Though more quirky than remarkable, the ten little pieces that comprise William Walton's Duets for Children exhibit the same variety of character and edgy spirit heard in more familiar works (such as the famous Façade from 1923). The duets were composed in 1940 and dedicated to the composer's niece and nephew. Ostensibly performable by adolescent pianists, the duets nonetheless do pose some minor challenges, particularly with regards to balance. Still, they fall within the range of students and exhibit a kind of endearing wit not frequently encountered in works meant for performance by children.

The collection begins with a bit of self-conscious irony. The melodic material in the first piece, "The Music Lesson," takes place over a simple scalar exercise that occasionally trips up and oversteps itself, passing over a note or extending past its upper limit. As suggested by its title, "The Three-Legged Race," the second piece in the series is cleverly pictorial. Its sing-song tune is set against weighted off-beats performed by the player at the low end of the piano, meant to depict the awkward, lumbering double-footfalls of the race participants. No. 3 in the series, "The Silent Lake," takes on a decidedly different tone; marked adagio, its pedal drones meditate within A minor, colored by occasional and striking dissonances; the simple melody repeatedly makes a plaintive stepwise ascent, gradually altering itself as it goes. Walton initiates another shift of character with the lively "Pony Trap," and yet another with No. 5, "Ghosts," in which eerie scalar material wavers between major and minor mode, creating pointedly dissonant half-step relations.

As in "The Three-Legged Race," No. 6, "Hop Scotch," musically mimics the physical gestures of children's play. Moving at a fair clip in a somewhat bumpy 5/8 meter, its melodic motion and intermittent rests depict the quick hops and strategic skips of the jumper. Walton gives the next piece, "Swing Boats," the curious marking of "Deliberately Joyful," a mood which is immediately mellowed by the melodic simplicity of No. 8, "Song at Dusk." The penultimate number, "Puppets' Dance," is perhaps the trickiest piece in the collection, with challenging rhythms in the lower part and a few moments of figurational and harmonic acrobatics on the part of the upper player. The "Trumpet Tune" which ends the series assumes a regal air flavored by occasional harmonic detours.

Shortly after original rendering for piano four-hands of Duets for Children, the ten pieces were arranged for orchestra and reordered slightly to form a suite titled Music for Children. A later version also appeared in 1949 for piano solo.

© Jeremy Grimshaw, All Music Guide