Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet Overture is one of 11 classical pieces for advanced orchestra included in Richard Young's Comprehensive String Pedagogy & Curriculum. A portion of the proceeds of sales for all CSPC music goes to support free music education at The People's Music School.

Normally an overture is a piece played by the orchestra at the very beginning of an opera, before the curtain goes up and before the divas begin to sing. But in this case, there is no opera, no curtain, and no divas... unless we include certain conductors. It's a concert piece that was intended to stand alone, which is probably why Tchaikovsky called it a "fantasy overture." A more familiar label for this kind of orchestra piece is "tone poem" – such as Les Préludes (Liszt), Dance Macabre (Saint- Saëns), The Sorcerer's Apprentice (Dukas), plus many by Richard Strauss including Don Juan, Till Eulenspiegel, and Also sprach Zarasthustra. Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet is a musical drama that has transcended its original setting to such an extent that its "love theme" (letter "G") has been used not only in films and television commercials, but even in a popular video game! Still, the original version offered here has never lost its appeal, particularly with subscription audiences and advanced youth orchestras.
-Richard Young

Full program notes are included with the score. There are fingerings and bowings in all the string parts of every one of CSPC's pieces. These "cooked-in" technical solutions target the particular levels of the students. They are not just pragmatic but "musical."

Please note that due to a loss of source files, the PDF files of the music have been generated from scanned copies of printed parts. While every effort has been made to produce high quality parts, the limitations of scanning will result in some degradation of print quality.