''Sinfonietta for Children'' (

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

: こどものための小交響曲 ''Kodomo no tame no shō-kōkyōkyoku'') in B, Op. 24 (1943) is an orchestral composition by Japanese composer Saburō Moroi. Written throughout October 1943 in the midst of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, the work was premiered by the Tokyo Broadcast Orchestra with Moroi conducting on 5 November 1943, just five days after the completion.

Instrumentation and Movements

Scored for double winds, brass, timpani and strings, the Sinfonietta is a neoclassical triptych consisting of a

sonata form Sonata form (also ''sonata-allegro form'' or ''first movement form'') is a musical structure generally consisting of three main sections: an exposition, a development, and a recapitulation. It has been used widely since the middle of the 18th c ...

opening, a

minuet A minuet (; also spelled menuet) is a social dance of French origin for two people, usually in time. The English word was adapted from the Italian ''minuetto'' and the French ''menuet''. The term also describes the musical form that accomp ...

and a mournful finale, marked: # '' Allegro grazioso'' # ''Andantino quasi allegretto'' # ''Lento affabile''

Recordings

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra The National Symphony Orchestra (NSO; previously known as RTÉ Symphony Orchestra and the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra) is the largest professional orchestra in Ireland. Housed at the National Concert Hall, Dublin, since January 2022, it used ...

—

Takuo Yuasa is a Japanese conductor. Biography Takuo Yuasa was born in Osaka, Japan, where he studied piano, cello, flute, and clarinet. At age 18, he received a scholarship to study in the US at the University of Cincinnati, eventually completing a bachel ...

, 2002. Naxos Records.

Reception

Gwin Parry-Jones from Musicweb International gave a positive review of the work following Naxos' release, highlighting the elegiac finale (''haunting, moving music'') as its most appealing movement while praising the charm, inventiveness and orchestration of the Allegro grazioso. Hubert Culot from the same website wrote a more lukewarm review while highlighting the work's melodic charm. Victor Carr Jr. from Classics Today, praising Moroi's music as ''stimulating and often very beautiful'', relates the composition to 19th-century French music with its ''tuneful melodies, light textures, breezy flow, and lush orchestral palette''.

References

;Notes ;Sources * * * * Compositions by Saburō Moroi 1943 compositions

Moroi A moroi (sometimes moroii in modern fiction; pl. ''moroi'') is a type of vampire or ghost in Romanian folklore. A female moroi is called a moroaică (pl. ''moroaice''). In some versions, a moroi is a phantom of a dead person which leaves the grav ...

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