A Doll’s Lament FWV 20

The Anacrouse collection offers pianists, beginners and advanced alike, a wide choice of classical works from the Renaissance to the present day. It brings together major works of the repertoire as well as rarer pieces, and also offers transcriptions for piano solo or four hands, selected for their musical and educational interest. Each score, available individually, benefits from careful editorial work: a rigorously established musical text, clear and legible engraving, accompanied by a short biography of the composer and a note on the work.

“A Doll’s Lament” (in G major) is a delicate work that demands great finesse of interpretation. For the pianist, the work bears on the handling of dynamics and subtlety of touch in order to convey the at once melancholy and naive character of the piece. The melody, discreet and touching, must emerge clearly from a light accompaniment. It is an excellent exercise for learning to shade musical intentions and to master the expression of fragility of sound without ever losing rhythmic precision.

Composed in 1865 by César Franck (1822-1890), this piece is an interlude of gentleness in the work of a composer often associated with monumental, complex forms. Written for one of his young students, it bears witness to the ability of “Père Franck” to address the world of childhood with disarming sincerity. Far from the great organs and cyclic architectures that would bring him fame, Franck delivers here a page of disarming simplicity, foreshadowing by several decades the spirit of the children’s suites of Debussy or Fauré.