The Dolly Suite, op. 56, is a collection of pieces for piano four-hands by Gabriel Fauré. The only piano duet in Fauré's oeuvre (and also the only work containing pieces bearing titles other than those of a musical form), the suite was written between 1894 and 1897. Its six pieces take a total of fifteen minutes to perform.

1. Berceuse
2. Mi-a-ou
3. Le jardin de Dolly
4. Kitty-valse
5. Tendresse
6. Le pas espagnol

Fauré wrote the pieces in honor of Hélène, nicknamed Dolly, who was the daughter of his mistress at the time, the singer Emma Bardac. The Berceuse was composed for Hélène's first birthday, and the remaining pieces also appeared in time for the child's subsequent birthdays and other family occasions. Their titles agreed with the "intimate" character of the work; the Kitty of the fourth piece was a corruption of Ketty, the name of Bardac's dog, while Mi-a-ou came from Monsieur Aoul, which was what Hélène called her brother Raoul.

The premiere was given by Alfred Cortot and Édouard Risler in 1898. Henri Rabaud also orchestrated the work in a symphonic version which received its first public performance in 1906.

The best known movement is the Berceuse, which was the theme music for the long-running BBC Home Service programme Listen with Mother. Although it is a piano duet, there have been numerous arrangements of the Berceuse for other instruments and ensembles. Examples include the arrangement for piano and glockenspiel played by Evelyn Glennie and the arrangement for two guitars recorded by Julian Bream and John Williams.

The above text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ( creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ ). It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Dolly (Fauré)" ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolly_(Faur ).