Evolution of the Orchestra

Radio Record, Volume III, Issue 27, 17 January 1930, Unnumbered Page

Evolution of the Orchestra

4 EARLY everything good that we | have comes from the Greeks, in- \* cluding the ‘word " orchestra," . | which is‘the name they gave to ‘that ‘part. of the Greek theatre ‘between the semi-circular seats of the auditorium and the stage (éalled by the Greeks the "‘loge-

ion"--speaking-place), where the chorus gang or ‘danced. "Orchestra" literally © means "dancing place," and we shall see later that this meaning describes

precisely what ought to happen in the modern orchestra of instrumentalists which began to.develop during the Renaissance in Italy, whence . jt:spread to France and Fngland.. How many, if any, instrumentalists the Greeks had in their orchestra we do‘not know, although some writers. assert. that the plays of Aischylus and Sophocles were accompanied by a band of: lyres and ‘flutes,- and one. authority déclares: "It.is quite certain that not only were the choruses of the Agamemon and the Antigone sung to the grandest music that could be produced at the time they were written, but also that every’ word of the. dialogue was> musically declaimed." The: classieal ‘Greek drama was therefore a

form ‘of opera, ‘but-an.opera which _ was probably nearer the ideal’ of the great operatic reformers like . Monteverde and Gluck’ than any operas that ‘have been — ‘written ‘since; because the music to ‘the ..Greek play was subordinate to truthful dramatic expression. | ‘ ot There has been a continuous development of the orchestra.and' the ‘instruments of the.. orchestra’ since the fifteenth century. Nearly. all the early bands were court musicians. _ Edward: IV had "trumpets, lutes; rebec, trombone,’ viol, cornemuse, flute, virginals and drums." The French kings had a court establishment of musi- .." ‘cians. from which the first great French operatic composer, Lully, an Italian by _ birth, formed his small operatic orchestra.

Lully also wrote the music for Moliere’s . plays, ahd the musicians were not accommodated in the "orchestra," but behind a trellis; sometimes they were placed in appropriate costumes on the stage, sometimes behind the audience, sometimes at the back of the stage, in the wings, or before the footlights. ; There jis an‘ inventory, made'in 1547, which shows that: Henry VIII had sixty-

four stringed instruments and 215 wind instruments, apart from keyboard instruments. : Queen Elizabeth had an orchestra of | about forty and the more important princes and dukes of Italy and Germany all had their private bands. It was at the courts of these Kings and Princes that operatic and orchestral music developed; although in our. own ‘country there is’ a history in this development due to the Puritan revo- . lution. Contrary to a popular opinion, this puritanical change of temper in the English people, although it began under the Commonwealth, did not reach its full intensity until niuch later. The reigns of Chazles II and James Il . gave it a fresh impetus and excuse, and it,

was when George I came to the throne, in 1714, that "Merrie England" in the sense of "Musical England" was finally overcome and the age of respectability, dullness, and cant set in. Purcell, who died in 1695, our greatest composer, was the last representative of the earlier musical age, and he wrote for an orchestra of strings, trumpets, oboes (including in, "Dioclesian,’ a tenor oboe), and flutes. His "Dido and 2®neas" was written for a girls’ school, but in "Kine. Arthur" and other works

he collaborated with Dryden music dramas for the stage. But most of the instruments used .in. the : seventeenth-and-eighteenth-century orchestras differed greatly from their modérn equivalents in our contemporary orchestras. In Bach's ‘ time there were stringed instruments ‘ that have since fallen into disusethe viol, the viola d'amore, viola ‘pomposa, viola da gamba, for > example. All the viol family have been practically obsolete for generations; their places have been filled by the violin, the viola, the violon- _ cello, and the contra or double bass. The viola d'amore which has five or seven strings, is still used occasion- , ally; for example, Richard Strauss

used it in his Sinronia Vomestica. © The greatest change, however, has taken place in the wood-wind and the brass instruments, owing to mechanical inventions during the nineteenth century. The most important of these inventions was that of the valve, which has revolutionised the use ‘of trumpets and horné, enabling them to play the full chromatic scale whereas before this invention they could play only. the notes of the harmonic chord, . and the player was provided with . number of different crooks which he fitted inte change the key of his instrument and enable him to play different notes. Obviously, it was impossible to play a rapid sequence of notes in this way, because it would not give the player time to change his crooks, "oe _-Continued on page

‘With the advent of Broadcasting, attention has been focused upon all those bodies whose function it is'to emtertain. Not the least in this flood of limelight is the modern broadcasting orchestra, for it-is they. who give the body and the background to. the studio entertainments.. © In "view of the place it holds the acconipanying article dealing with the beginning and leading || up to the present symphony orchestra will be of considerable interest’ to those who listen. to and appreciate music. It is from the pen of W. J. Turner, music critic of the "New Statesman," and appeared ‘originally in the "Radio Times."

Evolution of the Modern Orchestra

(Continued from page 1.)

