Guide to Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra
Composers through the years have taken a child's interest into learning about the instruments of the orchestra. Prokofiev wrote Peter and the Wolf, Britten wrote Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, even more recent composers like John Lithgow and Paul Dooley have created inspiring works to introduce these musical families! In this post, I'll give an outline of how you can use Britten's guide in your homeschool! First, play a piece of music from Henry Purcell (a composer from the 1600s!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVivtti-n-w This theme inspired Benjamin Britten (a composer from the 1900s!) to compose themes using each instrument and each family of the orchestra. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vbvhU22uAM My suggestion is not to listen to the entire piece in one sitting. Use visuals of the orchestra in sections like this: Then, listen to each family with Britten's guide. The time stamps below coordinate with the video of the symphony orchestra above.