Children's Notebook

Children's Notebook
Suite for piano by Dmitri Shostakovich
Shostakovich in 1942
Opus	69
Composed	1944–1945
Dedication	Galina Shostakovich
Publisher	Muzfond [ru] Leeds Music Edition Peters Muzyka Hans Sikorski Musikverlage DSCH Publishers
Duration	c. 7 minutes
Movements	7
Premiere
Date	December 6, 1945 (1945-12-06) May 26, 1947 (1947-05-26) (complete performance)
Location	1945: Moscow, Russian SFSR 1947: Prague, Czechoslovakia
Performers	1945: Galina Shostakovich (No. 1) and Dmitri Shostakovich (Nos. 2 – 7) 1947: Dmitri Shosakovich (complete performance)

Children's Notebook (Russian: Детская тетрадь, romanized: Detskaya tetrad), also known as A Child's Exercise Book,^[1] Op. 69 is a suite for piano composed by Dmitri Shostakovich. Although precise dating is uncertain, it is believed to have been composed over a period of twelve to eighteen months between 1944 and 1945. Shostakovich intended it for his daughter, Galina, who at the time was a young child beginning her piano studies. Originally envisioned as a cycle of twenty-four pieces in all keys arranged along a circle of fifths, the completed work ultimately contained only seven. Each piece included a corresponding illustration by Pyotr Williams [ru].

Galina was to have played the premiere in Moscow in 1945, but a memory lapse led to her father completing the performance. In 1947, during the Prague Spring Festival, he played the work's first integral performance, which was recorded for broadcast, and subsequently issued commercially.