Final answer:
To identify the featured Western instrument family in an excerpt, the characteristics of strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion should be examined, such as how they make sound and change pitch.
Step-by-step explanation:
The student has asked which Western instrument family is featured in a specific excerpt. To determine this, we can consider the characteristics of different instrument families. String instruments, such as violins and guitars, utilize resonance in their sounding boxes to amplify the sound produced by their vibrating strings. Woodwind instruments, like clarinets and flutes, have tubes with finger holes and keys that change the length of the resonating air column to produce different notes. Similarly, brass instruments like trumpets and tubas use valves to alter the pitch of the notes produced. Percussion instruments are played by striking, shaking, or scraping, and they do not necessarily resonate the same way wind or string instruments do.