The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra

The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, Op. 34, is a piece of music with the subtitle " Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell ", in German " Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell ," which Benjamin Britten wrote in 1946. Originally Britten was commissioned to write a piece for the educational film The Instruments of the Orchestra, under the direction Muir Mathiesons with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted, should be produced by Malcolm Sargent. The plant is one of the most famous pieces of the composer, and together with Saint -Saëns' The Carnival of the Animals and Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf, one of the three pieces of the most commonly used in the musical education of children.

"The work ," says the composer, " is the children of John and Jean Maud tenderly devoted to: Humphrey, Pamela, Caroline and Virginia, for their edification and entertainment."

Occupation

The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra is a work that was created for a large orchestra:

• Woodwind: 1 piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets in B and A, and 2 bassoons

• Brass: 4 horns in F, 2 trumpets in C, 3 trombones (2 tenor trombones and one bass trombone), and a tuba

• Percussion: Timpani, a bass drum, cymbals, a tambourine, a triangle, a snare drum, a wood block, xylophone, castanets, a gong, and a whip

• Strings and harp, first and second violins, violas, cellos and double basses

Structure

The work is based on the Rondo from the Abdelazer Suite ( also Abdelazar ) by Henry Purcell, and is structured in terms of the planned documentary as a way to show the tone colors and capacities of different parts of an orchestra. Parts borrowed from Georges Bizet's L' Arlesienne Suite it No. 2

To introduce the topic once played by the entire orchestra, then by each instrument group once: First, the woodwinds, the brass, the strings and finally the percussion.

Then, each variation is treated in detail in a single instrument, in the same order of groups of instruments as well as previously the subject and moves normally by each group from high to low. For instance, plays in the first variation, the piccolo and flutes play a role; then each member of the woodwind receives a variation until the group ends with the bassoon.

After the whole orchestra played on this path its variations, it comes in a joint back together, starting with the piccolo, followed in turn by the woodwind, strings, brass and percussion. After each instrument was added, the brass, initiated by a gong start again with Purcell's original melody, while the remaining instruments continue the joint until the piece comes to an end after it has built up to a fortissimo.

The structure of the piece and the instruments introducing variations are as follows:

Companion count

The narrative for the documentary was written by Britten 's friend Eric Crozier and is sometimes spoken during the performance of the play by a separate speaker or the conductor. Britten also arranged a version without narration, which is preferred for recordings.