CBS - Young People's Concerts - Volume 1 (1958) 3 What Does Orchestration Mean
Awarded three Emmys and hailed by Variety as “a rare moment in the symbiosis of the arts and broadcasting”, Leonard Bernstein's?Young People's Concerts?left their mark on television history. Aired at prime-time on CBS from 1958 to 1972, 52 one-hour programs were written and hosted by Leonard Bernstein, “certainly the most influential American maestro of the 20th century” (The New York Times). With the New York Philharmonic and guest artists providing live music, these programs brought musical concepts and music history to life for generations of viewers.
Part 3 What Does Orchestration Mean
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, ending with Ravel's Bolero.
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