The Orchestra CD-ROM
The Orchestra is a multimedia CD for the Macintosh which will enhance your
learning in Music Appreciation and Literature. It's also a lot of fun!
Focusing on The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra. by Benjamin Britten,
it illuminates the music and the different instruments of the orchestra.
Here are its main parts:
- 1. Exploring the Music: plays The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra
and gives you a moment-by-moment, on-screen description of what you're
hearing.
- 2. Instrument Catalog: introduces the individual instruments of the
orchestra, explains how they work, and helps you become familiar with
their characteristic sounds.
- 3. The Orchestra: provides examples of interesting ways composers have
combined instruments and gives you the chance to experiment with combining instruments in an "Orchestration Lab."
- 4. Conducting: demonstrates the crucial role conductors have in
coordinating the many players of the orchestra, especially in matters of
rhythm and expression.
- 5. Britten and Company: helps you learn how to distinguish subtleties of
musical expression in units on "Dynamics" and "Tempo," and explains the
important ideas of "Fugal Process" and "Variation Technique" from a
listener's point of view.
- 6. Theme and Variations: plays the music and explains how Britten varies
his theme.
- 7. Music Guide: plays the music and gives a broad, section-by-section
view of the work as it unfolds.
- 8. Reference Guide: defines all of the program's important terms in a
Glossary, pronounces each one for you, and includes an Index to their
appearances in the CD's text.
Our class syllabus indicates specific assignments involving these eight
sections of The Orchestra CD. But don't hesitate to explore the program
as much as - or whenever - you wish!
Using The Orchestra CD-ROM
A hands-on introduction to The Orchestra CD-ROM will take place during
class time, but the program also can show you everything you need to know
in order to use it. Here are the basic steps in getting started:
- 1. Turn on the Macintosh using the power strip and press the monitor's own on-button .
- 2. Insert The Orchestra CD carefully into the computer's CD player using the player'sopen-button.
- 3. Locate our class's folder on the desktop screen and double-click on it with the mouse to open it up.
- 4. Locate The Orchestra folder inside our class's folder and double-click on it to open it up.
- 5. Double-click on Stack 1 and carefully adjust the volume on your headphones. You're all set!
- 6. Click the mouse to choose where you'd like to go in the program.
- 7. When you're finished, close all the folders you opened by clicking on their close boxes, remove The Orchestra CD from the Mac, turn off the computer, and return the CD to the desk.
Here are The Orchestra's most common on-screen control buttons and what
they do:
- Help ( ? ): explains what the various buttons do; click it the first time you use The Orchestra !
- Pause ( " ): puts the music on hold while you decide where you want to go next.
- CD Control ( O ): provides a panel that looks just like your CD player's controls.
- Close Box ( [ ] ): closes a pop-up window that has given you extra information.
- Return (<--): brings you back to where you were after a sidetrip.
- Bold text terms: may be clicked for a brief definition.
- Exit: finishes your session with the program.
Go Back to UWMC Music Page.