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, tuba). 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.

Woodwinds

FLUTE

One of the oldest instruments in the world, known in antiquity - 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

competes with the flute in the antiquity of its origin: it traces its genealogy 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-18th centuries - Lully, Rameau, Bach, Handel - paid tribute to this passion: 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 melody 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.

CLARINET

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 fifth 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.

BASSOON

The ancestor of the bassoon is the old bass pipe - the 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, melancholic, 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.

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 down 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 counterbassoon is an instrument bent three times: its unfolded length 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.

Strings

VIOLIN

A stringed bowed instrument, the highest in sound, the richest in expressive and technical capabilities among the instruments of the violin family. It is believed that the immediate predecessor of the violin was the so-called lira de braccio, which originates from ancient viols; like a violin, this instrument was held at the shoulder (Italian braccio - shoulder), the playing techniques were also similar to violin ones.

From the middle of the XVI century. the violin is established in musical practice as a solo and ensemble instrument. Many generations of craftsmen worked to improve the design, improve the sound qualities of the violin. History has preserved the names of A. and N. Amati, A. and D. Guarneri, A. Stradivari - outstanding Italian masters of the late 16th - early 18th centuries, who created samples of violins that are still considered unsurpassed.

The body of the violin has a characteristic oval shape with notches on the sides. The shell connects two soundboards of the instrument (special holes are cut on the top - efs). There are 4 strings stretched over the fretboard, tuned in fifths.

The range of the violin covers 4 octaves; however, with the help of harmonics, a number of higher sounds can also be extracted.

The violin is a predominantly monophonic instrument. However, harmonic intervals and even 4-sound chords are extracted on it.

The timbre of the violin is melodious, rich in sound and dynamic shades, in expressiveness it approaches the human voice. To change the timbre during the game, sometimes a mute is used. The violin, which has exceptional technical mobility, is often entrusted with the performance of difficult and fast passages, wide and melodic jumps, various kinds of trills, tremolo.

ALTO

and the way it is played are very reminiscent of the violin, so if you do not notice the difference in size (and it is very difficult to do this: the viola is noticeably larger than the violin), then they can easily be confused. It is believed that the timbre of the viola is inferior to the violin in brilliance and brightness. Nevertheless, this instrument also has its unique advantages: it is indispensable in music of an elegiac, dreamy-romantic nature. In terms of virtuosity, the viola is almost as perfect as the violin, but the large size of the viola requires the player to have appropriate stretching of the fingers and physical strength.

The viola did not immediately receive its proper role among the instruments of the orchestra. After the flourishing of the polyphonic school of Bach and Handel, when the viola was an equal member of the string group, they began to entrust him with a subordinate harmonic voice. Violists in those days were usually unsuccessful violinists. In the works of Gluck, Haydn and, to some extent, Mozart, the viola is used only as the middle or lower voice of the orchestra. Only in the works of Beethoven and Romantic composers does the viola acquire the significance of a melodic instrument.

The viola owes much of its recognition to the outstanding violinists of the last century, especially Paganini, who played the viola in a quartet and performed in a solo concert. Later, Berlioz introduces the part of the solo viola into his symphony "Harold in Italy", entrusting him with the characterization of Harold. After that, the attitude of composers and performers to the viola began to change. Wagner in "Tannhäuser", in a scene called "The Grotto of Venus", writes for the viola an incredibly difficult part for that time. R. Strauss interprets the solo viola even more masterfully in the symphonic film "Don Quixote". Violas are often entrusted with a melodic voice together with cellos, violins, or completely independently, as, for example, in the second act of Rimsky-Korsakov's "The Golden Cockerel" during the dance of the Queen of Shemakhan.

CELLO

entered the musical life in the second half of the XVI century. It owes its creation to the art of such outstanding instrumental masters as Magini, Gasparo de Salo, and later - Amati and Stradivari. Like the viola, the cello has long been considered a secondary instrument in the orchestra. Until the end of the 18th century, composers used it mainly as a bass voice, and at the very beginning of the century before last, in connection with this, the cello and double bass parts were written in the score on one line.

The cello is twice the size of the viola, its bow is shorter than the violin and viola, the strings are much longer. The cello belongs to the number of "foot" instruments: the performer puts it between his knees, resting the metal spike on the floor.

Beethoven was the first to "discover" the beauty of the cello timbre. Following him, the composers turned its sound into the singing voice of the orchestra - let's recall the second part of Tchaikovsky's VIth Symphony.

