Instruments of the Orchestra

Radio Record, Volume III, Issue 26, 10 January 1930, Page 3

Instruments of the Orchestra

Brass and. Drums

_. The accompanying article from the pen -of Mr. C. Whitaker-Wilson (published originally in the ‘Wireless Magazine") is one that will appeal to those who wish to interpret the orchestral and band music they hear over the air. The author isa prominent English orchestral conductor,

HE first,/and one of the most important, is the horn. This is an instrument of considerable antiquity. Lip-blown instruments have been used in every -age-from the primitive days of man onwards. It has always been necessary, even -=

in the very earliest times, to have some means of summoning men and women together. Siorns of every imaginable descriptif have been.used in war, and a large nmber of yarieties in peaceful purstxis also. The hunting horn is ‘undoubtedly the immediate precursor of what we now call the French horn. "Two forms of the horn have been in conimon use for musical purposes-the natural’ hand-horn, sometimes called the valve or ventil-horn, sometimes called the chromatic horn. The term. chromatic may be appropriate for the modern ventil-horn; the hand-horn was anything but chromatic. The-number of notes which it could produce was limited, and such notes really sprang from a foundation note. The player could raise-the lowest note of the horn to higher notes by altering the position of his fingers, which were inserted in the bell. This instrument is still in use, but most players prefer the ventil-horn. which makes all notes possible and is "more satisfactory in eyery way. The introduetion of the ventil-horn revolutionised both the actual playing of the instrument and the composing for it. In the old days it was only possible to. compose simple passages for the horn; long and sustained notes’ were preferred; but now it is possible. to write almost anything for this beautiful instrument. Brass and Drums. Horns are used in pairs; most or-. ehestras have two players, but the ‘larger orchestras have four. Tschaikovsky and Wagner nearly always em.-. ployed four horns in their scores. Perhaps, of all the brass instruments, the horn is the mast effective on the wireless. because its tone is soft and round. To look at, it is nothing more than a V@s tube coiled in a circular form. ‘Mo tube near the mouthpiece is not ore than.a quarter of an inch in diaeter; at the bell end it is eleven tnches at least. From the point of view of scoring, the horn is another of the transposing instruments. At one time crooks for nearly every key were carried by the players; recently it has been the-cus-tom to use only the F crook. So that in writing for horns in F the horn part is written in the key a fifth above that of the whole piece; no key signature 1s employed, but sharps and flats are put in where required. Distinctive Trumpet. At one time there was not a very great difference between the tone of the trumpet (which we must now *" eonsider) and that of the horn; the Al pine horn, for instance, was very like a trumpet in many respects. But all that has passed now, and the trumpet is a very. distinctive instrument. Just as there has been a natural -horn, so there has been a natural trumpet, but

the modern. valve-trumpet has long since replaced the older kind so far as orchestras are concerned. | The trumpet is a very brilliant instrument; this is probably due to the cylindrical nature of the tube. . In scoring for the trumpet it should be remembered that it is a transposing instrument, Although it is not so very SECTS EEEETESSEE REESE REE SESE ERERERERER ERE ERE REE

long since most players carried crooks for the various keys, it has become the custom to treat the instrument like a clarinet and to have it played in either B flat or A natural.-All this transposing makes an orchestral score very complicated, and many have been the students of orchestration who have heaved heavy sighs over these complications. Yet it is extraordinary how quickly one gets used to looking up a score and transposing mentally as one does it. In most orchestras there is one trumpet; in many there are two; in the larger ones there are three players. The trumpet is, however, by no means the same instrument as the cornet. Cornet-a-pistons. HH cornet-a-pistons is too well known to need much description so far as appearance goes. It can never be compared with the trumpet for dignity nor, indeed, for brilliance. I do not go so far as to say I consider

it a vulgar instrument, but I wish it had not been vulgarised. Cornet solos are all very well on a pier-head, but they are not usually included in classical concerts. The French, strangely enough, have always used ‘them in their symphony and operatic orchestras, but we so far have been inclined to fight shy of them. The

day may come when we shall accept them instead of trumpets. You may be inclined to. ask why. ‘The answer is, or is supposed to be, that, whereas: the trumpet takes a lifetime to play well, "any fool" can play a cornet. As I play neither myself, I give that statement with reserve. But the fact remains; the cornet has not the same majesty and dignity which characterises the trumpet. The Trombone. "THE next instrument on the list is the trombone; not a very old one, but it was, nevertheless, used in the days of Handel and Bach. It is played with a slide by means of which the There are alto-tenor and bass trombones ‘in ‘fairly’ common use, but the alto is..not..much used in small orehestras..... The tore of the trombone is noble and dignified, and amazing effects can be produced when

