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 given its world première in
Paris by Harold Bauer on December 18 of that year. In
1911, an orchestration of the work by Debussy's friend
André Caplet received its première and was
subsequently published.
It is dedicated to Debussy's daughter, Claude-Emma
(known as "Chou-Chou"), who was three years old at the
time. The pieces are not intended to be played b...(+)
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 given its world première in
Paris by Harold Bauer on December 18 of that year. In
1911, an orchestration of the work by Debussy's friend
André Caplet received its première and was
subsequently published.
It is dedicated to Debussy's daughter, Claude-Emma
(known as "Chou-Chou"), who was three years old at the
time. The pieces are not intended to be played by
children; rather they are meant to be evocative of
childhood and some of the toys in Claude-Emma's toy
collection.
The first movement, "Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum," is a
light-hearted reference to Muzio Clementi's well-known
piano exercises, Gradus ad Parnassum, published in
1817. It parodies a child performing these exercises,
initially tearing through the bright, fast passages and
eventually becoming distracted, bored, and finally
slamming down the final cadence with relief. This
movement looks forward to Debussy's later Études, in
which he lampoons the five-finger exercises of Carl
Czerny.
Although originally written for Piano, I created this
arrangement for String Quartet (2 Violins, Viola &
Cello).