Quite often, in operas, ballets and symphonic works, the cello is assigned solo - as, for example, in R. Strauss's Don Quixote. In the number of concert pieces written for her, the cello is second only to the violin.

Like the violin and viola, the cello has four strings tuned in fifths, but an octave below the violas. In terms of technical capabilities, the cello is not inferior to the violin, and in some cases even surpasses it. For example, due to the longer strings of the cello, it is possible to obtain a richer series of harmonics on it.

DOUBLE BASS

far surpasses its counterparts both in size and in the volume of the low register: the double bass is twice the size of the cello, which is twice the size of the viola.

Most likely, the double bass, a descendant of the old viol, appeared in the orchestra in the 17th century. The shape of the double bass has retained the features of the ancient viol to this day: the body pointed upwards, the sloping sides - thanks to this, the performer can bend over the upper part of the body and "reach out" to the bottom of the neck in order to extract the highest sounds. The instrument is so large that the performer plays it while standing or sitting on a high stool.

In terms of virtuosity, the modern double bass is quite mobile: often, together with the cellos, rather fast passages are performed on it. But "thanks" to its size, it requires a huge stretching of the fingers, and its bow is very heavy. All this makes the technique of the instrument heavier: passages in which lightness is required sound somewhat heavy on it. Nevertheless, his role in the orchestra is enormous: by invariably performing the bass voice parts, he creates the foundation for the sound of the string group, and together with the bassoon and tuba or the third trombone, the entire orchestra. In addition, double basses sound great in an octave with cellos in melodies.

In the orchestra, it is very rare to divide double basses into several parts or perform solos on them.

Brass

PIPE

entered the opera orchestra from 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 XIX 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 heroics.

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

TROMBONE

got its name from the Italian name for the pipe - tromba - with the magnifying suffix "one": trombone literally means "trumpet". 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 lengthened as 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.

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 only in the next century did it become 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 5m 90cm. Such an instrument could not be held straight 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 become 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.

TUBA

Pretty 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.

SAXOPHONE

The creator of the SAXOPHONE is the outstanding Franco-Belgian instrumental maker Adolf Sachs. 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 1910s, musicians of jazz ensembles drew 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.

Drums

Timpani

One of the oldest 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, craftsmen 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.

DISHES

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 Symphony IV. 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.

XYLOPHONE,

apparently 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 became 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.

Small DRUM

It 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.

Big drum (it. gran casso).

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 it was often used 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 even where there is no onomatopoeia, and especially often - in noisy, solemn episodes of music.

TRIANGLE

one of the smallest instruments of the 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,

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

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 (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

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.

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

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

An instrument of Korean or North Chinese origin, an attribute of a Buddhist cult. The tool has a rounded 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 temple block was first spread 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 fairly certain pitch, so using a set of temple blocks, you can get melodic phrases - for example, S. Slonimsky used these instruments in "Concert -buff".

Temple blocks are played by striking the top with rubber-tipped sticks, wooden hammers, and snare drum sticks.

GUIRO, reco-reco

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".

MARACA

is a round or egg-shaped wooden rattle on the 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 - check - 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.

KABACA

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".

KONG

This instrument is of Cuban origin. After modernization, the congas became widely used in dance music orchestras, jazz, and even in works of serious music. Congas have the following device: on a wooden cylindrical body (height from 17 to 22 cm) skin is stretched and fixed with a metal hoop (its tension is regulated from the inside with screws). The metal rim does not rise above the level of the skin: this is what determines such a characteristic conga playing with the palms - con le mani or fingers - con le dita. Two congas with different diameters are usually connected to each other by a common holder. The smaller cong sounds about a third higher than the wider one. The sound of the conga is high, specifically "empty" and varies depending on the place and method of impact.

Singles

HARP

One of the oldest musical instruments of mankind. It originated from a bow with a stretched string, which sounded melodious when fired. Later, the sound of the bowstring was used as a signal. The man who first pulled three or four bowstrings on a bow, which, due to their unequal length, made sounds of different heights, became the creator of the first harp. Even in Egyptian frescoes of the 15th century BC, harps still resemble a bow. And these harps are not the most ancient: the oldest archaeologists found during excavations of the Sumerian city of Ur in Mesopotamia - it was made four and a half thousand years ago, in the XXVI century BC.

