Other Instrument Showcase Pieces

In The Composer is Dead, the various sections of the orchestra are recognized as the Detective tries to solve the murder, giving the audience a chance to specifically hear each of them. A few other pieces highlight the instruments of the orchestra in their compositions. Take a listen to these pieces as well. How does each composer use the instrument? Are the instruments used in the same way or are they different in each piece? Can you recognize the instruments more easily after listening to the pieces? Which one is your favorite?

Peter and the Wolf

Peter and the Wolf was written by Sergei Prokofiev in 1936. It tells the story of a young Russian boy who lives in a house near the forest with his grandfather. Various animals live near Peter, including a duck, a bird, and a cat. When Peter wanders into the forest, his grandfather warns him of the dangers of playing alone because a wolf might come out of the forest and attack him. Peter isn’t worried, but his grandfather takes him home and locks the gate. Soon after, a wolf does come out of the woods and eats the duck. Peter decides he needs to do something. While the bird and the cat distract the wolf, Peter lowers a rope and catches the wolf by the tail. Some hunters, who have been tracking the wolf, emerge from the forest with their guns, ready to shoot the wolf. Peter convinces them not to kill the animal, but instead take it to the local zoo. They parade the animal into town with Peter leading the way, followed by the hunters and the wolf, the cat, and finally grandfather, who, while proud Peter caught the wolf, is still grumbling because Peter didn’t listen to him. Even the duck is part of the parade, quacking from inside the wolf since it was swallowed whole.

“Tubby the Tuba”

“Tubby the Tuba” was written in 1945. The song, written by Paul Tripp and George Kleinsinger, tells the story of Tubby, a tuba in an orchestra who is sad because he never gets to sing the melody. The idea came a few years earlier when the tuba player in the band told Tripp and Kleinsinger, “You know, tubas can sing, too.” The song was first recorded in 1945. A second recording was made in 1947 that featured a sequel, “Tubby the Tuba at the Circus.”

Eventually, the song was expanded into a short concert work that featured the original song with added narration and characters. In the concert version, the narrator tells the story and introduces Peepo the Piccolo and the Frog, portrayed by the bassoon. In 1947, Tubby the Tuba became a short, animated movie featuring puppets. This film was nominated for an Oscar. There has also been a ballet version of Tubby’s story as well as an animated version made in 1975. There have been other stories including “The Further Adventures of Tubby the Tuba” and “Tubby the Tuba Meets a Jazz Band.” A full-length movie based on “Tubby the Tuba” was made in 1975. In this version, Tubby goes on an adventure to try and find his own song, on the way he meets friends and visits a forest and the circus.

The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra

In 1945, British composer Benjamin Britten was commissioned to write a piece for a documentary movie called Instruments of the Orchestra. The filmmakers wanted to present a piece of music that would show all the instruments in the orchestra and feature their specific sound and abilities. Britten based the piece on a theme by Henry Purcell, an English composer who lived in the late 1600s.

The piece opens with the entire orchestra playing the main theme. Then, the theme is played by each family of instruments, first the woodwinds, then the strings, then the brass, and ending with the percussion. Next, the instruments within each family are highlighted, generally starting with the highest pitched instrument and moving to the lowest. At the end, after everyone has had a turn, Britten uses a fugue (few-guh), a musical form that uses a short melody that is then passed from section to section, weaving the melodies together. Once each section has entered for the fugue, there is a strike on the gong. Then the brass reintroduce the original melody.

The documentary film used a narrator, which is sometimes read by the conductor. Often this piece is performed without a narrator, letting the orchestral instruments shine on their own. Jazz musician Duncan Lamont wrote a version of the piece using jazz orchestra and narrator using the same theme as Britten.

The Carnival of the Animals

In The Carnival of the Animals a chamber ensemble and piano showcase the instruments while portraying different animals. Composer Camille Saint-Saëns (Ca-me-yuh San Sahns) wrote this work in 1922. After a disastrous concert tour, Saint-Saëns spent some time alone and wrote something fun. The fourteen movement work uses the various instruments to portray different animals. Although it is now one of Saint-Saëns’ best-known works, it wasn’t published until after his death. He thought that such a silly work, meant just for fun, would damage his standing as a “serious” composer.

Carnival of the Animals, in its original form, is for a smaller musical group, consisting of two pianos, two violins, viola, cello, bass, flute and piccolo, clarinet, glass harmonic, and xylophone. The glass harmonic is a rare instrument made of a series of glass bowls or goblets that are played through friction, usually by rubbing the glass with the fingertips to create a sound. Benjamin Franklin invented several versions of the glass harmonica, including a mechanical version he called the “armonica.” Since the instrument is so rare, most groups substitute a glockenspiel or bells for it.

Throughout the work, Saint-Saëns uses different instruments, alone and in groups, to portray animals. He also uses techniques, such as trills, pizzicato (plucking instead of bowing the strings), and grace notes to help bring the animals to life. The piece is also played in a version for a full orchestra. Although Saint-Saëns worried the piece might hurt his reputation, Carnival of the Animals has become a beloved orchestral work.

Boléro

Boléro (bow-lair-oh) was written by Maurice Ravel in 1928. Ravel had been asked by dancer Ida Rubinstein to create an orchestral version of six pieces from Isaac Albéniz’ Iberia. However, someone was already working on an arrangement and copyright law prevented Ravel from creating his own version. Instead, he wrote a completely new piece based on the bolero, a Spanish dance. After coming up with the main melody, which Ravel thought had an insistent quality, he told a friend, “I’m going to try and repeat it a number of times without any development, gradually increasing the orchestra as best I can.” Boléro was initially presented as a ballet at the Paris Opera and quickly became one of Ravel’s most famous works, much to his surprise. He thought most orchestras would refuse to play it. Now, it is almost always presented only as a concert work, rather than a ballet as originally intended.

Arturo Toscanini conducted Boléro with the New York Philharmonic in 1929 where it was an instant success. The next year, while on a European tour, the orchestra played the work in Paris with Ravel in the audience. Toscanini performed the work at a much faster speed than what Ravel had intended. The two had a rather heated discussion backstage about the proper tempo of the work. In the score, Ravel writes the metronome mark at a quarter note at 66 beats per minute. He said the piece should last around seventeen minutes. Most orchestral performances last around fifteen minutes and take a faster tempo than Ravel originally indicated.

Boléro features an unchanging rhythm played by the snare drum that is repeated 169 times over the course of the piece. Above this rhythmic motive, Ravel features two eighteen measure melodies. The first is fairly straightforward, while the second has jazz elements, including syncopation and blue notes. The work is filled with tension as the melodies have more rhythmic freedom while underneath is the constant, steady drumbeat. Ravel keeps the piece interesting by having a variety of instruments play the melody line starting with the woodwinds, then moving to some small combinations of instruments, then the strings, and finally almost the entire orchestra. At the end of the work, there is a brief introduction of new percussion instruments (bass drum, cymbals, and gong) before a glissando in the trombones. Then the whole orchestra plays the snare drum rhythm before a final loud chord. Although using only a couple of melodies and one unending rhythm, Boléro remains interesting throughout due to different instruments as they are used over the course of the piece.