Monthly Playlist: August 2023
As I have recently been reflecting and reconnecting with my childhood in Kyoto, I thought I’d put together a playlist of works inspired by childhood. We all have different relationships with our early years - some are more nostalgic about it, while others approach in a simple and uncomplicated way. As usual, my notes on each piece are below to give you some emotional context. Enjoy!
1.Florence Price // To my Little Son
Dedicated to her first child, Tommy, who passed away in infancy. The song’s tenderness encapsulates the voice of a mother dreaming of her child’s future.
2. Mendelssohn // 6 Kinderstücke, VI. Vivace
Written for his wife's relatives during his stay with them in England.
3. Debussy // The Children’s Corner, II. Jimbo’s Lullaby
Inspired by Chou-Chou's stuffed elephant who apparently needed a bedtime story before going to sleep, Debussy re-imagined the animal's sleepy footsteps through a progression of climbing and falling keystrokes.
4. Faure // Dolly Suite, II. Mi-a-ou
Piano duet dedicated to Dolly, the daughter of his mistress Emma. He wrote Mi-a-ou for Dolly’s second birthday. The title alludes to the way Dolly pronounced her brother, Raoul’s name.
5. Enescu // Impressions d’enfance, III. Ruisselet au fond du jardin
A suite inspired by memory of his own childhood, which was a solitary one being the twelfth and the only surviving child in his family. This one translates to “The Brook at the bottom of the garden.
6. Bizet // Jeux d’enfants, III. The Doll
Youthful wonder, childhood scenes and games - not a trace of triviality, self-consciousness or false sentiment.
7. Amy Beach // Children’s Carnival, Columbine
Written for young pianists, “Columbine” is the sweetheart of Harlequin, a female stock character in the Commedia dell’Arte.
8. Gerald Finzi // Intimations of Immortality
Text from Wordsworth’s Ode, subtitled ‘from recollections of early childhood’- a lament for the lost joys and intuitive wonder of childhood.
9. Mussorgsky // Memories of Childhood
Mussorgsky’s revisit to his childhood soon after his mother’s death.
10. Robert Schumann // Kinderszenen, VII. Träumerei
Robert’s nostalgia for childhood, as described in his letter to his future wife Clara:
‘Perhaps it was an echo of what you once said to me, that “Sometimes I seemed like a child”; anyway, I was suddenly visited by inspiration, and then I knocked off about thirty quaint little things, from which I have selected about twelve … You will enjoy them—though you will have to forget you are a virtuoso.’
11. Ravel // Mother Goose Suite, III. Laideronnette, impératrice des pagodes
Inspired by fairy tales he enjoyed reading for Mimi and Jean Godebeski, children of his close friends. Laideronette, Empress of the Pagodas, is cursed into total ugliness by a jealous witch. A Green Serpent emerges, and the two visit a country inhabited by little people with bodies made of jewels, crystal and porcelain. The Green Serpent turns into a prince and Laideronette’s beauty is restored (…and they marry in the following section, if you like a happy ending!).