Claude Debussy

Sonate pour Flute, Alto, et Harpe

Almost 100 years after the first publication of Debussy's Sonate Pour Flute, Alto, Et Harpe by Durand et Cie, this seminal work in the chamber music literature has been meticulously compared, contrasted, and corrected against Debussy's handwritten and autographed 1915 manuscript. Using photographs provided by the National Library of France, harpist Carl Swanson has documented and corrected nearly 300 discrepancies between the composer's intent and the Durand 1916 edition. The corrections made in this edition consist of musical indications being omitted, misplaced or inverted; dynamic markings that are in the manuscript but not the printed version have been added, wrong and misaligned notes have been corrected, musical indications previously omitted in individual parts have been added, and intended durations of dynamic and tempo changes have been corrected. Debussy was one of the first composers to make extensive use of musical indications and was extremely meticulous in his scores. To read a score of his with missing, misplaced or wrong directions is a significant as reading a score with missing or incorrect notes. Now, for the first time in history, Debussy's Sonate Pour Flute, Alto, Et Harpe has been printed exactly as the composer intended.