There is a children’s story from Russia about a boy called Peter, his grandfather, a cat, a bird, a duck, a wolf and some hunters. The story is special because it is told not just in words but in music, too. Each character is matched to an instrument of the orchestra. Whenever you hear the instrument, you picture the character it represents. Three of the characters are played by reed instruments — the clarinet, the oboe and the bassoon. These are the three main reed instruments in the orchestra.

The clarinet

The sleek, black cat is played by the clarinet, which is a single-reed instrument. You can see a picture of one on the left. The clarinet can jump easily from high to low notes, play very loudly or very quietly, and move fast or slow. The low sounds are rich and velvety, the high ones piercing and bright.

The oboe

The quacking duck is played by the oboe. The oboe can move very quickly from sound to sound, too. Its low sounds are raucous and reedy, its high ones thin and penetrating. This is possible because the oboe has two reeds which vibrate against each other, exactly like the shawm. The instrument on the right is an oboe.

The bassoon

The bassoon’s tubing is four times as long as that of the oboe. The tube is so long, in fact, that it is folded, like most of the brass instruments. As you can see from this picture, the bell points upwards above the player’s head rather than down. It makes a lower sound than the other reed instruments. People say that some of its notes can sound like the human voice. Perhaps that’s why the bassoon plays the voice of Peter’s grumbling grandfather.

The story and its music were written in 1936 by a Russian composer named Sergei Prokofiev. It is called Peter and the Wolf Perhaps you can find a recording of it and listen to what happens in the story. Do you think Prokofiev chose the right instruments for his characters?

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dodoBrass, Music Box, Music Equipments, Music Genres, Music Software, Musical Instruments, Woodwinds5 Nov, 2008