{"id":8513,"date":"2018-02-08T15:57:51","date_gmt":"2018-02-08T15:57:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/?p=8513"},"modified":"2018-02-08T15:57:51","modified_gmt":"2018-02-08T15:57:51","slug":"cat-and-mouse-imagining-debussys-serenade-of-the-doll","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/2018\/02\/08\/cat-and-mouse-imagining-debussys-serenade-of-the-doll\/","title":{"rendered":"Cat and Mouse: imagining Debussy’s Serenade of the Doll"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s amazing what strange but illuminating thought-processes occur when you’re rehearsing…<\/p>\n

The Scholars’ Lunchtime Concert in March<\/a> will be commemorating the centenary of the death of Debussy in a programme of chamber works combined with images from the Impressionist era; one of the works is ‘Serenade of the Doll,’ from Children’s Corner<\/em>, a suite of piano pieces dedicated to Debussy’s then three-year-old daughter, Claude-Emma (known as Chou-Chou), in an arrangement for violin and piano.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Lydia Cheng<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

‘Serenade of the Doll’ is a surprisingly moving jewel-like miniature, using the pentatonic scale to evoke the porcelain doll in a sprightly triple-metre. Working in rehearsal with third-year Music Scholar and violinist, Lydia Cheng<\/strong>, we were looking at ways to bring the contrasts to the fore, to explore the lilting waltz-like feel and the delicate staccato<\/em> passages that give the piece its character. The contrasting textures follow each other quite quickly, and we were examining how much depth of tone was suited to the central section.<\/p>\n

At one point, we’d been talking about the way the melodic line seems to nudge itself along, followed by a rising minor third and a sudden octave leap; it’s skittish, ungainly, as though something in the child’s nursery has fallen over.’It’s like a cartoon,’ Lydia observed at one point, ‘you know, where the characters tip-toe down a staircase. It’s a bit like Tom and Jerry<\/em>!’<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>So, with this in mind, we played through the entire piece again – and suddenly, it came to life. We realised that the music isn’t always about a rose-tinted recollection of childhood, of a panoply of perfect toys tidily on display in a nursery; sometimes, it can be about the trips and tumbles too, the knocks and tiny accidents, the cheerful blunders that are a part of finding your feet as a toddler. This is reflected both rhythmically as well as in the harmonic language, as it trips lightly from parallel ninths through chromaticism and touches of whole-tonality; it’s finding its own harmonic feet too.<\/p>\n

Here’s Debussy himself playing on a piano-roll:<\/p>\n