrancy, sonority. To play it is to be taken inside a sound world greater than the instrument itself. In other words, it seems to demand orchestration. Whether the fanfare call of Puck’s Dance, the sotto voce flurries evoking The Wind Over The Plains, or the deepest and highest reaches of the musical spectrum explored in the under-water world of The Sunken Cathedral, Debussy’s music seems to drop hints at obvious orchestral manoeuvres. His great skill, of course, was condensing these musical ideas to the piano. But the fruit is there fo the taking, and indeed other orchestrations exist of the complete suite of piano preludes – Books I and II. So, why another?

This particular suite cherry-picks some of my own favourite movements from the suite, and arranges them in a ‘symphonic’ structure to present an opening, expository movement (The Wind Over The Plains), a romantic Adagio (The Girl With The Flaxen Hair), a sprightly ‘scherzo’ (Puck’s Dance), concluding with an epic finale (The Sunken Cathedral). This condensed suite may make the music more approachable for some orchestras, and offers something shorter to concert programmes wishing to feature other major works alongside, instead of performing all 24 preludes.

I hope you enjoy performing this suite as much as I enjoyed arranging it.

Instrumentation:

• Piccolo
• 2 Flutes
• 2 Oboes
• Cor Anglais
• 2 Clarinets in B♭
• Bass Clarinet in B♭
• 2 Bassoons
• Contrabassoon
• 4 Horns in F
• 3 Trumpets in B♭
• 2 Trombones
• Bass Trombone
• Tuba
• Timpani
• Percussion (3/4 players):
  • Triangle, Crash Cymbals, Suspended Cymbal, Bass Drum, Tam-Tam, Glockenspiel, Tubular Bells
• Celesta
• Harp
• Violin 1 (divisi à 4)
• Violin 2 (divisi à 4)
• Viola (divisi à 4)
• Violoncello (divisi à 4)
• Contrabass (B extension where possible) (divisi à 4)