Villa-Lobos: "The Little Train" (04:27)

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Leonard Bernstein conducts the New York Philharmonic. This episode will feature music played with unusual orchestral instruments.

"The Little Train": Examination (05:38)

Heitor Villa-Lobos incorporates a ganza, chocalhos, raganella, and reco-reco. Bernstein describes how traditional musical instruments make train-sounds. The New York Philharmonic plays the composition.

Period Instruments (04:45)

The Shawm is an ancestor of clarinets and oboes. Three musicians play De La Torre's "Alta," music for a 400-year-old Spanish dance.

"Canzone for Eight Instruments" (04:59)

Bernstein conducts the New York Philharmonic brass section, a coronetto, and three sackbuts in the Giovanni Gabrieli composition.

Bach: "Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 in G Major": I. (11:21)

Hearing old and modern musical instruments together helps sound comparisons. New York Pro Musica specializes in period instruments. Compare traditional and modern instrumentation in the Johann Sebastian Bach composition.

New Instruments (03:40)

The saxophone and mellophone have been in use for a century. Electronic musical inventions include the theremin and ondes martenot. Bernstein plays several sounds with an oscillator.

"Concerto for Tape-Recorder and Orchestra" (09:45)

Bernstein conducts the world premiere of the Vladimir Ussachevsky and Otto Luening composition.

"Concerto for a Singing Instrument" (06:42)

Kazoos create an unusual sound. Bernstein conducts the New York Philharmonic and Anita Darian in the premiere of the final movement in the Mark Bucci composition.

Credits: Unusual Instruments (00:57)

Credits: Unusual Instruments