Blog

I'm currently working on "The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra" by the British composer, Benjamin Britten.  Britten is known more as an opera composer than a purely orchestral composer.  His most famous opera (well one of them) is Peter Grimes, which he wrote for the Boston Symphony's Tanglewood program.

What amazes me about the Young Person's Guide is that he wrote a set of theme and variations on a theme of Henry Purcell. There's no doubt that with the narration, the piece is supposed to be an introduction to the instruments of the orchestra, but what amazes me is that without the narration, the piece also works as a "pure" piece of music.