Flowing triplets that curl like ornament on old ironwork, with a slower, dreamier middle.
The story
Debussy wrote the two Arabesques in his twenties, around 1890. An arabesque is a curling line of ornament, and the music curls the same way.
It is one of his earliest piano pieces still played everywhere, written before the more radical style of Clair de lune and the Preludes.
Two things to know
- The right hand plays triplets against the left hand’s pairs of notes.
- The middle section changes key and slows down.
How to play it
Keep the triplets light and smooth, like water; the long melody notes on top should ring through them.