In ancient times, in the East, in Greece and Rome, the harp remained one of the most common and beloved instruments. It was often used to accompany singing or playing other instruments. The harp appeared early in medieval Europe: here Ireland was famous for its special art of playing it, where folk singers - bards - sang their sagas to its accompaniment.

The harp is a stringed plucked instrument. It is believed that the beauty of her appearance surpasses all her neighbors in the orchestra. Its graceful outlines hide the shape of a triangle, the metal frame is decorated with carvings. Strings (47-48) of different lengths and thicknesses are pulled onto the frame, which form a transparent mesh. At the beginning of the 19th century, the famous piano master Erar improved the ancient harp. He found a way to quickly change the length of the strings and thus the pitch of the harp.

The virtuoso possibilities of the harp are quite peculiar: wide chords, passages from arpeggios, glissando - sliding the hand along all the strings tuned to some chord, harmonics are excellent on it.

The role of the harp in the orchestra is not so much emotional as colorful. The harp often accompanies various instruments in the orchestra; at other times, she is tasked with spectacular solos. There are many of them in the ballets of Tchaikovsky, Glazunov, in the works of Rimsky-Korsakov. Of the Western European composers of the 19th century, the harp was most widely used by Berlioz, Meyerbeer, Wagner and Liszt. The well-known part of two harps in the "Waltz" from Berlioz's "Fantastic Symphony" laid the foundation for that virtuoso style that has become the leading one in the last three centuries. Earlier, from the moment of its appearance in the symphony orchestra of the 18th century until Berlioz, the harp imitated the sound of a lute, a guitar (as in Glinka's "The Aragonese Hunt") or a harpsichord. The harp was also used in cases where it was necessary to evoke an association with antiquity. Gluck's Orpheus or Beethoven's Prometheus are examples.

The orchestra usually uses one or two harps, but in some cases their number is increased. Thus, Rimsky-Korsakov's "Mlada" has three harps, while Wagner's "Rheingold Gold" has six.

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 he also acts as an ordinary instrument of the orchestra. Russian composers, starting with Glinka, began to introduce the piano (piano part) 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 reproduces 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 for 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 First Symphony is an example of this.

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 the symphonic poem "The Battle of the Huns", with the help of an organ, opposed the Christian world to the barbarians.

Target: to form in students an idea of ​​\u200b\u200ba symphony orchestra and its musical instruments; develop research skills, the ability to determine the sound of various instruments by ear, analyze musical works; cultivate a love for classical and folk music.

Lesson type: combined.

Equipment: TCO; cards with the image of musical instruments; layout of musical instruments of a symphony orchestra; audio recordings with the sound of instruments.

Music material: G. Verdi. March from the opera "Aida"; P. Tchaikovsky. Dance of the Dragee Fairy from the ballet "The Nutcracker"; N. Rimsky-Korsakov "Flight of the Bumblebee" from the opera "The Tale of Tsar Saltan"; J. Bizet-R. Shchedrin. Carmen Suite "Dance"; J. Gershwin. Clara's Lullaby from the opera "Porgy and Bess".

During the classes

Class organization

Updating of basic knowledge

What is sonata form?

What sections make it up?

How many components are in a classical sonata?

The piece of sonata form that we studied in the previous lesson?

What is the difference between sonata and variation forms?

3. Message of the topic of the lesson. Motivation for learning activities

Teacher. Today we will learn what an orchestra is, a symphony orchestra, in particular, the musical instruments that make it up. The teacher attaches to the board the layout of the musical instruments of the symphony orchestra.

1. Studying new material

Pupils make presentations prepared in advance.

Student reports

Historical reference

The word "orchestra" comes from the Greek "orchestra" - in the days of ancient Greece, this was the name of the area in front of the theater stage, where the choir went out. Subsequently, this place housed a group of musicians - "orchestra". Over time, the term took on a broader meaning; they began to designate a large group of musicians-instrumentalists. Symphony orchestras arose at the beginning of the 17th century. Their appearance is associated with the emergence of opera and instrumental concert, which require a significant number of performers. The large symphony orchestra was formed in the middle of the 19th century. Today, 50-75 performers play in a large symphony orchestra.

Classification of symphony orchestra instruments

The reports are accompanied by a diagram.

Even in ancient times, with an increase in the number of musical instruments, it became necessary to classify them. In ancient China, musical instruments were distributed according to the material from which they were made. Today, the most common classification by Erich von Hornbostel and Kurt Sachs, according to which the instruments are divided according to the source of the sound. In a symphony orchestra, musical instruments are distributed according to the method of sound extraction. The most numerous is the group of bowed string instruments, including first and second violins, violas, cellos and double basses.

