Please read the essay by Cosmo Buono on Debussy’s “Clair de lune” first.  

Although he did not like the term applied to him, Debussy is still very much considered an  Impressionist composer, and when it comes to painting, Impressionism is all about capturing  the effect of light on its subjects whether they are flowers, water, trees, or people. 

When it comes to music, Impressionism and Debussy however, I needed to better understand  how to capture this effect of light but with sound, so I had to do a lot of thinking. 

Here’s what I did. I imagined how I would explain moonlight to someone who could not see. It  would mean I would have to rely on all of the other senses to be able to able to describe it.  Touch, taste, and smell would have to partner with hearing in order to give the blind person a  sense of what moonlight must be like. 

There is a wonderful scene from a movie called The Miracle Worker in which Patty Duke portrays  a young Helen Keller, who was born deaf, dumb, and blind. Her teacher, Anne Sullivan,  portrayed by Anne Bancroft in the movie, has been working very hard for that point when Helen  will understand the sign language for water, which Anne Sullivan keeps spelling into Helen’s  hand, to make sense. 

Now, please click on this link: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTsRVYq9JOQ 

This is the scene. Anne is trying to make Helen understand what water is, and she finally  succeeds. How does she do it? She does not make her taste it or smell it. She cannot make her see it. She can only make her feel it. Anne pumps water into Helen’s hand, and then uses  sign language to make Helen connect the feel of water to the word for it. One thing leads to  another, and suddenly Helen wants to know words for things like the earth, the bell, mother,  father, and finally teacher. 

Here is The Lightbulb Moment. Getting an audience to understand what Debussy is  communicating about moonlight is not because they can see it at the piano, but because they can feel it. Every note, every chord is designed to make the listener feel the soft glow of the  moon, the way it filters through the trees, and the way it falls on the earth, not illuminating objects  the way the sun would, but rather softening them and rounding out their rough edges, almost  as if the light was there to smooth, to calm, and to heal. 

When one plays this piece, as is the case with all piano literature, it is not just about getting the  notes right. Instead it is, as a pianist, understanding what is needed to share with the audience  as many of the feelings the music evokes in you as possible. For me that is a larger and even  more important challenge than playing without mistakes, because all the communication has to  come without words; and in the case of Clair de lune must be communicated with notes  composed to represent peace, tranquility, calmness, serenity, and finally, light. 

All of us as artists have to learn to play not just the notes on the page, but also the feelings they  create in us, and how best to share those feelings. That is what makes for inspired  performances and satisfied, fulfilled audiences. When Anne Sullivan signs the word “water” into  Helen’s hand, she is not just doing it with her hand, she is doing it with her heart, anxious for a  breakthrough. She is hoping to open a door to an entire world using touch, one of the few  options available to her as Helen’s teacher, in order to communicate. 

When you play, don’t think of your hands just playing notes. Think of them as opening up an  entirely new world for your listeners. Then, and most important, think about what a privilege it is  to have such a great power at your disposal. 

Think about how your thoughts, study, and practice put that same power, quite literally, at your  fingertips.