Jordanian National Orchestra Association | Music History Origins of Instruments Introduction: An orchestra is a musical ensemble of mixed instruments based on strings and winds, under the direction of a conductor, employing four classes of instruments: strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion. It is the principal large instrument ensemble of Western music from the 18th to the 20th cent. Orchestration is the scoring of a piece of music so that it can be played by specific instruments. Early History: The orchestra in the modern sense of the word did not exist before the 17th cent. Previous instrumental ensemble music was chamber music, except for occasional ceremonies when as many instruments as were available would be massed together. Until well into the 17th cent. there was little thought of specifying what instrument should play a part; any available instrument with the proper range was used. The first known example of orchestration occurs in Giovanni Gabrieli's (see under Andrea Gabrieli) Sacrae Symphoniae (1597). Monteverdi's Orfeo (1607), one of the first operas, demands a large and varied group of instruments—all, in fact, that were available to him through his patron.

During the 17th cent. the violin family displaced the viols, except the double-bass viol, as the principal strings of the orchestra. By the end of the century a division into four parts had become standard: first and second violins, violas, and cellos, with the double basses playing the cello part an octave lower. (Not until the 19th cent. did the cellos and basses frequently have different parts to play.) Woodwinds appeared in the earliest orchestras, though infrequently and subordinate to the strings—usually two oboes and a bassoon, with flutes sometimes replacing the oboes. The flutes were established as regular orchestra members, playing together with the oboes, only late in the 18th cent. The trumpets, inseparable from the kettledrums through the 17th and 18th cent., were used occasionally in the 17th cent. and became standard in the orchestra by about 1700. The French horn was fully accepted by 1750. The trombone was used in church music even before the 17th cent.

and occasionally in opera thereafter; it did not become a regular member of the symphony orchestra until after 1800. Throughout the baroque period and into the second half of the 18th cent., the basso continuous was an integral part of the scoring and required that a harpsichord or some other chord-playing instrument fill in the harmonies above the figured bass. The treble and bass were strongly emphasized, while the middle parts were often left to the continuous alone. The orchestra was rather small at this time; Bach had as few as 18 players for his larger church works, and Handel usually used about 30. The Eighteenth-Century Classical Orchestra During the latter half of the 18th cent. the classical orchestra was gradually established through the disuse of the continuous and the acceptance of the clarinet. The abandonment of the continuous led to much greater independence in the string parts, which now had to fill the harmony unaided. Instead of both violin parts doubling the melody and the violas, cellos, and basses doubling the bass, there were now four distinct parts.

The clarinet, like the flute, first appeared as an alternate for the oboe, but in the late works of Haydn and Mozart the orchestra was standardized, with pairs of flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, French horns, trumpets, and kettledrums in addition to the strings. All the wind instruments, especially the woodwinds, could carry the melody, providing desired changes of color. Orchestras in the Nineteenth Century In the 19th cent., beginning in the works of Beethoven, the brass took an increasingly prominent place. The trombone was used regularly, while the invention of the valve in 1813 soon made the horn and trumpet completely chromatic. All the brass thus became melody instruments, instantly available in the most remote keys.The horn section was increased to four early in the century, and the introduction of the tuba (c.1835–50) gave the brass a dependable contrabass register it had previously lacked. The woodwinds also were improved mechanically in the 19th cent., greatly enlarging their technical capabilities.

Throughout the century the string section was expanded to balance the increasing numbers of wind players.The scores of Mozart and Beethoven generally required an orchestra of about 40; those of Weber and early Wagner called for about 55; Wagner's Ring cycle (1854–74) called for about 110; and Strauss's Elektra for 115. Hector Berlioz was highly influential in increasing awareness of orchestral color and in encouraging the use of a larger orchestra; his Traité d'orchestration, a fundamental work of its kind, envisioned an ideal orchestra of 465. After the climax of orchestral bulk in the works of Wagner, Mahler, Strauss, and several others, composers reacted against orchestral gigantism, first in the impressionism of Debussy and his followers. They still used a large orchestra, but more restrainedly, making more distinctive use of the instruments and largely avoiding massive sonorities. Innovations of the Twentieth Century Stravinsky's Rite of Spring (1913) illustrates the early 20th-century interest in diverse instrumental combinations and original exploitation of the instruments' capabilities. In general, composers of the 20th cent.

have continued exploring novel uses of instruments and have preferred a moderate-sized orchestra. Seventy-five to ninety players suffice for most 20th-century scores; a reduced, or chamber, orchestra of classical or baroque dimensions has also been much used. In this century the percussion section is used more prominently; new instruments have been devised and the playing of old ones varied. Instruments of the Orchestra: The strings, except the harp, have several players for each part, the others usually only one. The strings are the bowed violin, viola, cello (or violoncello), double bass, and the plucked harp. The woodwinds are the flute, oboe, English horn, clarinet, and bassoon, all of which appear in more than one size. The brass are French horn, trumpet, trombone, and tuba. The percussion are kettledrums (or timpani), snare and bass drums, cymbals, triangle, and xylophone, to name only a few of the most frequently used. The strings are the most important section of the orchestra; they are the most versatile and flexible and play almost continuously in most scores.

The woodwinds are next in importance; they add color to the string sound and in some passages carry the melody. Of the brass, the French horn is the most useful, since it blends equally well with the woodwinds or the other brasses. The trumpets, trombones, and tuba are the "heavy artillery" of the orchestra; playing loudly, they provide a dynamic climax, but they are also effective in subdued passages as a group or individually. The percussion instruments are used to emphasize rhythm. The kettledrums are most important, blending best with the rest of the orchestra and also being to a definite pitch. The others stand out so prominently that they are most effective when used sparingly. The harp is principally a color instrument and does not share the importance of the bowed strings. The piano and organ occasionally are used as orchestral instruments, apart from their role as soloists in concertos. Bibliography: For orchestra, see P. Hart, Orpheus in the New World: The Symphony Orchestra as an American Cultural Institution (1973); E. Prout, The Orchestra (2 vol., 1899, repr. 1988); P.

Bekker, The Orchestra (1963). For orchestration, see K. Kennan, Technique of Orchestration (2d ed. 1970); N. Del Mar, Anatomy of the Orchestra (1982 Resource: infoplease.com Musical Instruments The great majority of musical instruments fall readily into one of six major categories: bowed strings, woodwind, brass, percussion, keyboard, and the guitar family, the first four of which form the basis of the modern symphony orchestra. Bowed Strings The four principle orchestral string instruments are (in descending order of overall pitch) the violins (usually divided into two sections, playing individual parts), the violas, the cellos and the double basses. Each have four strings arranged in order of pitch, can be played by means of a bow (arco) or plucked (pizzicato), but whereas the violin and viola are played with the instrument resting between the shoulder and the chin, the larger cello (or, to give it its full title, violoncello) is placed facing outwards between and slightly behind the knees, and the bulky double bass is played standing up or seated on a high stool.

