The Wand of Youth

The Wand of Youth Suites No. 1 & No. 2 are works for full orchestra by the English composer Edward Elgar. The titles given them by Elgar were, in full:

 THE WAND OF YOUTH
 Music to a Child's Play
        (First Suite)
         (Op. 1A:)
       (1869-1907.)

 THE WAND OF YOUTH
 Music to a Child's Play
      (Second Suite)
         (Op. 1B:)

As a boy Elgar composed some tunes for use in a play staged by the young members of the Elgar family. He noted the tunes down in a sketchbook and in 1907, four decades later, he arranged the music as the two Wand of Youth suites. Elgar also used material from some of the dance music he wrote when as a young man he was employed at what was then the Worcester City and County Lunatic Asylum, now Powick Hospital. He gave the suites the opus number 1 in recognition that they were his earliest surviving compositions, albeit now scored for full orchestra with the mature Elgar’s mastery of orchestration. Many years later Benjamin Britten followed Elgar’s precedent using his own juvenilia as the basis of his Simple Symphony.

The two suites were published by Novello & Co. in 1908.

The First Suite is dedicated 'To my friend C. Lee Williams'.

It consists of seven sections:

It was first performed at the Queen's Hall, London on 14 December 1907, conducted by Henry Wood.

It is scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets (both in B♭ & A), 2 bassoons, 4 horns in F, 2 trumpets (both in B♭ & C), 3 trombones, tuba, timpani (3), 2 percussionists (with bass drum & cymbals, triangle & snare drum), harp and string section. Not all players are employed in all sections.

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