Peter Jenkyns: The Little Elf for Unison voices and Piano: Voice: Vocal Work

Jenkyns’ songs for children can best be described as art songs for the youngest singers. Their ranges and technical requirements are just right for the younger age groups and their lyrics as in The Five Little Mice are perfectly gauged for their performers. NB The Five Little Mice come to a sad end in this tale courtesy of a watchful cat.Peter Jenkyns was a 20th century British composer singer and educator who wrote a series of songs for primary-aged children sensitively arranged and with appropriate lyrics. Jenkyns was the headmaster of two primary schools outside of London for whose choirs he composed songs for the St Albans’ Schools Music Festival. He wasalso a highly-regarded Gilbert and Sullivan patter-song singer and he founded a local Gilbert & Sullivan society which is still thriving.

Cobwebs is a delightful little piece taken from Fancy-Fair a collection of eight songs for young children by Peter Jenkyns. It is scored for unison Voices with Piano accompaniment but is also suitable for solo performance. English singer composer conductor and musical director Peter Jenkyns (1921-1996) wrote many of his well-known songs with children in mind for the choirs of the schools he was headmaster of to perform at the annual St. Albans Schools' Music Festival. The excellent pieces by this writer of little art songs for the under 12s are well received and much anticipated by audiences and performers alike.

Peter Jenkyns' The Little Spanish Town is an up-tempo piece for Unison Voices with Piano accompaniment and is ideal for School Choirs and assembly use.