Presents

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky

		SOUNDBITES
		March of the Wooden Soldiers The Doll's Funeral; Waltz Polka German Song	Neapolitan Song The Nanny's Tale Sweet Dream The Lark's Song In Church

Children's Album for String Quartet, Op.39

Tchaikovsky needs no biographical introduction. The Children's Album was completed in 1878 and was originally for piano. He hit on the idea of writing a set of small piano pieces for children along the lines of Schumann's Album for the Young as a way of encouraging his young nephew with his piano studies. And the work is, in fact, dedicated to his nephew. It consists of 24 very short pieces. In examining the music, there can be no doubt that Tchaikovsky had carefully studied Schumann's work. Each piece is meant to evoke a scene or mood. Though many of the pieces are, as one might expect, Russian in nature, the music is not exclusively Russian and Tchaikovsky clearly meant to give it a cosmopolitan flavor--one work is entitled German Song, another, Neopolitan Song, another Old French Song and so on.

It became immensely popular and was quickly orchestrated and is often heard in this version. But it also spawned dozens of other arrangements, some for very unlikely combinations such as horn, trumpet and euphonium. Arrangers have not always included all of the dances since some are less suitable, depending on the arrangement, than others. While there have been other arrangements for string quartet, they have not taken the needs of performers into account. For many years, we have been asked to make available an arrangement for string quartet which does this. In response to these requests, we now present our arrangement of all 24 pieces made by Professor Vinzenzo Oddo.

Parts: $29.95