' ("Children's Games") Op. 22, is a suite of twelve miniatures composed by

Georges Bizet Georges Bizet (; 25 October 18383 June 1875) was a French composer of the Romantic music, Romantic era. Best known for his operas in a career cut short by his early death, Bizet achieved few successes before his final work, ''Carmen'', w ...

for

piano four hands Piano four hands (, , ) is a type of piano duet involving two players playing the same piano simultaneously. A duet with the players playing separate instruments is generally referred to as a ''piano duet, piano duo''.Bellingham, Jane"piano du ...

in 1871.Curtiss, Mina. ''Bizet and His World.'' Vienna House, New York, 1958, p. 311. The entire piece has a duration of about 20 to 23 minutes.

Structure

The movement titles are as follows: # ' – reverie (The swing) # ' – impromptu (The

spinning top A spinning top, or simply a top, is a toy with a squat body and a sharp point at the bottom, designed to be rotation, spun on its vertical Axis of rotation, axis, balancing on the tip due to the gyroscopic effect. Once set in motion, a top will ...

) # ' – berceuse (The doll) # ' – scherzo (Wooden horses) # ' – fantasie (

Battledore and shuttlecock Battledore and shuttlecock, or jeu de volant, is a sport related to the professional sport of badminton. The game is played by two or more people using small rackets (battledores), made of parchment or rows of gut stretched across wooden frame ...

) # ' – marche (Trumpet and drum) # ' – rondino (Soap bubbles) # ' – esquisse ( Puss in the corner) # ' – nocturne (

Blind man's buff Blind man's buff or blind man's bluff is a variant of tag in which the player who is "It" (i.e, the person who is tagging others) is blindfolded. The traditional name of the game is "blind man's buff", where the word ''buff'' is used in its old ...

) # ' – caprice (Leap-frog) # ' – duo (Little husband, little wife) # ' – galop (The ball) Originally there were ten numbers, with the seventh and eighth added after the first group; is adapted from a march at the start of act 5 of his opera ''

Ivan IV Ivan IV Vasilyevich (; – ), commonly known as Ivan the Terrible,; ; monastic name: Jonah. was Grand Prince of Moscow and all Russia from 1533 to 1547, and the first Tsar and Grand Prince of all Russia from 1547 until his death in 1584. ...

''. Bizet sold the work in both piano and orchestra form to Durand in September 1871 for 600 francs. Bizet's biographer

Winton Dean Winton Basil Dean (18 March 1916 – 19 December 2013) was an English musicologist of the 20th century, most famous for his research on the life and works—in particular the operas and oratorios—of George Frideric Handel, as detailed in his bo ...

considers it to be a forerunner of similar childhood-related works by

Debussy Achille Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionism in music, Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influe ...

, Fauré and

Ravel Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism in music, Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composer ...

. He goes to comment that each "evokes a facet of childhood, but there is not a trace of triviality, self-consciousness or false sentiment". Harman and Mellers argue that, with the music Bizet wrote for the stage production of '' L'Arlésienne'', the ''Jeux d'Enfants'' represents the rediscovery of his true musical nature, exploring his melodic gifts, while the concentrated form of short pieces allowed him to discover chromatic and enharmonic subtleties both "simple and single-minded", in contrast with the more romantic nostalgia of Schumann in his childhood pieces.

Orchestration

Bizet orchestrated six of these; in addition to No. 8, Nos. 6, 3, 2, 11, 12 became his ''Petite Suite''; it is probable he also orchestrated No. 4. Dean, Winton. ''Bizet.'' The Master Musicians, JM Dent & Sons, London, 1975, pp. 150–153. The remaining movements were later orchestrated by Roy Douglas (5 numbers) and Hershy Kay (2 numbers) and a complete orchestral suite has been recorded as ''Jeux d'enfants''. Bizet's version of No. 8, which contains an additional 48-bar section has been recorded by

Michel Plasson Michel Plasson (born 2 October 1933, Paris, France) is a French conductor. Plasson was a student of Lazare Lévy at the Conservatoire de Paris. In 1962, he was a prize-winner at the International Besançon Competition for Young Conductors. ...

, while the standard suite has been recorded many times.

Adaptations

Sigfrid Karg-Elert wrote his orchestral suite after Bizet's ''Jeux d'enfants'', Op. 21, in 1902. In 1932,

Léonide Massine Leonid Fyodorovich Myasin (), better known in the West by the French transliteration as Léonide Massine (15 March 1979), was a Russian choreographer and ballet dancer. Massine created the world's first symphonic ballet, ''Les Présages'', and ...

choreographed the entire suite as the ballet '. Libretto by

Boris Kochno Boris Evgenievich Kochno or Kokhno (; 3 January 1904 – 8 December 1990) was a Russian poet, dancer, and librettist. Early life Kochno was born in Moscow, Russia, on 3 January 1904. His father served as a colonel in the hussars. He studied at ...

, scenography by

Joan Miró Joan Miró i Ferrà ( , ; ; 20 April 1893 – 25 December 1983) was a Catalan Spanish painter, sculptor and Ceramic art, ceramist. A museum dedicated to his work, the Fundació Joan Miró, was established in his native city of Barcelona ...

( Ballet Russe de Monte-Carlo, first performed at the

Opéra de Monte-Carlo The Opéra de Monte-Carlo is an opera house which is part of the Monte Carlo Casino located in the Monaco, Principality of Monaco. With the lack of cultural diversions available in Monaco in the 1870s, Charles III, Prince of Monaco, Prince Charl ...

). In 1955,

George Balanchine George Balanchine (; Various sources: * * * * born Georgiy Melitonovich Balanchivadze;, Romanization of Georgian, : April 30, 1983) was a Georgian-American ballet choreographer, recognized as one of the most influential choreographers ...

choreographed the suite as the ballet ''Jeux d'enfants''. In 1975 he made a new ballet, ''

The Steadfast Tin Soldier "The Steadfast Tin Soldier" () is a literary fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen about a tin soldier's love for a paper ballerina. The tale was first published in Copenhagen by C.A. Reitzel on 2 October 1838 in the first booklet of ''Fair ...

'', using only four of the movements.

References

External links

* *, Alexander Lonquich and Cristina Barbuti {{authority control Compositions for piano four-hands Compositions by Georges Bizet 1871 compositions Suites (music) Orchestral suites