All About the Symphony Orchestra and What it Plays

This book presents the wonderful world of the symphony orchestra:

• The players and their instruments—strings, wood winds, percussion, and brass
• The conductor, who leads the players and interprets the music
• The great composers of past and present
• The outstanding forms of orchestral music—overture, suite, concerto, symphony, and tone poem

Dorothy Berliner Commins, composer and concert pianist, is an ideal guide to this musical world. Thomas Scherman, founder and conductor of the Little Orchestra Society, has contributed a stimulating foreword.

Illustrated with handsome drawings by Warren Chappell and superb photographs by Constantine Manos. All About the Symphony Orchestra is a book for all young musicians and music lovers.

—from the dust jacket

Here is the wonderful world of the symphony orchestra: the conductor, the players, and their instruments; the great composers of the past and present; the outstanding forms of orchestral music (overture, suite, concerto, symphony, tone poem).

"A good introduction to this world of music," says Thomas Scherman, founder and conductor of the Little Orchestra Society, "is a good book about it. Dorothy Berliner Commins is particularly well qualified as concert pianist, composer, teacher, and author for the role of guide.

"This book will, I believe, make young readers even more eager to hear great music–and, in so doing, to explore the world of the symphony orchestra."

—from the book