The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra (Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell) is a piece written by Benjamin Britten in 1946. The piece has woodwinds, brass, percussion and strings. The piece goes through all the families, and each section has different instruments playing the variation. The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra is 16 minutes long and 33 seconds, and it begins in a minor key which is played by the fill orchestra. The medium of the composed piece is a full symphonic orchestra. The piece is a formed through theme and variation, and throughout the piece they key changes between minor and major keys.
Variation one consists of the woodwind family, where the violin, harp, and triangle were added in during the solo. The first variation was peaceful, and reminded me of the forrest. The flutes and piccolos sounded like singing birds in the forrest, while violin had a way of smoothing the variation out. The transition to the second variation was very subtle and gentle. The strings had a way of carrying on the sound, until the solo oboe came in. During variation two , the timpani has a nice way of complementing the strings. When the strings had a crescendo, the timpani accompanied them to help the strings raise in sound.
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While the tube played rigid notes, the clarinets played a sweeping sound. The notes would go up, then come back down, while the strings accompanied them. The transition into variation four was quite harsh as well, but went into a soothing solo by the bassoons. The section made me think of a group marching to and fro. Then Variation five made me think of a different time, a time of ball room dancing. The strings were heavily featured in this section, while the brass and bass drum kept a back beat for the