Children's corner = Coin des enfants : petite suite pour piano seul

Suite

Claude Debussy 1862–1918
Suite
Form
Score
First page of Children's corner = Coin des enfants : petite suite pour piano seul

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Difficulty
Our estimate Intermediate
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Themes & character
Written for his daughter·Playful pastiche·Wagner in-joke·Deceptively difficult

At a glance

Form
Suite

Movements

I
Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum

A wry take on the finger exercises every piano student dreads, its title borrowed from a real nineteenth century study book.

II
Jimbo's Lullaby

A slow, lumbering lullaby for Debussy's daughter's toy elephant.

III
Serenade for the Doll

A delicate, guitar-like serenade, light and mechanical, as if played by a wind-up toy.

IV
The Snow is Dancing

Continuous soft, falling figuration paints drifting snowflakes.

V
The Little Shepherd

A wandering, pastoral duet between a piping melody and a simple accompaniment.

VI
Golliwogg's Cakewalk

A jaunty syncopated dance that briefly quotes, and gently mocks, the opening of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde.

About the piece

A suite of six pieces composed between 1906 and 1908 and dedicated to Debussy's young daughter Claude-Emma, nicknamed Chou-Chou, with an affectionate dedication asking her forgiveness for what follows. Despite the child's-eye subjects, the suite is written for adult hands and is genuinely demanding. It opens with Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum, a gentle parody of finger-exercise etudes, and closes with Golliwogg's Cakewalk, a jaunty dance that pokes fun, mid-piece, at the opening of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde.

The composer

Claude Debussy
Claude Debussy
1862–1918

Achille Claude Debussy was a French composer, born in Saint-Germain-en-Laye. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influential composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

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