     Benjamin Britten composed a work specifically to introduce the instrumental families of the orchestra.  The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra introduces two of the forms discussed above, theme and variation and fugue.  The work is not childlike despite its title.  It is a twentieth century composition based on a theme written by Henry Purcell nearly two hundred years earlier.  Listen to it as many times as you need to learn the sounds of each instrument and section.

     The two structures used in this work, theme and variations and fugue, offer an exciting introduction to the orchestra.  The theme is played, in turn, by each family in the orchestra. 
