Expert: David Froom - 8/17/2008

Question
Hi! I was wondering if you could please help identify this song? I know its
probably a special arrangement of a classical piano song that RL paid
someone to put together but do you know what the original song name is?
Thank you for any help you can provide. Here is the link:
http://www.ralphlaurenhome.com/rlhome/collection/fa08_bedfordmanor.asp
-Karen  Ann

Answer
Hi Karen Ann,

That's an easy one.  It is just a straightforward performance of the beginning of a piece by Claude Debussy (you can hear the fade out -- they got about 1/3 of the way through the piece).

The piece is called "Clair de Lune." That's French for "light of the moon."  It is from a larger collection of short piano pieces called “Suite bergamasque.”

It would be easy to find a lot of recordings of this -- Amazon, iTunes, even your local public library.  You should listen carefully, though, because interpretations can vary widely.  You could quickly sample from iTunes and pick your favorite approach.

Happy listening,

David Froom