One of Hanson's last works, this very short ballet suite was written

for the Chautauqua Ballet in 1979. The orchestration excludes flutes

and oboes, and the brass are reduced to 2 trumpets and 2 horns. The

ballet comprises three sections played without a break. The Prelude

and Fantasy is a pastoral tone poem, in which happiness and longing

are deeply intertwined. The Scherzo is based on a happy, catchy tune.

The Epilogue opens like the beginning of the Prelude, but the

intensity diminishes and the atmosphere becomes introspective,

tapering off to the quiet ending.

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