Enthusiasts of Medieval, Renaissance and early Baroque music will encounter earlier varieties of bowed instruments known variously as vielle, viol, or in its earliest form, fidel (hence the modern nickname for a violin, 'fiddle'). The most popular member of the viol family is the cello's precursor, the viola da gamba (literally 'viol of the legs'). Woodwind The four principle woodwind instruments of the orchestra all work by means of a system of keys (usually silver-plated) which when variously depressed and released allow air to pass through differing lengths of the instrument resulting in notes of different pitch. In order of descending overall pitch, these are: Flute A normally silver-plated (or in more extravagant cases, gold), narrow-bored instrument, held horizontally just under the mouth, and activated by blowing air across an aperture at one end of the instrument.Its higher-pitched cousin, the piccolo, is often encountered, although the lower alto flute rather less so. Early forebears include the unkeyed fife.

The most popular close relation is the recorder family, largely unkeyed and end-blown in the vertical position Oboe A narrow-bored wooden instrument descended from the medieval shawm, held vertically, and activated by means of placing the end-positioned double-reed in the mouth, and blowing under high-pressure so as to force air between the two bound reeds, causing them to vibrate. Other members of the oboe family include the lower pitched cor anglais (or English Horn), and (far more rarely) baritone oboe and heckelphone (bass oboe). The instrument's most famous predecessor is the Baroque oboe d'amore, often used by Johann Sebastian Bach. Clarinet Like the Oboe usually wooden, played vertically and held in the mouth, but with a wider bore and consisting of a single reed which when activated vibrates against a detachable mouthpiece. The standard instrument can be pitched in B flat (usually) or A, and the family is unusually extensive including the higher-pitched E flat, the B flat bass, the rarely-used C, the alto (a modern relative of the basset horn), and the even more obscure double-bass or 'pedal' clarinet.

Occasionally the clarinet's 'popular' cousin can be seen in the concert hall, the saxophone. Bassoon As the name would suggest, the bass member of the woodwind family, and by far the largest, especially its lower-pitched relation, the extremely bulky double or contra-bassoon. Like the oboe, it is a double-reed instrument, although to facilitate the playing action (the instrument is normally held across and in front of the body) it is connected to the bassoon via a silver-plated, curved crook. Its most notorious cousin is the Baroque serpent, shaped very much as its name would suggest Brass Instruments Brass instruments are also activated by blowing into them, although instead of using a form of reed over which the mouth is placed, the lips are placed against or inside the cup of a metal mouthpiece, and made to vibrate against its inner rim. In order of descending pitch, these are: Trumpet One of the most ancient of all instruments. Played horizontally via a series of valves on the top of the instrument which are opened and closed in various combinations to create different pitches.

Occasionally, the piccolo (higher) or bass (lower) trumpets are heard (and the trumpet's 'popular' cousin, the cornet), although more common nowadays in 'authentic' Baroque orchestras (which use instruments of the correct period or copies thereof), is the 'natural' or valveless trumpet. The more nationally limited bugle is rarely heard away from its traditional military context. French horn Another ancient instrument, descended from the use of animals' horns (hence the name) in pre-historic times. The modern instrument is the most outwardly complex, consisting of a basic tube, rounded into a compact shape culminating in a conical bore or bell, into which a series of valves are centrally set. Before the valve system had been developed, the changing of basic pitch was facilitated by the insertion of a variety of crooks which altered the length of the basic tube, and the changing of certain notes by holding the hand in a variety of subtly differentiated positions within the bell. In a popular context the term 'horn' invariably refers to the saxophone, and for the cor anglais see 'oboe' under the woodwind section above. Traditionally, the French horn section is seated away from the rest of the brass family.

Trombone Descended from the medieval sackbutt, it is the only popular orchestral wind instrument which operates without the use of a valve or key system. The trombone is easily recognizable by its extended elliptical shape culminating in a conical bore, and its distinctive use of a hand-operated slide held out in front, in order to change pitch. The slide can be moved to any one of seven main positions, each of which facilitate a different series of notes. The tenor and bass trombone are occasionally seen (especially the latter), although the alto and double-bass are extreme rarities Tuba Not unlike the French horn in basic construction, only more oval in shape and much bigger. The piston valve action is similar to the trumpet, only the valves themselves are situated in the middle of the instrument. A variety of types and sizes exist aside from the typical concert instrument in F (bass tuba), including the tenor tuba (higher), and double-bass tuba (lower), often referred to as a bombardon in a military or brass band context Percussion instruments A percussion instrument is probably best defined as one where a resonating surface is struck by the player, either by hand or by some form of stick.

These divide roughly into tuned instruments which have a definite pitch or series of pitches, and those of indefinite pitch. Popular examples of both types are: Tuned Timpani or kettle drum, xylophone, glockenspiel, tubular bells, vibraphone, marimba. Occasionally, the piano and celesta (see left) are included in scores as part of the percussion section. Indefinite pitch Triangle, gong, castanets, whip, rattle, anvil, tambourine, cymbals (struck and clashing), and a variety of drums (side, tenor, bass, tabor, bongo etc.). Keyboard instruments Conveniently collected together as any instrument which is operated by means of a standard keyboard, the differences in operation are wide-ranging and carry obvious associations with certain of the above categories. These break down into four main types: Plucked Mostly instruments emanating from the 17th/18th centuries where a series of stretched and tuned strings are plucked by a quill or plectrum (e.g. harpsichord, virginal, spinet). Struck Where the strings are actually hit, either by a tangent (e.g.

17th/18th century clavichord), or hammers (e.g. piano, celesta). Aerated Where the notes are activated by a column of mechanically propelled air within a series of tuned pipes (e.g. organ). Electronic Where a number of effects approximating to those derived from any of the above instruments, as well as totally original sounds, can be achieved (e.g. electronic organ, synthesizer) Guitar family The 'classical' guitar is typically a Spanish-derived, six-stringed instrument played using a plectrum or the finger-nails, with frets set into the fingerboard. Popular music tends to use amplification for both six-stringed instruments and the four-string bass guitar. The guitar family gradually supplanted the lute which had come to prominence during the Renaissance. Resource:naxos.com Musical Instruments Classical Music Home > Introduction to Classical Music > Musical Instruments Musical Instruments The great majority of musical instruments fall readily into one of six major categories: bowed strings, woodwind, brass, percussion, keyboard, and the guitar family, the first four of which form the basis of the modern symphony orchestra.

Bowed Strings The four principle orchestral string instruments are (in descending order of overall pitch) the violins (usually divided into two sections, playing individual parts), the violas, the cellos and the double basses. Each have four strings arranged in order of pitch, can be played by means of a bow (arco) or plucked (pizzicato), but whereas the violin and viola are played with the instrument resting between the shoulder and the chin, the larger cello (or, to give it its full title, violoncello) is placed facing outwards between and slightly behind the knees, and the bulky double bass is played standing up or seated on a high stool. Enthusiasts of Medieval, Renaissance and early Baroque music will encounter earlier varieties of bowed instruments known variously as vielle, viol, or in its earliest form, fidel (hence the modern nickname for a violin, 'fiddle'). The most popular member of the viol family is the cello's precursor, the viola da gamba (literally 'viol of the legs').

