Children's Corner

Undulating melodies in Debussy's “The Snow is Dancing” evoke falling flakes and hidden landscapes, the gentle dissonance creating just the right level of jeopardy—an adventure that ends with hot chocolate. The jumping notes and tinkling trills are so evocative of wintry snowscapes that virtually identical musical methods would later be deployed by Howard Blake in his score to The Snowman. Like the 1982 animation, Debussy's soundtrack was created with children in mind—his daughter, known as Chouchou—but is equally enjoyed by adults. The piece is one of six character works that form Children's Corner, the suite composed between 1906-08. It opens with the dreamlike “Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum”, followed by “Jimbo's Lullaby”, with its lumbering theme that imagines a toy elephant. The more serious “Serenade for the Doll” and “The Little Shepherd” are offset by “Golliwog's Cakewalk”, a catchy ragtime dance to characterise the misconceived but in Debussy's time popular rag doll.