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, let us hear the tune, or the theme, which is a beautiful melody by the much older British composer Henry Purcell. Here’s the Purcell’s Theme played by the whole orchestra together.
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.
Here comes the Brass family, the trumpets, the horns, the trombones and the tuba.
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.
And finally the Percussion family, all those drums and gongs and things you hit.
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.
Now Mr.Britten begins to write his variations. One for each instrument in turn. He begins at the very top of the woodwind ladder with a little piccolo and two flutes.
Coming down the woodwind ladder, we reach the oboes, which have a piercing, sad quality.
Next, the clarinets, which are so athletic - they can play almost anything. And they make a beautifully smooth, mellow sound.
Down of the bottom of the woodwind ladder are the bassoons, the largest members of the woodwind family with the deepest voices.
The next variation starts at the top of the string ladder with the violins. They play in two groups, first and second.
Violas are a bit larger than violins, so they are deeper in sound.
Cellos are even larger than violas, and their tone is rich and warm and wonderful.
And at the bottom of the string ladder, we find big heavy grumbling double basses.
The harp is the whole string ladder in itself, because it can play as high as violin and as low as double bass.
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.
The trumpets are the highest brass instruments. I guess everybody knows their sound.
The trombones have low heavy stern voices. The bass tuba is even lower and heavier, in fact, the lowest brass instrument of all.
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.
Now, the bass drum and the cymbals.
The tambourine and the triangle.
The snare drum and the Chinese block.
The xylophone.
The castanets and the gong.
And finally, the whip.
And now, altogether.
So you see, the composer Benjamin Britten has taken the whole orchestra apart. Now he puts back together again in a fugue. The instruments are coming one after another in the same order as before, beginning with the piccolo. And at the end, when all the instruments have finally come in, the brass will play all Henry Purcell’s melody while the other instruments go on play young Benjamin Britten’s fugue.
[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. [00:31.000] [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. [01:11.000] [01:33.000]Here comes the Brass family, the trumpets, the horns, the trombones and the tuba. [01:39.000] [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. [02:11.000] [02:33.000]And finally the Percussion family, all those drums and gongs and things you hit. [02:37.000] [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. [02:48.000] [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. [03:31.500] [03:53.000]Coming down the woodwind ladder, we reach the oboes, which have a piercing, sad quality. [03:58.000] [04:58.000]Next, the clarinets, which are so athletic - they can play almost anything. And they make a beautifully smooth, mellow sound. [05:05.000] [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. [05:46.000] [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. [06:40.500] [07:22.000]Violas are a bit larger than violins, so they are deeper in sound. [07:26.000] [08:12.500]Cellos are even larger than violas, and their tone is rich and warm and wonderful. [08:17.500] [09:09.000]And at the bottom of the string ladder, we find big heavy grumbling double basses. [09:14.000] [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. [10:11.000] [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. [11:01.000] [11:37.000]The trumpets are the highest brass instruments. I guess everybody knows their sound. [11:42.000] [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. [12:16.000] [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. [13:22.500] [13:35.000]Now, the bass drum and the cymbals. [13:37.000] [13:46.000]The tambourine and the triangle. [13:48.000] [13:55.000]The snare drum and the Chinese block. [13:58.000] [14:08.000]The xylophone. [14:10.000] [14:18.000]The castanets and the gong. [14:20.000] [14:29.000]And finally, the whip. [14:31.000] [14:36.000]And now, altogether. [14:38.000] [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.
