 The selections were chosen from pieces written by the composer to his daughter, Galina Shostakovich, for her piano studies.Only six of them were originally published under this title in 1945 ; the seventh piece ("Birthday", written for his daughter's ninth birthday in 1945) was appended in 1983 to the collection.The sixth piece in the set ("Clockwork Doll") echoes the motif used in Shostakovich's first composition, his "Scherzo for Orchestra in F minor" (Op.