The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra: a listening guide for kids

The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra is a piece by Benjamin Britten that introduces every instrument of the orchestra, one at a time. Britten wrote it in 1945 for a film that taught children about the orchestra. It lasts about 17 minutes. Each instrument takes a turn with its own short solo, and then they all join in a race to the finish.

It was written to show a child what each instrument sounds like, and it still does that job.

Quick facts

• Composer: Benjamin Britten, from England
• Written: 1945, for the film Instruments of the Orchestra
• Length: about 17 minutes
• Full title: Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell
• Versions: with a narrator who names each instrument, or with music alone

Where the tune comes from

Britten did not write the main tune. He borrowed it from Henry Purcell, an English composer who lived about 250 years before him. Purcell wrote it in 1695 as dance music for a play.

Britten then wrote variations on it. A variation keeps something of the tune and changes the rest: the speed, the mood, or the notes around it.

Part one: the families

The piece opens with Purcell’s tune played six times.

1. The whole orchestra
2. The woodwinds
3. The brass
4. The strings
5. The percussion
6. The whole orchestra again

In the first few minutes, a child hears all four families side by side. The guide to the four families explains what puts an instrument in each one.

Part two: one instrument at a time

Next come thirteen short variations. Britten moves through each family from the highest instrument to the lowest.

Woodwinds. The flutes and the piccolo flutter up high. The oboes play a slow, sad line. The clarinets tumble up and down. The bassoons march.

Strings. The violins play a bold dance. The violas are slower and darker. The cellos sing a rich, smooth tune. The double basses climb from the bottom with heavy steps.

The harp. It plays rippling chords, with a soft shimmer from the strings behind it.

Brass. The horns call out. The trumpets race each other. The trombones and the tuba play a grand, weighty tune.

Percussion. The timpani start. Then come the bass drum and cymbals, the tambourine and triangle, the snare drum and wood block, the xylophone, the castanets and gong, and the whip.

Part three: the fugue

For the ending, Britten wrote a fugue. In a fugue, one instrument starts a tune alone. A second joins with the same tune while the first carries on. Then a third joins, and so on.

The piccolo begins with a fast new tune. The other instruments pile in, in the same order as before. When the whole orchestra is playing, the brass bring back Purcell’s slow tune on top. Two tunes run at once, and the piece ends with the full orchestra at its loudest.

Which version to play

For a first hearing, choose a recording with a narrator. The narrator says the name of each instrument just before it plays.

For later hearings, choose a recording with no narrator, and let your child call out the names.

A video of a live orchestra adds a great deal. The camera shows each instrument as it takes its turn.

Things to do together

Fill in the chart. Print the instrument families listening chart. Tick each family as it plays in part one.

Stand up for your family. Give each person one family. Stand when your family has the tune.

High to low. In part two, ask your child to show with a hand how high or low each instrument sounds. The hand drops as each family moves from its highest to its lowest.

Name that sound. Pause after any variation. Ask which instrument played, and what it looked like.

Pick a favorite. Ask which instrument your child would most like to play, and why. Then find another piece that features it with the piece picker.

Print and play

Print the Britten fact sheet. Two other pieces teach the instruments through a story: Peter and the Wolf and The Carnival of the Animals.

If a concert is coming up, read first orchestra concert with kids. More guides are listed in classical music listening guides for kids.