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Claude Debussy's "Golliwog's Cakewalk"

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My History with the Cakewalk

As an advancing piano student, I began falling in love with Claude Debussy's work about the 9th grade. My piano teacher let me borrow a copy of Debussy's Children's Corner collection. Golliwog's Cakewalk is the last in this collection, and one of the most famous. This song is fun to play and fun to listen to. It has its roots in ragtime and early jazz.

I have chosen this piece as the closer for the piano portion of my senior recital in May, 2009.

photo from debussy.fr.

History and Origin of the Cakewalk

The word golliwog [according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary] is "a grotesque black doll" and was originally taken from a caricature drawn by Bertha Upton in the 1800's. The cakewalk was a traditional dance performed by enslaved African Americans.

Debussy wrote the piece in 1908.

photo from stillmanbooks.com.

Golliwog's Cakewalk on Amazon

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Reader Feedback

  • poutine Dec 25, 2010 @ 3:45 pm | delete
    The video doesn't work.
  • alteredkat Jan 3, 2009 @ 1:03 pm | delete
    cool lens!...thanks btw, for visiting my Christmas lens...I appreciate it!
    p.s. I'd have loved to have commented on your flicker and Johnny Depp lenses.
  • velveteen Dec 30, 2008 @ 11:32 pm | in reply to dc64 | delete
    I thought so, too. (:
  • dc64 Dec 30, 2008 @ 8:10 pm | delete
    The "grotesque black doll" kind of looks like a gingerbread man to me.
  • spirituality Dec 30, 2008 @ 4:54 am | delete
    NIce.
  • diggyisking Dec 30, 2008 @ 12:28 am | delete
    :)
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