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SUBSCRIBE: MORE Benjamin Britten Films: More Benjamin Britten films More Classical Music Films: The famous 1946 film - INSTRUMENTS OF THE ORCHESTRA, filmed & recorded in Wembley Town Hall WITH: The London Symphony Orchestra Conducted by Malcolm Sargent Narration by Eric Crozier, Montagu Slater and Benjamin Britten Music by Benjamin Britten Sponsored by the Ministry of Education & The Crown Film Unit Directed by Muir Mathieson Photographed by Fred Gamage & recorded by Ken Cameron Late in 1945, Basil Wright and the Crown Film Unit commissioned from Benjamin Britten the soundtrack for a film they were planning to be called ‘Instruments of the Orchestra’, which was to be part of a new post Second World War educational drive, initiated by Muir Mathieson and featuring the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Malcolm Sargent. Britten subsequently published the music under its more famous title A Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra. Given that the purpose of the film was to introduce a general audience, and in particular children, to the various instrumental groups of the orchestra, it was thought necessary to have what is in effect a spoken ‘narration’ to be written jointly by Eric Crozier, who had produced Britten’s sensational operatic debut Peter Grimes the previous June, and Montagu Slater who had written the opera’s libretto. Britten himself, inevitably, got involved. Britten wrote the music (a set of variations on a theme by Purcell from his opera Abdelazar) at characteristic high speed over Christmas 1945, completing the composition on New Year’s Eve, and the filming took place in Wembley Town Hall the following spring and was eventually released on November 29th 1946. The score is “affectionately inscribed (by Britten) to the children of John and Jean Maud: Humphrey, Pamela, Caroline and Virginia, for their edification and entertainment” – which tells you all you need to know about the undertaking. The black & white film is only 20 minutes long, and the ‘narration’ on this occasion is spoken by Malcolm Sargent at his most patronising. But nothing can detract from the absolute genius of the music. - TONY PALMER FIND OUT MORE: Tony Palmer:
