Elgar: The Wand of Youth Suite No.1 Op.1a (A Selection of Pieces) - wind quintet by Edward Elgar Woodwind Quintet - Digital Sheet Music

SKU: A0.1600387

The Wand of Youth Suites No. 1 and No. 2 are works for orchestra by Edward Elgar, first performed in 1907 and 1908 respectively. The titles Elgar gave them were, in full: The Wand of Youth (Music to a Child's Play) First Suite, Op. 1a (1869–1907) and Second Suite, (Op. 1b)

The music was drawn from material written by the composer in his youth and orchestrated forty years or so later.

Arranged for wind quintet
Clarinet in A needed for mvt 4.

The movements included in this selection are:

1. Overture

Elgar reworked this movement from sketches dating back to 1879. The opening theme is extrovert and fast moving, marked allegro molto in 2/2 in the key of B♭.

The second theme, marked largamente, with characteristic Elgarian falling sevenths, is more expansive.The Elgar scholar Michael Kennedy finds in the second theme hints of the first subject of Elgar's Violin Concerto

2. Serenade

The Serenade (Andantino) in F is a gently lilting movement with an initial clarinet melody later taken over by the violins and then alternated between strings and woodwinds.

3. Minuet (Old Style)

The Minuet, in G major, is a 17th-century pastiche originally dating (in short score) from 1881.[13] Marked andante in 3/4, the opening bars have the annotation "The two old people enter"

Kennedy calls the movement "an affectionate tribute to Handel" with nothing of Haydn or Mozart in it.Reviewing the first performance, The Times commented, "It may be doubted whether the mature composer would have given the name of 'Minuet' to a movement that is unmistakably in the saraband form"

4. Sun Dance

The movement is in C major, in presto 3/4 time.

5.Fairy Pipers

The marking is G major, 6/8, allegretto.

Elgar annotated the opening bars, "Two fairy pipers pass by in a boat, and charm them to sleep".

Two clarinets in thirds play a gentle melody over a rocking string accompaniment.

The strings then have a theme which Kennedy finds "yearning" and comparable to "the rarefied atmosphere of the introduction to Part II of Gerontius"

6.Slumber Scene

The movement is in G major, 4/4, moderato, for muted strings with two bassoons and a single horn. The double bass line uses only the open strings: Elgar noted, "the simplicity of the bass made it possible for a child who knew nothing of music on any instrument to grind out the bass".

Diana McVeagh comments that Elgar's harmonic shifts over the bass are "a tour de force, the soporific rhythm soothing, never monotonous.


The strings then have a theme which Kennedy finds "yearning" and comparable to "the rarefied atmosphere of the introduction to Part II of Gerontius"

The music dates from 1878.

The order of the music in the two suites does not follow that of the action in the unstaged play. The Sun Dance depicts the two old people being awakened (by glittering lights flashed in their eyes by means of hand-mirrors) from the sleep into which they have been charmed in the Slumber Scene, which in the suite follows two movements later.

Kennedy compares it with the "Dorabella" section of the Enigma Variations: "stylish and fluent woodwind writing". It has a central waltz section and virtuoso music for the harp towards the end.

Elgar reused this movement for his later score for The Starlight Express.