Interesting facts about the symphony orchestra. Orchestral genres and forms

Music is, first of all, sounds. They can be loud and quiet, fast and slow, rhythmic and not so…

But each of them, each sounding note in a certain way affects the consciousness of a person listening to music, his state of mind. And if this is orchestral music, then it certainly cannot leave anyone indifferent!

Orchestra. Types of orchestras

An orchestra is a collective group of musicians who play musical instruments, works that are designed specifically for these instruments.

And from what this composition is, the orchestra has different musical possibilities: in terms of timbre, dynamics, expressiveness.

What types of orchestras are there? The main ones are:

• symphonic;
• instrumental;
• orchestra of folk instruments;
• wind;
• jazz;
• pop.

There is also a military band (performing military songs), a school band (which includes schoolchildren), and so on.

Symphony Orchestra

This type of orchestra contains string, wind and percussion instruments.

There is a small symphony orchestra and a large one.

Maly is the one that plays the music of composers of the late 18th - early 19th centuries. His repertoire may include modern variations. A large symphony orchestra differs from a small one by adding more instruments to its composition.

The composition of the small necessarily contains:

• violins;
• alto;
• cellos;
• double basses;
• bassoons;
• horns;
• pipes;
• timpani;
• flutes;
• clarinet;
• oboe.

The big one includes the following tools:

• flutes;
• oboes;
• clarinets;
• contrabassoons.

By the way, it can include up to 5 instruments of each family. And also in the large orchestra there are:

• horns;
• trumpets (bass, small, alto);
• trombones (tenor, tenorbass);
• tube.

And, of course, percussion instruments:

• timpani;
• bells;
• small and big drum;
• triangle;
• plate;
• Indian tom-tom;
• harp;
• piano;
• harpsichord.

A feature of a small orchestra is that there are about 20 string instruments in it, while in a large one there are about 60.

The conductor directs the symphony orchestra. He artistically interprets the work performed by the orchestra with the help of the score - a complete musical notation of all parts of each instrument of the orchestra.

Instrumental orchestra

This type of orchestra differs in its form in that it does not have a clear number of musical instruments of certain groups. And also he can perform any music (unlike a symphony orchestra, which performs exclusively classical).

There are no specific types of instrumental orchestras, but conventionally they include a variety orchestra, as well as an orchestra performing classics in modern processing.

According to historical information, instrumental music began to actively develop in Russia only under Peter the Great. She, of course, had Western influence on herself, but she was no longer under such a ban as in earlier times. And before it came to such a point that it was forbidden not only to play, but to burn musical instruments. The Church believed that they had neither soul nor heart, and therefore they could not glorify God. And therefore instrumental music developed mainly among the common people.

They play in an instrumental orchestra on a flute, lyre, cithara, flute, trumpet, oboe, tambourine, trombone, pipe, nozzle and other musical instruments.

The most popular instrumental orchestra of the 20th century is the Paul Mauriat Orchestra.

He was its conductor, leader, arranger. His orchestra played a lot of popular musical works of the 20th century, as well as his own composition.

Folk Orchestra

In such an orchestra, the main instruments are folk.

For example, for a Russian folk orchestra, the most typical are: domras, balalaikas, psaltery, button accordions, harmonicas, zhaleika, flutes, Vladimir horns, tambourines. Also, additional musical instruments for such an orchestra are a flute and an oboe.

A folk orchestra first appeared at the end of the 19th century, organized by V.V. Andreev. This orchestra toured a lot and gained wide popularity in Russia and abroad. And at the beginning of the 20th century, folk orchestras began to appear everywhere: in clubs, at palaces of culture, and so on.

Brass band

This type of orchestra suggests that it includes various wind and percussion instruments. It comes in small, medium and large.

jazz orchestra

Another orchestra of this kind was called a jazz band.

It consists of such musical instruments: saxophone, piano, banjo, guitar, percussion, trumpets, trombones, double bass, clarinets.

In general, jazz is a direction in music that has developed under the influence of African rhythms and folklore, as well as European harmony.

Jazz first appeared in the southern United States at the beginning of the 20th century. And soon spread to all countries of the world. At home, this musical direction developed and was supplemented by new characteristic features that appeared in one region or another.

At one time in America, the terms "jazz" and "popular music" had the same semantic meaning.

Jazz orchestras began to actively form in the 1920s. And they remained so until the 40s.

As a rule, participants entered these musical groups as early as adolescence, performing their specific part - memorized or from notes.

The 1930s are considered the peak of glory for jazz orchestras. The leaders of the most famous jazz orchestras at that time were: Artie Shaw, Glenn Miller, and others. Their musical works sounded everywhere at that time: on the radio, in dance clubs and so on.

Nowadays, jazz orchestras and melodies written in the jazz style are also very popular.

And although there are more types of musical orchestras, the article discusses the main ones.

woodwind instruments

Flute (It. flauto, French flute, German Flote, English flute)

The flute is one of the oldest instruments in the world, known since ancient times - in Egypt, Greece and Rome. Since ancient times, people have learned to extract musical sounds from a cut reed, closed at one end. This primitive musical instrument was apparently the distant ancestor of the flute. In Europe in the Middle Ages, two types of flute became widespread: straight and transverse. The straight flute, or "tipped flute", was held straight ahead, like an oboe or clarinet; oblique, or transverse - at an angle. The transverse flute turned out to be more viable, as it was easy to improve. In the middle of the 18th century, it finally replaced the straight flute from the symphony orchestra. At the same time, the flute, along with the harp and harpsichord, became one of the most beloved home music instruments. The flute, for example, was played by the Russian artist Fedotov and the Prussian king Frederick II.

The flute is the most mobile woodwind instrument: in terms of virtuosity, it surpasses all other wind instruments. An example of this is the ballet suite "Daphnis and Chloe" by Ravel, where the flute actually acts as a solo instrument.

The flute is a cylindrical tube, wooden or metal, closed on one side - at the head. There is also a side hole for air injection. Playing the flute requires a lot of air consumption: when blown in, part of it breaks on the sharp edge of the hole and leaves. From this, a characteristic sibilant overtone is obtained, especially in a low register. For the same reason, sustained notes and wide melodies are difficult to play on the flute.

Rimsky-Korsakov described the sonority of the flute as follows: "The timbre is cold, most suitable for melodies of a graceful and frivolous nature in major, and with a touch of superficial sadness in minor."

Composers often use an ensemble of three flutes. An example is the dance of the shepherdesses from Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker..

Oboe (German: Oboe)

In antiquity of its origin, the oboe competes with the flute: it traces its lineage to the primitive flute. Of the ancestors of the oboe, the Greek aulos was most widely used, without which the ancient Hellenes could not imagine either a feast or a theatrical performance. The ancestors of the oboe came to Europe from the Middle East.

In the 17th century, an oboe was created from a bombarda - a pipe-type instrument, which immediately became popular in the orchestra. It soon became a concert instrument as well. For almost a century, the oboe has been the idol of musicians and music lovers. The best composers of the 17th and 18th centuries - Lully, Rameau, Bach, Handel - paid tribute to this hobby: Handel, for example, wrote concertos for the oboe, the difficulty of which can confuse even modern oboists. However, at the beginning of the 19th century, the "cult" of the oboe in the orchestra faded somewhat, and the leading role in the woodwind group passed to the clarinet.

According to its structure, the oboe is a conical tube; at one end of it is a small funnel-shaped bell, at the other - a cane, which the performer holds in his mouth.

Thanks to some design features, the oboe never loses its tuning. Therefore, it has become a tradition to tune the entire orchestra to it. In front of a symphony orchestra, when the musicians are gathering on the stage, it is not uncommon to hear the oboist playing in A in the first octave, and the other performers fine-tuning their instruments.

The oboe has a mobile technique, although it is inferior in this respect to the flute. It is more of a singing than a virtuoso instrument: as a rule, its domain is sadness and elegiac. This is how it sounds in the theme of swans from the intermission to the second act of "Swan Lake" and in the simple melancholic tune of the second part of Tchaikovsky's 4th symphony. Occasionally, the oboe is assigned "comic roles": in Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty, for example, in the variation of "The Cat and the Kitty", the oboe amusingly imitates the cat's meow.

Bassoon (It.fagotto, German Fagott, French bassoon, English bassoon)

The ancestor of the bassoon is considered to be the old bass pipe - bombarda. The bassoon that replaced it was built by canon Afragno degli Albonesi in the first half of the 16th century. A large wooden pipe bent in half resembled a bundle of firewood, which is reflected in the name of the instrument (the Italian word fagotto means "bundle"). The bassoon conquered his contemporaries with the euphony of the timbre, who, in contrast to the hoarse voice of the bombarda, began to call him "dolcino" - sweet.

In the future, while retaining its external outlines, the bassoon underwent serious improvements. From the 17th century, he entered the symphony orchestra, and from the 18th century - into the military. The conical wooden trunk of the bassoon is very large, so it is "folded" in half. A curved metal tube is attached to the top of the instrument, on which a cane is put on. During the game, the bassoon is hung on a string around the performer's neck.

In the 18th century, the instrument enjoyed great love among contemporaries: some called it "proud", others - "gentle, melancholy, religious". Rimsky-Korsakov defined the color of the bassoon in a very peculiar way: "The timbre is senilely mocking in major and painfully sad in minor." Bassoon performance requires a lot of breathing, and forte in a low register can cause extreme fatigue for the performer. The functions of the tool are very diverse. True, in the 18th century they were often limited to supporting stringed basses. But in the 19th century, with Beethoven and Weber, the bassoon became the individual voice of the orchestra, and each of the subsequent masters found new properties in it. Meyerbeer in "Robert the Devil" forced the bassoons to portray "death laughter, from which frost is tearing at the skin" (the words of Berlioz). Rimsky-Korsakov in "Scheherazade" (a story by Prince Kalender) discovered a poetic narrator in the bassoon. In this last role, the bassoon performs especially often - that is probably why Thomas Mann called the bassoon a "mockingbird". Examples can be found in the "Humorous Scherzo" for four bassoons and in Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf", where the bassoon is assigned the "role" of Grandfather, or at the beginning of the finale of Shostakovich's Ninth Symphony.

contrabassoon

Varieties of the bassoon are limited in our time to just one representative - the counterbassoon. It is the lowest range instrument of the orchestra. Lower than the limiting sounds of the contrabassoon, only the pedal basses of the organ sound.

The idea to continue the bassoon scale downward appeared a long time ago - the first counterbassoon was built in 1620. But it was so imperfect that until the end of the 19th century, when the instrument was improved, very few people turned to it: occasionally Haydn, Beethoven, Glinka.

The modern contrabassoon is an instrument bent three times: its length in expanded form is 5 m 93 cm (!); in technique it resembles a bassoon, but is less agile and has a thick, almost organ-like timbre. Composers of the 19th century - Rimsky-Korsakov, Brahms - usually turned to the counterbassoon to enhance the bass. But sometimes interesting solos are written for him. Ravel, for example, in "The Conversation of the Beauty and the Beast" (the ballet "My Mother the Goose") entrusted him with the voice of the monster.

Clarinet (It. clarinetto, German Klarinette, French clarinette,)

If the oboe, flute and bassoon have been in the orchestra for more than four centuries, then the clarinet firmly entered it only in the 18th century. The ancestor of the clarinet was a medieval folk instrument - the flute "chalumo". It is believed that in 1690 the German master Denner managed to improve it. The upper register of the instrument struck contemporaries with its sharp and piercing timbre - it immediately reminded them of the sound of a pipe, which was called at that time "clarino". The new instrument was named clarinetto, which means "little trumpet".

In appearance, the clarinet resembles an oboe. It is a cylindrical wooden tube with a coronet-shaped bell at one end and a cane-tip at the other.

Of all the woodwinds, only the clarinet has the flexibility to change the volume of the sound. This and many other qualities of the clarinet have made it one of the most expressive voices in the orchestra. It is curious that two Russian composers, dealing with the same plot, acted in exactly the same way: in both "The Snow Maiden" - Rimsky-Korsakov and Tchaikovsky - Lel's shepherd tunes are entrusted to the clarinet.

The timbre of the clarinet is often associated with gloomy dramatic situations. This area of ​​expressiveness was "discovered" by Weber. In the "Wolf Valley" scene from "Magic Shooter" he first guessed what tragic effects are hidden in the low register of the instrument. Later, Tchaikovsky used the eerie sound of low clarinets in The Queen of Spades at the moment when the Countess's ghost appears.

Small clarinet.

The small clarinet came to the symphony orchestra from the military brass. It was first used by Berlioz, who entrusted him with the distorted "beloved theme" in the last movement of the Fantastic Symphony. The small clarinet was often used by Wagner, Rimsky-Korsakov, R. Strauss. Shostakovich.

