Product Description
This work was long reputed to be the work of Joseph Haydn, but later scholarship suggested that it was actually written by Leopold Mozart. Its authorship is still disputed, however, and other composers have been proposed as the symphony's true author, including Joseph Haydn's younger brother Michael Haydn, who purportedly contributed movements to the work.
Recent research on a newly found manuscript suggests the Austrian Benedictine monk Edmund Angerer (17401794) to be the author. If Angerer's manuscript (from 1765, entitled "Berchtolds-Gaden Musick") is the original, the Toy Symphony was originally written not in G but rather in C. These findings, however, are disputed among scholars. There is reason to believe that the true composer will likely never be known, in whole or in part, given its confused origins and the paucity of related manuscript sources.
Even without a name attached to it, the piece has become a mainstay for children's shows and Christmastime concerts. Each of its three movements features the sounds of actual toys and instruments that sound like they came straight from Geppetto's workshop.
The piece calls for a toy trumpet, ratchet, nightingale, cuckoo, drum, and triangle. ( A quail makes its only appearance in the 2nd movement.
Noisemakers rattle throughout the first of its three movements.
The cuckoo and trumpet call out mischievously during the minuetto of the second movement , and a quail joins the nightingale in the trio.
In the short third mvt which is played 3 times, they all play again, each repeat faster than the previous one.
The presence of the toy instruments make this a fun piece for children to play, especially when there are also some toys waiting under the tree.
My arrangement is based on the Kinder-Symphonie attributed to Leopold Mozart. It is scored in C.
It is in 3 mvts and is arranged for wind quintet, and toy percussion.
It can be peformed as a stand alone wind quintet without percussion as all of the important cues (the trumpet and cuckoo) are written in to the instrumnt parts.
i have distributed the original strings around the woodwind, and composed an original classical horn part.
Sometimes known as "The Childrens Symphony"
Also available as a wind dectet/bass arrangement.
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