Children's Corner

The piano cycle was written in 1906-1908, which musicologists refer to the so-called "great sixth anniversary" (1903-1908) - the period of the composer's musical maturity, when many of his significant works were created. A special place in this period in his work began to occupy works for piano. In musicology, the point of view is widespread that for piano literature of the 20th century, his compositions have the same meaning as Chopin for the 19th century, and Debussy is called the main ancestor of the new piano style ^{[4] [5]} . According to musicologist V. Bykov: “ After 1904, each Debussy piece for this instrument will become a masterpiece of world piano literature ” ^[6] .

The composer dedicated his daughter Claude-Emma Debussy's piano suite (1905–1919; home nickname “Shushu”) with the words “ my dear little Shushu with gentle apologies of my father for what follows ” (Fr. À ma très chère Chouchou ... avec les tend excuses de son pére pour ce qui va suivre ), and as early as July 1908, Debussy gives Shushu sketches for this cycle. The composer’s only daughter was born in 1905 by his future second wife Emma Bardak . The girl was musically gifted, performed some of her father’s works and played music. In 1912, Debussy wrote with irony to I. F. Stravinsky that she composed a fantasy on the themes from the ballet Petrushka , according to the composer, “ would make elephants growl ”: “ I threatened her with torture, but she continues to work, claiming that "you will find a beautiful fantasy" " ^[7] .

The composer also dedicated her last ballet “A Box of Toys ” (fr. La Boite a joujoux ) in six parts, which his friends dubbed - La Boite a Chouchoux (“The Box of Shushu”). The girl died suddenly from diphtheria a year after the death of her father.

Marguerite Long , the famous pianist and close friend of the composer, wrote in her book “At the Piano with Debussy” ^[8] :

In the author's original, the title of the entire suite and its individual plays is written in English, which reflected some English language on the part of the composer, as well as the fact that his daughter had an English teacher who helped her in learning this language ^{[2] [9]} . Author's remarks are written in French.

The cycle of six pieces includes the following musical genres: toccata , lullaby , serenade , lyrical dance, folk scene, fast dance.

1. "Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum"
2. Jimbo's Lullaby - ( English Jimbo's Lullaby; Fr. Berceuse des éléphants )
3. "Serenade doll" - (born Serenade for the Doll; Fr. Sérénade à la poupée )
4. “Snow is dancing” - (English The Snow Is Dancing; fr. La neige danse )
5. "Little Shepherd" - (English The Little Shepherd; Fr. Le Petit Berger ).
6. "Doll Kek Walk " - (eng. Golliwog's Cake-Walk; fr . La Marche de la poupée de chiffon ).

1. Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum

The name of the musical number comes from the Latin winged expression Gradus ad Parnassum, which translates as “step to Parnassus ”, “step to Parnassus”). The number is written in a complex three-part form with elements of rondo - sonata in the genre of the composer’s favorite toccata and is based on the smooth and uninterrupted movement of the sixteenth, which briefly gives way to a smooth central episode ^[10] . According to L.M. Kokorevoy, the form of the play can be interpreted as rondo, and its character is “cheerful, playful, the coloring is light - before major. But how many subtlest strokes are in the texture, development and variation of essentially the same initial theme! ” ^[2] . In the play, which plays a kind of prelude, a generalized figurative, textural and intonational anticipation of other parts of the cycle is presented ^[10] . “Doctor Gradus” is somewhat different from other parts of the cycle, in which the child’s interests of the child are shown, and here, apparently, Debussy’s perception and understanding of the works of the initial educational process of overcoming technical difficulties in playing the piano is reflected. In the play itself there is a parodic reference to the study etudes of Muzio Clementi , the author of the famous three-volume school of playing the piano - “Gradus ad Parnassum” (1817-1826) ^[3] . Apparently, Debussy considered it appropriate to use this complex piece as a daily piano exercise. Thus, the composer wrote to his publisher Jacques Durand on August 15, 1908, that this is “a kind of hygienic and progressive gymnastics: therefore, it is appropriate to play this play every morning, on an empty stomach, starting“ moderately ”in order to finish“ lively ” ” ^[9] .

2. Lullaby Jimbo

Jimbo is the name of the plush elephant Shushu, a previously popular children's doll, named after the famous giant elephant Jumbo , but the composer insisted on just such a spelling of the name of the toy. As LM Kokoreva points out, the Russian-language literature contains an incorrect translation of the title of this play: The Lullaby of Elephants, which is the reason for the misinterpretation of the meaning of the play ^[2] . Probable program: the girl cradles her big teddy elephant, singing a lullaby, under which she falls asleep herself, which is embodied by musical means in the form of a contrast of a tender theme (portrait of a child) and clumsiness (portrait of an elephant). A. Corto wrote about this play, in his opinion, representing stories embodied in music by the composer, singing Shusha to his elephant ^[11] :

The motif of the French folk lullaby Do, do, l'enfant do (“Sleep, sleep, baby, sleep”), as well as revolutions of oriental music, are used in a complicated three-part form ^[2] .

3. Serenade Doll

As in the previous play, in the Serenade of the Doll there are two characters - the Girl and the Doll; perhaps the number in the plot is a logical continuation of the lullaby (having pumped the elephant, the child wants to put the doll to sleep) ^[12] . The number is considered to be written in the form of an eight-part rondo, with a doll-puppet color and imitation of guitar in Spanish style ^[2] .

