The Debussy Violin Sonata, An Exciting and Newly-Published Urtext Edition and Barenreiter

This new edition from Barenreiter is indeed a unique and rare gem. Debussy did not make it easy for his publisher, since he himself admitted that he did not actually like the combination of violin and piano! Nevertheless, Debussy created a number of different drafts of a violin sonata, many of which remained largely unfinished due to his worsening illness. The only previously published version contained errors and discrepancies between the violin part and the score, and created such ambiguity that performing it was too difficult for most violinists. This new scholarly edition, by Barenreiter's orchestral and chamber music editor, Douglas Woodfull-Harris, has admirably resolved the errors, taking into account innumerable documents and correspondence from Debussy and his peers, and studying his many manuscripts. Combining this with expert research into performance practices of the day, Woodfull-Harris has created this long-anticipated Urtext edition of Debussy's violin and piano sonata, establishing the definitive edition of this work. The title combines all of Debussy's compositions for violin and piano into one volume.