The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra facts for kids
The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra is a famous piece of music written by Benjamin Britten in 1945. Its full name is Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell. Britten based it on a tune called "Rondeau" from a piece by Henry Purcell.
This music was first made for a British film called Instruments of the Orchestra. The film came out in 1946 and showed how an orchestra works. Malcolm Sargent conducted the London Symphony Orchestra in the film. He also led the first live performance of the music in Liverpool, England, in 1946.
The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra is one of Britten's most well-known works. It is often compared to other musical pieces that teach about instruments, like Saint-Saëns' The Carnival of the Animals and Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf.
Contents
What Instruments Are Used?
The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra uses a full symphony orchestra. This means it has many different types of instruments.
- Woodwind Instruments: These include the piccolo, flute, oboes, clarinets, and bassoons.
- Brass Instruments: You'll hear horns, trumpets, trombones, and the tuba.
- Percussion Instruments: These are instruments you hit, shake, or scrape. They include timpani, bass drum, cymbals, tambourine, triangle, snare drum, woodblock, xylophone, castanets, tamtam, and a whip.
- String Instruments: These are played with a bow or plucked. They include the harp, violins, violas, cellos, and double basses.
How the Music Is Structured
The piece is built around a main tune, or "theme," from Henry Purcell. Britten uses this tune to show off all the different sounds of the orchestra.
The Theme and Instrument Families
First, the main tune is played by the whole orchestra. Then, each main group of instruments plays the tune by themselves:
- The woodwinds play it.
- Then the brass instruments play it.
- Next, the string instruments play it.
- Finally, the percussion instruments play it.
Variations: Meeting Each Instrument
After the main tune, Britten creates many "variations." A variation is like a new version of the same tune. Each variation focuses on a specific instrument or a small group of instruments. This helps you hear what each one sounds like.
The variations usually go from the highest-sounding instruments to the lowest within each family. For example:
- Variation A: Flutes and Piccolo
- Variation B: Oboes
- Variation C: Clarinets
- Variation D: Bassoons
- Variation E: Violins
- Variation F: Violas
- Variation G: Cellos
- Variation H: Double basses
- Variation I: Harp
- Variation J: French horns
- Variation K: Trumpets
- Variation L: Trombones and tuba
- Variation M: Percussion instruments (like Timpani, Bass drum, Cymbals, Tambourine, Triangle, Snare drum, woodblock, Xylophone, Castanets, Tam-tam, and Whip)
The Fugue: Putting It All Together
After all the instruments have had their solo moment, Britten brings them back together. He uses a special musical form called a fugue. In a fugue, instruments enter one by one, playing a new tune.
The fugue starts with the piccolo. Then, all the other woodwinds, strings, brass, and percussion join in, one after another. Once everyone is playing, the brass instruments play Purcell's original main tune again. This brings the whole orchestra back together in a grand finish!
Narration
The words spoken during the documentary film were written by Eric Crozier. Sometimes, a conductor or a speaker will say these words during a live performance of the music. This helps explain what is happening as you listen.
Benjamin Britten also made a version of the music without any speaking. This version is often recorded more often.
In 2013, a new narration was written by Simon Butteriss for a special event. Comedian John Hodgman also wrote a new narration in 2015 for performances with the Boston Pops Orchestra.
