Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra by Benjamin Britten app
AVCO Productions developed the iPad app ‘Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra by Benjamin Britten‘ for the Britten Pears Foundation on schedule, to budget and in a short development cycle of 6 months.
AVCO worked closely with illustrator Sara Fanelli and Britten Pears to create an engaging app for children to help them learn about the orchestra and the music of Benjamin Britten.
The app includes the Aural Quiz, the Personality Quiz, the Fugue Game, the Variations Game, an interactive guide to the orchestra, an interactive picture book with audio excerpts, a video of the full performance and an active reduced score of the full 17 minute piece, conducted by Sir Mark Elder and performed by the Royal Northern College of Music.
The active score includes bespoke technology that enables the dynamic auditioning of a musical recording, synchronised with a music score in realtime. This can be applied to any recorded music. The sound and score are synched to each bar entry with the ability to make further granular adjustments.
Features
- Full recording of Benjamin Britten’s The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra
- Witty and vibrant illustrations by Sara Fanelli, and animations
- Specially devised games and quizzes to enhance an understanding of the music
- Beautifully produced scrolling short score based on Britten’s original manuscript
- A new narration accompanying the music
- Entertaining videos of the performance and instrumentalists
- Simply and directly written sections on the instruments of the orchestra and Benjamin Britten’s life
- Recordings of some of Britten’s early works
- Archive photographs
The App includes: The Active Score – even if you don’t read music, you can enjoy the patterns the notes make and see which instruments are playing as you listen to the orchestra. Or watch the video of the performance. Be your own narrator and read the commentary as the music plays!
The Aural Quiz – how well do you know the instruments of the orchestra?
The Personality Quiz – a light-hearted way of thinking about your personality and those of the different instruments. You may get an idea of which instrument you would like to play!
The Variation Game – you can compose your own variations and get an idea of some of the choices a composer makes.
The Fugue Game – introduces you to a musical form called a fugue and shows you how it works. You can create your own version of Britten’s fugue by rearranging it in lots of different ways.
The Orchestra Pages – provide a detailed look at the instruments of the orchestra. Listen and read about them. Meet the players from the Royal Northern College of Music and Sir Mark Elder.
The BB Pages – find out about Benjamin Britten’s life, his childhood and how he came to write The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra. Enjoy the family snapshots and recordings of some of his earliest works.
This app was created to celebrate the centenary of Benjamin Britten’s birth by the Britten Pears Foundation in collaboration with the Royal Northern College of Music.