The group of woodwind instruments includes flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons.

A group of brass instruments - trumpets, horns, trombones, tubas.

The group of percussion instruments consists of timpani, triangle, tambourine, snare drum, cymbals, bass drum, tam tam, orchestral bells, bells, xylophone, vibraphone.

The symphony orchestra also includes keyboard and plucked instruments: harp, piano, celesta.

Sometimes saxophones, electric guitars, synthesizers and the like are introduced into the symphony orchestra.

Work in pairs

The teacher distributes 3 cards with the image of musical instruments to each desk.

Exercise:

- Determine the names of the instruments shown and the group to which they belong.

- Do all the tools shown on the cards belong to the indicated four groups?

— What groups of instruments include tambourine, kobza, bandura, guitar, accordion?

What orchestra use them?

- Make a conclusion: which instruments make up an orchestra of folk instruments, and which ones - a symphony.

Group work

Teacher. Imagine that we are in a concert hall. You will unite in 5 groups and must complete two tasks.

Group task #1

1. Choose among the cards with the image of musical instruments belonging to the string-bow group.
2. Choose among 5 musical fragments offered for listening, a fragment where

instruments of string-bow groups sound. Determine the name of the composer and the title of the work.

Group task #2

1. Choose among the cards with the image of musical instruments belonging to the group of woodwind instruments.
2. Choose among 5 pieces of music to be listened to, a piece with woodwinds. Determine the name of the composer and the title of the work.

Group task #3

1. Choose among the cards with the image of musical instruments belonging to the group of brass instruments.
2. Choose among 5 pieces of music presented for listening, a piece where brass instruments sound. Determine the name of the composer and the title of the work.

Group task #4

1. Choose among the cards with the image of musical instruments belonging to the group of percussion instruments.
2. Choose among 5 musical fragments presented for listening, a fragment where percussion instruments sound. Determine the name of the composer and the title of the work.

Group task #5

1. Choose among the cards with the image of musical instruments belonging to the group of keyboard instruments.
2. Choose among 5 musical fragments presented for listening, a fragment where keyboard instruments sound. Determine the name of the composer and the title of the work.

Listening pieces: 1. G. Verdi. March from the opera "Aida" (trumpet); 2. P. Tchaikovsky. Dance of the Pellet Fairy from the ballet The Nutcracker (celesta) 3. N. Rimsky-Korsakov "Flight of the Bumblebee" from the opera "The Tale of Tsar Saltan" (a group of bowed string instruments); 4. J. Bizet-R. Shchedrin. Carmen- suite "Dance" (drums) 5. J. Gershwin Clara's lullaby from the opera "Porgy and Bess" (saxophone).

The teacher invites students to make a conclusion about the belonging of musical instruments to a certain group and their expressive possibilities.

Teacher's story:

Today we have the opportunity to listen to and analyze a very interesting piece of music by Benjamin Britten "Guide to the Orchestra for Youth". In 1945, the outstanding English composer B. Britten received an order from the British Ministry of Education to write music for the educational film "Orchestra Instruments". Thus, one of the most famous works of the composer was created.

The work is built in the form of variations on a theme by G. Purcell (drama "Abdelazer"). Here, in addition to the characteristics of musical instruments, we learn more about the outstanding composer of the 17th century, we feel the relationship between the past and the present.

Listening to the piece.

The work begins with the sound of Purcell's solemn joyful theme performed by the entire orchestra. Gradually, it acquires the features of modern music. Then the variations begin, each of which is performed by one instrument or a small group. The theme begins with the sound of the piccolo flute, an instrument of the woodwind group. Further, the theme is picked up by the rest of the instruments of the woodwind group, then by the brass ones. The string group conveys it with a solo sound to harps, then - percussion. The final variation is written in the form of a fugue played together by all the instruments of the orchestra. This sound of the orchestra is called tutti. Gradually, the main theme acquires its original character, and the finale of the work sounds majestic and solemn.

Reflection

What piece of music did we meet?

What musical instruments did the composer use in his work?

Who leads the symphony orchestra? (Conductor)

What is this control?

In what form is the "Guidebook ..." written?

What new musical form have we learned about?