Woodwind The four principle woodwind instruments of the orchestra all work by means of a system of keys (usually silver-plated) which when variously depressed and released allow air to pass through differing lengths of the instrument resulting in notes of different pitch. In order of descending overall pitch, these are: Flute a normally silver-plated (or in more extravagant cases, gold), narrow-bored instrument, held horizontally just under the mouth, and activated by blowing air across an aperture at one end of the instrument. Its higher-pitched cousin, the piccolo, is often encountered, although the lower alto flute rather less so. Early forebears include the unkeyed fife. The most popular close relation is the recorder family, largely unkeyed and end-blown in the vertical position. Oboe a narrow-bored wooden instrument descended from the medieval shawm, held vertically, and activated by means of placing the end-positioned double-reed in the mouth, and blowing under high-pressure so as to force air between the two bound reeds, causing them to vibrate.

Other members of the oboe family include the lower pitched cor anglais (or English Horn), and (far more rarely) baritone oboe and heckelphone (bass oboe). The instrument's most famous predecessor is the Baroque oboe d'amore, often used by Johann Sebastian Bach . Clarinet like the oboe usually wooden, played vertically and held in the mouth, but with a wider bore and consisting of a single reed which when activated vibrates against a detachable mouthpiece. The standard instrument can be pitched in B flat (usually) or A, and the family is unusually extensive including the higher-pitched E flat, the B flat bass, the rarely-used C, the alto (a modern relative of the basset horn), and the even more obscure double-bass or 'pedal' clarinet. Occasionally the clarinet's 'popular' cousin can be seen in the concert hall, the saxophone. Bassoon as the name would suggest, the bass member of the woodwind family, and by far the largest, especially its lower-pitched relation, the extremely bulky double or contra-bassoon.

Like the oboe, it is a double-reed instrument, although to facilitate the playing action (the instrument is normally held across and in front of the body) it is connected to the bassoon via a silver-plated, curved crook. Its most notorious cousin is the Baroque serpent, shaped very much as its name would suggest. Brass Instruments Brass instruments are also activated by blowing into them, although instead of using a form of reed over which the mouth is placed, the lips are placed against or inside the cup of a metal mouthpiece, and made to vibrate against its inner rim. In order of descending pitch, these are: Trumpet one of the most ancient of all instruments. Played horizontally via a series of valves on the top of the instrument which are opened and closed in various combinations to create different pitches. Occasionally, the piccolo (higher) or bass (lower) trumpets are heard (and the trumpet's 'popular' cousin, the cornet), although more common nowadays in 'authentic' Baroque orchestras (which use instruments of the correct period or copies thereof), is the 'natural' or valveless trumpet. The more notationally limited bugle is rarely heard away from its traditional military context.

French horn another ancient instrument, descended from the use of animals' horns (hence the name) in pre-historic times. The modern instrument is the most outwardly complex, consisting of a basic tube, rounded into a compact shape culminating in a conical bore or bell, into which a series of valves are centrally set. Before the valve system had been developed, the changing of basic pitch was facilitated by the insertion of a variety of crooks which altered the length of the basic tube, and the changing of certain notes by holding the hand in a variety of subtly differentiated positions within the bell. In a popular context the term 'horn' invariably refers to the saxophone, and for the cor anglais see 'oboe' under the woodwind section above. Traditionally, the French horn section is seated away from the rest of the brass family. Trombone descended from the medieval sackbutt, it is the only popular orchestral wind instrument which operates without the use of a valve or key system. The trombone is easily recognisable by its extended elliptical shape culminating in a conical bore, and its distinctive use of a hand-operated slide held out in front, in order to change pitch.

The slide can be moved to any one of seven main positions, each of which facilitate a different series of notes. The tenor and bass trombone are occasionally seen (especially the latter), although the alto and double-bass are extreme rarities. Tuba not unlike the French horn in basic construction, only more oval in shape and much bigger. The piston valve action is similar to the trumpet, only the valves themselves are situated in the middle of the instrument. A variety of types and sizes exist aside from the typical concert instrument in F (bass tuba), including the tenor tuba (higher), and double-bass tuba (lower), often referred to as a bombardon in a military or brass band context. Percussion instruments A percussion instrument is probably best defined as one where a resonating surface is struck by the player, either by hand or by some form of stick. These divide roughly into tuned instruments which have a definite pitch or series of pitches, and those of indefinite pitch. Popular examples of both types are: Tuned timpani or kettle drum, xylophone, glockenspiel, tubular bells, vibraphone, marimba.

Occasionally, the piano and celesta (see left) are included in scores as part of the percussion section. Indefinite pitch triangle, gong, castanets, whip, rattle, anvil, tambourine, cymbals (struck and clashing), and a variety of drums (side, tenor, bass, tabor, bongo etc.). Keyboard instruments Conveniently collected together as any instrument which is operated by means of a standard keyboard, the differences in operation are wide-ranging and carry obvious associations with certain of the above categories. These break down into four main types: Plucked mostly instruments emanating from the 17th/18th centuries where a series of stretched and tuned strings are plucked by a quill or plectrum (e.g. harpsichord, virginal, spinet). Struck where the strings are actually hit, either by a tangent (e.g. 17th/18th century clavichord), or hammers (e.g. piano, celesta). Aerated where the notes are activated by a column of mechanically propelled air within a series of tuned pipes (e.g. organ).

Electronic where a number of effects approximating to those derived from any of the above instruments, as well as totally original sounds, can be achieved (e.g. electronic organ, synthesizer). Guitar family The 'classical' guitar is typically a Spanish-derived, six-stringed instrument played using a plectrum or the finger-nails, with frets set into the fingerboard. Popular music tends to use amplification for both six-stringed instruments and the four-string bass guitar. The guitar family gradually supplanted the lute which had come to prominence during the Renaissance. Composer ASW Guide to Historical Woodwind Instruments ASW Guide to Historical Woodwind Instruments Folk Woodwind Instruments Medieval Woodwind Instruments As with recorders, there are virtually no surviving woodwind instruments from prior to the sixteenth century; modern makers have been most ingenious in creating medieval instruments by extrapolating backwards from later renaissance instruments, incorporating European and folk instrument influences, and using depictions of instruments in paintings and wood and stone carvings as a point of departure. Whether windcap instruments per se existed in this period is debatable, although bladderpipes and bagpipes were clearly quite common. Windcap instruments probably originated as detached bagpipe chanters.

Pictorial sources show what is possibly a windcapped instrument with a flaring bell played by rustic types. This so-called shepherd's shawm was recreated by the late Günter Körber in four sizes; although largely conjectural, it provided a missing link between the bagpipe chanter and the renaissance families of windcap instruments. Back to Top of Page Renaissance Woodwind Instruments In the sixteenth century, instrument makers developed large families of wind instruments from the sparser medieval instrumentarium; most instruments were made in four to eight different sizes and pitches. The taste of the period dictated the performance of music on contrasting choirs of like instruments, as well as in the mixed ensembles more common in the middle ages and in later periods. The palette of wind instrument colors was far more extensive in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries than at any other time in music history. Transverse flutes, of straight cylindrical bore with six open tone holes, were commonly used in alto, tenor, and bass sizes, although most modern makers provide a soprano size as well. Their simple, open sound contrasts well with renaissance recorder tone as well as with the many reed instruments.

