I am trying to find suitable music for children's ballet to be used in a<BR>festival. The length must be no more than 11/2 mins long or 2 mins long. I<BR>haven't entered children in a festival before so have no idea where to start<BR>looking for music. The children are in RAD grades 1, 2, 4 & 5. Also any<BR>help or info regarding festivals in NW England/N Wales would be very useful.

Welcome Yvonne. <P>tuk is in the UK, so even though he's not a fan of competitions, he may be able to help...gavin roebuck could help too, but i'm not sure he has time for posting at present....<P>i have been in your position of needing such music, and managed to solve it quite well. i'll go into more detail when i'm more awake! (later today). it really helps if there is a particularly good specialist CLASSICAL music store in your town. i went there with some specific requests, as to composers, musical styles, etc - and came home with more than i'll ever need (i HOPE!) <P>more later. meanwhile hopefully others will chime in.....

yvonne, my brain is not a whole lot clearer now than it was earlier (!) but i'd better take a stab at it, or you might get impatient...<P>i think i remember asking for pieces of the length you are after, which had a moderate tempo, and a strong clear beat. given the ages of the children you need this for, polkas will be good, so may steady waltzes.<P>quite a few chopin waltzes are suitable. they should be easy to find, but i always stay away from the very recogniseable 'ballet' ones (e.g. sylphides).<P>there are LOTS of short tchaikovsky piano pieces which don't sound too grand for young children. in particular, the Album for Children Opus 39, consists of 24 short pieces, all < 3 mins and most < 2 mins. in fact, some may be too short.<P>there is also his 'The Seasons' Opus 37b, consisting of 12 pieces all approximately 2 to 5 minutes. Arte Nova Classics released these two works together on 1 CD, played by Arkady Sevidov - worth ordering, i think you will find.<P>some ballet music from operas is useful - i found some i used by rossini.<P>i also found a few nice selections from a modern composition which was composed by carl davis for northern ballet's 'A Christmas Carol' - bot not enough that i'd suggest you go out and buy it. if you see 'Twentieth Century English Ballets' by Northern Ballet Theatre Orchestra (CD by Naxos), you might want to listen to it...<P>ross alley (ex pianist at the RBS) put out a cassette years ago, with suitable selections, mostly i think ballet music from opera - you could phone dancebooks, for example, or check their website, and see if they still sell that or know someone she does (NOT the CLASS music from opera, that's a different tape). some of the composers i remember were giorza, hervé and de wenzel.<P>good luck!<P>if you come up with anything different, maybe YOU could let US know?

The British Federation of Festivals <BR>or Sally Chennelle at The British Arts Awards should be able to give you some help.<BR>Soundsteps have some cds with suitable music which I reviewed in Dance Expression. Lots of cds of class music have items the right length on them try arts-books.com they have a very good service - tell them I said so.<P>I great piece is Victoria and Merrie England a complete ballet by Sir Arthur Sullivan a marco polo cd<P>Slaraffenland by Knudage Riisager. has good short items.<P>How about some of the short variations from Pugni's Esmeralda? Though perhaps it is best to stay away from well known classics unlesss doing the original choreography.<P>Czech,Oskar Nedball composed music inspired by the great storyteller Anderson ideal for children available on a Supraphon cd.<BR>David Lyon on Marco Polo cd has some lovely suitable ballet music.<BR>Mendelssohn songs without words usually about 2 mins or less are good. <P>Be sensitive if cutting music to fit a time.<BR>Hope this is of some help.

thanks gavin - great input!<P>(p.s. gavin - do you know that arts-books.com are loking for performance reviewers?)

thanks yes I am a reviewer for their products..I just havn't got round to it yet

ah! so YOU got the job i wanted! i love reviewing boks and CD's etc - because it's the only way i can get them, inasmuch as i can never afford to BUY any!!!!!! but it seems they are only looking for performance reviewers, from the impression i got from their email, so i backed off from that idea. do enough of that already! and it's 'work' to me, not fun, so i'm not about to add that to all my chores - at least, not for nothing! <p>[This message has been edited by grace (edited October 14, 2000).]