What Makes Debussy's Clair de Lune SO GENIUS?

*Discover Apple Music Classical, the streaming service for classical music here apple.co/NahreSol and enjoy 1 month for free if you are a new subscriber to Apple Music! 00:00 Intro 02:07 Number 1 03:39 Number 2 04:59 Number 3 06:36 Performance/Analysis of Debussy's "Clair de Lune" 12:00 Performance of my Postlude "Echoes of Clair de Lune"

It's easy to forget, given its popularity, how special this piece is.

After a lifetime (now 78 years old) of playing the piano, working as an organist, singing with an opera company, I learn such a lot from your videos. You are a blessing.

My wife graduated college with a piano performance degree (but didn't pursue a music career), and occasionally (all too seldom) will sit down at her Steinway and play Clair de Lune. I can be upstairs in my library/workspace and as soon as I hear her I stop whatever I'm doing and listen and just enjoy the moment!! ❤❤❤❤

The older I get, the more Debussy becomes one of my very favorite composers. This was wonderful, and I loved your composition.

I've always said, if I were to pick the one piece of music to send to another world to show them what humanity is like, how we feel, this would be the song.

"Echoes of Clair de Lune" is ethereal. It made me think of if Debussy had composed his piece a hundred years later, with the jazz chords you so deftly wove into your melody. Just fantastic. Thanks for including it.

Out of all the millions of songs, of all times, of all composers, Clair de Lune is what I consider THE MOST BEAUTIFUL SONG OF ALL TIME.

That postlude was ethereal. Clair de lune has become jaded to me, having heard it (and played it) so many times, but you've helped me hear it for the first time again.

I wasn’t ready to cry today

Beautiful, intelligent, touching comments and analysis. I will never listen to an A flat in the same way again! 😃You always manage to create the perfect blend of serious and light-hearted descriptions of the music you gift us with. My favorite comment is the last one on the score: "Like making peace with where we came from"—isn't that what music is made for? Thank you

My favorite classical piece. It doesn't seem possible that a human being could have created this.

My grandpa died a couple years ago and when I was driving with my brother and now sister-in-law from the church where we held the funeral to the burial site, this piece started playing in the car. When I heard it, I knew it sounded pretty, but it was so much more than that. This piece really sparked something inside of me, so with my grandma’s help (who’s married to the grandparent that died), I learned Clair de Lune. What I came to realize is that the song is, in a way, representative of a lifetime, wherein the birth of the piece has simple, fundamental chords that lay out the trajectory for the rest of the piece. Then the piece goes through puberty and flowers into a fulfillment of its true potential with beautiful and complex chord progressions. The piece then nears its end as it grows old and reflects on life, where it combines the original chords from the beginning of the piece with some chord progressions underneath. Then, the piece goes through a little more reflection and dies. What’s interesting is that I always thought that death was a terrible, morbid thing, yet in this piece, death is presumably bright and happy. I found that the reason death is actually portrayed as such a beautiful thing in this piece is because without death we’d always have tomorrow to do what’s important, to grow our relationships, to involve ourselves in a rich and meaningful life. But someday there won’t be a tomorrow, so we need to do what’s important now. I finally found peace in the eternal rest of my grandfather, for, just as the light of the moon is the greatness that can be found in the death of the day, all of the great things I can love about not only my grandpa but all of this universe is found through the inevitable end to our lives. Thanks, Debussy, for showing me that death is just as necessary as it is beautiful. I've already commented this on some other performances of clair de lune but I figured I may as well share it here too.

That postlude is BEAUTIFUL. Incredible work

I am 78 years old, and I am not a musician. But I have always loved good music from the time I was a child and from the time I first heard this piece when I was a child I have loved it above all others. But now I love it even more because I now understand what I have been hearing and why I loved it so much and still do. Thank you so much and God bless you.

My music teacher once taught at a girl's school and they were all extremely stressed for the upcoming exams. A bunch of them came to her (she is so approachable because firstly she at the time must have been about 25 and also she is so trustworthy and understanding) and she played Clair de Lune for them, I'm not sure whether she played it herself or a recording, but that composer's voice from a hundred years ago moved every single one of them to tears.

This is actually the first time I've ever heard Claire de Lune in its entirety. What a beautiful piece!

Ever since I found one of your videos, I've been binge watching practically all of them! I played Clair de Lune when I was 15 in front of music judges from the Academy of music where I was studying in Brussels Belgium. I won the first price, Nahre you have been giving me the incentive to buy a piano and start studying again, since my wife passed away a few years ago, this was her favorite composition that i always played for her. I am not certain about doing this and because I am retired, I am afraid that this would not be possible, I was a good pianist and played several piano concertos with orchestra when I was much younger. I believe now that it is never too late to start again. By the way, you rendition of this Debussy piece is the best I ever heard. Thanks for all your advices and wonderful playing.

Of the multitude of times hearing this popular piece, I’ve NEVER heard this piece played so evocatively, as if it were the first time I was hearing it!

I've been learning and practicing Claire de Lune for the past few months and I am playing it at a recital in a couple of weeks. This really helped me understand the piece and choices the composer made. I'm also into composing, so this is great. I believe this piece is a huge stepping stone in my learning and this video couldn't have come at a better time. So thank you! I love your content :)