And from information mn supplied by cor‘respondents it is clear’ that colonies exist right through the forests of the west, from their ocedn boundary, on ‘the one side, to their limitations on the Canterbury ranges on the other. To the student of Nature famishing for work on some deeply absorbing subject I heartily recommend the kakapo. The next talk which Mr. O’Donoghue will give will be about the "Kakaho," the so-called New Zealand crow, a most interesting bird. —

Me. FF. R, SNAPE (an A.W.A, wireJess operator) has returned to Sydney from Willis Island, the loneliest radio station in the world. Situated 400 miles east of Cooktown, Willis Island is a tiny strip of sand, but it is of great value, being close to. the place of origin of cyclones, In the eyclone season (November to May) a Commonwealth meteorologist lives on the island, with two wireless operators, whose duty is to send warnings of storms and weather reports, for the benefit of towns and shipping on the Queensland coast. Mr. Snape has been relieved after twelve months. So far off the beaten track of shipping is Willis Island that in the seven years during which the station has been established there, only three ships have been seen by the operators other than the relief ships.

and that is why in Beethoven’s symphonies he has to use the horns and trumpets so. sparingly and nearly always on the tonic or the dominant. Those who are impressed by Wagner’s gorgeous use. of the brass might remember that if Beethoven had written such passages they could not have been played upon the instruments of his day. In the seventeenth and eighteenth eenturies it was usual to fill in the harmony on the harpsichord and the composer often would conduct his work at the harpsichord. Mozart conducted an early opera of his in Italy in this manner. It was Gluck (1714-1787) who finally abolished the harpsichord from the orchestra, but when the conductor used to preside at the harpsichord there used to be frequent disputes between him and the leader of the first violins-who, in Germany, is called the "Konzert-meister’-as to which was the more important, The conductor who developed into the dominating force he has now be-. come only during the nineteenth century, has to-day perhaps usurped too many functions, and the leader. of the orchestra has too little to do outside

the actual leading of the orchestra during performances. [Berlioz and Wagner were largely responsible for the development of the art of the conductor, but von Bulow was perhaps the first of the modern virtuoso conductors. It is interesting to note the difference in numbers and"proportions between the orchestra of the time of Haydn and Mozart and that of the present day. Their orchestra was usually about thirty-five in number, the wind percussion amounting to from eleyen to thirteen of these. I will put into two separate columns the constitution of the Dresden Opera Or-° chestra of 1754 and the present B.B.C. Symphony Orchestra :-

Although no cymbals, triangle, harp or trombones appear in the list of the Dresden Orchestra of 1754, these instruments were well known at that time and were all used, for examble, by Gluck. The most striking feature of the comparison is the different proportions. The Dresden orchestra contained twelve wood-wind instruments as against our B.B.C. orchestra of exactly the same number, whereas the B.B.C. orchestra has more. than double the number of strings, But I think almost everyone admits that our modern orchestras are normally too weak in the ‘wood-wind. When the wood-wind is used principally to give its character‘istic colour effects and piercing ejaculations, as it is by composers such as Richard Strauss in "Till Bulenspiegel" and Stravinsky in "Petrouchka," this does not matter, because modern composers have made a special study of instrumentation and ‘are accustomed to the present proportions of our orchestras; but when the instruments ‘are used merely as voices in partwriting then the weakness of the wood-

wind section of the orchestra is often apparent. For the sake of the art of musi jt is to be hoped that the design of modern instruments and the pomposition of the orchestra: will now remain much the same for some considerable period. The modern composer has all the means he needs, for he has not anything like mastered their possibilities as yet and we find to-day the most advanced and intelligent composers, such as Stravinsky, for example, writing for smaller groups of instruments.. Also individual virtuosity has reached such a pitch that executants can be found who can play anything that is within the compass of their.instrument, It is the artist not the mechanician-whether maker), or player of instruments or maker of musie to be played-that needs cultivating and devyéloping to-day, for we are in danger of being as backward artistically as we are advanced mechanieally and in material means. Let me conclude by. describing what I think an orchestra should be. In the first place, it should be permanent, connected preferably with an opera house, and having a pension scheme for members who have served a certain number .of years. The members should be liable to dismissal by the conductor for incompetence ‘or slackness. It should be carefully drilled-and I don’t see why the leader should not take a. part in this training-until its ensemble is always perfect. Berlioz said that no section of an, orchestra should be, allowed to take place in an ensemble before it has been heard and severely examined separately. It should always play perfectly in tune (this is always possible if players take precautions and keep their instruments warm). Perfect ensemble and perfect intonation are the mere beginning: then, an orchestra must be able to play: piano with every possible nuance; then, a réal artist must train the orchestra in truth of expression for every particular work to be performed. And then we come to one fundamental test of good orchestral playing, rhythm. I said at-the beginning that the word "orchestra" means in the Greek "dancing place." Now, with a first-class orchestra and conductor, thé music always dances itself along. There is no mistaking this springiness, this dancing elasticity, of rhythm. ii Given perfect ensemble, perfect tonation, and truth of expression, then the final crown of a good orchestra is this dancing magic which transforms the whole material of sowad into pure ecstatic motion; but it is the rarést thing to hear. As an example of . what can bé done by training we have only to hear the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.

Dresden BBC Opera Symphony House, 1754 Orchestra Ist violins 8 16 2nd violins 16 Violoncelios 1 10 Double Basses _ 8 Piccolo L 1 Flutes 2 Oboes 8 Cor Anglais 2 Clarinets 5 BassoOlarinet 5 1 Contra-bassoon 5 Horns 4 Trumpets Edi 8 3 Trombones 3 Tuba 8 & 0* Percusgion 1 Harp