The Young Person's Guide To The Orchestra, Op. 34: Themes A-F

In order to show you how a big symphony orchestra is put together,

Benjamin Britten has written a big piece of music,

which is made up of smaller pieces

that show you all the separate parts of the orchestra.

These smaller pieces are called variations,

which means different ways of playing the same tune.

First of all, he lets us hear the tune or the theme,

which is a beautiful melody

by the much older British composer Henry Purcell.

Here is Purcell's theme played by the whole orchestra together.

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Now, Mr. Britten lets you hear the four different families of the orchestra

playing the same Purcell theme in different ways.

First, we hear the woodwind family.

The flutes, the oboes, the clarinets and the bassoons.

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Here comes the brass family.

The trumpets, the horns, the trombones and the tubas.

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Now, Mr. Britten arranges the Purcell theme for the string family.

The violins, the violas, the cellos and the double basses.

And of course, the harp.

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And finally the percussion family,

all those drums and gongs and things you hit.

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After this, you will hear the theme by Purcell played once more

in its original form by all four families together.

That is, the whole orchestra.

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