Moeck offers large bore tenor and bass sizes, and Ralph Sweet makes an extremely inexpensive and highly playable tenor flute as well as a soprano flute or renaissance fife. Exposed double reed instruments were of two families, the shawms (oboes) and the dulcians or curtals (bassoons); both families existed in four to six sizes, although the greatbass and contrabass sizes were extremely rare then as now. Renaissance shawms were larger in bore and fuller in tone than their medieval predecessors; the earlier soprano instruments (schalmei) were simple unkeyed instruments, whereas the more refined soprano shawm with keywork did not appear until the turn of the seventeenth century. The soprano through tenor sizes were played either with or without a pirouette, the small cup of wood surrounding the reed which, contrary to popular belief, was used not to play the instrument with a freely-vibrating reed but rather to support the instrument against the lips and teeth while marching and protect the reed and player from mishap. The bass shawm, too large for marching use, was never supplied with a pirouette.

Alto and tenor instruments were made in two models, the shorter one having only a single key and the longer one having three additional keys which extended the range an additional fourth below. Bass and larger shawms invariably had the extended lower range. The shawms from Moeck's Renaissance Studios have been vastly improved in design and quality of workmanship in recent years and now represent a viable alternative as well. The dulcian or bassoon family was created in the second quarter of the sixteenth century. The wider bore of these instruments was doubled back upon itself, making the larger sizes considerably more portable and manageable. The most common size was the bass or Chorist Fagott, which served as the lowest voice in a dulcian or mixed wind consort, supported the pitch in church choirs when an organ was not available, and even developed a virtuoso solo literature of its own in the early seventeenth century. Next to a set of renaissance recorders, a bass dulcian is perhaps the single most useful instrument in the renaissance instrumentarium. The tenor size was somewhat less common, and the soprano and alto sizes seem to have been used only in Spain, to support the upper voices in cathedral choirs.

Dulcians were made either with open or closed bells, the former being louder and brighter, the latter more covered and mellow. The Moeck dulcians have a removeable plug to convert their instruments from open to closed bell models. Perhaps the most distinctive wind instruments of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries are the several families of windcap instruments, in which the tone is produced by a freely vibrating double reed inside a hollow chamber at the top of the instrument. The most common of these was the krummhorn family, instruments of narrow cylindrical bore with a characteristic J-shape, producing a bright, buzzy tone quality; these instruments are relatively easy to play, but are incapable of dynamic variation and, because they cannot overblow, have a limited range of a ninth to an eleventh. The larger sizes are sometimes equipped with sliders, small brass keys on the bell curve which may be set to close additional holes and make possible two or three additional low notes. The celebrated krummhorns by the late Günter Körber are no longer available, but the newer instruments by Moeck are of excellent quality and highly recommended.

Closely related to the krummhorns are the cornamuses, which lack the picturesque bend of the krummhorn and have a perforated wooden sleeve at the lower end to dampen the sound; they are therefore somewhat softer than krummhorns but have the same range. Our Moeck cornamuses are a viable and less expensive alternative to their crumhorns and produce a rich, warm tone quality that will not overpower recorders and other quieter instruments. The kortholts have a doubled back bore, similar to the dulcian family but narrow and cylindrical rather than larger and conical, and are therefore shorter in physical length but longer acoustically, allowing a lower range extension of four or five notes below the corresponding size of krummhorn or cornamuse. Moeck offers alto and tenor sizes of kortholt in wood. The members of the rackett family, which have semi-exposed reeds in a pirouette but function acoustically as windcap-blown instruments, carry the kortholt principal of construction to its logical extreme; the bore winds up and down nine times within the body, creating instruments of very low pitch in a small physical size.

Volker Kernbach produces all four sizes of rackett depicted in the Syntagma Musicum of Michael Praetorius. Differing greatly from all of the foregoing cylindrical bore windcap instruments are the rauschpfeifes, which have wider conical bores and are more closely related to the shawm family. They are capable of overblowing a few notes into the second octave, providing a useful range of an eleventh to a thirteenth. The rauschpfeifes made by Moeck are identical copies of those made by the late G�nter K�rber. Back to Top of Page Baroque Woodwind Instruments During the third quarter of the seventeenth century, a drastic overhaul of all of the woodwind instruments was initiated by a circle of Parisian instrument makers centering around the famous Hotteterre family. The families windcap instruments, being incapable of tonal or dynamic variation and therefore unsuited to baroque performance styles, had by this time passed into obsolescence.

From each of the remaining renaissance families of recorders, flutes, and reed instruments, the one most useful size was selected, redesigned acoustically to meet the more expressive needs of baroque music, and fitted with an elaborately turned exterior in the baroque style. The body of the instrument was typically divided into several pieces, both for ease in manufacturing and portability. In the recorder world, the alto size became the leading solo instrument for chamber music and concerti, whereas the soprano, tenor, and bass sizes, although still occasionally made, were used far less. The bore of the instrument became narrower and more highly conical, the tone smaller but much more complex and reedier, with distinct quality and dynamic differences among the low, middle, and high registers. Parallel changes occurred in all of the other woodwind instruments: from the flute family, it was the tenor size which became the solo flauto traverso of the baroque, from the shawm family, the soprano member was modernized into the baroque oboe, and from the dulcian family, the noble bass Chorist Fagott was modified into the baroque bassoon.

The renaissance shawm band underwent transformation and become the French double reed band of two oboes, taille (tenor oboe), and bassoon. The more expressive and highly contrasted tone quality of the new baroque woodwind saw immediate employment not just in chamber music but also, together with the string family of violins, in the woodwind section of the late baroque and classical orchestra. Pitch standards also changed about the middle of the seventeenth century. The old renaissance high pitch for wind instruments, about a'=462 Hz. and a semitone above modern pitch, gave way to a French chamber pitch of c. a'=394 Hz., a whole tone below a'=440 Hz.; in the early eighteenth century, this was superseded by a pitch of about a'=409 or 410. The current practice of making baroque woodwind instruments at a'=415 has in fact very little basis in history. In addition, some modern makers have not been careful in redesigning their instruments to compensate for the difference between a'=409 and a'=415, producing instruments which have intonation and response problems.

There were also a small number of instruments from the late baroque pitched at a'=435, about a semitone above a'=409. The conclusion to be drawn here is that the current practice of playing baroque music at a'=415 is no more nor less authentic than playing at a'=440 and that both pitches require a total redesign of the original instruments, not a crude shortening and retuning. The baroque woodwind instruments which we offer are from makers who fully understand the problems of scaling instruments to the present day pitch standards of a'=415 and a'=440 and produce instruments redesigned to those pitches as well as at the original pitches of a'=394 and 410. Among makers of baroque instruments at a'=440, we recommend the Denner oboes and bassoons by Moeck, and the Grenser flutes by Mollenhauer as being well designed and highly playable.

