Whygold’s Weekend
… under this motto I present you my music tip for the weekend.
Maybe one or the other discovers something new.
Consciously listening to music is, in my opinion, as important as reading a good book.
Today: Benjamin Britten – The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kXma-ZiFxhqXYsp234NNbvEOlJo9c1kGA
The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, Op. 34, is a piece of music subtitled “Variations and
Fugue
on a Theme of
Purcell
“(Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell), written by Benjamin Britten in 1945. Originally, Britten was commissioned to write a piece for the educational film The Instruments of the Orchestra, to be directed by Muir Mathieson and produced with the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Malcolm Sargent. “The work,” says the composer, “is tenderly dedicated to the children of John and Jean Maud: Humphrey, Pamela, Caroline and Virginia, for their edification and entertainment”.
The work is one of the composer’s most famous pieces and is – together with Saint-Saëns ‘
Carnival of the Animals
and Prokofiev’s
Peter and the Wolf
– one of the three most frequently used pieces in musical education.
The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra is a work created for a large orchestra:
- woodwinds: 1 piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets in Bb and A, and 2 bassoons
- brass: 4 horns in F, 2 trumpets in C, 3 trombones (2 tenor trombones and one bass trombone), and one tuba
- Percussion instruments: timpani, a bass drum, cymbals, a tambourine, a triangle, a snare drum, a wood block, a xylophone, castanets, a gong, and a whip
- Strings and a harp: first and second violins, violas, cellos and double basses
(Source: Wikipedia)
This piece gives a very good musical overview of the individual instruments and instrumental groups in a symphony orchestra.
Have fun listening to this album !
Your Chris Weigold
P.S.: Maybe you enjoy the listening pleasure together with a glass of wine from our “Orchester der Kulturen Edition”.