Au Clair de la Lune (the whole verse)

Background

"Au clair de la lune" means "by the light of the moon". It is a French folk song that was already known in the eighteenth century, and nobody knows who wrote the words or the tune. In the first verse the singer knocks on his friend Pierrot's door late at night: his candle has gone out, he has no light, and he wants to borrow a pen to write something down. In the next verse Pierrot, already in bed, refuses and sends him off to try a neighbour.

The song also has a remarkable footnote in the story of recorded sound. In April 1860 the French inventor Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville recorded someone singing part of it on his phonautograph, a machine that traced sound waves as wavy lines on soot-blackened paper but had no way of playing them back. In 2008 researchers turned those lines into sound, and the few seconds of "Au clair de la lune" are now counted among the oldest known recordings of a human voice.

Despite the similar name, Debussy's Clair de lune is an entirely different piece; its title comes from a poem by Paul Verlaine.

How to practise it

This version is the whole verse: sixteen bars for the right hand alone. Think of it as four four-bar lines, of which the first, second and last are identical, so once you know line one you have learned three-quarters of the piece.

Line one needs only three notes. Put your thumb on middle C and fingers 2 and 3 on D and E, and leave them there.

Line three is the new part. It starts with four repeated Ds, then dips below middle C to A, B and G. Instead of stretching, move the whole hand so your thumb sits on the G below middle C. Now A, B, C and D fall under fingers 2, 3, 4 and 5.

Both hand moves come straight after a whole note, so practise them as two small exercises:

1. Play the long C that ends line two, then move down and play the first two bars of line three. Repeat until you can land on D without looking.
2. Play the long G that ends line three, then move back to C position and play the first bar of line four.
3. Join all four lines at 60 beats a minute, then 70, then the full 80.

The repeated notes are where the rhythm usually slips. Keep each one exactly a beat long; let the finger stay in touch with the key and simply press it again. Hold the whole notes for all four counts. It is a night-time song, so keep it soft, smooth and unhurried.

Reading the low notes in line three is easier once you know your ledger lines: see how to read notes.