The plastic baroque flutes by Aulos, available in a'=440 Grenser and a'=415 Stanesby models, are quite inexpensive in price and play extremely well and easily; the wooden baroque flute by Ralph Sweet, with interchangeable joints for a'=440 and 415, provides a very useable instrument at a bargain price. The choice of good instruments at low pitch is far greater, and all of the instruments in our catalogue are capable of fine results. Each instrument is carefully serviced and tuned in our workshop by a experienced player and meets the highest professional standards of performance. Single reed instruments did not find their way into sophisticated musical circles until the early eighteenth century and did not find widespread acceptance in orchestral and chamber music until the very late classical period. The chalumeau was not the predecessor of the clarinet, as is generally believed, but a completely separate entity whose development paralleled that of the baroque clarinet. The medieval, folk, and modern chalumeaux by Adler-Heinrich are extremely inexpensive instruments which provide a wide range of utility.

The baroque chalumeau was a simple cylindrical single reed instrument which enjoyed a brief period of use by German composers such as Graupner and Telemann. It had two keys at the top which permitted a range of an eleventh. The music for this instrument never exceeds this lower register, although most chalumeaux can overblow an additional three or four notes as well. There were four sizes of chalumeau in use, called soprano through bass in the eighteenth century, but usually labelled sopranino through tenor by modern makers. There was no true bass size, since the baroque rackett (also called rackett-bassoon) was used as a bass to the members of this family in the opera orchestra. The smallest size, the sopranino, was used as a solo instrument in concerti and as an obbligato instrument in operatic arias. The soprano, alto, and tenor sizes were used both independently and in various combinations as solo instruments in concerti and church or secular cantatas, and in chamber music by themselves with or without continuo or with other wind or string instruments.

The baroque chalumeaux by Moeck which we offer are easy to play, relatively inexpensive in price, and make available a substantial body of virtually unknown solo and chamber music to the baroque music enthusiast. The chalumeau, after several decades, was eclipsed by the baroque clarinet, which offered a much wider range and a fully useful upper register which was overblown at the twelve from the lower register. The upper register is fully chromatic, whereas the lower register offers some chromatic notes by half-holing but does not provide useful cross-fingered notes. Composers therefore habitually avoided chromatic tones in the lower register. Among the works written for the baroque clarinet are the several concerti for oboes and clarinets in C by Vivaldi, the operatic scores of Rameau, and the wonderful virtuoso solo concerti for D clarinet by Molter. The D clarinet was frequently employed as a substitute for the baroque clarino trumpet, and therefore all baroque trumpet literature is also fair game for the baroque clarinetist. Schwenk & Seggelke make several fine models of baroque clarinets.

Back to Top of Page Classical Woodwind Instruments The changes in woodwind instrument building from the baroque to the classical periods were on the whole far less dramatic than the changes from renaissance to baroque, a process evolutionary rather than revolutionary. Later eighteenth century makers made instruments which were warmer and less assertive in tone color, suited more for blending in the wind section of the classical orchestra of Mozart, Haydn, and their contemporaries. Some earlier instruments seem to have been made for a pitch standard of a'=425 to 430, but there are a large number of surviving instruments which play at or close to a'=440; this would seem to be a reasonably authentic and yet practical standard to which modern makers should adhere. The single-keyed transverse flute of the baroque period became a four-keyed and still later six-keyed instrument, although single-keyed instruments were still in use well into the nineteenth century. The additional keywork provided greatly technical facility and eliminated or offered more stable alternatives to the cross-fingered notes of the earlier instruments. We have a variety of multiple-keyed transverse flute from the Ralph Sweet workshop, including a fine six or eight keyed simple system flute.

Oboes, on the other hand, temporarily lost one of their original three keys in the classical era, only to have many other keys gradually added after the turn of the nineteenth century. Moeck offers a fine copy of an original Grassi classical period oboe. Bassoons evolved slowly and gradually from the three-keyed instrument of the baroque into the four and six-keyed instrument of the classical era, and the extension of the upper register by an additional three to five semitones was also utilized by composers in solo and orchestral literature. The Rust bassoon by Hanchet was an outstanding example of the French school of instrument making, but is sadly no longer available. The clarinet, however, showed the most dramatic changes in the late eighteenth century; a total redesign of the baroque clarinet produced a larger bored, wide-belled instrument with a warm, expressive tone and a greatly enlarged range which very rapidly earned the instrument a place in solo, orchestral, and chamber music. Instruments pitched in A, Bb, and C were all quite common.

The finest makers of classical and early romantic clarinets are Schwenk & Seggelke; They offer a wide variety of faithful reproductions, beautifully made and highly playable, of surviving original instruments. Back to Top of Page Folk Woodwind Instruments The distinction between folk and classical instruments was not at all well defined in earlier periods as it is today, and many folk instruments can be used to great effect in the performance practices of early music. A wide variety of flute family instruments at extremely low prices are made by Ralph Sweet, including numerous models of transverse flutes, tabor pipes (three-hole or one-hand recorder-like instruments), flageolettes (transverse flutes with recorder-like headjoints), and fifes. We also offer sets of plastic pennywhistles and tabor pipes in different sizes made by the Kelischek workshop. The folk chalumeaux and wooden pennywhistles by Adler-Heinrich are extremely inexpensive instruments which provide good value and performance for the performner of folk and traditional music. A variety of ocarinas, panpipes, and other folk instruments are also to be found in our listing of gift items .

Early music Instruments Typical instruments by musical era Medieval (476 ï¿½ 1400) Bagpipe, Citole, Dulcimer, Fiddle (Vielle), Flute, Gemshorn, Gittern, Harp, Hurdy-gurdy, Lute, Lyre, Mandora, Organ, Percussion, Pipe & tabor, Psaltery, Rebec, Recorder, Shawm, Trumpet. Very few specimens of instruments have survived from the Middle Ages, so most of our information has to come mostly from iconography (the study of depictions in painting and sculpture), from theoretical discussions, and from relating those things to surviving music that seems to be intended for instruments. Unfortunately, not many medieval writers condescend to give much practical information concerning instruments. One of the earliest writers to do so is Johannes de Grocheo who was working, probably in Paris, around the year l300. He divides instruments into two types according to their means of sound production: those that use wind or breath, and those that use percussion (including, surprisingly to us, string instruments).

Later Medieval musicians began to observe a distinction between loud and soft types of instruments (haut and bas is the usual French terminology) and mixed ensembles were made up entirely of instruments of one kind or the other, depending on whether loud or soft music was desired. All of the string instruments, naturally, fall into the soft category and many of the wind instruments do, as well, so it was possible to have combinations of wind and string instruments. In particular, at least one medieval writer mentions the joining of the flute and the fiddle. Medieval Woodwind Instruments As with recorders, there are virtually no surviving woodwind instruments from prior to the sixteenth century; modern makers have been most ingenious in creating medieval instruments by extrapolating backwards from later renaissance instruments, incorporating European and folk instrument influences, and using depictions of instruments in paintings and wood and stone carvings as a point of departure. Whether windcap instruments per se existed in this period is debatable, although bladderpipes and bagpipes were clearly quite common. Windcap instruments probably originated as detached bagpipe chanters. Pictorial sources show what is possibly a windcapped instrument with a flaring bell played by rustic types.

