The Music for Little Strings is a 5 movement suite for string orchestra. The movements are a robust opening Allegro, followed by a misterious muted scherzo, a slow movement exploring odd scales, a pizzicato movement and a final Elegy. The dedication is to Gladys Barnes (featured in the pizzicato movement as GB). She was my first violin teacher and the conductor of a junior string orchestra named after her house in Chesterfield - the Hazeldene Junior String Orchestra. This was my very first experience of strings playing (or trying to play) together. Exciting and bewildering experiences. In MFLS all the "wrong note" scales are meant to be reminiscent of the exotic keys we had to practice for AB exams. The first four notes of the piece are of course the first notes a beginner violinist tries to play with a stencil on the fingerboard to help them. The rest alludes to some of my favourite composers for strings, although none are quoted directly. Sir Michael Tippett’s Little Music for Strings of course - its just an obvious play on words really. Britten of course - for the open strings - although what was ever simple about the "Simple Symphony" still eludes me. Holst of course - for writing string music for young players, The Ostinato movement in the St Paul’s Suite remains for me one of the hardest second violin parts ever written. Bartok of course - for all the adventurous harmonies and major/minor thirds. The double bass part, added later, is optional although personally I prefer it included. None of the parts go beyond 3rd position and there are no divisi so it could easily be played as a string quartet. Jules Riley October 2016