[00:00.001]In order to show you how a big symphony orchestra is put together
[00:04.001]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.
[00:12.000]These smaller pieces are called variations, which means different ways of playing the same tune.
[00:18.000]First of all, let us hear the tune, or the theme, which is a beautiful melody by the much older British composer Henry Purcell.
[00:26.000]Here’s the Purcell’s Theme played by the whole orchestra together.
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[00:59.000]Now Mr.Britten lets you hear the four different families of the orchestra playing the same Purcell theme in different ways.
[01:06.000]First, we hear the woodwind family, the flutes, the oboes, the clarinets and the bassoons.
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[01:33.000]Here comes the Brass family, the trumpets, the horns, the trombones and the tuba.
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[02:01.000]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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[02:33.000]And finally the Percussion family, all those drums and gongs and things you hit.
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[02:41.000]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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[03:21.500]Now Mr.Britten begins to write his variations. One for each instrument in turn.
[03:27.000]He begins at the very top of the woodwind ladder with a little piccolo and two flutes.
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[03:53.000]Coming down the woodwind ladder, we reach the oboes, which have a piercing, sad quality.
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[04:58.000]Next, the clarinets, which are so athletic - they can play almost anything. And they make a beautifully smooth, mellow sound.
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[05:39.000]Down of the bottom of the woodwind ladder are the bassoons, the largest members of the woodwind family with the deepest voices.
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[06:33.000]The next variation starts at the top of the string ladder with the violins. They play in two groups, first and second.
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[07:22.000]Violas are a bit larger than violins, so they are deeper in sound.
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[08:12.500]Cellos are even larger than violas, and their tone is rich and warm and wonderful.
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[09:09.000]And at the bottom of the string ladder, we find big heavy grumbling double basses.
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[10:05.000]The harp is the whole string ladder in itself, because it can play as high as violin and as low as double bass.
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[10:54.000]When Mr.Britten comes to the Brass ladder, he begins right in the middle of it with the horns, which can also be very high and very low.
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[11:37.000]The trumpets are the highest brass instruments. I guess everybody knows their sound.
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[12:07.000]The trombones have low heavy stern voices. The bass tuba is even lower and heavier, in fact, the lowest brass instrument of all.
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[13:14.000]There is an enormous number of Percussion instruments, we can’t play them all, but here are the most familiar ones.First, the kettledrums, often called timpani.
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[13:35.000]Now, the bass drum and the cymbals.
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[13:46.000]The tambourine and the triangle.
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[13:55.000]The snare drum and the Chinese block.
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[14:08.000]The xylophone.
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[14:18.000]The castanets and the gong.
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[14:29.000]And finally, the whip.
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[14:36.000]And now, altogether.
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[14:50.000]So you see, the composer Benjamin Britten has taken the whole orchestra apart.
[14:55.000]Now he puts back together again in a fugue.
[14:58.000]The instruments are coming one after another in the same order as before, beginning with the piccolo.
[15:04.000]And at the end, when all the instruments have finally come in, the brass will play all Henry Purcell’s melody
[15:10.000]while the other instruments go on play young Benjamin Britten’s fugue.