The Album pour enfants is a collection of 24 simple pieces for piano composed between May and July 1878. The work is dedicated to his nephew Vladimir Davydov.
The Russian Song and Kamarinskaya are based on Russian folk songs. Tchaikovsky used Italian folk melodies, for the Neapolitan Song (the tune is also used in the Napolitan Dance from the third act of the Swan Lake), the Chanson italienne and Le Joueur d’orgue de Barbarie (also the aria from Rêverie interrompue, No. 12 of the 12 Morceaux de difficulté moyenne, Op. 40). He also used the theme from the Vieille chanson française in the Choir of Minstrels in Act II of his opera The Maid of Orleans.