A possibly unique and certainly unusual feature of Edward Elgar's compositional career is that in old age he raided his teenage notebooks for material, orchestrating, revising, and fleshing out what he found. Thus the Nursery Suite title and "Music to a Child's Play" subtitle do not indicate the presence of children's music, although the beautifully evocative short orchestral pieces here would be ideal for introducing classical music to children. "Music to a Child's Play" refers to the delightful The Wand of Youth; the ...
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A possibly unique and certainly unusual feature of Edward Elgar's compositional career is that in old age he raided his teenage notebooks for material, orchestrating, revising, and fleshing out what he found. Thus the Nursery Suite title and "Music to a Child's Play" subtitle do not indicate the presence of children's music, although the beautifully evocative short orchestral pieces here would be ideal for introducing classical music to children. "Music to a Child's Play" refers to the delightful The Wand of Youth; the "child's play" was an imagined but unrealized play by Elgar's siblings, directed at their parents. The pair of suites (there is no larger work from they are extracted, but they have separate moods and would be equally effective played separately or together) includes not only generally described scenes but more abstract titles. Sample the second melody in the Serenade from the first suite for a fine example of Elgar's considerable and underrated melodic gift during his early years. The...
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