Music: Sun April 2

Child Dedications are especially joyous occasions at CUUC, and Sunday morning’s musical selections celebrate the wonders of childhood and new life in the eyes of several composers. Claude Debussy’s popular suite Children’s Corner opens with a parody of the tedious “Gradus ad Parnassum” technical exercises many young piano students are forced to endure. “The Little Shepherd” is a particularly tender, wistful depiction of a whimsical, piping lad. The Brazilian Octavio Pinto made his living as an architect, but his “Scenes of Childhood” have long been a favorite of pianists, starting with the composer’s wife Guiomar Novaes. The Catalan composer Federico Mompou seems indebted to the harmonic subtleties of the French Impressionists in his “Young Girls in the Garden”, although the piece actually quotes a popular Catalan song “La filla del marxant”.

CUUC members Kim and Christian Force are also on hand with a perennial favorite by Johannes Brahms as well as a contemporary take on parental love from Guns N’ Rose. Read on for programming details, and see below for a translation of Brahms’s ubiquitous Lullaby.

Prelude: Adam Kent, piano
From Children’s Corner

            Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum

            The Little Shepherd

            Claude Debussy

Scenas Infantis

1.     Run, run

2.     Ring around the Rosy

3.     March, Little Soldier!

4.     Sleeping Time

5.     The Hobby-Horse

Octavio Pinto

Opening Music:

From Scènes d’enfants

            Jeunes filles au jardin

                                                Federico Mompou

Offertory: Kim Force, soprano
Wiegenlied*

                                    Joahnnes Brahms

Interlude: Kim and Christian Force, vocals and piano
Sweet Child of Mine

                                    Guns N’ Roses

*Translation:
Lullaby and goodnight, with roses bedight
With lilies o'er spread is baby's wee bed
Lay thee down now and rest, may thy slumber be blessed
Lay thee down now and rest, may thy slumber be blessed
Lullaby and goodnight, thy mother's delight
Bright angels beside my darling abide
They will guard thee at rest, thou shalt wake on my breast
They will guard thee at rest, thou shalt wake on my breast