The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, Op. 34 (subtitle Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell) was written by Benjamin Britten in 1945 for a British Ministry of Education film, Instruments of the Orchestra; the film version (with narration by Eric Crozier) and the concert premières followed in 1946. The work was conceived as an educational demonstration of orchestral families and was quickly adopted into the concert repertoire.

Britten bases the piece on the Rondeau from Henry Purcell’s incidental music to Abdelazer: the theme is stated and then explored in a sequence of variations that spotlight individual instruments and families (woodwind, strings, brass, percussion), and the whole is reassembled in a substantial fugue that leads to a final return of Purcell’s tune. Scored for full symphony orchestra (with optional narrator) the piece runs roughly 15–18 minutes and is commonly performed without narration.