The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra Benjamin Brittten

The work

Following the 1944 Education Act, music became part of the British school curriculum

ritten composed late in 1945, fresh from the phenomenal success of his first full-scale opera . Yet, significantly, he was first approached to compose his didactic masterpiece well before rehearsals for had begun. Not yet a celebrated opera composer, Britten was respected for his music for documentaries, having in the 1930s scored approaching 30 such films, including his legendary collaboration with WH(1936). What became  was originally written for a 20-minute film featuring Malcolm Sargent and the LSO; this was to be Britten’s last and most celebrated film score.