Waltz, Op. 39 No. 15

Contents: J.S. Bach: Minuet in F • Beethoven: Little Rondo in G, Minuet in G • Behr: French Child's Song, Op. 575, No. 1; In May, Op. 575, No. 2 • Bishop: Home, Sweet Home • Brahms: Cradle Song; Hungarian Dance No. 6; Waltz, Op. 39, No. 15 • Carnival of Venice • Chopin: Cantabile from Fantaisie Impromptu; Military Polonaise, Op. 40, No. 1; Nocturne, Op. 9, No. 2; Valse Brillante, Op. 18, No. 1 • Cougill: Wood Magic • Deep River • Eckstein: The Three Trolls • Endres: In a Sailboard, Singing Birds • Fichandler: Talking it Over • Foster: Old Black Joe, Old Folks at Home • Gurlitt: The Fair, Op. 101, No. 8 • Handel: Largo, Sarabande • Haydn: Serenade • Home on the Range • Hopson: Dancing Buttercups • King: Banjo Pranks, Pony Trot, With Flying Colors • Liszt: Liebestraum, No. 3 • Mendelssohn: Song Without Words • Mozart: Minuet from Don Giovanni, Turkish March • Rolseth: Arpeggio Waltz, Op. 35, No. 4; The Ballet-Dancer, Op. 40, No. 6; The Dancing Lesson, Op. 39, No. 1; Norwegian Country Dance, Op. 40, No. 8 • Rubinstein: Melody in F • Saxton: Teddy Bear March • Schubert: Dance from Rosamunde • Schumann: The Merry Farmer, Traumerei • Seuel-Holst: Singing Bells, Op. 21, No. 1; Three-and-Twenty Pirates, Op. 21, No. 5 • Short'nin' Bread • Strauss: Pizzicato Polka, Tales from the Vienna Woods • Streabbog: Little Fairy Waltz, Op. 105, No. 1 • Swing Low, Sweet Chariot • Tchaikovsky: Marche Slave, Op. 31; Nocturne, Op. 19, No. 4; Romance, Op. 5; Waltz of the Flowers • Turkey in the Straw • Wigham: Old Cowboy Trail.

In 1952 I was writing some duets for one piano to play with a friend, and Lincoln Kirstein suggested that I orchestrate them for a ballet. Commissioned by Ballet Society, the suite consists of a waltz, schotische, pas de deux, two-step, hesitation-tango, and galop. One might imagine a divertissement in a setting reminiscent of the Palm Court of the Hotel Plaza in New York, the year about 1914, epoch of the first tangos: "Souvenirs" - remembered with affection, not in irony or with tongue in the cheek, but in amused tenderness. S. B.