Patchogue-Medford Library

Summer's over, and it's time to head back to school.

Which, hopefully, will include music classes, either instrumental or vocal.

Where to start?

Some composers, arguably of the more enlightened variety, recognized that music education should begin as soon as possible in an academic career. Benjamin Britten, for example, famously wrote The Young Person's Guide To The Orchestra, a compilation of variations, and a fugue, on a theme originally composed by Henry Purcell, belying its surface appearance as simply a "round robin", rote, one-by-one enumeration of the instruments of the symphony orchestra.

And, of course, there's Sergei Prokofiev's famous entry in this arena, probably the most famous one of all, Peter and The Wolf. As everyone knows, each character in the story is represented by a different instrument in the orchestra and by its own leitmotiv: the bird by a flute, the duck by an oboe, the cat by a clarinet, the grandfather by a bassoon, the wolf by horns, Peter by a string quartet, and the shooting of the hunters by the drums.

Stop by the Library's Reference Desk, call us or email us; we can help you find instructional materials on, and music for, your chosen instrument.

And, as a warmup, take a look at Suffolk Topic Guides, a project of the public libraries of Suffolk County, where you can find an introduction to the various instruments of the symphony orchestra, find information on vocal music, and get help with finding music materials at the Library.