Powick Asylum Music

The music was not published, but the original manuscripts of instrumental parts are preserved in the collection of the Elgar Birthplace Museum.

Elgar's duties were to train and conduct the band, and he was expected to have practical knowledge of the technique of flute, oboe, clarinet, euphonium and all string instruments.

: a study of a musician, relates how, in old age, Elgar liked to deflate affectation on the part of sycophantic visitors by starting a conversation with the words "When I was at the Lunatic Asylum..."[2] For some time before his appointment as bandmaster at Powick Asylum, Elgar had already been playing his violin in occasional concerts given for the inmates.

The dances are scored (with a few exceptions) for piccolo, flute, clarinet, two cornets, euphonium, bombardon, 1st and 2nd violins, double bass and a piano.

Each dance was scored according to the instruments available at the time, so a viola part was only added to the string section in Nelly and Helcia; the piccolo was dropped from L’Assomoir and Blumine; the flute dropped from La Blonde, Helcia and Blumine; in La Blonde a trombone replaces the euphonium; and Die Junge Kokette has neither trombone or euphonium.