Frogs

As a student, Pärt earned pocket money by accompanying on piano the theatre club of the Tallinn Palace of the Pioneers (now the Kullo hobby centre). He came to the theatre at the invitation of Salme Lauren, who was then director of the theatre club and for whose translated, written, and staged plays Pärt composed a large amount of music in those years. Among those pieces are his earliest known works – composed more than half a century ago over the period 1956–1960, their exact dates unknown. 

Frogs was written for Lauren’s play Adventure in the Woods and they belong to Pärt’s 1960 cycle Tykes’ Songs, later titled Five Children’s Songs, as well as to the 2015 collection Songs from Childhood. Both are dedicated to his mother.

As a student, Pärt earned pocket money by accompanying on piano the theatre club of the Tallinn Palace of the Pioneers (now the Kullo hobby centre). He came to the theatre at the invitation of Salme Lauren, who was then director of the theatre club and for whose translated, written, and staged plays Pärt composed a large amount of music in those years. Among those pieces are his earliest known works – composed more than half a century ago over the period 1956–1960, their exact dates unknown. 

Frogs was written for Lauren’s play Adventure in the Woods and they belong to Pärt’s 1960 cycle Tykes’ Songs, later titled Five Children’s Songs, as well as to the 2015 collection Songs from Childhood. Both are dedicated to his mother.