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]
The magazine cost £3.99 (with a tape) or £4.99 (with a CD) per issue.
No. | Title | Music | Length |
---|---|---|---|
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 |
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.