Golliwogg's Cake-walk

Claude Debussy · 1908 · Pièce pour piano de Debussy qui imite le cake-walk et le banjo

Context

Last piece of Children's Corner, composed from 1906 to 1908 and published by Durand in July 1908, premiered by Harold Bauer in Paris on 18 December 1908. The opening bars twist the Tristan chord into a syncopated arpeggio; the middle section quotes the Tristan und Isolde theme, followed by banjo imitations. The title refers to fashionable black dolls, a reflection of the caricature of the time.

In the genealogy of jazz

This track belongs to Quadrille and cakewalk. Among the origins and influences of Quadrille and cakewalk: Afro-diasporic roots.

Sources

• EN: Children's Corner
• revuemusicaleoicrm.org

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