Basset horn.

At the end of the 18th century, the clarinet family was enriched with one more member: the basset horn appeared in the orchestra - an old variety of the alto clarinet. In size it surpassed the main instrument, and its timbre - calm, solemn and matte - occupied an intermediate position between the usual and bass clarinet. He stayed in the orchestra for only a few decades and owed his heyday to Mozart. It was for two basset horns with bassoons that the beginning of the "Requiem" was written (now the basset horns are being replaced by clarinets).

An attempt to revive this instrument under the name of the alto clarinet was made by R. Strauss, but since then it seems to have had no repetitions. Nowadays, basset horns are included in military bands.

Bass clarinet.

The bass clarinet is the most "impressive" member of the family. Built at the end of the 18th century, it won a strong position in the symphony orchestra. The shape of this instrument is quite unusual: its bell is bent upwards, like a smoking pipe, and the mouthpiece is mounted on a curved rod - all this in order to reduce the exorbitant length of the instrument and facilitate its use. Meyerbeer was the first to "discover" the enormous dramatic power of this instrument. Wagner, starting with "Lohengrin", makes him a permanent bass woodwind.

Russian composers often used the bass clarinet in their work. So, the gloomy sounds of the bass clarinet are heard in the 5th picture of the "Queen of Spades" at the time when Herman is reading Liza's letter. Now the bass clarinet is a permanent member of a large symphony orchestra, and its functions are very diverse.

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Brass

Saxophone

The creator of the saxophone is the outstanding Franco-Belgian instrumental master Adolf Sax. Sachs proceeded from a theoretical assumption: is it possible to build a musical instrument that would occupy an intermediate position between woodwinds and brass? Such an instrument, capable of linking the timbres of copper and wood, was in great need of the imperfect military brass bands of France. To implement his plan, A. Sachs used a new construction principle: he connected a conical tube with a clarinet reed and an oboe valve mechanism. The body of the instrument was made of metal, the external outlines resembled a bass clarinet; flared at the end, strongly bent upwards tube, to which is attached a cane on a metal tip, bent in the shape of "S". Sachs' idea was brilliantly successful: the new instrument really became the link between brass and woodwinds in military bands. Moreover, its timbre turned out to be so interesting that it attracted the attention of many musicians. The coloring of the saxophone sound is reminiscent of the English horn, clarinet and cello at the same time, but the sound power of the saxophone far exceeds the sound power of the clarinet.

Having begun its existence in the military brass bands of France, the saxophone was soon introduced into the opera and symphony orchestra. For a very long time - several decades - only French composers turned to him: Thomas ("Hamlet"), Massenet ("Werther"), Bizet ("Arlesienne"), Ravel (instrumentation of Mussorgsky's Katrinok from an Exhibition). Then the composers of other countries also believed in him: Rachmaninov, for example, entrusted the saxophone with one of his best melodies in the first part of the Symphonic Dances.

It is curious that on its unusual path the saxophone had to face obscurantism: in Germany during the years of fascism it was banned as an instrument of non-Aryan origin.

In the tenth years of the 20th century musicians of jazz ensembles paid attention to the saxophone, and soon the saxophone became the "king of jazz".

Many composers of the 20th century appreciated this interesting instrument. Debussy wrote Rhapsody for saxophone and orchestra, Glazunov - Concerto for saxophone and orchestra, Prokofiev, Shostakovich and Khachaturian repeatedly referred to him in their works.

French horn (it. corno, German Waldhorn, French cor, English french horn)

The progenitor of the modern horn was the horn. From ancient times, the signal of the horn announced the beginning of the battle, in the Middle Ages and later - until the beginning of the 18th century - it was heard at hunting, competitions and solemn court ceremonies. In the 17th century, the hunting horn was occasionally introduced into the opera, but it was not until the next century that it became a permanent member of the orchestra. And the very name of the instrument - horn - recalls its past role: this word comes from the German "Waldhorn" - "forest horn". In Czech, this instrument is still called the forest horn.

The metal tube of the old French horn was very long: when unfolded, some of them reached 5 m 90 cm. It was impossible to hold such an instrument straightened in the hands; therefore, the horn pipe was bent and given an elegant shell-like shape.

The sound of the old horn was very beautiful, but the instrument turned out to be limited in its sound capabilities: it was possible to extract only the so-called natural scale, that is, those sounds that arise from dividing the column of air contained in the tube into 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, etc. parts. According to legend, in 1753 the Dresden horn player Gampel accidentally put his hand into the bell and discovered that the horn's tuning had dropped. Since then, this technique has been widely used. Sounds obtained in this way were called "closed". But they were deaf and very different from the bright open ones. Not all composers often risked turning to them, usually satisfied with short, well-sounding fanfare motives built on open sounds.

In 1830, the valve mechanism was invented - a permanent system of additional tubes that allows you to get a full, good-sounding chromatic scale on the horn. A few decades later, the improved French horn finally replaced the old natural one, which was last used by Rimsky-Korsakov in the opera May Night in 1878.

The horn is considered the most poetic instrument in the brass group. In the low register the timbre of the horn is somewhat gloomy, in the upper register it is very tense. The horn can sing or slowly tell. The horn quartet sounds very soft - you can hear it in the "Waltz of the Flowers" from Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker" ballet.

Trumpet (It. tromba, German Trompete, French trompette, English trumpet)

Since ancient times - in Egypt, in the East, in Greece and Rome - they could not do without a trumpet either in war or in solemn cult or court ceremonies. The trumpet has been part of the opera orchestra since its inception; Monteverdi's Orpheus had already sounded five trumpets.

In the 17th and the first half of the 18th century, very virtuosic and high-pitched parts were written for trumpets, the prototype of which were the soprano parts in the vocal and instrumental compositions of that time. To perform these most difficult parts, musicians of the time of Purcell, Bach and Handel used natural instruments common in that era with a long pipe and a mouthpiece of a special device that made it possible to easily extract the highest overtones. A trumpet with such a mouthpiece was called "clarino", the same name was given in the history of music and writing style for it.

In the second half of the 18th century, with a change in orchestral writing, the clarino style was forgotten and the trumpet became predominantly a fanfare instrument. It was limited in its possibilities like a French horn, and was in an even worse position, since the "closed sounds" expanding the scale were not used on it because of their bad timbre. But in the thirties of the 19th century, with the invention of the valve mechanism, a new era began in the history of the pipe. It became a chromatic instrument and, after several decades, replaced the natural trumpet from the orchestra.

The timbre of the trumpet is not characterized by lyrics, but the heroism he succeeds in the best possible way. Among the Viennese classics, trumpets were a purely fanfare instrument. They often performed the same functions in the music of the 19th century, announcing the beginning of processions, marches, solemn festivities and hunts. Wagner used pipes more than others and in a new way. Their timbre is almost always associated in his operas with chivalrous romance and heroism.

The trumpet is famous not only for its sound power, but also for its outstandingvirtuoso qualities.

Tuba (it.tuba)

Unlike other representatives of the brass group of wind instruments, the tuba is a rather young instrument. It was built in the second quarter of the 19th century in Germany. The first tubas were imperfect and were initially used only in military and garden orchestras. Only when it got to France, in the hands of the instrumental master Adolphe Sax, did the tuba begin to meet the high requirements of the symphony orchestra.

The tuba is a bass instrument capable of reaching the lowest end of the range in the brass group. In the past, its functions were performed by the serpent, a bizarrely shaped instrument that owes its name to it (in all Romance languages, the serpent means "snake") - then the bass and contrabass trombones and the ophicleide with its barbaric timbre. But the sound qualities of all these instruments were such that they did not give the brass band a good, stable bass. Until the tuba appeared, the masters stubbornly searched for a new instrument.

The dimensions of the tuba are very large, its tube is twice as long as the tube of the trombone. During the game, the performer holds the instrument in front of him with the bell up.

The tuba is a chromatic instrument. The air consumption on the tube is enormous; sometimes, especially in forte in a low register, the performer is forced to change his breath on each sound. Therefore, solos on this instrument are usually quite short. Technically, the tuba is movable, although heavy. In an orchestra, she usually serves as bass in a trio of trombones. But sometimes the tuba acts as a solo instrument - so to speak, in characteristic roles. Thus, while instrumenting Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" in the play "Cattle", Ravel entrusted the bass tuba with a humorous image of a rumbling cart dragging along the road. The tuba part is written here in a very high register.

Trombone (It., English, French trombone)

The trombone takes its name from the Italian word for trumpet, tromba, with the magnifying suffix "one": trombone literally means "trumpets". And indeed: the trombone tube is twice as long as that of the trumpet. Already in the 16th century, the trombone received its modern form and since its inception has been a chromatic instrument. The full chromatic scale is achieved on it not through the mechanism of valves, but with the help of the so-called backstage. The backstage is a long additional tube, shaped like the Latin letter U. It is inserted into the main tube and lengthens it if desired. In this case, the system of the instrument decreases accordingly. The performer pushes the wings down with his right hand, and supports the instrument with his left.

Trombones have long been a "family" consisting of instruments of various sizes. Not so long ago, the trombone family consisted of three instruments; each of them corresponded to one of the three voices of the choir and received its name: trombone-alto, trombone-tenor, trombone-bass.

Playing the trombone requires a huge amount of air, since the movement of the wings takes more time than pressing the valves on a horn or trumpet. Technically, the trombone is less mobile than its neighbors in the group: the scale on it is not so fast and clear, the forte is a bit heavy, the legato is difficult. Cantilena on a trombone requires a lot of tension from the performer. However, this instrument has qualities that make it indispensable in the orchestra: the sound of the trombone is more powerful and masculine. Monteverdi in the opera "Orpheus" perhaps for the first time felt the tragic character inherent in the sound of a trombone ensemble. And starting with Gluck, three trombones became obligatory in an opera orchestra; they often appear at the climax of a drama.

The trombone trio is good at oratorical phrases. Since the second half of the 19th century, the trombone group has been supplemented by a bass instrument - the tuba. Together, three trombones and a tuba form a "heavy brass" quartet.

A very peculiar effect is possible on the trombone - glissando. It is achieved by sliding the backstage at one position of the performer's lips. This technique was known even to Haydn, who in the oratorio "The Four Seasons" used it to imitate the barking of dogs. Glissando is widely used in modern music. The deliberately howling and rude glissando of the trombone in the Saber Dance from Khachaturian's ballet Gayane is curious. The effect of a trombone with a mute is also interesting, which gives the instrument an ominous, bizarre sound.

Flugelhorn (German Flugelhorn, from Flugel - “wing” and Horn - “horn”, “horn”)

Brass musical instrument. Outwardly, it is very similar to a pipe or cornet-a-piston, but differs from them in a wider scale and a conical bore, starting immediately from the mouthpiece of the pipe. Has 3 or 4 valves. Used in jazz ensembles, sometimes in a symphony orchestra, less often in brass bands. Flugelhorns are often played by trumpeters, performing the necessary passages on this instrument.

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Violin (It. violino, French violon, English violin, German Violine, Geige)

The violin is rightly called a descendant of other, earlier bowed stringed instruments.

The first bowed instrument - the fidel - appeared in Europe in the 10th-11th centuries,the other - zhiga - becamefavorite musical instrument of French minstrels, itinerant singers and musicians of the 12th and 13th centuries. After some time, fidels, rebecs and gigi gave way to the old viols: viola da gamba, viola da bardone, viola quinton - the place of which, in turn, was taken by violins. They appeared in France and Italy already at the beginning of the 16th century, and shortly after that the art of bow making spread throughout Europe. They began to be made in Tyrol, Vienna, Saxony, Holland and England, but Italy was famous for the best violins. In Brescia and Cremona - two small towns in the north-east of the country - outstanding masters worked more than five centuries ago: Gasparo Bertolotti (nicknamed de Salo) in Brescia and Andrea Amati in Cremona. The art of making violins has been passed down from generation to generation, and for two hundred years the Amati, Guarneri and Stradivari families have created instruments that are still considered among the best.

The form of the violin was determined as early as the 16th century and since then has changed only in details.

Everything that is said about the technique of strings refers specifically to the violin: it is the mostmobile and flexible instrument among stringed. Its technical capabilities grew along with the art of such virtuosos as Vitali, Torelli and Corelli in the 17th century,and later - Tartini,Viotti, Spohr, Viettan, Berio, Wienyavsky, Sarasate, Ysaye and, of course, N. Paganini. He mastered the amazing art of playing double notes, chords, pizzicato, harmonics. When during a concert his strings broke, he continued to play the remaining ones.

