Elfin's Revels

Elfin’s Revels, Op. 80, is a musical fantasy composed around a short narrative of frolicking gnomes and dancing fairies. In 1800s England, elves were depicted as small, supernatural beings connected to nature and magic. They often appeared in children's literature and illustrations as playful, helpful spirits.

Catharina Josepha Pratten (1824 - 1895), also known as Madame Sidney Pratten, was a distinguished German guitarist, composer, and teacher who spent most of her career in England. She was born to guitarist Ferdinand Pelzer and began touring Europe at a young age. Pratten married flautist Robert Sidney Pratten in 1854 and established a successful guitar school in London. She composed approximately 250 works and published influential guitar instruction books. Pratten regularly gave concerts at Steinway Hall and the residences of notable patrons like the Duchess of Newcastle. Princess Louise, whose mother was Queen Victoria, was a devoted pupil and patron of Madame Pratten and frequently attended her concerts. Pratten performed many of her own compositions at these concerts, among which Elfin’s Revels was an audience favourite. It may have been inspired by The Elfin Revel, a poem by fellow Londoner John George Watts.

John George Watts, born in 1828, was an English working-class poet, editor, and children's writer. He attended a charity school and initially worked in a furrier’s warehouse before becoming a porter and later a business owner at Billingsgate Fish Market in London. Watts took literature lectures at King’s College from 1860 to 1862. His notable works include "Clare, the Goldseeker, the Elfin Revel and Other Poems" (1858), "Fun, Feeling, and Fancy" (1861), "Pictures of English Life" (1864), and "The Blacksmith’s Daughter, and other poems" (1874). He also edited the illustrated anthology "Lays for Little Folk" (1867).​