What groups of instruments are used in this piece?

collective conclusion. The multifaceted timbre possibilities of various groups of musical instruments of a symphony orchestra help the composer realize his creative ideas, the performer - to prove his artistic skills, and the listener - to get aesthetic pleasure from listening and perceiving musical works.

Homework

For students with an average and sufficient level of knowledge: to process the material of the textbook and additional literature on the musical instruments of the symphony orchestra; learn about the features of each group of musical instruments of a symphony orchestra.

For students with a high level of knowledge: find out from the reference literature what other types of orchestras (except for the symphony) exist in musical performing practice. What instruments belong to electronic musical instruments and what are their features?

Orchestra - a large group of musical instruments performing works specially designed for this composition.

Depending on the composition, orchestras have different, expressive, timbre and dynamic capabilities and have different names:

• symphony orchestra (large and small),
• chamber, orchestra of folk instruments,
• wind,
• pop,
• jazz.

In a modern symphony orchestra, instruments are divided into the following groups:

I. String-bowed: violins, violas, cellos, double basses.
II. Woodwinds: flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons.
III. Brass: horns, trumpets, trombones, tubas.
IV. Drums:

A) noise: castanets, rattles, maracas, scourge, tom-toms, drums (large and small). Their parts are recorded on one musical line – "thread".
b) with a certain pitch: timpani, cymbals, triangle, bell, xylophone, vibraphone, celesta.

V. Keyboards: piano, organ, harpsichord, clavichord.
VI. Extension group: harp.

The full sound of the orchestra is called “ tutti " - ("All").

Conductor - (from French - “manage, manage”) manages a team of musicians - performers, he owns the artistic interpretation of the work.

On the console in front of the conductor lies - score (complete musical notation of all parts of orchestral instruments).

The instrument parts of each group are recorded one below the other, starting with the highest sounding instruments and ending with the lowest.

An arrangement of orchestral music for a piano performer is called clavier .

Characteristics of the groups of the symphony orchestra

I. String-bowed

These are instruments similar in appearance and coloring of sound (timbre). In addition, their sound is extracted with a bow. Hence the name. The most virtuoso and expressive instrument of this group is violin . It sounds like a singer's voice. It has a gentle, singing timbre. The violin is usually entrusted with the main melody of the piece. The orchestra has I and II violins. They play different parts.
Alto it looks like a violin, but it is not much larger in size and has a more muffled, matte sound /
Cello can be called a "big violin". This instrument is not on the shoulder, like a violin or viola, but rests on a stand that touches the floor. The cello sound is low, but at the same time soft, velvety, noble.
The largest instrument in this group is double bass . They play it while sitting, because it is taller than a person. This instrument is rarely used as a soloist. His sound is the lowest, humming in this group.
The string-bow group in the orchestra is the leader in the orchestra. It has enormous timbre and technical capabilities.

II. Woodwinds

Wood is used to make wooden tools. They are called wind instruments because they produce sound by blowing air into the instrument.
Flute (from Italian means “wind, breath”). The sound of the flute is transparent, sonorous, cold.
It has a melodious, rich, warm, but somewhat nasal sound oboe.
Has a variety of timbres clarinet. This quality allows him to perform dramatic, lyrical, scherzo paintings.
Performs the bass part bassoon - an instrument with a thick, slightly hoarse timbre.
The lowest bassoon has a name contrabassoon .
The group of woodwind instruments is widely used for sketching pictures of nature, lyrical episodes.

III. Brass

For the manufacture of copper-wind instruments, copper metals (copper, brass, etc.) are used.
Powerfully and solemnly, brilliantly and brightly, the whole group of brass-wind instruments sounds in the orchestra.
Has a clear "voice" pipe . The loud sound of the trumpet is heard even when the whole orchestra is playing. Often the trumpet has a solo part.
French horn (“forest horn”) can be used in pastoral music.
At the moment of the highest tension in a piece of music, especially of a dramatic nature, along with pipes, they play trombones.
The lowest brass instrument in the orchestra - tuba. It is often played in combination with other instruments.

The task of percussion instruments- enhance the sonority of the orchestra, make it more colorful, show the expressiveness and variety of rhythm.

This is a large, colorful and diverse group, which is united by a common way of extracting sound - a blow. That is, by their nature they are not melodic. Their main purpose is to emphasize the rhythm, enhance the overall sonority of the orchestra and complement, decorate it with various effects. Only the timpani are a permanent member of the orchestra. Starting from the 19th century, the shock group began to replenish rapidly. Bass and snare drums, cymbals and triangles, and then tambourine, tom-tom, bells and bells, xylophone and celesta, vibraphone. But these instruments were used only sporadically.