An irresistible effect is given by the violin solo performing the main theme - Rimsky-Korsakov's "Scheherazade" can be cited as an example.

For all its qualities, the violin, along with the piano, has long played a leading role among solo concert instruments.

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Drums

timpani (It.timpani, French timbales, German Pauken)

The timpani is one of the most ancient instruments in the world. Since ancient times, they have been widespread in many countries: in the East and Africa, in Greece, in Rome and among the Scythians. By playing the timpani, people accompanied important events in their lives: holidays and wars.

In Europe, small, manual timpani have long existed. Medieval knights used them while on horseback. Large timpani entered Europe only in the 15th century - through Turkey and Hungary. In the 17th century, timpani entered the orchestra.

Modern timpani outwardly resemble large copper cauldrons on a stand, covered with leather. The skin is pulled tight over the cauldron with several screws. They hit the skin with two sticks with soft round tips made of felt.

Unlike other percussion instruments with leather, timpani produce a sound of a certain pitch. Each timpani is tuned to a certain tone, therefore, in order to get two sounds, a pair of timpani began to be used in the orchestra from the 17th century. Timpani can be rebuilt: for this, the performer must tighten or loosen the skin with screws: the greater the tension, the higher the tone. However, this operation is time consuming and risky during execution. Therefore, in the 19th century, masters invented mechanical timpani, quickly tuned using levers or pedals.

The role of the timpani in the orchestra is quite diverse. Their beats emphasize the rhythm of other instruments, forming either simple or intricate rhythmic figures. Rapidly alternating strikes of both sticks (tremolo) produce an effective build-up or thunder reproduction. Haydn also depicted thunderous peals with the help of timpani in The Four Seasons. Shostakovich in the Ninth Symphony makes the timpani imitate the cannonade. Sometimes timpani are assigned small melodic solos, as, for example, in the first movement of Shostakovich's Eleventh Symphony.

Snare drum (It.tamburo (military), French tambour(military), German Trommel, English side drum)

The snare drum is basically a military instrument. It is a flat cylinder covered with leather on both sides. Strings are stretched under the skin from the underside; responding to the blows of the sticks, they give the sound of the drum a characteristic crackle. The drum beat sounds very interesting - tremolo with two sticks, which can be brought to the utmost speed. The strength of the sound in such a tremolo varies from a rustle to a thunderous crackle. The overture to Rossini's "The Thieving Magpie" begins with a shot of two snare drums, a dull shot of the snare drum is heard at the moment of the execution of Till Ulenspiegel in a symphonic poem by Richard Strauss.

Sometimes the strings under the lower skin of the drum are lowered, and they stop responding to the beats of the sticks. This effect is equivalent to the introduction of a mute: the snare drum loses its sound power. So it sounds in the dance section "Prince and Princess" in "Scheherazade" by Rimsky-Korsakov.

The snare drum first appeared in the small opera in the 19th century, and at first it was introduced only in military episodes. Meyerbeer was the first to take the snare drum out of the military episodes in the operas The Huguenots and The Prophet.

In some cases, the snare drum becomes the "protagonist" not only in large symphonic episodes, but also in the whole work. An example is the "invasion episode" from Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony and Ravel's "Bolero", where one and then two snare drums hold the entire rhythmic pulse of the music.

Bass drum (It. gran casso, French grosse caisse, German grobe Trommel, English bass drum).

Nowadays there are two types of bass drum. One of them is a metal cylinder of large diameter - up to 72 cm - covered with leather on both sides. This type of bass drum is widely used in military bands, jazz bands, and American symphony bands. Another type of drum is a hoop with leather on one side. It appeared in France and quickly spread to the symphony orchestras of Europe. To strike the skin of the bass drum, a wooden stick with a soft mallet covered with felt or cork is used.

Very often, bass drum beats are accompanied by cymbals or alternate with them, as in the fast-paced dance "In the Hall of the Mountain King" from Grieg's "Peer Gynt". On the big drum, a quick alternation of beats is also possible - tremolo. To do this, use a stick with two mallets at both ends or timpani sticks. Rimksy-Korsakov used the bass drum tremolo very successfully in the instrumentation of Mussorgsky's symphonic painting "Night on Bald Mountain".

At first, the big drum appeared only in "Turkish music", but from the beginning of the 19th century they often began to use it for sound-visual purposes: to imitate cannonade, thunder. Beethoven included three large drums in the "Battle of Vittoria" - to depict cannon shots. For the same purpose, Rimsky-Korsakov used this instrument in The Tale of Tsar Saltan, Shostakovich in the Eleventh Symphony, Prokofiev in the eighth scene of the opera War and Peace (the beginning of the Battle of Borodino). At the same time, the big drum sounds also where there is no onomatopoeia, and especially often - in noisy,

Xylophone (It.xylofono, French xylophone)

The xylophone, apparently, was born at the moment when primitive man struck a dry wooden block with a stick and heard the sound of a certain tone. Many of these primitive wooden xylophones have been found in South America, Africa and Asia. In Europe, from the 15th century, this instrument fell into the hands of itinerant musicians, and only at the beginning of the 19th century did it become a concert instrument. He owes his improvement to the self-taught musician from Mogilev, Mikhail Iosifovich Guzikov.

The sounding body in the xylophone is wooden blocks of different sizes (xylon - in Greek "tree", phone - "sound"). They are arranged in four rows on matting bundles. The performer can roll them up and lay them out on a special table during the game; The xylophone is played with two wooden goat's feet. The sound of the xylophone is dry, snappy and sharp. It is very characteristic in color, so its appearance in a piece of music is usually associated with a special plot situation or a special mood. Rimsky-Korsakov in "The Tale of Tsar Saltan" entrusts the xylophone with the song "In the garden, in the garden" at the moment when the squirrel gnaws golden nuts. Lyadov draws the flight of Baba Yaga in a mortar with the sounds of a xylophone, trying to convey the crackling of breaking branches. Quite often the timbre of the xylophone evokes a gloomy mood, creates bizarre, grotesque images. The brief phrases of the xylophone in the "invasion episode" from Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony sound melancholy.

The xylophone is a very virtuoso instrument. On it, great fluency is possible in fast passages, tremolo and a special effect - glissando: a swift movement of a stick along the bars.

Plates (It. piatti, French cymbales, German Becken, English cymbals)

Plates were already known to the ancient world and the ancient East, but the Turks are famous for their special love and exceptional art of making them. In Europe, plates became popular in the 18th century, after the war with the Ottomans.

Cymbals are large metal dishes made from copper alloys. The cymbals are slightly convex in the center - leather straps are attached here so that the performer can hold the instrument in his hands. The cymbals are played standing up so that nothing interferes with their vibration and so that the sound spreads freely in the air. The usual method of playing this instrument is an oblique, sliding strike of one cymbal against another - after that, a sonorous metallic splash is heard, which hangs in the air for a long time. If the performer wants to stop the vibration of the cymbals, he brings them to his chest, and the vibrations subside. Composers often accompany the strike of cymbals with the thunder of the bass drum; these instruments often sound together, as, for example, in the first bars of the finale of Tchaikovsky's 4th symphony. In addition to oblique impact, there are several other ways to play the cymbals: when, for example, a free-hanging cymbal is struck either with a timpani stick or wooden snare drum sticks.

A symphony orchestra usually uses one pair of cymbals. In rare cases - as, for example, in Berlioz's Funeral and Triumphal Symphony, three pairs of plates are used.

Triangle (It. triahgalo, French triangle, German Triangel, English triangl)

The triangle is one of the smallest instruments in a symphony orchestra. It is a steel rod bent in the shape of a triangle. It is hung on a vein string and struck with a small metal stick - a ringing, very clear sound is heard.

The ways to play on the triangle are not very diverse. Sometimes only one sound is extracted on it, sometimes simple rhythmic patterns. Sounds good on a tremolo triangle.

The triangle was first mentioned in the 15th century. In the 18th century it was used in an opera by the composer Grétry. Then the triangle became an invariable member of the "Turkish", i.e. exotic music, appearing along with bass drum and cymbals. This percussion group was used by Mozart in "The Abduction from the Seraglio", Beethoven in the "Turkish March" from "The Ruins of Athens" and some other composers who sought to reproduce the musical image of the East. The triangle is also interesting in graceful dance pieces: in Anitra's Dance from Grieg's Peer Gynt, Glinka's Waltz-Fantasy.

Bells (it. campanelli, fr. carillon, germ. Glockenspiel)

Bells are probably the most poetic percussion instrument. Its name comes from its ancient variety, where the sounding body was small bells tuned to a certain height. Later they were replaced with a set of metal plates of various sizes. They are arranged in two rows, like piano keys, and are fixed in a wooden box. The bells are played with two metal mallets. There is another variety of this instrument: keyboard bells. They have a piano keyboard and hammers that transmit vibrations from the keys to the metal plates. However, this chain of mechanisms is not very well reflected in their sound: it is not as bright and ringing as on ordinary bells. Nevertheless, yielding to hammer bells in the beauty of sound, keyboards surpass them in technical terms. Thanks to the piano keyboard, rather fast passages and polyphonic chords are possible on them. The timbre of the bells is silvery, gentle and sonorous. They sound in Mozart's Magic Flute when Papageno enters, in the aria with bells in Delibes' Lakma, in Rimsky-Korsakov's The Snow Maiden, when Mizgir, chasing the Snow Maiden, sees the lights of fireflies, in The Golden Cockerel when the Astrologer leaves.

Bells (it. campane, fr. cloches, germ. Glocken)

Since ancient times, the ringing of bells has called people to religious ceremonies and holidays, and also announced misfortunes. With the development of the opera, with the appearance of historical and patriotic plots in it, composers began to introduce bells into the opera house. The sounds of bells in Russian opera are especially richly represented: the solemn ringing in "Ivan Susanin", "The Tale of Tsar Saltan", "The Girl of Pskov" and "Boris Godunov" (in the coronation scene), the disturbing tocsin in "Prince Igor", the funeral chime in " Boris Godunov. In all these operas, real church bells sounded, which are placed behind the stage in large opera houses. However, not every opera house could afford to have its own belfry, so composers only occasionally introduced small bells into the orchestra - as Tchaikovsky did in the 1812 overture. Meanwhile, with the development of program music, it became increasingly necessary to imitate bell ringing in a symphony orchestra - so, after a while, orchestral bells were created - a set of steel pipes suspended from a frame. In Russia, these bells are called Italian. Each of the pipes is tuned to a specific tone; hit them with a metal hammer with a rubber gasket.

Orchestral bells were used by Puccini in the opera "Tosca", Rachmaninov in the vocal-symphonic poem "The Bells". Prokofiev in "Alexander Nevsky" replaced the pipes with long metal bars.

Tambourine

One of the oldest instruments in the world, the tambourine, appeared in the symphony orchestra in the 19th century. The device of this instrument is very simple: as a rule, it is a wooden hoop, on one side of which the skin is stretched. Metal trinkets are attached to the slot of the hoop (on the side), and small bells are strung inside, on a star-shaped string stretched. All this rings at the slightest shaking of the tambourine.

The part of the tambourine, as well as other drums that do not have a certain height, is usually recorded not on the stave, but on a separate ruler, which is called a "thread".

The methods of playing the tambourine are very diverse. First of all, these are sharp blows to the skin and beating complex rhythmic patterns on it. In these cases, both the skin and the bells make the sound. With a strong blow, the tambourine rings sharply, with a weak touch, a slight jingling of bells is heard. There are many ways when the performer makes only bells sound. This is a swift shaking of the tambourine - it gives a piercing tremolo; it is a gentle shaking; and finally, a spectacular trill is heard when the performer runs a wet thumb over the skin: this technique causes a lively ringing of bells.

The tambourine is a characteristic instrument, therefore it is far from being used in every work. Usually he appears where the East or Spain should come to life in music: in Scheherazade and in Rimsky-Korsakov’s Spanish Capriccio, in the dance of Arab boys in the ballet Raymond by Glazunov, in the temperamental dances of the Polovtsy in Borodin’s Prince Igor, in Bizet's Carmen.

Castanets (Spanish castanetas)

The name "castanets" in Spanish means "little chestnuts". Spain, most likely, was their homeland; there the castanets became a real national instrument. Castanets are made of hard wood: ebony or boxwood, castanets are similar in shape to shells.

In Spain, two pairs of castanets were used to accompany dancing and singing; each pair was fastened with a cord that was pulled together around the thumb. The remaining fingers, remaining free, tapped intricate rhythms on the wooden shells. Each hand required its own size of castanets: in the left hand, the performer held shells of large volume, they emitted a lower tone and had to tap out the main rhythm. Castanets for the right hand were smaller; their tone was higher. Spanish dancers and dancers mastered this complex art to perfection, which they were taught from childhood. The dry, fervent clicking of castanets has always accompanied the temperamental Spanish dances: bolero, seguidillo, fandango.

