Benjamin Britten | Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra

UK composer Benjamin Britten’s classic educational work, “Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra,” originated “in an educational film titled Instruments of the Orchestra,” (LeoQuirk.com). “Following World War II, initiatives to better the British people included introducing public secondary schools, health and food support for underprivileged children, and widespread democratization of high art, with the goal of nourishing a moral and productive populace. To this effect, the BBC, the primary radio station of the time, maintained relatively high percentages of classical music on the air. They created such programs as orchestral concerts and music talks for schools, preceded with introductions of each instrument and their sound for recognition during the piece of music.

Britten chose to use Henry Purcell’s Rondo theme from his Abdelazer Suite as a basis for the work and, though some thought this was an easy way out of composing, his choice to reference a British composer was praised by others as a demonstration of his skill in the art of variation, and a link as being the greatest British composer since Purcell. Here is Purcell’s original theme.”

The University of Kentucky breaks down the careful introduction of each instrument family — many of which are accompanied by key changes. “The theme is first played by the full orchestra, then by the various families of instruments (woodwinds, brass, strings, percussion, and full orchestra again). Next, Britten shows off the individual instruments by having them play a variation of the theme … There are thirteen variations. Finally, the composition ends with a new tune, first introduced by the piccolo and then played in a fugue (a sort of counterpoint that Britten called “a race between the instruments”) by each of the other instruments of the orchestra until the brass instruments again play the main theme to close the work.”