A characteristic feature of a number of instruments is the presence of white and black keys, which are collectively called a keyboard or, for an organ, a manual.
Main keyboard instruments: organ (relatives - portable , positive ), clavichord (related - spinet in Italy and virginal in England), harpsichord, piano (varieties - piano And piano ).
According to the sound source, keyboard instruments are divided into two groups. The first group includes instruments with strings, the second group includes organ-type instruments. Instead of strings, they have pipes of various shapes.
piano This is an instrument in which both loud (forte) and quiet (piano) sounds were extracted with the help of hammers. Hence the name of the instrument.
Timbre harpsichord - silvery, the sound is not loud, of the same strength.
Organ - the largest musical instrument. They play it, like the piano, by pressing the keys. The entire front part of the organ was decorated in the old days with fine artistic carvings. Behind him are thousands of pipes of various shapes, each with its own distinct timbre. Consequently, the organ emits both the highest and lowest sounds that the human ear can only catch.

VI. A frequent member of the symphony orchestra is string-plucked tool - harp , which is a gilded frame with stretched strings. The harp has a gentle, transparent timbre. Its sound creates a magical flavor.

Timbre characteristics of instruments

Types of orchestras

Orchestra of Russian Folk Instruments

The composition of such an orchestra includes the main groups:

• String plucked:
  • domra, balalaika, gusli
• Brass:
  • flute, zhaleyka, Vladimir horns
• Pneumatic reed:
  • bayans, harmonicas
• • tambourines and drums
• Additional tools:
  • flute, oboe and their varieties

Orchestra of Belarusian Folk Instruments

Approximate composition:

• Stringed instruments:
  • harp, violin, basset
• Wind instruments:
  • Svirel, zhaleyka, duda, pipe, horn
• • drums and cymbals
• Accordion - (or multi-timbre, ready-to-select button accordion) is a reed, pneumatic (“air”) keyboard instrument. It got its name from the name of the draene - the Russian legendary singer - storyteller Bayan. This instrument has buttons on both sides, on which the performer plays a melody from the right moan, and accompaniment from the left.
  Bayans are the most widespread in modern concert performance. Having special switches of timbre registers in the left keyboard, which make it possible to change the timbre of the instrument, change the color of the sound.
  There are also electronic button accordions, which have unlimited sound power and a very large number of timbre colors.
• Balalaika - a relative of the lute, mandolin, guitar. Musical symbol of the Russian people. It is a stringed plucked instrument. She has a wooden triangular body and a long neck, on which the strings are pulled. The sound is extracted by striking all the strings with the index finger or by plucking. There are several types of balalaikas: piccolo, prima, second, viola, bass and double bass.
• Harmonic (accordion, accordion) - a wind musical instrument that has become widespread in many countries.
  It is equipped with furs and a keypad. A characteristic feature of the instrument: the ability to change the pitch due to a change in the tension of the movement of the bellows.
  Another type of harmonica is accordion . On one side of the accordion there are keys, like a piano, they play a melody, on the other - several rows of buttons for accompaniment. When you press several of them, a whole chord sounds. Hence the name accordion.
• Domra - a bit like a balalaika, only its body is oval, pear-shaped, and the strings are tuned in fourths.
• Cymbals - a stringed percussion instrument, is a low box in the shape of a trapezoid or a wooden frame, over which strings are stretched. The instrument is played with sticks or hammers. The gentle sound of cymbals in timbre resembles the sound of a harp.
• Guitar - one of the few musical instruments on which the sound is prepared and extracted with the fingers.
• Gusli - an old Russian stringed plucked instrument.

Brass band

A brass band is a group of musicians who play various wind and percussion instruments.
According to their composition, the instruments of a modern brass band are divided into small brass orchestra, small mixed, medium mixed and large mixed.
The basis of the small copper orchestra is made up of: cornets, altos, tenors, baritones, basses.
With the addition of woodwinds (flutes, oboes, clarinets, saxophones, bassoons), as well as trumpets, horns, trombones and percussion instruments to this group, small mixed, medium, large mixed compositions are formed.

Variety Orchestra

The composition of this orchestra includes traditional groups of instruments of a symphony orchestra - woodwinds - horns and strings (violin, viola, cello).