This so-called shepherd's shawm was recreated by the late Gï¿½nter Kï¿½rber in four sizes; although largely conjectural, it provided a missing link between the bagpipe chanter and the renaissance families of windcap instruments. Medieval String Instruments The music of the late middle ages requires a great variety of bowed and plucked string instruments, among them rebecs, vielles (fiedels), psalteries, hurdy-gurdies, etc. Their distinctive tone qualities provide an essential ingredient of the medieval instrumentarium.

Renaissance (1400-1600) Bassoon, Broken consort (or English Consort), Cittern, Clavichord, Cornamuse, Cornetto (zink), Crumhorn (Cromorne), Curtal (dulcian), Dulce Melos, Flute (transverse), Flute (one handed flute), Harpsichord (and Virginals), Kettledrums, Lira da gamba (lirone), Lute, Organs (big ones), Pommers, Rankets, Rauschpfeifen, Recorder, Recorder consorts, Regals (small reed organs), Sackbut, Schryary, Shawms (Bombardes), Sordone, Spinets, Tabor and pipe, Trombone, Trumpet, Viol, Violin. The writings of Michael Praetorius is always the point of departure to study the rich palette of colours available to the Renaissance instrumentalist. Praetorius published his book about instruments in l6l8 in Wolfenbï¿½ttel, in northern Germany, as the second volume of a three-volume encyclopaedia entitled Syntagma Musicum.

And while this might seem late for a work about Renaissance instruments, the described instruments are the same ones which were in use throughout much of the l6th century. Praetorius makes it clear that single-line instrumentsï¿½those which play only one note at a timeï¿½were normally played in consorts, or groups of instruments of the same type in a wide range of sizes. This represents a change in taste from the late Medieval period when ensembles of different types of instruments seem to have been preferred. The change is no doubt because of the contrapuntal nature of much Renaissance music in which each part is of equal importance and therefore most properly rendered as part of a homogeneous texture. Early in the Renaissance, the standard ensemble had a three-voice texture, increasing to five or six by the end of the 16th century. The Renaissance also saw the beginnings of a substantial and virtuosic solo repertoire for keyboards instruments, lutes, and so on.

Renaissance Brass instruments The history of brass instruments prior to the sixteenth century is largely a matter of conjecture; it is clear that trumpets have existed since ancient times and that trumpets and some primitive slide trumpets, the predecessors of the trombone family, were used during the late middle ages. The later sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries saw the development of an entire family of trombones or sackbutts. The most common four-part ensemble consisted of an alto, two tenors, and a bass, much as did the flute family; the soprano sackbutt was a later addition, and it seems clear that the treble cornett was greatly preferred to the soprano sackbutt, providing as it did better tone quality and technical facility. While some writers have asserted that renaissance trombones had wider bores and later instruments had narrower bores, an examination of surviving instruments has shown that both wide and narrow bore instruments, particularly tenor sizes, existed in this period; moreover, both flat and rounded slide braces were found on renaissance sackbutts as well. The distinguishing characteristic of renaissance trombones and trumpets was the construction of the bell branch, which had a longer and less-pronounced taper terminating in a smaller, thicker bell.

This gave the instrument a warmer, more covered, vocal, blending quality which made the instrument, like the cornetts and the bass dulcian, highly useful in both choral and purely instrumental contexts. Renaissance Woodwind Instruments In the sixteenth century, instrument makers developed large families of wind instruments from the sparser medieval instrumentarium; most instruments were made in four to eight different sizes and pitches. The taste of the period dictated the performance of music on contrasting choirs of like instruments, as well as in the mixed ensembles more common in the middle ages and in later periods. The palette of wind instrument colors was far more extensive in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries than at any other time in music history. Transverse flutes, of straight cylindrical bore with six open tone holes, were commonly used in alto, tenor, and bass sizes, although most modern makers provide a soprano size as well. Their simple, open sound contrasts well with renaissance recorder tone as well as with the many reed instruments.

Exposed double reed instruments were of two families, the shawms (oboes) and the dulcians or curtals (bassoons); both families existed in four to six sizes, although the greatbass and contrabass sizes were extremely rare then as now. Renaissance shawms were larger in bore and fuller in tone than their medieval predecessors; the earlier soprano instruments (schalmei) were simple unkeyed instruments, whereas the more refined soprano shawm with keywork did not appear until the turn of the seventeenth century. The soprano through tenor sizes were played either with or without a pirouette, the small cup of wood surrounding the reed which, contrary to popular belief, was used not to play the instrument with a freely-vibrating reed but rather to support the instrument against the lips and teeth while marching and protect the reed and player from mishap. The bass shawm, too large for marching use, was never supplied with a pirouette. Alto and tenor instruments were made in two models, the shorter one having only a single key and the longer one having three additional keys which extended the range an additional fourth below.

Bass and larger shawms invariably had the extended lower range. The dulcian or bassoon family was created in the second quarter of the sixteenth century. The wider bore of these instruments was doubled back upon itself, making the larger sizes considerably more portable and manageable. The most common size was the bass or Chorist Fagott, which served as the lowest voice in a dulcian or mixed wind consort, supported the pitch in church choirs when an organ was not available, and even developed a virtuoso solo literature of its own in the early seventeenth century. Next to a set of renaissance recorders, a bass dulcian is perhaps the single most useful instrument in the renaissance instrumentarium. The tenor size was somewhat less common, and the soprano and alto sizes seem to have been used only in Spain, to support the upper voices in cathedral choirs. Dulcians were made either with open or closed bells, the former being louder and brighter, the latter more covered and mellow.

Perhaps the most distinctive wind instruments of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries are the several families of windcap instruments, in which the tone is produced by a freely vibrating double reed inside a hollow chamber at the top of the instrument. The most common of these was the krummhorn family, instruments of narrow cylindrical bore with a characteristic J-shape, producing a bright, buzzy tone quality; these instruments are relatively easy to play, but are incapable of dynamic variation and, because they cannot overblow, have a limited range of a ninth to an eleventh. The larger sizes are sometimes equipped with sliders, small brass keys on the bell curve which may be set to close additional holes and make possible two or three additional low notes. Closely related to the krummhorns are the cornamuses, which lack the picturesque bend of the krummhorn and have a perforated wooden sleeve at the lower end to dampen the sound; they are therefore somewhat softer than krummhorns but have the same range.

