The Toy Symphony (full title: Cassation in G major for toys, 2 oboes, 2 horns, strings and continuo) is a symphony dating from the 1760s with parts for toy instruments, including toy trumpet, ratchet, bird calls (cuckoo, nightingale and quail), chime tree, triangle, drum and glockenspiel. It has three movements and typically takes around ten minutes to perform.
Long taken to be a work of Joseph Haydn, [1] subsequent scholarship has suggested it to be that of Leopold Mozart, [2] Joseph Haydn's younger brother Michael Haydn, [3] or most recently (1996) the Austrian Benedictine monk Edmund Angerer (1740–1794). [4] If Angerer's manuscript (from 1765, entitled "Berchtolds-Gaden Musick") is the original, the Toy Symphony was originally written not in G but in C major. [lower-alpha 1] 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. [5]
The symphony consists of four movements:
The cassation described above was one of a number of anonymous toy symphonies composed at Berchtesgaden near Salzburg, then a manufacturing centre for toy instruments. Some of the instruments used for these can be seen in the Museum Carolino Augusteum in Salzburg. [6]
Other toy symphonies, overtures and works for ensembles by named composers include:
Malcolm Arnold's Toy Symphony was first performed at a Savoy Hotel fund raising dinner in London on 28 November 1957, with toy instruments played by a group of eminent composers, musicians and personalities, including Thomas Armstrong, Edric Cundell, Gerard Hoffnung, Eileen Joyce, Steuart Wilson and Leslie Woodgate. [15] Similarly, the Jubilee Toy Symphony by Joseph Horovitz was composed for the Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II in 1977 and featured Dame Peggy Ashcroft, Richard Baker, Joseph Cooper, Humphrey Burton, James Blades, Fenella Fielding, Nigel Kennedy, Yehudi Menuhin, Steve Race and Malcolm Williamson, among others. [16] Tod Machover's piece deploys custom musical toys as electronic controllers. [17]
A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often for orchestra. Although the term has had many meanings from its origins in the ancient Greek era, by the late 18th century the word had taken on the meaning common today: a work usually consisting of multiple distinct sections or movements, often four, with the first movement in sonata form. Symphonies are almost always scored for an orchestra consisting of a string section, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments which altogether number about 30 to 100 musicians. Symphonies are notated in a musical score, which contains all the instrument parts. Orchestral musicians play from parts which contain just the notated music for their own instrument. Some symphonies also contain vocal parts.
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The Toy Symphony, Op. 62, is a symphony scored for strings, piano and toy instruments, composed by Malcolm Arnold in 1957. The instruments specified are: quail whistle, cuckoo whistle, trumpet in F, trumpet in C, trumpet in G, three dulcimers, triangle, cymbal and drum, with piano and string quartet.
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Trevor Noël Goodwin was an English music critic, dance critic and author who specialized in classical music and ballet. Described as having a "rare ability to write about music and dance with equal distinction", for 22 years Goodwin was Chief music and dance critic for the Daily Express. He held criticism posts at many English newspapers, including the News Chronicle, Truth and The Manchester Guardian among others; from 1978 to 1998 he also reviewed performances for The Times. Goodwin wrote an early history of the Scottish Ballet and was coauthor for two books: London Symphony: Portrait of an Orchestra with Hubert J. Foss and a Knight at the Opera with Geraint Evans.
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