Golliwog’s Cakewalk

Golliwog’s Cakewalk is from Children’s Corner (L. 113) a six-movement suite for solo piano by Claude Debussy. It was published in 1908, and was given its world première in Paris by Harold Bauer on December 18 of that year.

It is dedicated to Debussy’s daughter, Claude-Emma (known as "Chou-Chou"), who was three years old at the time. The pieces are not intended to be played by children; rather they are meant to be evocative of childhood and some of the toys in Claude-Emma’s toy collection.

At the time of its composition, Golliwogs were in fashion. They were stuffed black dolls with red pants, red bow ties and wild hair, somewhat reminiscent of the black-face minstrels of the time. This is a ragtime piece with its syncopations and banjo-like effects. The B section of this dance is interrupted on several occasions by the love-death leitmotif of Richard Wagner’s opera Tristan und Isolde, marked avec une grande émotion (with great feeling). Each quotation is followed with banjo imitations. The cakewalk was a dance or a strut and the dancer with the most elaborate steps won a cake ("took the cake").

In this version for brass quintet, cornets may be used in place of trumpets for a nice effect.