Around 1900 Debussy composed 12 short pieces for two flutes, two harps and celesta as incidental music for the Chansons de Bilitis (recitation of ancient Greek poems by the courtesan Bilitis) by Pierre Louÿs. Although it was performed, the work was not published during Debussy’s lifetime. The composer highly valued the work and returned to it in 1914, choosing six of the old pieces and reworking them into an important new cycle for piano four hands (HN 408). At the same time he also completed a version for piano solo (HN 402). Debussy succeeded to transform the delicate incidental music into a colourful, sonorous piano setting in both versions.
G. Henle Publishers stands for Urtext sheet music of the highest quality. The Urtext editions not only provide the undistorted and authoritative musical text but are also aesthetically pleasing, optimised for practical use and extremely durable. And then there is the strong, distinctive blue profile: (almost) all of the Urtext editions are bound in the characteristic blue cardboard.
Musicians trust Henle's blue Urtext editions because they:
- provide an undistorted, reliable and authoritative musical text
- offer superb, aesthetically appealing music engraving
- are optimised for practical use (page turns, fingerings)
- are of high quality and durable (cover, paper, binding)
- contain a short preface that introduces the work (particularly useful for AMEB exams) in German, English and French, as well as explanatory footnotes for particularly interesting passages in the score
- contain a description of the sources, an evaluation of the sources, readings and a documentation of the corrections made (= "Critical Report") in German and English, and often also in French
