Children's Corner, L. 113, is a six-movement suite for solo piano by Claude Debussy. It was published by Durand in 1908, and was first performed by Harold Bauer in Paris on 18 December that year. In 1911, an orchestration by André Caplet was premiered and subsequently published.

History

Debussy composed Children's Corner between 1906 and 1908. He dedicated the suite to his daughter, Claude-Emma (known as "Chou-Chou"), who was born on 30 October 1905 in Paris. She is described as a lively and friendly child who was adored by her father. She was three years old when he dedicated the suite to her in 1908. The dedication reads: "" (To my dear little Chouchou, with tender apologies from her father for what follows). The British premiere was given on 12 September 1911 at the Promenade Concerts, under the baton of Henry Wood.

Structure

The suite is in six movements, each with an English-language title. This choice of language is most likely Debussy's nod towards Chou-Chou's English governess. The pieces are:

4. The Snow Is Dancing

thumb|upright=1.4|4. "The Snow Is Dancing", bars 34–38

This piece features soft, syncopated alternation of the hands. Again, there are darker moments in the bass near the middle. It portrays snow and muted objects seen through it.

5. The Little Shepherd

"The Little Shepherd" depicts a shepherd with his flute. There are three solos and three commentaries following them. The first solo has a breath mark at the end. This piece has different modes in it and uses dissonances, which resolve into tonality.

6. Golliwogg's Cakewalk

At the time of its composition, golliwoggs were in fashion, due partly to the popularity at that time of the novels of Florence Kate Upton ("golliwog" is a later usage). They were stuffed black dolls with red pants, red bow ties and wild hair, reminiscent of the blackface minstrel shows of the time. The cakewalk was a dance or a strut, and the dancer with the most elaborate steps won a cake ("took the cake"). The piece is a ragtime with its syncopations and banjo-like effects. The dynamic range is quite large and very effective.

During the piece, Debussy alludes satirically to Richard Wagner's opera Tristan und Isolde. The opening bars turn the famous half-diminished Tristan chord into a jaunty, syncopated arpeggio, while the middle 'B' section of this dance is interrupted on several occasions by the love-death leitmotif, marked avec une grande émotion (with great feeling). Each quotation is followed by banjo imitations.

Debussy composed one more piece in the same style a year later, "The Little Nigar", as part of a piano method.

Orchestrations and arrangements

  • French composer André Caplet orchestrated the entire suite in 1911.
  • Danish composer Hans Abrahamsen orchestrated the entire suite in 2015.

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Sources

Further reading

  • Schmitz, E. Robert (1950). The Piano Works of Claude Debussy, pp.&nbsp;117–125. Foreword by Virgil Thomson. New York: Duell, Sloan & Pearce.
  • "G is for Gradus and Golliwogg – Children’s Corner Suite – Debussy", notesfromapianist.wordpress.com 2012
  • Children's Corner (in German) jochenscheytt.de
  • "Children's Corner – Eine Werkbetrachtung" (in German) christianjahl.de