When composers wanted to introduce castanets into symphonic music, a simplified version of this instrument was designed - orchestral castanets. These are two pairs of shells mounted on the ends of a wooden handle. When they are shaken, a clicking sound is heard - a weak copy of real Spanish castanets.

In the orchestra, castanets began to be used primarily in music of a Spanish nature: in Glinka's Spanish overtures "The Hunt of Aragon" and "Night in Madrid", in Rimsky-Korsakov's "Spanish Capriccio", in Spanish dances from Tchaikovsky's ballets, and in Western music - in " Carmen" by Bizet, in the symphonic works "Iberia" by Debussy, "Alborada del Gracioso" by Ravel. Some composers have taken castanets beyond the scope of Spanish music: Saint-Saens used them in the opera "Samson and Dalida", Prokofiev - in the third piano concerto.

Tam-tam (French and Italian tam-tam, German Tam-Tam)

The tam-tam is a percussion instrument of Chinese origin, shaped like a disc with thickened edges. It is made from a special alloy close to bronze. During the game, the tam-tam is suspended from a wooden frame and beaten with a mallet with a felt tip. The tam-tama sound is low and thick; after the impact, it spreads for a long time, then incoming, then receding. This feature of the instrument and the very nature of its timbre give it some ominous expressiveness. They say that sometimes a single tam-tam hit throughout the entire work is enough to make the strongest impression on the listeners. An example of this is the finale of Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony.

In Europe, there-there appeared during the French Revolution. After some time, this instrument was taken to the opera orchestra, and since then, as a rule, it has been used in tragic, "fatal" situations. A tam-tam strike marks death, catastrophe, the presence of magical powers, a curse, an omen, and other "out of the ordinary events." In "Ruslan and Lyudmila" there sounds there-there at the moment of Lyudmila's abduction by Chernomor, in "Robert the Devil" by Meyerberg - in the scene of the "resurrection of the nuns", in "Scheherazade" by Rimsky-Korsakov - at the moment when Sinbad's ship crashes against the rocks. Tam-tam beats are also heard in the tragic climax of the first movement of Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony.

Claves.

The claves is a percussion instrument of Cuban origin: these are two round sticks, each 15-25 cm long, carved from very hard wood. The performer holds one of them in a special way in his left hand - so that the clenched palm is a resonator - and strikes it with another stick.

The sound of the claves is sharp, high, loudly clicking like a xylophone, but without a certain height. The pitch of the sound depends on the size of the sticks; sometimes in a symphony orchestra two or even three pairs of such sticks, different in size, are used.

Frust.

Frusta consists of two wooden boards, one of which has a handle, and the second is fixed with its lower end above the handle on a hinge - with a sharp swing or with the help of a tight spring, it produces a cotton on the other with its free end. As a rule, only separate, not too often successive claps forte, fortissimo are extracted on fruste.

Frusta is a percussion instrument that does not have a certain height, therefore its part, like the part of a tambourine, is recorded not on a stave, but on a "thread".

Frusta contenta is often found in modern scores. With two claps on this instrument, the third part of "Lorelei" from Shostakovich's Fourteenth Symphony begins.

Wood block.

Wood block is a percussion instrument of Chinese origin. Before its appearance in the percussion group of the symphony orchestra, wood block was very popular in jazz.

A wood block is a small, rectangular hardwood block with a deep, narrow cut in the front. The technique of playing the wood block is drumming: the sound is extracted by hitting the upper plane of the instrument with sticks from a snare drum, wooden mallets, sticks with rubber heads. The resulting sound is sharp, high, characteristically clattering, indefinite in pitch.

As a percussion instrument, indefinite in height, the wood block is notated on a "thread" or on a combination of rulers.

Temple block, tartaruga.

Temple block is an instrument of Korean or North Chinese origin, an attribute of a Buddhist cult. The tool has a round shape, hollow inside, with a deep cut in the middle (like a laughing mouth), and is made of hard wood.

Like most other "exotic" percussion instruments, the initial spread of the temple block was in jazz, from where it penetrated into the composition of the symphony orchestra.

The sound of a temple block is more gloomy and deeper than that of a wood block close to it, it has a rather definite pitch, so using a set of temple blocks, you can get melodic phrases on them - for example, S. Slonimsky used these instruments in "Concert Buff".

They play on temple blocks, striking the top cover with rubber-headed sticks, wooden mallets and snare drum sticks.

Sometimes in a symphony orchestra sets of tortoise shells are used, similar in principle to playing on temple blocks, but sounding drier and weaker. Such a set of turtle shells called Tartaruga was used by S. Slonimsky in "Concert-buff".

Guiro, reco-reco, sapo.

These instruments are of Latin American origin, they are similar both in their constructive principle and in the way they play.

They are made from a bamboo segment (reco-reco), from a dried gourd (guiro), or from another hollow object that is a resonator. On one side of the tool, a series of notches or notches is made. In some cases, a plate with a corrugated surface is mounted. These notches are carried out with a special wooden stick, as a result of which a high, sharp, with a characteristic crackling sound is extracted. The most common variety of these related instruments is the guiro. I. Stravinsky was the first to introduce this instrument into the symphony orchestra - in "The Rite of Spring". Reko-reko is found in Slonimsky's "Concert-buff", and the sapo - an instrument similar to reko-reko - is used in the score of "Three Poems by Henri Michaud" by V. Lutoslavsky.

Ratchet.

In the musical instruments of various peoples, there are many rattles of a wide variety of shapes and devices. In a symphony orchestra, a ratchet is a box that the performer rotates on a handle around a gear wheel. At the same time, an elastic wooden plate, jumping from one tooth to another, emits a characteristic crack.

Maracas, chocalo (tubo), cameso.

All these instruments are of Latin American origin. Maracas is a round or egg-shaped wooden rattle on a handle and stuffed with shot, grains, pebbles or other bulk materials. These folk instruments are made, as a rule, from a coconut or a hollow dried gourd on a natural handle. Maracas are very popular in dance music orchestras, in jazz. As part of a symphony orchestra, S. Prokofiev was the first to use this instrument ("Dance of the Antillean Girls" from the ballet "Romeo and Juliet", cantata "Alexander Nevsky"). Now a couple of instruments are usually used - the performer holds them in both hands and, shaking, extracts a sound. Like other percussion instruments without a specific pitch, the maracas is notated on the "thread". According to the principle of sound production, maracas are close to chocalo and cameso. These are metal - checkered or wooden - cameso-cylinders, filled, like maracas, with some kind of loose substance. In some models, the side wall is tightened with a leather membrane. Both chekalo and cameso are louder and sharper than maracas. They are also held with both hands, shaken vertically or horizontally, or rotated.

Tavern.

At first, this instrument of Afro-Brazilian origin was popular in orchestras of Latin American music, from where it received its further distribution. Outwardly, the tavern resembles a doubled maracas, covered with a net with large beads strung on it. The performer holds the instrument in one hand and either simply beats it with the fingers of the other hand, or scrolls the grid with beads with a tangential movement of the palm. In the latter case, a rustling, longer sound, reminiscent of the sound of maracas, occurs. One of the first kabatsu was used by Slonimsky in "Concert-buff".

Bongs.

This instrument is of Cuban origin. After modernization, bongos began to be widely used in dance music orchestras, jazz, and even in works of serious music. The bongs have the following device: on a wooden cylindrical body (from 17 to 22 cm high) the skin is stretched and fixed with a metal hoop (its tension is adjusted from the inside with screws). The metal rim does not rise above the level of the skin: this is what determines such a characteristic play on bongs with the palms - con le mani or fingers - con le dita. Two bongs with different diameters are usually connected to each other by a common holder. A smaller bong sounds about a third higher than a wider one. The sound of the bong is high, specifically "empty" and varies depending on the place and method of hitting. Due to this, on each instrument, you can get two sounds of different heights: a blow with an outstretched index finger at the edge or a big one in the center - and a lower one (somewhere within a major second or third) - from a blow with the whole palm or fingertip closer to the center.

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Piano (It.piano-forte, French piano; German Fortepiano, Hammerklavier; English piano)

The source of sound in the piano is metal strings, which begin to sound from the impact of felt-covered wooden hammers, and the hammers are driven by finger pressure on the keys.

The first keyboard instruments, already known at the beginning of the 15th century, were the harpsichord and clavichord (in Italian - clavicembalo). On the clavichord, the strings were vibrated by metal levers - tangents, on the harpsichord - by crow feathers, and later - by metal hooks. The sound of these instruments was dynamically monotonous and faded quickly.

The first hammer-action piano, so named because it played both forte and piano sounds, was most likely built by Bartolomeo Cristofori in 1709. This new instrument quickly gained recognition and, after many improvements, became the modern concert grand. A piano was built in 1826 for home music-making.

The piano is widely known as a solo concert instrument. But sometimes it also acts as an ordinary instrument of the orchestra. Russian composers, starting with Glinka, began to introduce the piano into the orchestra, sometimes together with the harp, in order to recreate the sonority of the harp. This is how it is used in Bayan's songs in Glinka's "Ruslan and Lyudmila", in "Sadko" and in Rimsky-Korsakov's "May Night". Sometimes the piano plays the sound of a bell, as in Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov, orchestrated by Rimsky-Korsakov. But not always it only imitates other timbres. Some composers use it in the orchestra as a decorating tool that can introduce sonority and new colors into the orchestra. So, Debussy wrote in the symphonic suite "Spring" the piano part in four hands. Finally, sometimes it is considered as a kind of percussion instrument with a strong, dry tone. The sharp, grotesque scherzo in Shostakovich's Symphony 1 is an example of this.

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Harpsichord

Keyboard stringed musical instrument. A harpsichordist is a musician who performs musical works on both the harpsichord and its varieties. The earliest mention of a harpsichord-type instrument appears in a 1397 source from Padua (Italy), the earliest known image is on an altar in Minden (1425). As a solo instrument, the harpsichord remained in use until the end of the 18th century. A little longer it was used to perform digital bass, to accompany recitatives in operas. OK. 1810 practically fell into disuse. The revival of the culture of playing the harpsichord began at the turn of the 19th - 20th centuries. Harpsichords of the 15th century have not survived. Judging by the images, these were short instruments with a heavy body. Most of the surviving 16th-century harpsichords were made in Italy, where Venice was the main center of their production. A copy of the Flemish harpsichord They had an 8` register (rarely two registers 8` and 4`), they were distinguished by grace. Their body was most often made of cypress. The attack on these harpsichords was more distinct, and the sound more abrupt than that of later Flamadic instruments. Antwerp was the most important production center for harpsichords in northern Europe, where representatives of the Ruckers family worked since 1579. Their harpsichords have longer strings and heavier bodies than Italian instruments. Since the 1590s, harpsichords with two manuals have been produced in Antwerp. French, English, German harpsichords of the 17th century combine the features of Flemish and Dutch models. French harpsichord Some French two-manual harpsichords with a walnut body have survived. Since the 1690s, harpsichords of the same type as Rookers' instruments have been produced in France. Among the French harpsichord masters, the Blanchet dynasty stood out. In 1766, Taskin inherited Blanche's workshop. The most significant English harpsichord makers in the 18th century were Schudy and the Kirkman family. Their instruments had a plywood-lined oak body and were distinguished by a strong sound of rich timbre. In 18th-century Germany, the main center for harpsichord production was Hamburg; among the instruments made in this city with 2` and 16` registers, as well as with 3 manuals. The unusually long model of the harpsichord was designed by J. D. Dülken, a leading 18th-century Dutch master. In the 2nd half of the XVIII century. the harpsichord began to be supplanted by the piano. OK. 1809 Kirkman produced its last harpsichord. The initiator of the revival of the instrument was A. Dolmech. He built his first harpsichord in 1896 in London and soon opened workshops in Boston, Paris, Heislemere. Modern harpsichord The production of harpsichords was also established by the Parisian firms Pleyel and Erard. Pleyel began producing a model harpsichord with a metal frame carrying thick, taut strings; Wanda Landowska trained a whole generation of harpsichordists on this type of instrument. Boston craftsmen Frank Hubbard and William Dyde were the first to copy antique harpsichords..

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Organ (It. organo, French orgue, German Orgel, English organ)

Keyboard wind instrument - organ - was known in ancient times. In ancient organs, air was pumped with bellows by hand. In medieval Europe, the organ became an instrument of church worship. It was in the spiritual environment of the 17th century that organ polyphonic art was born, the best representatives of which were Frescobaldi, Bach and Handel.