The kortholts have a doubled back bore, similar to the dulcian family but narrow and cylindrical rather than larger and conical, and are therefore shorter in physical length but longer acoustically, allowing a lower range extension of four or five notes below the corresponding size of krummhorn or cornamuse. The members of the rackett family, which have semi-exposed reeds in a pirouette but function acoustically as windcap-blown instruments, carry the kortholt principal of construction to its logical extreme; the bore winds up and down nine times within the body, creating instruments of very low pitch in a small physical size. Differing greatly from all of the foregoing cylindrical bore windcap instruments are the rauschpfeifes, which have wider conical bores and are more closely related to the shawm family. They are capable of overblowing a few notes into the second octave, providing a useful range of an eleventh to a thirteenth.

Baroque (1600-1750) Archlute, Baryton, Bassoon, Bow, Carillons, Cello, Chalumeau, Citterns, Clavichord, Cornetto, Cortol (Cortholt), Curtall (Dulcian), Flute (Baroque flute), Fortepiano, Guitar, Harp, Harpsichord (French/Flemish), Harpsichord (Italian/German), Horn, Hurdy-gurdy, Lute, Musette, Oboe (Baroque Oboe), Organ, Rackett, Recorder, Sackbut, Serpent, Timpani, Trombone, Trumpet (Slide Trumpets), Trumpet (Baroque Trumpet), Viola dï¿½Amore, Viola da gamba, Viola Pomposa, Violin. Many instruments of the Baroque era are easily recognizable as antecedents of modern instruments. Sometimes, the differences between them are subtle or even invisible to the casual observer, or simply in the way they are played. Other instruments had their heyday at the time and passed out of use without obvious descendants.

It is important to realize that, although these instruments may be simpler in construction than any modern successors, they are not musically inferior. In fact, both musically and technically, they are perfectly suited to performing the repertoire for which they were designed. Baroque Woodwind Instruments During the third quarter of the seventeenth century, a drastic overhaul of all of the woodwind instruments was initiated by a circle of Parisian instrument makers centering around the famous Hotteterre family. The families windcap instruments, being incapable of tonal or dynamic variation and therefore unsuited to baroque performance styles, had by this time passed into obsolescence. From each of the remaining renaissance families of recorders, flutes, and reed instruments, the one most useful size was selected, redesigned acoustically to meet the more expressive needs of baroque music, and fitted with an elaborately turned exterior in the baroque style. The body of the instrument was typically divided into several pieces, both for ease in manufacturing and portability. In the recorder world, the alto size became the leading solo instrument for chamber music and concerti, whereas the soprano, tenor, and bass sizes, although still occasionally made, were used far less.

The bore of the instrument became narrower and more highly conical, the tone smaller but much more complex and reedier, with distinct quality and dynamic differences among the low, middle, and high registers. Parallel changes occurred in all of the other woodwind instruments: from the flute family, it was the tenor size which became the solo flauto traverso of the baroque, from the shawm family, the soprano member was modernized into the baroque oboe, and from the dulcian family, the noble bass Chorist Fagott was modified into the baroque bassoon. The renaissance shawm band underwent transformation and become the French double reed band of two oboes, taille (tenor oboe), and bassoon. The more expressive and highly contrasted tone quality of the new baroque woodwind saw immediate employment not just in chamber music but also, together with the string family of violins, in the woodwind section of the late baroque and classical orchestra. Pitch standards also changed about the middle of the seventeenth century. The old renaissance high pitch for wind instruments, about a'=462 Hz.

and a semitone above modern pitch, gave way to a French chamber pitch of c. a'=394 Hz., a whole tone below a'=440 Hz.; in the early eighteenth century, this was superseded by a pitch of about a'=409 or 410. The current practice of making baroque woodwind instruments at a'=415 has in fact very little basis in history. In addition, some modern makers have not been careful in redesigning their instruments to compensate for the difference between a'=409 and a'=415, producing instruments which have intonation and response problems. There were also a small number of instruments from the late baroque pitched at a'=435, about a semitone above a'=409. The conclusion to be drawn here is that the current practice of playing baroque music at a'=415 is no more nor less authentic than playing at a'=440 and that both pitches require a total redesign of the original instruments, not a crude shortening and retuning.

The baroque woodwind instruments which we offer are from makers who fully understand the problems of scaling instruments to the present day pitch standards of a'=415 and a'=440 and produce instruments redesigned to those pitches as well as at the original pitches of a'=394 and 410. Single reed instruments did not find their way into sophisticated musical circles until the early eighteenth century and did not find widespread acceptance in orchestral and chamber music until the very late classical period. The chalumeau was not the predecessor of the clarinet, as is generally believed, but a completely separate entity whose development paralleled that of the baroque clarinet. The baroque chalumeau was a simple cylindrical single reed instrument which enjoyed a brief period of use by German composers such as Graupner and Telemann. It had two keys at the top which permitted a range of an eleventh. The music for this instrument never exceeds this lower register, although most chalumeaux can overblow an additional three or four notes as well. There were four sizes of chalumeau in use, called soprano through bass in the eighteenth century, but usually labelled sopranino through tenor by modern makers.

There was no true bass size, since the baroque rackett (also called rackett-bassoon) was used as a bass to the members of this family in the opera orchestra. The smallest size, the sopranino, was used as a solo instrument in concerti and as an obbligato instrument in operatic arias. The soprano, alto, and tenor sizes were used both independently and in various combinations as solo instruments in concerti and church or secular cantatas, and in chamber music by themselves with or without continuo or with other wind or string instruments. The chalumeau, after several decades, was eclipsed by the baroque clarinet, which offered a much wider range and a fully useful upper register which was overblown at the twelve from the lower register. The upper register is fully chromatic, whereas the lower register offers some chromatic notes by half-holing but does not provide useful cross-fingered notes. Composers therefore habitually avoided chromatic tones in the lower register.

Among the works written for the baroque clarinet are the several concerti for oboes and clarinets in C by Vivaldi, the operatic scores of Rameau, and the wonderful virtuoso solo concerti for D clarinet by Molter. The D clarinet was frequently employed as a substitute for the baroque clarino trumpet, and therefore all baroque trumpet literature is also fair game for the baroque clarinetist. Classical (1750 ï¿½ 1820) Basset Clarinet, Basset Horn, Buccin, Chalumeau, Clarinette d'amour, Classical Clarinet, Clavichord, Fortepiano, Harpsichord, Ophicleide (Serpent replacement, precursor of tuba) Classical Woodwind Instruments The changes in woodwind instrument building from the baroque to the classical periods were on the whole far less dramatic than the changes from renaissance to baroque, a process evolutionary rather than revolutionary. Later eighteenth century makers made instruments which were warmer and less assertive in tone color, suited more for blending in the wind section of the classical orchestra of Mozart, Haydn, and their contemporaries.

Some earlier instruments seem to have been made for a pitch standard of a'=425 to 430, but there are a large number of surviving instruments which play at or close to a'=440; this would seem to be a reasonably authentic and yet practical standard to which modern makers should adhere. The single-keyed transverse flute of the baroque period became a four-keyed and still later six-keyed instrument, although single-keyed instruments were still in use well into the nineteenth century. The additional keywork provided greatly technical facility and eliminated or offered more stable alternatives to the cross-fingered notes of the earlier instruments. Oboes, on the other hand, temporarily lost one of their original three keys in the classical era, only to have many other keys gradually added after the turn of the nineteenth century. Bassoons evolved slowly and gradually from the three-keyed instrument of the baroque into the four and six-keyed instrument of the classical era, and the extension of the upper register by an additional three to five semitones was also utilized by composers in solo and orchestral literature.

