The Orchestra

Hey! Now that you know a little about western classical music, you're probably more curious about stuff that's included in it, whether it is about the instruments or the techniques. One very fundamental and important element of western classical is the orchestra. It is a large group of musicians that perform a piece together. These musicians, with their instruments, contribute to the harmonious polyphony that sets this genre apart.

There are 4 sections of instruments played in an orchestra. Sections are somewhat like a family of instruments that have similar dynamics. These sections are brass, woodwinds, percussion and strings.

Brass section is the loudest and consists of instruments completely made with brass. They are played by

blowing into

a mouthpiece, which then resonates across the long tubes of the instruments, creating a sound. Pitches are changed by pressing on valve-like buttons. Usually, an orchestra has 4 French horns, 3 trombones, 2 trumpets and one tuba.

The woodwind section is similar to the brass section since they too, have to be blown to make sound. Here, the instruments are made of wood (often in a

combination with metals and plastic). For flutes, the player blows against a hole in the pipe. For reed instruments, the player blows into a mouthpiece which has a thin strip of flexible metal/wood. The vibrations pass through the reed before reaching the vibrating column of air, giving the instruments their iconic mellow, yet loud, tones. Clarinets have single reeds while bassoons have double reeds. In an orchestra, there are usually 3 flutes, 3 clarinets, 3 oboes, 3 bassoons and one each of piccolos, English horns (cor anglais), bass clarinets and contrabassoons. Sometimes, depending on the piece being played, there are saxophones, E flat clarinets, recorders

and B flat clarinets.

The percussion section comprises of all the instruments that produce sound on being struck.

Some of them can be tuned to play different notes and pitches, like the timpani, xylophone or piano. Some others are have no definite pitch, like the bass drum, cymbals and triangles. This is a huge instrument section and most of the times, multiple instruments are to be played by a percussionist. The most common

percussion instruments are the bass drum, timpani, xylophone, cymbals, triangle, snare drum, tambourine, maracas, gongs, chimes, celesta, and the piano(though there is much debate as to whether the piano belongs to the percussion section or the strings section). They give the background beats and add colour and excitement to the piece.

Last, but not the least, the string section. It's the biggest section in the orchestra and includes all the instruments that have strings. These instruments are made of hollow wooden bodies with nylon, metal or gut strings. The bow too, is made of wood and horsehair. Most string instruments are played by moving the bow across the strings. They are either balanced on the shoulder or the floor.

However, the harp is an exception. It is kept on the floor between the players legs and the strings are to be plucked. These strings are tuned to the white keys of a piano. These notes can be changed to match the black keys of the piano using the seven pedals, near the foot of the instrument. In an orchestra, the numbers of string players keeps

varying, based on the piece. Usually, there are 20 violins (A, 10 first violins and 10 second violins), 8 violas(B), 10 cellos(C), 6 double basses (D, also called contrabasses) and 2 harps(F).

A complete symphonic orchestra has around 80 members while chamber orchestra have around 30 members. All the members are led by the conductor, who gives cues to inform the musicians to play in a certain style. Assisting the conductor during a performance, is the concertmaster(also called first chair/leader). The conductor's cues are often decoded and clearly transmitted by the concertmaster to the rest of the orchestra.

Now that you know the details to an orchestra, go ahead and enjoy these wonderful pieces!

Beethoven's 4th symphony

Mozart's 40th symphony

Tchaikovsky's 6th symphony

Mahler's 2nd symphony

Debussy symphony in B minor