The organ is a gigantic instrument with many different timbres.

"This is a whole orchestra, which in skillful hands can convey everything, express everything," Balzac wrote about him. Indeed, the range of the organ exceeds that of all instruments in the orchestra combined. The organ includes bellows for air supply, a system of pipes of various designs and sizes (in modern organs, the number of pipes reaches 30,000), several manual keyboards - manuals and a foot pedal. The largest pipes reach a height of 10 meters or more, the height of the smallest - 8 millimeters. This or that coloring of a sound depends on their device.

A set of pipes of a single timbre is called a register. Large cathedral organs have more than a hundred registers: in the Notre Dame organ, their number reaches 110. The coloring of the sounds of individual registers resembles the timbre of a flute, oboe, English horn, clarinet, bass clarinet, trumpet, cello. The richer and more varied the registers, the more opportunities the performer gets, because the art of organ playing is the art of good registration, i.e. skillful use of all the technical resources of the instrument.

In the latest orchestral music (especially theatrical), the organ was primarily used for sound-visual purposes - where it was necessary to reproduce the church atmosphere. Liszt, for example, in his symphonic poem "The Battle of the Huns", with the help of an organ, opposed the Christian world to the barbarians.

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Harp - plucked stringed musical instrument. It has the shape of a triangle, which consists: firstly, of a resonant box-box approximately 1 meter long, expanding downwards; its former shape was quadrangular, while the present one is rounded on one side; it is equipped with a flat deck, usually made of maple wood, in the middle of which a narrow and thin rail of hard wood is attached along the length of the body, in which holes are punched for threading the gut strings; secondly, from the upper part (in the form of a large neck), snake-like curved, attached to the top of the body, forming an acute angle with it; pegs are attached to this part to strengthen the strings and tune them; thirdly, from the front beam, which is in the form of a column, the purpose of which is to resist the force produced by the strings stretched between the fingerboard and the resonant body. Since the harp already in the past had a significant sound volume (five octaves), and the room for the strings of the full chromatic scale is not enough, the strings in the harp are stretched only to produce the sounds of the diatonic scale. A harp without a pedal can only play one scale. For chromatic rises in the old days, the strings had to be shortened by pressing the fingers against the fingerboard; later, this pressing began to be done with the help of hooks set in motion by hand. Such harps turned out to be extremely inconvenient for performers; these shortcomings were largely eliminated by the mechanism in the pedals, invented by Jacob Hochbrucker in 1720. This master attached seven pedals to the harp, acting on the conductors, which passed through the empty space of the beam to the fingerboard and there brought the hooks into such a position that they, firmly adjoining the strings, they produced chromatic enhancements throughout the entire volume of the instrument.

• background
• Orchestral genres and forms
• Mannheim Chapel
• court musicians

background

Since ancient times, people have known about the impact of the sound of musical instruments on the human mood: the quiet but melodious play of a harp, lyre, cithara, kemancha or reed flute evoked feelings of joy, love or peace, and the sound of animal horns (for example, Hebrew shofars ) or metal pipes contributed to the emergence of solemn and religious feelings. Drums and other percussion, added to the horns and trumpets, helped to cope with fear and awakened aggressiveness and militancy. It has long been noticed that the joint playing of several similar instruments enhances not only the brightness of the sound, but also the psychological impact on the listener - the same effect that occurs when a large number of people sing the same melody together. Therefore, wherever people settled, associations of musicians gradually began to emerge, accompanying battles or public solemn events with their playing: rituals in the temple, marriages, burials, coronations, military parades, amusements in palaces.

The very first written mention of such associations can be found in the Pentateuch of Moses and in the psalms of David: at the beginning of some psalms there is an appeal to the leader of the choir with an explanation of which instruments should be used to accompany this or that text. There were groups of musicians in Mesopotamia and the Egyptian pharaohs, in ancient China and India, Greece and Rome. In the ancient Greek tradition of performing tragedies, there were special platforms on which musicians sat, accompanying the performances of actors and dancers by playing instruments. Such platform-elevations "orchestra" were called. So the patent for the invention of the word "orchestra" remains with the ancient Greeks, although in fact orchestras existed much earlier.

Fresco from a Roman villa in Boscoreal. 50-40s BC e. The Metropolitan Museum of Art

In Western European culture, the association of musicians as an orchestra did not immediately begin to be called. At first, in the Middle Ages and in the Renaissance, it was called a chapel. This name was associated with belonging to a specific place where music was performed. Such chapels were at first church, and then court. And there were also village chapels, consisting of amateur musicians. These chapels were practically a mass phenomenon. And although the level of village performers and their instruments could not be compared with professional court and temple chapels, one should not underestimate the influence of the tradition of village, and later urban folk instrumental music on great composers and European musical culture as a whole. The music of Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, Weber, Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Bruckner, Mahler, Bartok, Stravinsky, Ravel, Ligeti is literally fertilized by the traditions of folk instrumental music-making.

As well as in more ancient cultures, in Europe there was no initial division into vocal and instrumental music. Starting from the early Middle Ages, the Christian church dominated everything, and instrumental music in the church developed as an accompaniment, support for the gospel word, which always dominated - after all, "in the beginning was the Word." Therefore, the early chapels are both people who sing and people who accompany the singers.

At some point, the word "orchestra" appears. Although not everywhere at the same time. In Germany, for example, this word was established much later than in the Romance countries. In Italy, orchestra has always meant precisely the instrumental, and not the vocal part of the music. The word orchestra was borrowed directly from the Greek tradition. Italian orchestras arose at the turn of the 16th-17th centuries, along with the advent of the opera genre. And because of the extraordinary popularity of this genre, this word quickly conquered the whole world. Thus, it is safe to say that contemporary orchestral music has two sources: the temple and the theatre.

Christmas mass. Miniature from the Magnificent Book of Hours of the Duke of Berry by the Limburg brothers. 15th century Ms. 65/1284, fol. 158r / Musee Conde / Wikimedia Commons

And in Germany for a long time they held on to the medieval-revival name "chapel". Until the 20th century, many German court orchestras were called chapels. One of the most ancient orchestras in the world today is the Saxon State (and in the past - the Saxon Court) Chapel in Dresden. Its history goes back over 400 years. She appeared at the court of the Saxon Electors, who always appreciated the beautiful and were ahead of all their neighbors in this respect. There are still the Berlin and Weimar State Chapels, as well as the famous Meiningen Court Chapel, in which Richard Strauss began as a bandmaster (currently a conductor). By the way, the German word "kapellmeister" (chapel master) is still sometimes used today by musicians as an equivalent to the word "conductor", but more often in an ironic, sometimes even negative sense (in the sense of a craftsman, not an artist). And in those days, this word was pronounced with respect, as the name of a complex profession: "the leader of a choir or orchestra, which also composes music." True, in some German orchestras this word has been preserved as a designation of the position - for example, in the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the chief conductor is still called the Gewandhaus Kapellmeister.

XVII-XVIII centuries: the orchestra as a court decoration

Louis XIV in the Royal Ballet of the Night by Jean Baptiste Lully. Sketch by Henri de Gisset. 1653 In the production, the king played the role of the rising sun. Wikimedia Commons

Renaissance orchestras, and later Baroque orchestras, were mostly court or ecclesiastical. Their purpose was to accompany worship or to appease and entertain those in power. However, many feudal rulers had a fairly developed aesthetic sense, and besides, they liked to show off to each other. Someone boasted of the army, someone - of bizarre architecture, someone laid out gardens, and someone kept a court theater or orchestra.

The French King Louis XIV, for example, had two such orchestras: the Ensemble of the Royal Stables, which consisted of wind and percussion instruments, and the so-called "24 Violins of the King", led by the famous composer Jean Baptiste Lully, who also collaborated with Moliere and went down in history as the creator of French opera and the first professional conductor. Later, the English King Charles II (son of the executed Charles I), returning from France during the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, also created his "24 King's Violins" in the Royal Chapel according to the French model. The Royal Chapel itself has existed since the 14th century and reached its peak during the reign of Elizabeth I - its court organists were William Bird and Thomas Tallis. And at the court of Charles II, the brilliant English composer Henry Purcell served, combining the position of organist in Westminster Abbey and in the Royal Chapel. In the 16th-17th centuries in England there was another, specific name for an orchestra, usually a small one - "consort". In the later Baroque era, the word "consort" fell into disuse, and the concept of chamber, that is, "room" music appeared instead.

Warrior costume from the Royal Ballet of the Night. Sketch by Henri de Gisset. 1653 Wikimedia Commons

Baroque forms of entertainment became more and more luxurious by the end of the 17th and beginning of the 18th century. And it was no longer possible to manage with a small number of tools - customers wanted "bigger and more expensive". Although, of course, everything depended on the generosity of the “illustrious patron”. If Bach was forced to write letters to his masters, persuading them to allocate at least two or three violins for one instrumental part, then at Handel, at the same time, 24 oboists, 12 bassoonists, 9 horn players took part in the first performance of "Music for the Royal Fireworks" , 9 trumpeters and 3 timpani players (i.e. 57 musicians for 13 prescribed parts). And in the performance of Handel's "Messiah" in London in 1784, 525 people took part (although this event belongs to a later era, when the author of the music was no longer alive). Most baroque authors wrote operas, and the theatrical opera orchestra has always been a kind of creative laboratory for composers - a place for all sorts of experiments, including with unusual instruments. So, for example, at the beginning of the 17th century, Monteverdi introduced a trombone part to the orchestra of his opera Orfeo, one of the very first operas in history, to depict infernal furies.

Since the time of the Florentine Camerata (the turn of the 16th-17th centuries), in any orchestra there was a basso continuo part, which was played by a whole group of musicians and recorded on one line in the bass clef. The numbers under the bass line denoted certain harmonic sequences - and the performers had to improvise all the musical texture and decorations, that is, create anew with each performance. Yes, and the composition varied depending on what instruments were at the disposal of a particular chapel. The presence of one keyboard instrument was obligatory, most often the harpsichord; in church music, such an instrument was most often the organ; one stringed bow - cello, viola da gamba or violone (the forerunner of the modern double bass); one stringed plucked lute or theorbo. But it happened that in the basso continuo group six or seven people played at the same time, including several harpsichords (Purcell and Rameau had three or four of them). In the 19th century, keyboards and plucked instruments disappeared from orchestras, but reappeared in the 20th century. And since the 1960s, it has become possible to use almost any instrument in the world in a symphony orchestra - almost baroque flexibility in approach to instrumentation. Thus, we can consider that the Baroque gave birth to the modern orchestra.

Instrumentation, structure, notation

Miniature from the Commentary on the Apocalypse of Beat of Lieban in the list of the monastery of San Millan de la Cogoglia. 900-950 Biblioteca de Serafín Estébanez Calderón y de San Millán de la Cogolla

The word "orchestra" for the modern listener is most likely associated with excerpts from the music of Beethoven, Tchaikovsky or Shostakovich; with that massively monumental and at the same time smoothed sound, which was deposited in our memory from listening to modern orchestras - live and in recordings. But orchestras did not always sound like this. Among the many differences between ancient orchestras and modern ones, the main thing is the instruments used by the musicians. In particular, all instruments sounded much quieter than modern ones, since the rooms in which music was played were (generally) much smaller than modern concert halls. And there were no factory horns, no nuclear turbines, no internal combustion engines, no supersonic aircraft - the general sound of human life was several times quieter than today. Its loudness was still measured by natural phenomena: the roar of wild animals, thunder during thunderstorms, the noise of waterfalls, the crackling of falling trees or the rumble of a mountain fall, and the roar of the crowd in the city square on a fair day. Therefore, music could compete in brightness only with nature itself.

The strings that were strung on stringed instruments were made from ox sinew (today's are made of metal), the bows were smaller, lighter and slightly different in shape. Due to this, the sound of the strings was "warmer", but less "smoothed" than today. Woodwind instruments did not have all the modern valves and other technical devices that allow them to play more confidently and accurately. The woodwinds of that time sounded more individual in terms of timbres, sometimes somewhat out of tune (it all depended on the skill of the performer) and several times quieter than modern ones. Brass wind instruments were all completely natural, that is, they could produce only the sounds of a natural scale, which most often were only enough to play a short fanfare, but not an extended melody. Animal skin was stretched over drums and timpani (this practice still exists today, although percussion instruments with plastic membranes have long appeared).