Jazz orchestra (jazz band)

This orchestra includes trumpets, clarinets, trombones and a “rhythm section” (banjo, guitar, double bass, drums and piano).

Materials used in the work:

1. Z.Osovitskaya, A.Kazarinova In the world of music. First year of study. M., “Music”, 1996.
2. M. Shonikova Musical Literature. Rostov-on-Don, 2003.
3. Ya.Ostrovskaya, L.Frolova Musical literature in definitions and musical examples. SPb., 2004.
4. M.F. musical kingdom. Minsk, 2002.

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 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.

Interesting but true...

The physicist Albert Einstein, puzzling over the most difficult questions, used to play the violin until a solution came up. Then he got up and announced: “Well, I finally understood what was the matter!”

Structure of a symphony orchestra

Orchestra in Ancient Greece called place, intended for choir(Greek orheomai - I dance). At present, an orchestra is called a certain composition of musical instruments that form an organic whole based on a deep internal interconnection of timbres with each other. Musical practice has developed various types of orchestras. Each has a certain composition of tools and a different number of them. Main types: opera and symphony, brass, folk instruments orchestra, jazz orchestra.

The symphony orchestra, in turn, has varieties. Chamber Orchestra (10 - 12 people) is created for the performance of early music by the composition for which it was written (Bach's Brandenburg Concertos, Concerto grosso by Vivaldi, Corelli, Handel). The core of the chamber orchestra is a string group with the addition of harpsichord, flute, oboe, bassoon and horns. Appeal to the chamber orchestra in modern music is associated either with the search for new expressive possibilities (Shostakovich. Opera "The Nose", 14th symphony, A. Schnittke. Concerto grosso for two violins and chamber orchestra, 1977), or is explained by practical considerations. Such circumstances turned out to be decisive when I. Stravinsky created The Story of a Soldier in 1918: “... our staging facilities were very scarce ... I saw no other way but to stop at such a composition that would include the most characteristic instruments of high and low registers. From strings - violin and double bass, from wood - clarinet and bassoon, from copper - trumpet and trombone, and, finally, percussion, which is controlled by one musician.

string orchestra consists of the bow group of the orchestra (Tchaikovsky. Serenade for string orchestra, Onneger. Second Symphony).

By the end of the 18th century, when the creative path of Haydn and Mozart ended and the first Beethoven symphonies appeared, there was a small (classical) orchestra. Its composition:

string group woodwinds brass drums

violins I flutes 2 horns 2 – 4 timpani 2 – 3

violins II oboes 2 trumpets 2

alto clarinets 2

cello bassoons 2

double basses

J. Haydn. Symphony "Hours", part II

In the second half of the 19th century, the large symphony orchestra. The main distinguishing feature of a large orchestra from a small one is the presence of three trombones and a tuba ( heavy copper quartet ). To create a dynamic balance, the number of performers in the string group increases.

small orchestra large orchestra

violins I 4 consoles 8 – 10 consoles

violins II 3 consoles 7 – 9 consoles

violas 2 remotes 6 remotes

cellos 2 remotes 5 remotes

double basses 1 console 4 – 5 consoles

Depending on the number of woodwind instruments, there are several compositions of a large symphony orchestra.

Double or double composition , in which there are 2 instruments of each family

Schubert. Symphony h-moll.

Glinka. Waltz fantasy.

Chaikovsky. Symphony No. 1.

triple composition, in which there are 3 instruments of each family:

Lyadov. Baba is a yaga.

Rimsky-Korsakov. Operas The Golden Cockerel, The Tale of Tsar Saltan.

Quadruple composition : 4 flutes, 4 oboes, 4 clarinets, 4 bassoons.

How the exception is encountered single composition:

Prokofiev. Symphonic fairy tale "Peter and the wolf".

Rimsky-Korsakov. Opera Mozart and Salieri.

Available intermediate composition:

Rimsky-Korsakov. "Scheherazade".

Shostakovich. Symphonies 7, 8, 10.

Chaikovsky. Symphony No. 5. Overtures "Francesca da Rimini", Romeo and Juliet.

The organization of a symphony orchestra is to combine related instruments into groups. There are five of them:

String instruments - archi

Woodwinds - fiati (legno)

Brass Instruments - ottoni

Percussion instruments - percussi

Keyboard-plucked instruments.

3. Find information about the composition of the orchestra in Monteverdi's opera "Orpheus"