Wand of Youth

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Wand of Youth Suites 1 & 2 are suites for full orchestra by the English composer Edward Elgar. The title given them by Elgar was, in full:

The Wand of Youth

Music to a Child's Play

(First Suite) Op. 1A

and (Second Suite) Op. 1B

(1869-1907)

Suite 1 is dedicated 'To my friend C. Lee Williams', former organist of Gloucester Cathedral. nicknamed the 'Father of the Three Choirs'. Suite 2 is dedicated 'To Hubert A. Leicester, Worcester', a boyhood friend of the composer.

Suite 1 consists of seven sections:

Overture
Serenade
Minuet
Sun Dance
Fairy Pipers
Slumber Scene
Fairies and Giants

Suite 2 has six sections:

March
The Little Bells
Moths and Butterflies
Fountain Dance
The Tame Bear
Wild Bears

Suite No 1 was first performed at the Queen's Hall, London on 14 December 1907, conducted by Sir Henry Wood.

Suite No 2 was first performed at Worcester (as part of the Three Choirs Festival) on 9 September 1908, conducted by the composer.

As a boy Elgar composed some tunes for use in a play staged by the young members of the Elgar family. He noted the tunes down in a sketchbook and four decades later he based the two Wand of Youth Suites on the sketches. He gave the suites the opus number 1 in recognition that they were his earliest surviving compositions, albeit now scored for full orchestra with the mature Elgar’s mastery of orchestration. (Many years later Benjamin Britten followed Elgar’s precedent using his own juvenilia as the basis of his Simple Symphony).

The suites are not regularly programmed in the concert hall, but their length is well suited to recordings, and they have been recorded under the baton of the composer and by several later conductors. In the era of the Long Playing record each suite (lasting about 20 minutes) fitted conveniently on an LP side; in the CD era the suites have continued to be recorded, usually in tandem with other shorter pieces by Elgar such as the Nursery Suite.