4. Snow dancing

According to L.M. Kokoreva, the figurative metaphoric nature of this play is displayed in the characteristic Debussy spirit: “the snow is dancing, the waves are playing, the wind is talking to the sea ” ^[2] . Written in the genre of toccata and it is believed that this is the most “adult” of the parts of the cycle and the only one in the minor ^[12] . She is the most developed and comes closer to a later prelude, “Steps in the snow” (written in one key, d-moll ) ^[2] .

5. Little Shepherd

The number is an idyllic pastoral picture, where the shepherdess plays (with a contemplative, the second sad and dancing) played with pianistic means and are associated with the sound of a flute (flute). Here there is a bright, sunny flavor in a major key, contrastingly opposed to the “winter” and twilight previous play.

Marguerite Long wrote that she heard the composer’s daughter “very touchingly” playing this number: “ She almost looked like Debussy! The radiance of this work, in which her childhood bathed, made this small brain ripen ” ^[8] .

6. Puppet Cake Walk

Hollywood , which is mentioned in the title of the play in English - is a scarecrow, scarecrow, freak doll, which was a negro doll and was a popular child's toy at the beginning of the 20th century.

Here, Debussy, before other serious composers, began to use new dances and music-hall rhythms in his work ^[13] . According to I.V. Nesteva : “This is one of the first attempts to embody in the serious genre the infecting element of the Negro dance and home music of the“ pre-jazz ”period”.

Also, this number is known for a deliberate quote in the middle part of the theme of love ( tristan-chord ) from the opera “ Tristan and Isolde ” by R. Wagner . At one time, a kind of Wagnerian motto, this motif in Debussy sounds like a witty joke.

The theme from "Tristan", accompanied by the author's remark "with great feeling", appears surrounded by chords, as if imitating laughter. As you know, Debussy was previously a big fan of Wagner's music, but later lost interest in it, which he repeatedly expressed in his critical articles and interviews. According to a popular legend, Debussy told pianist Harold Bauer (the ardent Wagnorian) that he could make him laugh publicly at Wagner. Bauer was in utter bewilderment, but after playing the suite, Debussy pointed out to the pianist the excerpts from “Kukolny Kake Walk”, where, after quoting a motive from “Tristan and Isolde,” music imitating laughter follows. As the Kremlin notes Yu. A., this legend tells N. L. Slonimsky in his book “The Way to Music” ( The road to music ): “ I must admit that it fits well with our ideas about Debussy’s humor in general ” ^{[9 ]} . According to another version, the composer did not tell Bauer anything about a quotation from Wagner and he learned about it from musicological literature in the 30s ^[9] .

Debussy recorded The Puppet Cake Walk in his own performance on the mechanical piano tape.

Debussy's piano cycle is often compared with the well-known vocal cycle of M. P. Mussorgsky's “Children's” ^[14] , dedicated to the world of children, as well as with other works written in the genre of children's music ( R. Schumann , J. Bizet , P. I. Tchaikovsky , M. Ravel , etc.). Debussy treated Musorgsky with great respect and carefully studied his work. Pianist A. Corto , noting the spontaneity and naivety of Mussorgsky’s suite, wrote that Debussy, on the contrary, “ portrays graceful games under supervision, modest pranks, tender gestures of an urban girl, and even a Parisian woman, already a flirty and slightly female, whose witty imagination seems to be moderated at times guessed by the presence of a traditional miss . "

According to I.V. Nesteva: “ In the style of the plays of the Children's Corner there is no trace of the former impressionistic“ sacraments ”. There are simple, slightly angular rhythms, elementary intonations, sometimes bordering on somewhat ironic simplicity ” ^[15] .

As a contemporary researcher of the composer Kokoreva LM, notes, in contrast to the works of Debussy's predecessors who wrote “children's music” (Schumann, Tchaikovsky), the “Children's Corner” suite is technically complex and written not “for children's hands” and, in her opinion , “Even, probably, not for children's perception”: “ Plays require virtuosity from the performer, the finest sound mastery and, most importantly, great imagination. There are few sounds here, but these sounds need to be able to express a lot ” ^[2] .

• At the request of the composer himself, his close friend Andre Kaple orchestrated the cycle, and Debussy conducted them in a concert on March 15, 1911.
• Modern Danish composer Hans Abrahamsen in 2015 made a symphonic arrangement of the suite ^[16] .

• “Music of Love: Shushu” (fr. La musique de l'amour: Chouchou, 1995 ) is a television film of British director James Sellan Jones.

• Akopyan L. Oh . Children's corner // Music of the twentieth century. Encyclopedic Dictionary. - M .: Praktika, 2010. - p. 179. - 856 p. - ISBN 978-5-89816-092-0 .
• Kokoreva L. M. Claude Debussy: Research. - M .: Music , 2010. - 496 p. - ISBN 978-5-7140-1206-8 .
• Kremlin Yu. A. Claude Debussy. - M .: Music, 1965, - 792 p.
• Long M At the piano with Debussy / Trans. with fr. J. Grushanskaya.- M .: Soviet composer , 1985. - 163 p.

• Kids Corner: notes on the International Music Score Library Project