Exploring Benjamin Britten's The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra
Take one tune by Henry Purcell, pass it around the orchestra and then reconstruct it in a thrilling conclusion
Last updated 3rd Sep 2020
This week's Sunday Night Scala session features a complete performance of Benjamin Britten's Young Person's Guide recorded by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Hear the recording on Sunday 28 June 2020 from 8pm.
Benjamin Britten's Young Persons Guide to the Orchestra is one of a handful of work written by the British composer for which he's universal popular.
Based on a melody written by composer Henry Purcell almost 300 years before, Young Person's Guide is a set of musical variations passed between sections of the orchestra and individual instruments, before being brought back together in a thunderous rip-roaring conclusion.
Written in between mid-December and New Years Eve 1945 to accompany a film made by Crown Film Unit as an educational film distributed the then Ministry of Education, Young Persons Guide (or 'YPG' as its often affectionately referred to by student musicians) is a glorious technicolour introduction to the instruments of the orchestra.
Every instrument has a moment in the spotlight, grouped in their conventional sections - woodwind, then strings, brass, and percussion.
The piece concludes its trip around the orchestra with another variation played on a solo piccolo. Section by section joins the fray once again with the same idea before culminating in the musical depiction of a aeroplane lifting off the runway.
The film Britten's score accompanied also came with a script voiced by Sir Malcolm Sargent who conducted the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in the film.
"I am delighted that the Ministry of Education chaps approve," wrote Britten to the Crown Film Unit producer who commissioned the music from the composer. "I never really worried that it was too sophisticated for kids - it is difficult to be that for the little blighters!"
What is the correct title for Britten's Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra?
This one is for the pedants out there. But, strictly speaking Britten wrote music to accompany a film called Instruments of the Orchestra. Britten referred to The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra when the music premiered in concert form a month before the film premiere in Liverpool in November 1946. The concert work goes by the subtitle of Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Henry Purcell. When the work was first broadcast on the radio BBC announcers used to introduce by this last title, something which conductor Malcolm Sargent preferred because it was deferential, but Britten found infuriating.
What else should you listen to Britten that's like Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra?
Be sure to give Britten's Frank Bridge Variations for string orchestra a try. Especially Camerata Nordica's recording from 2014. Ramp up the seventh variation to eleven and marvel at the sound of the bows rattling on the strings. Exhilerating stuff.
When to hear Britten's Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra on Scala Radio
Britten's Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra in Sunday Night Scala featured on Sunday 28 June 2020; a complete performance given by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.