The Toy Symphony, Op. 62, is a symphony scored for strings, piano and toy instruments, composed by

Malcolm Arnold Sir Malcolm Henry Arnold (21 October 1921 – 23 September 2006) was an English composer. His works feature music in many genres, including a cycle of nine symphonies, numerous concertos, concert works, chamber music, choral music and music ...

1957 1957 ( MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1957th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 957th year of the 2nd millennium, the 57th year of the 20th century, and the 8th y ...

. The instruments specified are: quail whistle, cuckoo whistle (doubling guard's whistle), trumpet in F (playing four notes), trumpet in C (one note), trumpet in G (one note), three dulcimers (1; F & C: 2; D & A: 3; B flat & F), triangle, cymbal and drum, with piano and string quartet. The piece was first performed at a Savoy Hotel fund raising dinner in London on 28 November 1957 by a group of eminent composers, musicians and personalities: Denis Truscott (who was Lord Mayer of London in 1957), Thomas Armstrong,

Edric Cundell Edric Cundell (29 January 1893 – 19 March 1961) was a British music teacher, composer and conductor. Early life and academic career Born in London, Edric Cundell came from a musical family: his grandmother worked in Paris as an opera singer an ...

, W Greenhouse Alt (Edinburgh organist, 1889–1969), Gerard Hoffnung, Eileen Joyce, Steuart Wilson, George Baker, David McBain (director,

Royal Military School of Music The Royal Military School of Music (RMSM) trains musicians for the British Army's fourteen regular bands, as part of the Royal Corps of Army Music. Until August 2021, the school was based at Kneller Hall in Twickenham, however it moved to HMS ...

Leslie Woodgate Hubert Leslie Woodgate (15 April 190018 May 1961) was an English choral conductor, composer, and writer of books on choral music. He was born in London, and educated at Westminster School and the Royal College of Music. During the 1920s, he was ...

Eric Coates Eric Francis Harrison Coates (27 August 1886 – 21 December 1957) was an English composer of light music and, early in his career, a leading violist. Coates was born into a musical family, but, despite his wishes and obvious talent, his pa ...

(just three weeks before his death) and Astra Desmond, with the Amici String Quartet and Joseph Cooper, piano. It was conducted by the composer. The work is dedicated to the Musicians Benevolent Fund. A score was published in 1958 by Paterson. There are three brief movements, with a total running time of less than ten minutes. I. Allegro
II. Allegretto
III. Vivace Although Arnold's ''Toy Symphony'' is a modest piece in musical terms when compared to his nine numbered symphonies, as Vincent Budd has pointed out, "the 'big tune' is just as much a winner as the many memorable themes in many concert works". For years it was the only Arnold Symphony not to have received a professional, commercial recording until a performance by the

Orchestra of the Swan Orchestra of the Swan is a British professional chamber orchestra based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. It is Resident Orchestra at the Royal Birmingham ConservatoireThe Courtyard Hereford Warwick Hall and the Stratford Play House with reg ...

conducted by Tom Hammond was issued in February 2020 by Orchard Classics. Arnold took his precedent from the 18th century Toy Symphony which has typically been attributed to

Leopold Mozart Johann Georg Leopold Mozart (November 14, 1719 – May 28, 1787) was a German composer, violinist and theorist. He is best known today as the father and teacher of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and for his violin textbook ''Versuch einer gründlichen ...

, and which similarly uses toy instruments, including nightingale and cuckoo whistles, trumpet, ratchet and drum. There are other toy symphonies by (for instance) Bernhard Romberg (first published 1852),

Carl Reinecke Carl Heinrich Carsten Reinecke (23 June 182410 March 1910) was a German composer, conductor, and pianist in the mid-Romantic era. Biography Reinecke was born in what is today the Hamburg district of Altona; technically he was born a Dane, as ...

(1895), Joseph Horovitz, whose ''Jubilee Toy Symphony'' was composed in 1977 for the

Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II The Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II marked the Silver jubilee, 25th anniversary of the accession of Queen Elizabeth II on 6 February 1952. It was celebrated with large-scale parties and parades throughout the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth o ...

and also first performed by a well-known group of musical personalities, and (deploying custom musical toys as electronic controllers) Tod Machover (2002).Johnson, Edmond T. 'Toy Instrument (USA)' in ''Grove Music Online'' (2001).

References

External links

Simon Rattle conducts the Haringey Youth Symphony Orchestra in the ''Toy Symphony'', late 1990s
{{Malcolm Arnold Toy Symphony 1957 compositions