Originally written for the final year clarinet examination at the Paris Conservatoire, Debussy's “Première Rhapsodie” has quickly become a bestseller of the clarinet repertoire, being a highly impressionistic work that plays marvellously with the timbral possibilities of the clarinet. Its success was so pervasive that Debussy later arranged the piano accompaniment for orchestra, and in this form the rhapsody is today to be heard all around the world. Our edition also contains as a “lollipop” the popular “Petite pièce,” an original work of under forty bars that was in fact devised as a sight-reading test.

“This edition examines all of the previous versions and attempts to provide a final, definitive edition of this revered work...The editor has carefully examined all of the sources and provides extensive notes regarding differences in dynamics, phrasing, and notation...The extensive historical notes alone make it invaluable, and the music is clearly printed on heavy stock with the sometimes problematic page turns eliminated.”--The Clarinet