The Magical Music Box

The Magical Music Box, more commonly known as The Music Box was a British children's magazine. It ran from 1994 to 1996 in a series of 52 fortnightly serialisations. The aim of the magazine was to introduce children into classical music and to popularise this form of music among the younger generations.

The stories followed the fictional adventures of two siblings, Sarah and Jamie who find a magical music box through which they are able to enter other worlds, most commonly as spectators.[1] The stories were generally related to other children's tales or fables, including issue 38 (King Arthur & The Knights of the Round Table), issue 2 (Peer Gynt, issue 11 (Sinbad the Sailor), and issue 27 (The Imperial Robes).

The dramatisations were produced by IRDP, Independent Radio Drama Productions on request of Marshall Cavendish Partworks Ltd[2]

Features

The magazine cost £3.99 (with a tape) or £4.99 (with a CD) per issue.

  • A different fortnightly story involving the siblings Sarah and Jamie
  • A CD or tape with each issue
  • The story in spoken word with an accompaniment of classical music
  • The classical music on its own
  • History behind the stories and the music
  • Facts about the relevant composer and instruments
  • The formula for the magazine was simple. It followed the adventures of Jamie and Sarah, siblings who seemed to be magnets for danger. The stories had no sense of realism and were pure fantasy. The children seemed to be running around having adventures with no money, food or supervision. It is a pure fantasy which excited the youths imagination at the time. The music was used to construct the narrative through the adventurers and to the conclusions. That is why the magazine came with a tape or CD so you could listen to the story and the music. The magazine also had a strong educational element after each story. The narrator introduced the learner to each part of the music that had been played, and explained which instruments were used.[3]

Issues
The Magical Music Box issues
No.TitleMusicLength
1."Journey to the Stars"The Planets by Gustav Holst 
2."Hall of the Troll King"Peer Gynt Suites 1&2 by Edvard Grieg 
3."Sky Racers""Pastoral Symphony" by Ludwig van Beethoven 
4."The Wizard's Spell"Swan Lake Suite by Peter Tchaikovsky 
5."House of Terrors"Symphonie Fantastique by Hector Berlioz 
6."Daylight Robbery"Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin 
7."The River"Bolero by Maurice Ravel 
8."Night of the Aliens"Orchestral Suite by Johann Sebastian Bach 
9."The Bull Fights Back"Carmen Suites 1&2 by Georges Bizet 
10."Animal Rescue"Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saëns 
11."Sinbad and the Kraaken"Scheherazade by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov 
12."Musical Misfit"Flute and Harp Concerto by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 
13."Nightmare Gallery"Pictures at an Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky 
14."The Highwayman's Mask"Viennese Waltzes by Johann Strauss 
15."The Dell of Time"The Four Seasons by Antonio Vivaldi 
16."The Big Freeze"Violin Concerto in D by Johannes Brahms 
17."The Bowman and the Baron"Three Overtures (specifically The William Tell Overture, Overture to The Barber of Seville, and Overture to Semiramide) by Gioacchino Rossini 
18."The Valkyries"Ride of the Valkyries by Richard Wagner 
19."The Spinning Wheel"The Sleeping Beauty Suite by Peter Tchaikovsky 
20."Wagon Train West"The New World Symphony by Antonín Dvořák 

Awards

The magazine won a Gold Medal and a Grand Award Trophy for Entertainment Programming at the International Radio Festival 1994 held in New York. These were for the drama in issue four, The Wizard's Spell.

References
  1. "The full script from Issue 11". Archived from the original on 2006-09-29. Retrieved 2007-01-10.
  2. "Information on the Magical Music Box from IRDP". Archived from the original on 2006-12-09. Retrieved 2007-01-10.
  3. "Something Old: The Magical Music Box - Rediscovering Culture". Rediscovering Culture.
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