The order of the orchestra was generally lower than today - on average by half a tone, and sometimes by a whole tone. But even here there was no single rule: the tone system for the first octave (according to which the orchestra is traditionally tuned) at the court of Louis XIV was 392 on the Hertz scale. At the court of Charles II, they tuned A from 400 to 408 hertz. At the same time, the organs in temples were often tuned to a tone higher than the harpsichords that stood in the palace chambers (perhaps this was due to heating, since string instruments rise in tune from dry heat, and, on the contrary, decrease from cold; wind instruments often have reverse trend). Therefore, in the time of Bach, there were two main systems: the so-called kammer-ton (modern "tuning fork" - a word derived from it), that is, "room system", and orgel-ton, that is, "organ system" (aka "choral tone "). And the room tuning for A was 415 hertz, while the organ tuning was always higher and sometimes reached 465 hertz. And if we compare them with the modern concert tuning (440 hertz), then the first one turns out to be half a tone lower, and the second one is a half tone higher than the modern one. Therefore, in some of Bach's cantatas, written with the organ system in mind, the author wrote out the parts of wind instruments immediately in transposition, that is, half a tone higher than the part of the choir and basso continuo. This was due to the fact that wind instruments, which were mainly used in court chamber music, were not adapted to the higher tuning of the organ (flutes and oboes could even be slightly lower than the camertone, and therefore there was also a third one - low camertone). tone). And if, without knowing this, today you try to play such a cantata literally from notes, you will get a cacophony that the author did not intend.

This situation with “floating” formations persisted in the world until the Second World War, that is, not only in different countries, but also in different cities of the same country, formations could differ significantly from each other. In 1859, the French government made the first attempt to standardize the tuning by issuing a law approving the tuning of A - 435 hertz, but in other countries the tunings continued to be extremely different. And only in 1955, the International Organization for Standardization adopted the law on the concert tuning of 440 hertz, which is still valid today.

Heinrich Ignaz Biber. Engraving from 1681 Wikimedia Commons

Baroque and classical authors also made other operations in the field of tuning, relating to music for string instruments. We are talking about a technique called "scordatura", that is, "tuning the strings." At the same time, some strings, say violins or violas, were tuned to a different, atypical interval for the instrument. Thanks to this, the composer got the opportunity to use, depending on the key of the composition, a larger number of open strings, which led to a better resonance of the instrument. But this scordatura was often recorded not in real sound, but in transposition. Therefore, without preliminary preparation of the instrument (and the performer), such a composition is impossible to perform properly. A famous example of scordatura is Heinrich Ignaz Bieber's cycle of violin sonatas Rosary (Mysteries) (1676).

In the Renaissance and in the early stage of the Baroque, the range of modes, and later the keys, in which composers could compose was limited by a natural barrier. The name of this barrier is the Pythagorean comma. The great Greek scientist Pythagoras was the first to suggest tuning instruments according to a pure fifth - one of the first intervals of the natural scale. But it turned out that if you tune stringed instruments in this way, then after passing through a full circle of fifths (four octaves), the C-sharp note sounds much higher in C. And since ancient times, musicians and scientists have tried to find an ideal instrument tuning system, in which this natural flaw of the natural scale - its unevenness - could be overcome, which would allow equal use of all tonalities.

Each era had its own systems of order. And each of the systems had its own characteristics, which seem false to our ears, accustomed to the sound of modern pianos. Since the beginning of the 19th century, all keyboard instruments have been tuned in a uniform scale, dividing an octave into 12 perfectly equal semitones. The even tuning is a compromise very close to the modern spirit, which allowed solving the problem of the Pythagorean comma once and for all, but sacrificing the natural beauty of the sound of pure thirds and fifths. That is, none of the intervals (except for the octave) played by a modern piano corresponds to the natural scale. And in all the numerous tuning systems that have existed since the late Middle Ages, a certain number of pure intervals have been preserved, due to which all the keys received a sharply individual sound. Even after the invention of good temperament (see Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier), which made it possible to use all the keys on the harpsichord or organ, the keys themselves still retained their individual coloring. Hence the emergence of the fundamental theory of affects for baroque music, according to which all musical expressive means - melody, harmony, rhythm, tempo, texture and the choice of tonality itself - are inextricably linked with specific emotional states. Moreover, the same tonality could, depending on the system used at the moment, sound pastoral, innocent or sensual, solemnly mournful or demonically intimidating.

For the composer, the choice of one key or another was inextricably linked with a certain set of emotions until the turn of the 18th-19th centuries. Moreover, if for Haydn D major sounded like “majestic thanksgiving, militancy”, then for Beethoven it sounded like “pain, anguish or a march”. Haydn associated E major with "thoughts of death", and for Mozart it meant "solemn, sublime transcendence" (all these epithets are quotes from the composers themselves). Therefore, among the obligatory virtues of musicians performing early music is a multidimensional system of musical and general cultural knowledge that allows one to recognize the emotional structure and “codes” of various compositions by various authors, and at the same time the ability to technically implement this in the game.

In addition, there are also problems with notation: composers of the 17th-18th centuries deliberately recorded only part of the information related to the upcoming performance of the work; phrasing, nuance, articulation, and especially exquisite decoration - an integral part of the Baroque aesthetic - all this was left to the free choice of musicians, who thus became co-creators of the composer, and not just obedient executors of his will. Therefore, the truly masterful performance of baroque and early classical music on ancient instruments is a task no less (if not more) difficult than the virtuoso mastering of later music on modern instruments. When over 60 years ago the first enthusiasts of playing ancient instruments (“authenticists”) appeared, they were often met with hostility among their colleagues. This was partly due to the inertia of the musicians of the traditional school, and partly to the insufficient skill of the pioneers of musical authenticity themselves. In musical circles, there was a kind of condescendingly ironic attitude towards them as losers who did not find a better use for themselves than to publish plaintive fake bleating on “withered wood” (woodwinds) or “rusty scrap metal” (brasswinds). And this (certainly unfortunate) attitude persisted until recently, until it became clear that the level of playing on ancient instruments has grown so much over the past decades that, at least in the field of baroque and early classics, authenticists have long caught up and surpassed more monotonous and ponderous sounding modern orchestras.

Orchestral genres and forms

Fragment of a portrait of Pierre Moucheron with his family. Author unknown. 1563 Rijksmuseum Amsterdam

Just as the word "orchestra" did not always mean what we mean by it today, so the words "symphony" and "concert" originally had slightly different meanings, and only gradually, over time, they acquired their modern meanings.

Concert

The word "concert" has several possible origins. Modern etymology tends to translate "to come to an agreement" from the Italian concertare or "to sing together, praise" from the Latin concinere, concino. Another possible translation is “dispute, competition” from the Latin concertare: individual performers (soloists or a group of soloists) compete in music with a team (orchestra). In the early Baroque era, a vocal-instrumental work was often called a concerto, later it became known as a cantata - from the Latin canto, cantare ("to sing"). Over time, concertos became a purely instrumental genre (although among the works of the 20th century one can also find such a rarity as the Concerto for Voice and Orchestra by Reinhold Gliere). The Baroque era made a distinction between the solo concerto (one instrument and accompanying orchestra) and the "big concerto" (concerto grosso), where the music was transferred between a small group of soloists (concertino) and a group with more instruments (ripieno, that is, "stuffing", "filling"). The musicians of the ripieno group were called ripienists. It was these ripienists who became the forerunners of modern orchestral players. As ripieno, only string instruments were involved, as well as basso continuo. And the soloists could be very different: violin, cello, oboe, recorder, bassoon, viola d'amour, lute, mandolin, etc.

There were two types of concerto grosso: concerto da chiesa ("church concert") and concerto da camera ("chamber concert"). Both came into use mainly thanks to Arcangelo Corelli, who composed a cycle of 12 concertos (1714). This cycle had a strong influence on Handel, who left us two concerto grosso cycles, recognized as masterpieces of this genre. Bach's Brandenburg concertos also bear the clear features of a concerto grosso.

The heyday of the baroque solo concerto is associated with the name of Antonio Vivaldi, who composed more than 500 concertos for various instruments accompanied by strings and basso continuo in his life (although he also wrote over 40 operas, a huge number of church choral music and instrumental symphonies). Recitals were, as a rule, in three parts with alternating tempos: fast - slow - fast; this structure became dominant in the later samples of the instrumental concerto - right up to the beginning of the 21st century. The most famous creation of Vivaldi was the cycle "The Seasons" (1725) for violin and string orchestra, in which each concerto is preceded by a poem (perhaps written by Vivaldi himself). The poems describe the main moods and events of a particular season, which are then embodied in the music itself. These four concertos, which were part of a larger cycle of 12 concertos entitled Contest of Harmony and Invention, are today considered one of the first examples of program music.

This tradition was continued and developed by Handel and Bach. Moreover, Handel composed, among other things, 16 organ concertos, and Bach, in addition to the concertos traditional at that time for one and two violins, also wrote concertos for the harpsichord, which until now was exclusively an instrument of the basso continuo group. So Bach can be considered the progenitor of the modern piano concerto.

Symphony

Symphony in Greek means "consonance", "joint sound". In the ancient Greek and medieval traditions, the symphony was called the euphony of harmony (in today's musical language - consonance), and in more recent times, various musical instruments began to be called symphony, such as: dulcimer, wheeled lyre, spinet or virginal. And only at the turn of the XVI-XVII centuries the word "symphony" began to be used as the name of a composition for voices and instruments. The earliest examples of such symphonies are the Musical Symphonies by Lodovico Grossi da Viadana (1610), the Sacred Symphonies by Giovanni Gabrieli (1615) and the Sacred Symphonies (op. 6, 1629, and op. 10, 1649) by Heinrich Schütz. In general, during the entire Baroque period, a variety of compositions, both ecclesiastical and secular, were called symphonies. Most often, symphonies were part of a larger cycle. With the advent of the genre of the Italian opera seria (“serious opera”), associated primarily with the name of Scarlatti, the instrumental introduction to the opera, also called the overture, was called the symphony, usually in three sections: fast - slow - fast. That is, "symphony" and "overture" for a long time meant about the same thing. By the way, in Italian opera, the tradition of calling the overture a symphony survived until the middle of the 19th century (see Verdi's early operas, for example, Nebuchadnezzar).

Since the 18th century, a fashion for instrumental multi-part symphonies has arisen throughout Europe. They played an important role both in public life and in church services. However, the main place of origin and performance of symphonies were the estates of aristocrats. By the middle of the 18th century (the time of the appearance of the first Haydn symphonies), there were three main centers for composing symphonies in Europe - Milan, Vienna and Mannheim. It was thanks to the activities of these three centers, but especially the Mannheim Court Chapel and its composers, as well as the work of Joseph Haydn, that the symphony genre experienced its first flowering in Europe at that time.

Mannheim Chapel

Jan Stamitz Wikimedia Commons

The chapel, which arose under Elector Charles III Philip in Heidelberg, and after 1720 continued to exist in Mannheim, can be considered the first prototype of the modern orchestra. Even before moving to Mannheim, the chapel was more numerous than any other in the surrounding principalities. In Mannheim, it grew even more, and due to the involvement of the most talented musicians of that time, the quality of performance also improved significantly. Since 1741, the choir was headed by the Czech violinist and composer Jan Stamitz. It was from this time that we can talk about the creation of the Mannheim school. The orchestra included 30 string instruments, paired wind instruments: two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets (then still rare guests in orchestras), two bassoons, two to four horns, two trumpets and timpani - a huge composition for those times. For example, in the chapel of Prince Esterhazy, where Haydn served for almost 30 years as bandmaster, at the beginning of his activity the number of musicians did not exceed 13-16 people, at Count Morzin, with whom Haydn served several years before Esterhazy and wrote his first symphonies, there were even more musicians. less - there, judging by the scores of Haydn of those years, there were not even flutes. In the late 1760s, the Esterhazy Chapel grew to 16-18 musicians and by the mid-1780s reached its maximum number of 24 musicians. And in Mannheim there were 30 people of strings alone.

But the main virtue of the Mannheim virtuosos was not their quantity, but the incredible quality and coherence of the collective performance at that time. Jan Stamitz, and after him other composers who wrote music for this orchestra, found more and more sophisticated, hitherto unheard of effects that have since become associated with the name of the Mannheim Chapel: a joint increase in sound (crescendo), fading of sound (diminuendo), sudden a joint interruption of the game (general pause), as well as various musical figures, such as: the Mannheim rocket (the rapid rise of the melody according to the sounds of a decomposed chord), the Mannheim birds (imitations of birds chirping in solo passages) or the Mannheim culmination (preparation for a crescendo, and then in the decisive moment is the cessation of the playing of all wind instruments and the active-energetic playing of some strings). Many of these effects found their second life in the works of Mannheim's younger contemporaries Mozart and Beethoven, and some still exist today.

