New York Philharmonic Young People's Concerts

1 Season
53 Episode

New York Philharmonic Young People's Concerts - Season 1 Episode 3 What is Orchestration?


(0 votes, average: 0.00/ 10)

48 minutes 1972 HD

  • Share

After brief introductory remarks, Bernstein conducts the finale of Rimsky-Korsakov's Capriccio espagnol and then explains what a composer must know in order to orchestrate music successfully. He compares the flute to the trumpet, and the clarinet to the viola, with examples from Debussy and Gershwin. After asking the audience to sing two notes in a variety of ways, he contrasts the families of instruments that compose an orchestra, using excerpts from Prokofiev, Hindemith, Mozart and others to illustrate, and ends with Ravel's Bolero.

Season