Preliminary Listening Selections: Britten's YPGTO by section
"YPGTO" stands for Young Person's Guide To The OrchestraColor coded orchestra: strings, woodwinds, brass, percussion
Each section of the orchestra are wearing different colored shirts, aiding in identification.
The conductor is Sir Simon Rattle, one of the foremost conductors in the world today, currently the main conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.
More detailed YPGTO - three videos w/ pictures to match with sounds/instruments
Two minute overviewMany very specific instruments - 10 minutes worth!
Conclusion: Instruments coming in one-at-a-time w/ pictures!
Other overviews of the Orchestra worth watching
From the movie Titanic, here is an example of a french horn solo:French Horn playing the theme from "Titanic"
Here is a flute solo played by a seven year-old girl. She's quite good! Some much older people can't play this very well. Additionally, the composer of the flute solo is a woman named Cecile Chaminade!! I don't think she is very closely related to the priest who founded the Marianists.
Concertino for Flute and Piano by Cecile Chaminade
Here is a fellow playing an oboe solo composed by Richard Strauss
Oboe solo with small orchestra
Here is a bassoon solo
Young woman playing a bassoon solo for her doctoral recital
Here is a trio playing English horn, harp, and flute. Notice the harp is playing a part that a piano could also play. Look closely at the English horn. Unlike the oboe, it has very little taper, and it also has a bulb shaped bell at the end. Its sound is less nasel and more mellow than an oboe. It usually doesn't play passages as high as an oboe. Sometimes it is called a cor anglais and an oboe is called a hautbois (high wood).
English horn with harp and flute
One of the most famous clarinet solos is at the beginning of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. Notice the clarinet looks something like an oboe, but it has a single reed in the mouthpiece that vibrates against the plastic of the mouthpiece. This clarinetist is very good at sliding his notes -- not the easiest thing to do with a clarinet!
Start of Rhapsody in Blue for clarinet solo
Some listeners find the high pitch of the piccolo difficult to take. It can be heard over a big orchestra simply because its pitch is so astronomically high. One of the most famous solos for this instrument takes place in John Philip Sousa's famous march, The Stars and Stripes Forever. In this selection, a musician at West Point plays it at two different concerts. It's pretty clear that the second rendition is at a concert attended by a bunch of rowdy but appreciative soldiers! There is a young organist named Cameron Carpenter who can play this same solo WITH HIS FEET on the organ's foot pedals!
Stars and Stripes Forever piccolo solo
The most important instruments in the orchestra are the strings. In fact, it's possible to have an orchestra with all strings and no other instruments. If you have an "orchestra" with all the other instruments but NO strings, then that is called a Concert Band or a Symphonic Band.
Here's the highest string in the orchestra, the violin. It's the most important of all the strings in the orchestra. While this selection is not "flashy," it is very beautiful.
Joshua Bell, arguably the best young violinist in the world, playing "Casta Diva," a violin solo from Bellini's opera, "Norma."
Here are solos for the other strings. Notice the pitch is lower in each case: viola, cello, contrabass.
Viola solo of a Tchaikovsky piece. At times the viola almost sounds like a cello.
Jacqueline du Pre, a fantastic cellist who died too young.
Upright bass solo - bass overdubbing and covering a Red Hot Chili Peppers song, "Can't Stop Upright Bass"
In the preceding video, you get a very good close up of the horsehair in a bow at about 1:16.