In addition, Stamitz and his colleagues gradually found the ideal type of a four-part symphony, derived from the baroque prototypes of the church sonata and chamber sonata, as well as the Italian opera overture. Haydn came to the same four-part cycle as a result of his many years of experiments. The young Mozart visited Mannheim in 1777 and was deeply impressed by the music and orchestral playing he heard there. With Christian Cannabih, who led the orchestra after the death of Stamitz, Mozart had a personal friendship since his visit to Mannheim.

court musicians

The position of the court musicians, who were paid a salary, was very advantageous at that time, but, of course, it obliged a lot. They worked very hard and had to fulfill any musical whim of their masters. They could be picked up at three or four in the morning and told that the owner wants entertainment music - to listen to some kind of serenade. The poor musicians had to go into the hall, put up lamps and play. Very often the musicians worked seven days a week - such concepts as the production rate or the 8-hour working day, of course, did not exist for them (according to modern standards, an orchestral musician cannot work more than 6 hours a day, when it comes to rehearsals for a concert or theatrical performance). We had to play all day, so we played all day. However, the owners, who love music, most often understood that a musician cannot play for several hours without a break - he needs both food and rest.

Detail of a painting by Nicola Maria Rossi. 1732 Bridgeman Images/Fotodom

Haydn and Prince Esterhazy Chapel

Legend has it that Haydn, writing the famous Farewell Symphony, thus hinted to his master Esterhazy about the promised but forgotten rest. In its finale, the musicians all stood up in turn, put out the candles and left - the hint is quite understandable. And the owner understood them and let them go on vacation - which speaks of him as a person with insight and a sense of humor. Even if it's fiction, it remarkably conveys the spirit of that era - in other times, such hints at the mistakes of the authorities could have cost the composer quite dearly.

Since Haydn's patrons were quite educated people and sensitive to music, he could count on the fact that any of his experiments - whether it be a symphony in six or seven movements or some incredible tonal complications in the so-called developmental episode - would not be received with condemnation. It seems even the opposite: the more complex and unusual the form was, the more they liked it.
Nevertheless, Haydn became the first outstanding composer to free himself from this seemingly comfortable, but in general slavish existence of the courtier. When Nikolaus Esterházy died, his heir disbanded the orchestra, although he retained Haydn's title and the (reduced) salary of bandmaster. Thus, Haydn involuntarily received an indefinite leave and, taking advantage of the invitation of the impresario Johann Peter Salomon, went to London at a rather advanced age. There he actually created a new orchestral style. His music became more solid and simpler. The experiments were cancelled. This was due to commercial necessity: he found that the general English public is much less educated than the sophisticated listeners on the Esterhazy estate - for her, you need to write shorter, clearer and more succinctly. While each symphony written by Esterhazy is unique, the London symphonies are of the same type. All of them were written exclusively in four parts (at that time it was the most common form of the symphony, which was already in full use by the composers of the Mannheim school and Mozart): the obligatory sonata allegro in the first part, the more or less slow second part, the minuet and the fast finale. The type of orchestra and musical form, as well as the kind of technical development of themes used in Haydn's last symphonies, already became a model for Beethoven.

Late 18th - 19th century: the Viennese School and Beethoven

Interior of the Theater an der Wien in Vienna. Engraving. 19th century Brigeman Images/Fotodom

It so happened that Haydn outlived Mozart, who was 24 years younger than him, and found the beginning of Beethoven's career. Haydn worked most of his life in today's Hungary, and towards the end of his life had a stormy success in London, Mozart was from Salzburg, and Beethoven was a Fleming born in Bonn. But the creative paths of all three giants of music were connected with the city, which, during the reign of Empress Maria Theresa, and then her son Emperor Joseph II, took the position of the musical capital of the world - with Vienna. Thus, the work of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven went down in history as the "Viennese classical style". True, it should be noted that the authors themselves did not at all consider themselves "classics", and Beethoven considered himself a revolutionary, a pioneer and even a subverter of traditions. The very concept of "classical style" is an invention of a much later time (mid-19th century). The main features of this style are the harmonious unity of form and content, the balance of sound in the absence of baroque excesses and the ancient harmony of musical architectonics.

Haydn's London symphonies, Mozart's last symphonies and all Beethoven's symphonies are considered to be the crowning achievement of the Viennese classical style in the field of orchestral music. In the late symphonies of Haydn and Mozart, the musical lexicon and syntax of the classical style were finally established, as well as the composition of the orchestra, which crystallized already in the Mannheim school and is still considered classical: a string group (divided into first and second violins, violas, cellos and double basses), a pair composition woodwinds - usually two flutes, two oboes, two bassoons. However, starting from the last works of Mozart, the clarinets also firmly entered the orchestra and established themselves. Mozart's passion for the clarinet largely contributed to the widespread distribution of this instrument as part of the orchestra's wind group. Mozart heard clarinets in 1778 in Mannheim in Stamitz's symphonies and wrote admiringly in a letter to his father: "Oh, if only we had clarinets!" - meaning by "us" the Salzburg Court Chapel, which introduced clarinets only in 1804. It should, however, be noted that as early as 1769, clarinets were regularly used in princely-archiepiscopal military bands.

Two horns were usually added to the already mentioned woodwinds, and sometimes two trumpets and timpani, which came to symphonic music from the military. But these instruments were used only in symphonies, the keys of which allowed the use of natural pipes, which existed in only a few tunings, usually in D or C major; sometimes trumpets were also used in symphonies written in G major, but never timpani. An example of such a symphony with trumpets but without timpani is Mozart's Symphony No. 32. The timpani part was later added to the score by an unidentified person and is considered inauthentic. It can be assumed that this dislike of the authors of the 18th century for the G major in connection with the timpani is explained by the fact that for the Baroque timpani (tuned not by convenient modern pedals, but by manual tension screws), music was traditionally written, consisting of only two notes - the tonic (1 -th degree of tonality) and dominants (5th degree of tonality), which were called upon to support the pipes that played these notes, but the main note of the key G major in the upper octave on the timpani sounded too sharp, and in the lower - too muffled. Therefore, the timpani in G major was avoided because of their dissonance.

All other instruments were considered acceptable only in operas and ballets, and some of them still sounded in the church (for example, trombones and basset horns in the Requiem, trombones, basset horns and piccolo in The Magic Flute, percussion "Janissary" music in "The Abduction from seraglio" or mandolin in Mozart's "Don Giovanni", basset horn and harp in Beethoven's ballet "The Works of Prometheus").

The basso continuo gradually fell into disuse, first disappearing from orchestral music, but remaining for some time in opera to accompany recitatives (see The Marriage of Figaro, All Women Do It, and Mozart's Don Giovanni, but also later - at the beginning of the 19th century, in some comic operas by Rossini and Donizetti).

If Haydn went down in history as the greatest inventor of symphonic music, then Mozart experimented much more with the orchestra in his operas than in his symphonies. The latter are incomparably more strict in their compliance with the norms of that time. Although there are, of course, exceptions: for example, in the Prague or Paris symphonies there is no minuet, that is, they consist of only three parts. There is even a one-movement symphony No. 32 in G major (however, it is built on the model of the Italian overture in three sections, fast - slow - fast, that is, it corresponds to older, pre-Haydnian norms). But on the other hand, as many as four horns are involved in this symphony (as, by the way, in Symphony No. 25 in G minor, as well as in the opera Idomeneo). Clarinets are introduced into Symphony No. 39 (Mozart's love for these instruments has already been mentioned), but traditional oboes are absent. And Symphony No. 40 even exists in two versions - with and without clarinets.

In terms of formal parameters, Mozart moves in most of his symphonies according to Mannheim and Haydnian schemes - of course, deepening and refining them with the power of his genius, but without changing anything essential at the level of structures or compositions. However, in the last years of his life, Mozart began to study in detail and deeply the work of the great polyphonists of the past - Handel and Bach. Thanks to this, the texture of his music is increasingly enriched with various kinds of polyphonic tricks. A brilliant example of the combination of a homophonic warehouse typical of a symphony of the late 18th century with a Bach-type fugue is Mozart's last, 41st symphony "Jupiter". It begins the revival of polyphony as the most important developmental method in the symphonic genre. True, Mozart followed the path beaten before him by others: the finales of two symphonies by Michael Haydn, No. 39 (1788) and 41 (1789), undoubtedly known to Mozart, were also written in the form of a fugue.

Portrait of Ludwig van Beethoven. Joseph Karl Stieler. 1820 Wikimedia Commons

Beethoven's role in the development of the orchestra is special. His music is a colossal combination of two eras: classical and romantic. If in the First Symphony (1800) Beethoven is a faithful student and follower of Haydn, and in the ballet The Works of Prometheus (1801) he is the successor of the traditions of Gluck, then in the Third, Heroic Symphony (1804) there is a final and irrevocable rethinking of the Haydnian-Mozartian tradition in a more modern key. The Second Symphony (1802) outwardly still follows the classical patterns, but it has a lot of innovations, and the main one is the replacement of the traditional minuet with a rough-peasant scherzo (“joke” in Italian). Since then, minuets have not been found in Beethoven's symphonies anymore, with the exception of the ironically nostalgic use of the word "minuet" in the title of the third movement of the Eighth Symphony - "At the pace of the minuet" (by the time the Eighth was composed - 1812 - minuets had already fallen into disuse everywhere, and Beethoven here clearly uses this reference to the genre as a sign of "a sweet but distant past"). But also the abundance of dynamic contrasts, and the conscious transfer of the main theme of the first movement to cellos and double basses, while the violins play an unusual role for them as accompanists, and the frequent separation of the functions of cellos and double basses (that is, the emancipation of double basses as an independent voice), and extended, developing the codas in the extreme parts (practically turning into second developments) are all traces of the new style, which found its stunning development in the next, the Third Symphony.

At the same time, the Second Symphony bears the beginnings of almost all of Beethoven's subsequent symphonies, especially the Third and Sixth, as well as the Ninth. In the introduction to the first part of the Second, there is a D-minor motif that is two drops similar to the main theme of the first part of the Ninth, and the linking part of the finale of the Second is almost a sketch of “Ode to Joy” from the finale of the same Ninth, even with identical instrumentation.

The Third Symphony is both the longest and the most complex of all the symphonies written so far, both in terms of musical language and the most intensive study of the material. It contains dynamic contrasts unprecedented for those times (from three pianos to three fortes!) and an equally unprecedented, even in comparison with Mozart, work on the “cellular transformation” of the original motives, which is not only present in each individual movement, but, as it were, permeates through the entire four-part cycle, creating a sense of a single and indivisible narrative. The Heroic Symphony is no longer a harmonious sequence of contrasting parts of an instrumental cycle, but a completely new genre, in fact, the first symphony-novel in the history of music!

Beethoven's use of the orchestra is not just virtuoso, it pushes instrumentalists to the limit, and often goes beyond the conceivable technical limitations of each instrument. Beethoven's famous phrase, addressed to Ignaz Schuppanzig, violinist and leader of the Count Lichnowsky Quartet, the first performer of many Beethoven quartets, in response to his critical remark about the "impossibility" of one Beethoven passage, remarkably characterizes the composer's attitude to technical problems in music: "What do I care to his unfortunate violin, when the Spirit speaks to me?!” The musical idea always comes first, and only after it should there be ways to implement it. But at the same time, Beethoven was well aware of the possibilities of the orchestra of his time. By the way, the widely held opinion about the negative consequences of Beethoven's deafness, allegedly reflected in his later compositions and therefore justifying later intrusions into his scores in the form of all kinds of retouches, is just a myth. It is enough to listen to a good performance of his late symphonies or quartets on authentic instruments to make sure that they have no flaws, but only a highly idealistic, uncompromising attitude to their art, based on a detailed knowledge of the instruments of their time and their capabilities. If Beethoven had had a modern orchestra with modern technical capabilities at his disposal, he would certainly have written in a completely different way.

In terms of instrumentation, in his first four symphonies, Beethoven remains true to the standards of the later symphonies of Haydn and Mozart. Although the Heroic Symphony uses three horns instead of the traditional two, or the rare but traditionally acceptable four. That is, Beethoven calls into question the very sacred principle of following any traditions: he needs a third horn voice in the orchestra - and he introduces it.

And already in the Fifth Symphony (1808), Beethoven introduces in the finale the instruments of a military (or theatrical) orchestra - a piccolo flute, contrabassoon and trombones. By the way, a year before Beethoven, Swedish composer Joachim Nicholas Eggert used trombones in his Symphony in E flat major (1807), and in all three parts, and not just in the finale, as Beethoven did. So in the case of trombones, the palm is not for the great composer, but for his much less famous colleague.