it is played softly. When played loudly there is something very stately and dignified about a trombone. In large orchestras where four horns, three trumpets, and three trombones are employed, there is no end to the possibilities for effects. Wagner and Tchaikovsky, particularly, were alive to ‘the effects to be had with a good supply of . -ass in the orchestra; their work are heavily scored for these instruments in consequence. Some composers have used the lesser known brass instruments,.such as the tuba, the saxhorn, the ophicleide, and ‘the serpent, some of which are very large and cumbersome instruments capable of producing very low notes. A microphone is not kind to very low notes or very loud ones, and in the station studio the brass family is kept well at the back, and away from the microphone. So far as that goes, the same procedure is adopted in a concert hall; any other method would mean that the brass instruments would be bound to predominate. Lack of Balance. "THERE is frequently such a lack of balance in small orchestras, especially municipal bands. Many a municipal conductor has had to fight a town council in order to secure enough string players. Town councillors are very seldom musicians, and very few of them appreciate that four first violins, three seconds, two violas, one *cello, and a double-bass are not enough to stand up against two horns, a cornet, and a couple of trombones. In properly balanced orchestras, such as the London Symphony, there are forty violins at least, with a full complement of the lower strings, the whole orchestra amounting to something like one hundred and twenty players. -At the. broadcasting studios it is possible to do with far less because, so long as the stringed instruyments are nearer the microphone and. the brass and drums further away, the effect can be so "faked" as to sound perfectly balanced. What is known as a "brass band" is a different organisation aitogether. All the instruments are wind instruments; there are no strings. © The string portion of a symphony orchestra is replaced by military clarinets, a small type of clarinet in BD flat. The. rest of the band is composed of cornets, saxhorns, trombones, euphoniums, and suchlike instruments. Different Scoring. UT the brass instruments of the modern symphony orchestra may be similar to, but they are not identical with, those which form what we call a brass band. They do not have the same task to perform. Cornets in a brass band are expected to pro-‘duce-much of the melody of the piece; trumpets in the modern orchestra do not preponderate in the same way. The method of- storing is therefore quite different. So long as they keep to the type of music which is fitted for them, nothing can be said against them; it is only when they attempt to reproduce part of a Tschaikovsky symphony (which was written for a symphony

eee — orchestra, and for nothing else) that they are to be censured by musicians. ’ Jf Lschaikovsky wrote a melody for violins, there is no sense in playing it upon a cornet; if Beethoven scored a passage for ’cellos, it should not be played upon a pair of euphoniums. The modern orchestra has always welcomed brass instruments because of the great contrast which they afford to both the strings and the woodwind. For the same reason it has welcomed the use of the various kind of drums which have been introduced from time to time. 1 will conclude with some remarks upon the drums as they are used in the modern orchestra. The value of the drum as a rhythmic instrument has never been questioned. The largest drum, the bass, is a wholly rhythmic instrument. . Indefinite Drum "Note." It does not disturb the pitch of the musie in which it takes part, as its "note" is very indefinite. It can, however, be of the greatest use in declamatory passages, where it helps to mark and stress the rhythm in uo small degree. Much the same may be said of the military side-drum, which is frequently found in modern orchestras. It is capable of producing a great noise, which can, however, be effectively muffled by an alteration in what are called the "snares."

— By far the most important of all the orchestral drums are those called the timpani or kettle-drums, because they are the only drums capable. of producing a definite. musical note. They are very: distinctive in appear-ance-and most people are able to recognise them at once. They consist of a skin stretched tightly across a basinshaped shell made of copper or alloy. The skin is held in position by being strained upon a wooden hoop ani gripped by a circular iron hoop, which can be tightened or slackened by means of about eight screws. . There are always two and sometimes three kettle-drums, all of different sizes, and so of different pitches, The larger drum will produce the low bass F' natural and can be "serewed up" to tenor O, a distance of a fifth, The other drum begins about B flat and goes up to the F. When a composer writes an orchestral work in: which he requires to use kettle-drums he gives directions for the player to tune the drums to whatever pair of notes he requires. These two notes must thus be notes very frequently used in the piece itself. If the work is in the key of C it will be useless to have the drums tuned to C sharp and F sharp, for example, because neither note is in the key-chord of O. As a matter of fact, the general, though not the invariable,

plan is to tune to the key-note itself and the fifth above it. So that, in the case of a work in the key of C, one drum would be on © and the on There are very few chords (unless the work changes key very violently) which will not contain one or other of those notes. If the music does happen to change key for a.few bars one naturally sees to it that the drums are not used-at least for a sustained roll. If the music changes key for a reasonable length of time, most composers give the drums a rest for a few bars and direct that the tuning shall be changed. Those who frequent orchestral concerts will have seen the drummer busily altering the tension of his screws and listening to the drum as he taps it in order to be certain that he has tuned it correctly. He will then wait patiently until his part tells him that he must play in the new key. That is one of the strange things about orchestral players; they seem to have an.odd sense which tells them when so many bars have passed. Those who are not orchestral players may well wonder how they manage to come in at the right time, They have no full score before them, as the conductor has; so that they have no chance of looking along the drum-line and seeing where they will have to come in, All they have is a single part as full of silent bars as bars to be played, very often; and yet they will play what is required of them and, finding that they have eighty or ninety bars of silence, will take up the evening pa-' per-at any rate, during rehearsalsputting it down again in time to take up their drum-sticks and prepare for what is probably a very effective eny! The whole procedure is very strange, whichever way you look at it. When a composer writes. an orchestral work it matters very much to him which instruments play certain notes; he will spend hours in making careful decisions as to his orchestration in many instances. When his score is complete he will pore over it and listen mentally to the effects he has produced; he will mark the expression with every possible care; he will, in short, indicate everything he imagines will be of subsequent use to any conductor who produces his work. Once he has finished his score his responsibility often ends. At least, it does in these modern days, when copyists undertake the work of making out the band parts from his work. The score has been the product of one intellect and seems to have some cohesion about it. * When the parts are handed round to the members of the orchestra each

though it were the only one. A dru mer, for example, who has_ to be" sponsible for a single, though import’ ant, note 150 bars after the work has begun, will wait for that 150th bar quite unconcernedly. About the 147th bar he will .begin to watch the conductor carefully; at the 150th bar that note will sound exactly as the cgmposer heard it in his own. brain when the work was written. . The conductor is the interpreter, of course; upon his knowledge of the. score and how to get the required effects everything depends. We. who listen nightly to orchestral pieces floating out on the ether little realise very often the amount of brain-power that is being expended by so many pé¥ple to bring about the required result. The conductor’s brain is the reaMinfluence, naturally; in his movements of arm and baton he has to suggest certain ideas to his men. It is amazing how quickly experienced players will understand a strange conductor’s movements. The slightest movement will be interpreted as meaning something vital to the rendering of the music. player attends to his own part {