The clarinet, however, showed the most dramatic changes in the late eighteenth century; a total redesign of the baroque clarinet produced a larger bored, wide-belled instrument with a warm, expressive tone and a greatly enlarged range which very rapidly earned the instrument a place in solo, orchestral, and chamber music. Instruments pitched in A, Bb, and C were all quite common. Folk Instruments Folk Woodwind Instruments The distinction between folk and classical instruments was not at all well defined in earlier periods as it is today, and many folk instruments can be used to great effect in the performance practices of early music. Including numerous models of transverse flutes, tabor pipes (three-hole or one-hand recorder-like instruments), flageolettes (transverse flutes with recorder-like headjoints), and fifes. The folk chalumeaux, wooden pennywhistles,ocarinas, panpipes. Copyright ï¿½ 1999 Renaissance Workshop Company Ltd. Last modification: 08 de mayo de 2015 BBC Orchestras & Singers - Learn about music - Oboe BBC Orchestras & Singers Learn about music A guide to the orchestra Which instruments make up an orchestra?

How are they organised? And what exactly does a conductor do? Find answers to all your questions in our Guide to the Orchestra. Use the tabs below to find out about each section of the orchestra, watch video clips, and read interviews with musicians. Woodwind The oboe is made of wood (or plastic) with metal keys, and played by blowing a double reed (two pieces of reed joined together). Descended from an ancient instrument called a shawm, the oboe makes a beautiful sound. When an orchestra tunes up, the oboe acts as the guide for the other instruments. The oboe player is sometimes asked to play the cor anglais (literally: "English Horn"). This instruments is very similar to the oboe but lower and mellower. In order to see this content you need to have both Javascript enabled and Flash installed. Visit BBC Webwise for full instructions Watch BBC National Orchestra of Wales How old were you when you first started playing? I was eleven. Why did you choose this instrument? My grandfather was an amateur oboist and I love the sound. Do you play any other instruments?

I play the other members of the oboe family - the cor anglais and the oboe d'amore. What do you like most about playing in an orchestra? The amazing music written for orchestras and being part of the team that performs it. It can be great fun, it can also be boring and is often quite scary! Do you play any other kind of music? I can play any kind of music that is written down. What is your favourite music? 20th century orchestral music. I also enjoy jazz. Do you have any other hobbies? I love skiing. orchestra and orchestration: History orchestra and orchestration History Early History of Orchestras and Orchestration The orchestra in the modern sense of the word did not exist before the 17th cent. Previous instrumental ensemble music was chamber music, except for occasional ceremonies when as many instruments as were available would be massed together. Until well into the 17th cent. there was little thought of specifying what instrument should play a part; any available instrument with the proper range was used. The first known example of orchestration occurs in Giovanni Gabrieli's (see under Andrea Gabrieli ) Sacrae Symphoniae (1597).

Monteverdi 's Orfeo (1607), one of the first operas, demands a large and varied group of instruments—all, in fact, that were available to him through his patron. During the 17th cent. the violin family displaced the viols , except the double-bass viol, as the principal strings of the orchestra. By the end of the century a division into four parts had become standard: first and second violins, violas, and cellos, with the double basses playing the cello part an octave lower. (Not until the 19th cent. did the cellos and basses frequently have different parts to play.) Woodwinds appeared in the earliest orchestras, though infrequently and subordinate to the strings—usually two oboes and a bassoon, with flutes sometimes replacing the oboes. The flutes were established as regular orchestra members, playing together with the oboes, only late in the 18th cent. The trumpets, inseparable from the kettledrums through the 17th and 18th cent., were used occasionally in the 17th cent.

and became standard in the orchestra by about 1700. The French horn was fully accepted by 1750. The trombone was used in church music even before the 17th cent. and occasionally in opera thereafter; it did not become a regular member of the symphony orchestra until after 1800. Throughout the baroque period and into the second half of the 18th cent., the basso continuo was an integral part of the scoring and required that a harpsichord or some other chord-playing instrument fill in the harmonies above the figured bass . The treble and bass were strongly emphasized, while the middle parts were often left to the continuo alone. The orchestra was rather small at this time; Bach had as few as 18 players for his larger church works, and Handel usually used about 30. The Eighteenth-Century Classical Orchestra During the latter half of the 18th cent. the classical orchestra was gradually established through the disuse of the continuo and the acceptance of the clarinet. The abandonment of the continuo led to much greater independence in the string parts, which now had to fill the harmony unaided.

Instead of both violin parts doubling the melody and the violas, cellos, and basses doubling the bass, there were now four distinct parts. The clarinet, like the flute, first appeared as an alternate for the oboe, but in the late works of Haydn and Mozart the orchestra was standardized, with pairs of flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, French horns, trumpets, and kettledrums in addition to the strings. All the wind instruments, especially the woodwinds, could carry the melody, providing desired changes of color. Orchestras in the Nineteenth Century In the 19th cent., beginning in the works of Beethoven, the brass took an increasingly prominent place. The trombone was used regularly, while the invention of the valve in 1813 soon made the horn and trumpet completely chromatic. All the brass thus became melody instruments, instantly available in the most remote keys. The horn section was increased to four early in the century, and the introduction of the tuba (c.1835–50) gave the brass a dependable contrabass register it had previously lacked.

The woodwinds also were improved mechanically in the 19th cent., greatly enlarging their technical capabilities. Throughout the century the string section was expanded to balance the increasing numbers of wind players. The scores of Mozart and Beethoven generally required an orchestra of about 40; those of Weber and early Wagner called for about 55; Wagner's Ring cycle (1854–74) called for about 110; and Strauss's Elektra for 115. Hector Berlioz was highly influential in increasing awareness of orchestral color and in encouraging the use of a larger orchestra; his Traité d'orchestration, a fundamental work of its kind, envisioned an ideal orchestra of 465. After the climax of orchestral bulk in the works of Wagner, Mahler, Strauss, and several others, composers reacted against orchestral gigantism, first in the impressionism of Debussy and his followers. They still used a large orchestra, but more restrainedly, making more distinctive use of the instruments and largely avoiding massive sonorities.

Innovations of the Twentieth Century Stravinsky's Rite of Spring (1913) illustrates the early 20th-century interest in diverse instrumental combinations and original exploitation of the instruments' capabilities. In general, composers of the 20th cent. have continued exploring novel uses of instruments and have preferred a moderate-sized orchestra. Seventy-five to ninety players suffice for most 20th-century scores; a reduced, or chamber, orchestra of classical or baroque dimensions has also been much used. In this century the percussion section is used more prominently; new instruments have been devised and the playing of old ones varied. Sections in this article:

Question: If a shawm were a member of the modern orchestra what section would it be in?
Answer: Woodwind