The Sixth Symphony (Pastoral) is the first program cycle in the history of the symphony, in which not only the symphony itself, but also each part, is preceded by a description of some kind of internal program - a description of the feelings of a city dweller who finds himself in nature. Actually, descriptions of nature in music have not been new since Baroque times. But, unlike Vivaldi's The Seasons and other baroque examples of program music, Beethoven does not deal with sound writing as an end in itself. The Sixth Symphony, in his own words, is "rather an expression of feelings than a painting." The pastoral symphony is the only one in Beethoven's work in which the four-part symphonic cycle is violated: the scherzo is followed without interruption by the fourth movement, free in form, entitled The Thunderstorm, and after it, also without interruption, the finale follows. Thus, there are five movements in this symphony.

Beethoven's approach to the orchestration of this symphony is extremely interesting: in the first and second movements, he strictly uses only strings, woodwinds and two horns. In the scherzo, two trumpets are connected to them, in The Thunderstorm, timpani, a piccolo flute and two trombones join, and in the finale, the timpani and piccolo fall silent again, and the trumpets and trombones cease to perform their traditional fanfare function and merge into the general wind choir of pantheistic doxology.

The culmination of Beethoven's experiment in the field of orchestration was the Ninth Symphony: in its finale, not only the already mentioned trombones, piccolo flute and contrabassoon are used, but also a whole set of "Turkish" percussion - a bass drum, a cymbal and a triangle, and most importantly - the choir and soloists! By the way, the trombones in the finale of the Ninth are most often used as an amplification of the choral part, and this is already a reference to the tradition of church and secular oratorio music, especially in its Haydnian-Mozartian refraction (see "The Creation of the World" or "The Seasons" of Haydn, Mass before minor or Mozart's Requiem), which means that this symphony is a fusion of the genre of symphony and spiritual oratorio, only written on a poetic, secular text by Schiller. Another major formal innovation of the Ninth Symphony was the rearrangement of the slow movement and the scherzo. The ninth scherzo, being in second place, no longer plays the role of a cheerful contrast that sets off the finale, but turns into a harsh and completely “militaristic” continuation of the tragic first part. And the slow third movement becomes the philosophical center of the symphony, falling precisely on the zone of the golden section - the first, but by no means the last case in the history of symphonic music.

With the Ninth Symphony (1824), Beethoven takes the leap into a new era. This coincides with the period of the most serious social transformations - with the final transition from the Enlightenment to a new, industrial age, the first event of which took place 11 years before the end of the previous century; an event witnessed by all three representatives of the Viennese classical school. We are talking, of course, about the French Revolution.

Interesting facts about the symphony orchestra

We invite you to familiarize yourself with interesting and fascinating facts related to the symphony orchestra, which have gathered quite a lot over its centuries-old history. We hope that with such interesting information we will be able to surprise not only lovers of ballet art, but also discover something new even for true professionals in this field.

• The formation of a symphony orchestra took place over several centuries from small ensembles and it began in the 16th-17th centuries, when new genres in music appeared and a change in the team of performers was required. Completely small composition was determined only in the XVIII century.
• The number of musicians can vary from 50 to 110 people, depending on the work or place of performance. The largest number of performers ever recorded refers to a performance in the city of Oslo at the Yllevaal stadium in 1964, which was attended by 20,100 people.
• Sometimes, you can hear the name of a double, triple symphony orchestra, it is given by the number of wind instruments presented in it and indicates its size.
• He made a huge contribution to the development of the orchestra L. Beethoven , so in his work a classical or small symphony orchestra was finally established, and in a later period the features of a large composition were outlined.
• The symphony orchestra uses German and American seating arrangements for musicians. So, in Russian - American is used.
• Among all the orchestras in the world, there is only one that chooses its own conductor and, in which case, can do it at any time - this is the Vienna Philharmonic.
• There are groups without a conductor at all. For the first time, such an idea was accepted in 1922 by Persimfans in Russia. This was due to the ideology of the time, which valued teamwork. Other orchestras later followed this example, even today in Prague and Australia there are orchestras without a conductor.

• The orchestra is tuned according to the oboe or the tuning fork, the latter, in turn, sounds higher and higher over time. The fact is that initially, in different countries it sounded differently. In the 18th century in Germany, its sound was lower than Italian, but higher than French. It was believed that the higher the setting, the brighter the sound would be, and any band strives for this. That is why they raised its tone from 380 Hz (Baroque) to 442 Hz in our time. Moreover, this figure has become a control figure, but they also manage to exceed it up to 445 Hz, as they do in Vienna.
• Until the 19th century, the duties of a conductor also included playing the harpsichord or violin . In addition, they did not have a conductor's baton, the composer or musician beat the beat with the help of an instrument or nods of the head.
• The prestigious English magazine Gramophone, which is recognized as an authoritative publication in the field of classical music, published a list of the best orchestras in the world, Russian bands took 14th, 15th and 16th positions in it.

Symphony Orchestra

Orchestra(from the Greek orchestra) - a large team of instrumental musicians. Unlike chamber ensembles, in the orchestra some of its musicians form groups playing in unison, that is, they play the same parts.
The very idea of ​​simultaneous music-making by a group of instrumental performers goes back to ancient times: even in ancient Egypt, small groups of musicians played together at various holidays and funerals.
The word "orchestra" ("orchestra") comes from the name of the round platform in front of the stage in the ancient Greek theater, which housed the ancient Greek choir, a participant in any tragedy or comedy. During the Renaissance and beyond XVII century, the orchestra was transformed into an orchestra pit and, accordingly, gave the name to the group of musicians located in it.
There are many different types of orchestra: military brass and woodwind orchestras, folk instrument orchestras, string orchestras. The largest in composition and the richest in terms of its capabilities is the symphony orchestra.

Symphoniccalled an orchestra, composed of several heterogeneous groups of instruments - a family of strings, wind and percussion. The principle of such an association has developed in Europe in XVIII century. Initially, the symphony orchestra included groups of bowed instruments, woodwinds and brass instruments, which were joined by a few percussion musical instruments. Subsequently, the composition of each of these groups expanded and diversified. Currently, among a number of varieties of symphony orchestras, it is customary to distinguish between a small and a large symphony orchestra. The Small Symphony Orchestra is an orchestra of predominantly classical composition (playing music of the late 18th - early 19th century, or modern pastiche). It consists of 2 flutes (rarely a small flute), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 (rarely 4) horns, sometimes 2 trumpets and timpani, a string group of no more than 20 instruments (5 first and 4 second violins, 4 violas, 3 cellos, 2 double basses). The large symphony orchestra (BSO) includes obligatory trombones in the copper group and can have any composition. Often wooden instruments (flutes, oboes, clarinets and bassoons) reach up to 5 instruments of each family (sometimes more clarinets) and include varieties (pick and alto flutes, cupid oboe and English oboe, small, alto and bass clarinets, contrabassoon). The copper group can include up to 8 horns (including special Wagner tubas), 5 trumpets (including small, alto, bass), 3-5 trombones (tenor and tenorbass) and a tuba. Saxophones are often used (in a jazz orchestra, all 4 types). The string group reaches 60 or more instruments. Percussion instruments are numerous (although timpani, bells, small and large drums, triangle, cymbals and Indian tam-tom form their backbone), harp, piano, harpsichord are often used.
To illustrate the sound of the orchestra, I will use the recording of the final concert of the YouTube Symphony Orchestra. The concert took place in 2011 in the Australian city of Sydney. It was watched live on television by millions of people around the world. The YouTube Symphony is dedicated to fostering a love of music and showcasing the vast creative diversity of humanity.

The concert program included well-known and little-known works by well-known and little-known composers.
Here his program:

Hector Berlioz - Roman Carnival - Overture, Op. 9 (featuring Android Jones - digital artist)
Meet Maria Chiossi
Percy Grainger - Arrival on a Platform Humlet from in a Nutshell - Suite
Johan Sebastian Bach
Meet Paulo Calligopoulos - Electric Guitar and violin
Alberto Ginastera - Danza del trigo (Wheat Dance) and Danza final (Malambo) from the ballet Estancia (conducted by Ilyich Rivas)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - "Caro" bell "idol mio" - Canon in three voices, K562 (featuring the Sydney Children's Choir and soprano Renee Fleming via video)
Meet Xiomara Mass - Oboe
Benjamin Britten - The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, Op. 34
William Barton - Kalkadunga (featuring William Barton - Didgeridoo)
Timothy Constable
Meet Roman Riedel - Trombone
Richard Strauss - Fanfare for the Vienna Philharmonic (featuring Sarah Willis, Horn, Berlin Philharmoniker and conducted by Edwin Outwater)
*PREMIERE* Mason Bates - Mothership (specially composed for the YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2011)
Meet Su Chang
Felix Mendelssohn - Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64 (Finale) (featuring Stefan Jackiw and conducted by Ilyich Rivas)
Meet Ozgur Baskin - Violin
Colin Jacobsen and Siamak Aghaei - Ascending Bird - Suite for string orchestra (featuring Colin Jacobsen, violin, and Richard Tognetti, violin, and Kseniya Simonova - sand artist)
Meet Stepan Grytsay - Violin
Igor Stravinsky - The Firebird (Infernal Dance - Berceuse - Finale)
*ENCORE* Franz Schubert - Rosamunde (featuring Eugene Izotov - oboe, and Andrew Mariner - clarinet)

The symphony orchestra has been formed over the centuries. Its development for a long time took place in the depths of opera and church ensembles. Such teams in XV - XVII centuries were small and varied. They included lutes, viols, flutes with oboes, trombones, harps, and drums. Gradually, stringed bowed instruments won the dominant position. The viols were replaced by violins with their richer and more melodious sound. Back to top XVIII V. they already reigned supreme in the orchestra. A separate group and wind instruments (flutes, oboes, bassoons) have united. From the church orchestra they switched to the symphony trumpets and timpani. The harpsichord was an indispensable member of instrumental ensembles.
Such a composition was characteristic of J. S. Bach, G. Handel, A. Vivaldi.
From the middle XVIII V. the genres of symphony and instrumental concerto begin to develop. The departure from the polyphonic style led the composers to strive for timbre diversity, the relief singling out of orchestral voices.
The functions of the new tools are changing. The harpsichord, with its weak sound, is gradually losing its leading role. Soon, composers completely abandoned it, relying mainly on the string and wind group. By the end XVIII V. the so-called classical composition of the orchestra was formed: about 30 strings, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, 2 pipes, 2-3 horns and timpani. The clarinet soon joined the brass. J. Haydn, W. Mozart wrote for such a composition. Such is the orchestra in the early compositions of L. Beethoven. IN XIX V.
The development of the orchestra went mainly in two directions. On the one hand, increasing in composition, it was enriched with instruments of many types (the merit of romantic composers, primarily Berlioz, Liszt, Wagner, is great for this), on the other hand, the internal capabilities of the orchestra developed: sound colors became cleaner, texture clearer, expressive resources are more economical (such is the orchestra of Glinka, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov). Significantly enriched the orchestral palette and many composers of the late XIX - 1st half of XX V. (R. Strauss, Mahler, Debussy, Ravel, Stravinsky, Bartok, Shostakovich and others).

A modern symphony orchestra consists of 4 main groups. The foundation of the orchestra is a string group (violins, violas, cellos, double basses). In most cases, strings are the main carriers of the melodic beginning in the orchestra. The number of musicians playing strings is approximately 2/3 of the entire band. The group of woodwind instruments includes flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons. Each of them usually has an independent party. Yielding to bowed ones in timbre saturation, dynamic properties and a variety of playing techniques, wind instruments have great power, compact sound, bright colorful hues. The third group of orchestra instruments is brass (horn, trumpet, trombone, trumpet). They bring new bright colors to the orchestra, enriching its dynamic capabilities, giving power and brilliance to the sound, and also serve as a bass and rhythmic support.
Percussion instruments are becoming increasingly important in the symphony orchestra. Their main function is rhythmic. In addition, they create a special sound and noise background, complement and decorate the orchestral palette with color effects. According to the nature of the sound, drums are divided into 2 types: some have a certain pitch (timpani, bells, xylophone, bells, etc.), others lack an exact pitch (triangle, tambourine, small and large drum, cymbals). Of the instruments that are not included in the main groups, the role of the harp is the most significant. Occasionally, composers include the celesta, piano, saxophone, organ and other instruments in the orchestra.
More information about the instruments of a symphony orchestra - string group, woodwinds, brass and percussion can be found at website.
I can not ignore another useful site, "Children about Music", which I discovered during the preparation of the post. No need to be intimidated by the fact that this is a site for children. There are some pretty serious things in it, only told in a simpler, more understandable language. Here link on him. By the way, it also contains a story about a symphony orchestra.

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