These five pieces were commissioned by Mrs Marguerite N.S. Swan to be performed by teaching staff to audiences of children. The request was for pieces not exceeding three minutes in length, in a modern idiom, each piece capable of stimulating a single image (water, bird-song, machinery etc.), and not too difficult to play!

Title may be given to the pieces as seems fitting (before or after performance to the audience), and the pieces may be used for mime actions, dance or play.

In the first four pieces, temp and the duration of ‘pauses’ are determined by each player independently, except when arrow or baronies indicate a concurrence between parts. Each player will decide upon his interpretation of tempo indications to suit his own part, and the interpretation of his part to suit the character of the piece as a whole. It may be found, for instance, that all the tremolo quavers in the first piece can be played with good effect if they are played at the same tempo as the first violin plays them at the beginning. On the other hand it may not; but each player will keep his own quavers regular throughout.

Repeats are to be played several times, and continued until a cue to go on. In the fourth piece, after each player has decided upon his own ‘Allegretto’, the cello, who plays the phrases in A, B and C three times only, will lead the others to the next box. The others however will finish what they are playing before they follow the cello to the next box.