Clair de lune sheet music for piano

The Clair de lune sheet music above is the opening of Debussy's piece, eight bars and a closing chord, with the letter name under every note. Listen plays it while each key lights up; Practice waits for the next key, or the next pair of keys. The right hand plays Debussy's upper part as written, first in pairs of notes a third apart, then as a single falling line. The left hand plays his lowest notes, one at a time. The inner voices of the full score are left out, so this is the tune and its bass rather than the whole texture.

About Clair de lune

Clair de lune is the third of the four pieces in Claude Debussy's Suite bergamasque, after the Prélude and Menuet and before the Passepied. Debussy began the suite around 1890 and revised it heavily before it was published in 1905. The title comes from Paul Verlaine's poem Clair de lune; the piece was first called Promenade sentimentale, also after Verlaine. It is in D flat major and 9/8 time, marked Andante très expressif, and it begins very softly.

Find the opening notes

Everything starts on F. After a short rest the left hand holds the F above middle C, and the right hand answers with F and A flat an octave higher, then D flat and F. Play each pair together, with your thumb on the lower note, and move the whole hand from pair to pair rather than stretching. The top notes carry the tune: A flat, F, then E flat, F, E flat, then D flat.

In bar 3 the right hand plays single notes for a moment: D flat, a long F, and D flat again, in an even, slower rhythm that runs against the three eighths of each beat. Bar 4 returns to thirds, A flat with C and B flat with D flat, and holds the last pair through the bar.

The falling line

From bar 5 the right hand plays one note at a time, an eighth note to each count: C, B flat, C, B flat, up to E flat, then B flat, A flat, B flat and A flat. Each bar begins on the note the bar before it ended on, held across the bar line: A flat, then F, then E flat. The line circles A flat and G flat, then F and E flat, then E flat and D flat, and settles on C. Keep the eighth notes even and soft; the left hand plays two notes in most of these bars.

Count in three

In 9/8 time a bar has three beats, and each beat is three eighth notes long. Count "one and a, two and a, three and a", or simply nine eighths at first. A tied note keeps sounding across the bar line without being played again. The closing chord, D flat with F over a low D flat, is our own; in Debussy's score the music goes straight on into its next phrase.

Practice in small parts

Learn the right hand in two parts: the thirds of bars 1 to 4, then the single line of bars 5 to 8. Then learn the left hand alone: F, G flat, F and E flat held through bars 1 to 4, then a slow descent. Its notes in bars 1 to 4 sit above middle C, so the bass staff shows them on ledger lines above it. Join the hands with Both hands at a slow Listen speed, keep everything quiet, and let each held note last its full length.

For another slow piece with long held notes, try the Moonlight Sonata or Gymnopédie No. 1. The D flat major scale shows the five flats on the keyboard.

Printable sheet music

Here is the two-hand beginner arrangement, with the letter name under every note. Open the image to print or save it. The Print sheet music button above the keyboard lays the score out across paper pages. You can also open the melody-only sheet.