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I play a lot of popular music and some classical, mainly Bach.

I enjoy listening to Clair du Lune and Reflects dan L'eu, but I have always thought those pieces of music are too difficult for me. Can anyone recommend some impressionistic Debussy works suitable for beginner/intermediate players?

Debussy didn't compose any easy pieces.

Probably the easiest technically is La fille aux chevaux de lin.

Then there's Des pas sur la neige, Bruyères, Danseuses des Delphes, Le petit nègre and Jimbo's Lullaby.

Actually, La Fille is not that easy. There are some easier but no beginner pieces. You might check the piano syllabus website and look up the lowest grade level.

La Petit Negre
Page D'Album L133
La Soiree Dans Grenade
The Little Shephard
Album Leaf

La Sioree is actually quite advanced, harder than La Fille.

Debussy did not create any easy pieces, that's for sure. Perhaps try Satie Gymnopedie No. 1. Not "easy" by any means, but a good introduction to Impressionism.

The Little Shepherd is probably the easiest of the "Impressionist" pieces by Debussy. American composer Jennifer Linn wrote two books of easier impressionistic pieces for students, mainly to fill the gap between intermediate repertoire and the easiest of the Debussy works.

The suggestion for Satie is a great one. If you can locate Gymnopedie No. 5--that's a wonderful piece of music, and not all that difficult. Gnossienne No. 1 is also quite intriguing, as well as some of the Cold Pieces.

I've been working on Satie Gymnopedie 1. Definitely nowhere near as challenging as La Fille. Sounds beautiful though.

No one has mentioned ‘Reverie’ by Debussy. Have a look at this free download

https://musopen.org/music/4505-reverie/

As previously said, there is no easy Debussy pieces.

The exams I'm taking put Debussy's pieces in those levels (if that can be of any help) :

Nothing below level 6.

Level 6 :
The little niggar

Level 7 :
The little shepherd

Level 8 :
Golliwogg's cake walk

Level 9 :
Rêverie
Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum
Berceuse des éléphants
Sérénade à la poupée
La neige danse
La fille aux cheveux de lin
Deux arabesques, no 2
Mazurka
Canope

Level 10 :
Deux arabesque, no 1
Danseuses de Delphes
Des pas sur la neige
General Lavine - eccentric

Level 11 (last) :
Suite bergamasque – Prélude
Suite bergamasque – Menuet
Suite bergamasque – Clair de lune
Suite bergamasque – Passepied
Danse
Ballade
Pour le piano –Prélude
Pour le piano – Sarabande
Pour le piano – Toccata
Estampes – Jardins sous la pluie
Valse romantique
Voiles
Le vent dans la plaine
Les sons et les parfums tournent dans l’air du soir
Les collines d’Anacapri
La sérénade interrompue
La cathédrale engloutie
Minstrels
Feuilles mortes
Bruyères

That really depends on the definition of "easy". The level list you gave is just one of many lists, and some/many of the pieces at level 10 or 11 on that list would be much lower on a different list with about the same number of levels. The idea that a piece like Clair de lune is at the highest level of piano difficulty(as it is on that list) makes little sense to me.

I think most of the level 9 and some of the level 10 pieces on the list you gave are no more advanced than the Mozart K. 545 Sonata you are working on.

For example, on the Henle list, which I would say is more meaningful/accurate, Clair de lune has a difficulty ranking of 5, the Arabesques are a 4, and The Little Negro is a 2/3. The most difficult piano works on the list have a ranking of 9.

https://www.henle.de/en/search/index.html?Composers=D-F&Composer=Debussy%2C+Claude

I've seen "easy" arrangements of the more famous Debussy pieces like Claire de Lune, Golliwogs Cakewalk etc. Maybe that's a place to start. Rather than choosing pieces you are less enthusiastic about, try learning the pieces you love which have been arranged to your level of ability.

I perfectly know (and I hope every one is aware of this ) that there is no such thing as a perfect list of difficulty levels. The perceived difficulty will be different depending of our own strenghts and weeknesses and depending of the level of "perfection" we want to achieve.

Btw, this list doesn't include many difficult piano pieces (like most Chopin's etudes). It is simply the last level of exam you can take with them. Since these exams are designed for children, after 11 levels, there are much chances that you'll have finished high school and, if you want to continue music, you'll go to college in music. (This is not an official an explanation, but this is my understanding of the reason to stop at level 11 while considering some pieces to be too difficult for that top level).

For instance, Reflets dans l'eau is not in the list and I suspect that it is because they deem it too difficult for what is a "level 11" in their mind (but since it is repertoire list for exams, other factors such as duration can explain why some pieces are not included).


I don't know if that could help gives a better perspective on that particular listing.


Btw, K545 is listed as level 7 for movement 2 and 3, and level 8 for movement 1, so is considered easier than most of Debussy's pieces, in this list.

That's why according to that list there are no easy Debussy pieces but according to more complete lists, there are some relatively easy Debussy works.

Well, it really depends what you call "easy". And it depends how you define the difficulty of each of those levels (for me, it is not simply first third is easy, second third is intermediate and last third is advanced).

For me, I'd call (in that list) level 1-5 easy, level 6-10 intermediate and level 11 early advanced.

I'll be attempting my level 8 next spring and I consider myself as being an early intermediate player (I wouldn't be ashamed to say late-beginner even!).

You can say that level 6 and 7 pieces are easy, but that's not a "beginning-easy". That would be at least a late-beginner level.


But this is exactly why I though a list with difficulty levels would be more useful for the initial poster : you have a gradation from the easiest to the more difficult, and you can choose relatively to what you consider would be easy enough for you. "Easy" is not a strictly define concept.

Lists of relative levels of difficulty are a tool.
Up to everyone to use them how they deem useful.

For the mathematically-minded, I formulated a very profound mathematical formula last year to convert gradings from one list to another :

Henle x 2.5 = ABRSM = AMEB

ABRSM x 1.25 = RCM

Therefore Henle x 3.125 = RCM.

Voilà!

For details of how I arrived at such an important formula, visit my website.


(P.S. Oops! Just realized I don't have a website, and never had one...... )