March and Clowns

Kabalevsky's best-known light pieces come from two sources: the suite The Comedians, op. 26, drawn in 1940 from incidental music for Mark Daniel's children's play The Inventor and the Comedians, and the album Twenty-Four Pieces for Children, op. 39, which contains the miniature Clowns. Both circulate in orchestral arrangements, and programmes pairing a march with the clown music are common in concerts for young audiences. Kabalevsky spent much of his career on music education, chairing the Soviet commission on musical instruction and writing deliberately for children rather than around them.