Benjamin Britten The Young Personís Guide to the Orchestra, Op. 34	Theory Things   William Wieland
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Please listen to NAXOS recording BIS-CD-420 of Benjamin Britten's The Young Personís Guide to the Orchestra, Op. 34.
As you listen to the piece, please list the instruments in the order they play the melody and make a one or two word description of the orchestration. I will collect your lists. Please do not read recording notes or look at a score. Try to identify the timbres by ear.
The subtitle of this piece, Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell, perhaps describes the work better. The composition is a six-fold statement of the theme featuring the four orchestral choirs, followed by 13 variations, each devoted to a different instrument or group of instruments. The piece ends with a fugue in which the instruments enter in the same order as the 13 variations, cadencing with a majestic orchestration of the theme.