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any info on this? the only thing i know is that Debussy composed it as part of the Children's Corner. yeah that's about it. he's impressionist, but i don't know what impression this piece is supposed to evoke. i get the feeling of being at the shore when i hear this piece. i'm currently learning it.

There's a little information on Wikipedia. It's not much, but it's a start.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children%27s_Corner

One source says that "Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum" is Debussy's clever parody on piano exercises, exemplified in Clementi's series of technical studies called "Gradus ad Parnassum".

However, the eminent Debussy scholar Paul Roberts says the following : [1]

"The opening piece of Children's Corner is by turns joyful, tender, poignant, and humorous - a compendium of the varying moods of the whole suite. It is often claimed that the piece is a parody of a Clementi study. Parody is the wrong word. Clementi is not made fun of in the way Wagner is in "Golliwogg's Cake-walk." Certainly the title is taken from Clementi's famous collection of one hundred keyboard studies of 1807, Gradus ad Parnassum, but the allusion is both ironic and respectful (underlined by the addition of the word "Doctor," implying Clementi himself). As befits the nature of Children's Corner, the suite begins by alluding to the surface Englishness of the whole. Clementi, though Italian by birth, emigrated to England, where he not only laid the foundations of English (and subsequently European) piano technique but was closely involved in early piano construction. The title of his keyboard studies - meaning literally "Steps to Mount Parnassus," the abode of the muses - suggests a step-by-step approach which will take the novice pianist towards the fountainhead of art.
So Debussy's imaginary nursery [Children's Corner] has its daily pianistic exercises. The irony comes from the way in which the over-weighty Latin title conceals such a delighftully playful and graceful musical spirit. Debussy often took shelter behind a mask of irony, as in these remarks to his publisher Durand, who had asked him about the tempo:
'"Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum" is a kind of progressive, hygienic, gymnastics. It should be played every morning on an empty stomach, beginning moderato and ending up animé. I hope you will be impressed by the clarity of my explanation.'
Commentators have been too ready to take such remarks at face value. To find in this masterful piano étude "a child's typically bored manner of ploughing through exercises" (as Lockspeiser does) is to turn it on its head; to play "Doctor Gradus" in any sense mechanically is to destroy its musical character, in the same way it would be to destroy an étude by Chopin."

[1] Roberts, Paul. Images. The Piano Music of Claude Debussy. Amadeus Press, Portland, OR, 1996. (pp. 207-208).

Regards,

Thanks, Bruce D, for that information.

I consider you the *shining star* of Piano World. Your scholarship is usually about 97.25 per cent correct.

Do you own that book by Paul Roberts, or did you find the information online? It sounds like a book we should all own.


best wishes,
Valerie

Tenuto :

I own Paul Robert's book. One doesn't haveto agree with everything he says, but his scholarship is well-respected and his views are always of interest from a performing pianist's point of view.

Regards,

Good info indeed, Bruce. I think I may grab that book.

check out the video featuring alfred cortot on the piano, on youtube.

It's an early "MTV" which a made up story is told with the music (doc gradus) as a backrgound.

should give you a good general idea about what the music's about.