the orchestral instruments and what they do

8/8/2019 The orchestral instruments and what they do

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THE ORCHESTRALINSTRUMENTSAND WHAT THEY DODANIEL GREGORY MASON


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.LIBRARY 1


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r


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The Orchestral Instrumentsand What They Do

A Primer for Concert-Goers

BY

DANIEL GREGORY MASON

NEW YORKTHE BAKER & TAYLOR CO.

1909


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Copyright. 1908, by THE H. W. GRAY Co.Copyright. 1909, by THE H. W. GRAY Co.

FIRST PUBLISHED IN THE NEW MUSIC REVIEW


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PREFATORY NOTE.

The object of this little book is to assistthe concert-goer in recognizing the variousorchestral instruments, both by sight and byhearing, and to stimulate his perception ofthe thousand and one beauties of orchestralcoloring. As a help to the eye, the descrip-tions of the appearance of the instruments aresupplemented by pictures; in order to helprecognition by ear, the divers registers of in-struments are discussed with some particular-ity; while it is hoped that the many figuresshowing excerpts from standard works willsharpen the reader's attentiveness to delicateshades of tonal effect.These excerpts should serve only as an in-

troduction to full scores of a few standardworks, which can now be bought at moderateprices in miniature size, and which are of thegreatest use in defining and regulating the actof listening, even for those who can read musiconly in the most tentative, stumbling way.Suggestions are given in Section XXas to the use of scores by those whocan do no more than count time, recognizeaccents, and see whether the tune is "going upor down."


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There are few persons fond enough of musicto attend orchestral concerts who would notfind in a few months their powers of musicalenjoyment doubled or trebled by the study ofscores. Especially in large cities where sym-phonic works may often be heard more thanonce in one season, the study of scores be-tween performances, combined with a sharpscrutiny of the orchestra during the concerts, iscapable of increasing appreciation of the musicto a remarkable degree.The illustrations of the orchestral instru-ments were obtained through the kindcooperation of Mr. Walter Damrosch, towhom the author desires to express histhanks. Grateful acknowledgement is alsomade of the trouble taken by the followinggentlemen in sitting for the photographs :Mr. David Mannes and Mr. Rudolf Rissland,violin ; Mr. Remain Verney, viola ; Mr. PaulKefer, violoncello; Mr. L. E. Manoly, double-bass ; Mr. B. Fanelli, harp ; Mr. G. Barrere,flute ; Mr. Albert de Busscher, oboe ; Mr.Irving Cohn, English horn ; Mr. H. L. Leroy,clarinet ; Mr. Louis Haenisch, bass clarinet ;Mr. August Mesnard, bassoon ; Mr. RichardKohl, contrabass clarinet ; Mr. HermanHand, French hora ; Mr. Max Bleyer, trum-pet ; Mr. Sam Tilkin, trombone ; Mr. Fred.Geib, tuba; Mr J. F. Sietz, kettledrums,and Messrs. George Wagner, Emil Honnigand Fred. Rothery for the instruments ofpercussion.


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CONTENTSPACKCHAPTER I. The Orchestra as a Whole 7

SECTION I. The Nature of Sound - - 7SECTION II. Constitution of the Orchestra 12SECTION III. A Bird's-eye View of the Or-chestra - - - 16

CHAPTER II. The Stringed Instruments 20SECTION IV. The Stringed Instruments - 20SECTION V. The Violin - 21SECTION VI. The Viola ... 29SECTION VII. The Violoncello - - 31SECTION VIII. The Double-bass - - 35

CHAPTER III. The Wood-wind Instru-7QERRATA

Page 18, line 29. For "between," read "below."Page 38, line 19. For "fastened to pedals," etc., read

"controlled by pedals operated by the feet, bywhich they can be so shortened that all tones areavailable."

CHAPTER IV. The brass instruments - 04SECTION XIV. The Brass Instruments - 64SECTION XV. The Horn - 64SECTION XVI. The Trumpet - 74SECTION XVII. The Trombones and Tuba 77

CHAPTER V. The Percussion Instru-ments - - 83SECTION XVIII. The Percussion Instruments 83

CHAPTER VI. Orchestral Combinations 86SECTION XIX. Orchestral Combinations - 86

CHAPTER VII. Scores and Score-reading 95SECTION XX. Scores and Score-reading - 95

APPENDIX. The Orchestral Chart - - 100


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THE ORCHESTRAL INSTRUMENTSAND

WHAT THEY DO


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CHAPTER I.I. THE NATURE OF SOUND.

From the point of view of the physicalscientists, the orchestra is nothing but a largeand very complicated machine for setting theair in motion. All sound, they tell us, is pro-duced only by pulsations or puffs of air, andcan move through space only because air iselastic and imparts its motion from one set ofparticles to another. Moreover, this air-motionis not, properly speaking, sound at all, but onlygives rise to sensations of sound when it strikesupon the nervous mechanisms in our ears. Ifit were not for our ears, the violinists mightdraw their bows, and the trumpeters blowthemselves breathless, and the drummers beataway for dear life, and there would be nosound at all only a formidable atmosphericcommotion.

But fortunately we have ears, and earscapable of a most marvellous range, delicacy,and accuracy of hearing ; and by their help wecan pick out many different kinds of vibrationin the air, and get from them as many differentkinds of sensation. For example : pulsations ofair that come irregularly, at varying periods oftime, give us tl.e sensation we call "noise" ;pulsations that come at regular intervals wehear as "musical tones," and this in spite of thefact that they come so fast that we could notpossibly count them, or even hear them indi-vidually (middle C, for example, is producedby no less than two hundred and fifty-six pulsa-tions per second). The slower the puffs of air,the "lower" is the tone we hear, the more rapid


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8 THE ORCHESTRAL INSTRUMENTSthe puffs, the "higher" the tone. The "lowest"tone we can hear is produced by about sixteenpulsations a second, the "highest" has aboutthirty-eight thousand an almost inconceivablerapidity. Between these two extremes thereare eleven thousand distinguishable tones, ofwhich, however, we use only ninety in music.If the pulsations are weak, the tone is "soft" ;if they are strong, it is "loud."Furthermore, the ear is able to hear a wholeseries of pulsations, of varying rapidity, at once,and as constituting one "tone" this tone, ofcourse, being a compound of many simple toneswhich we fuse together. On this remarkablepower depends our sense of differences in whatwe call "quality of tone," or "timbre" and ourability to distinguish tones of the same pitch(". e., high or low position) played by differentinstruments such as a violin, a clarinet, an oboe,a trumpet. This is a matter so important toour understanding of the orchestra that itshould be studied before we go farther.Many of the elastic materials used to producetones by their vibrations, as for instance a pianostring, have the peculiarity of producing awhole series of vibrations, of varying rates ofrapidity, at one and the same time. This de-pends on two facts: first, that the shorter thevibrating section of string the more rapid areits vibrations ; second, that the piano string inquestion, when struck by the hammer, starts tovibrating not only as a whole, but also in seg-ments of halves, thirds, quarters, fifths, sixths,sevenths, eighths, etc., of its entire length. Fig-ure I. shows graphically these different modesof vibration, which for clearness we here repre-sent separately, but which, it must be under-


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THE NATURE OF SOUNDstood, actually take place simultaneously, hardas such a complicated kind of motion is for usto imagine. FIGURE I.EIGHT MODES OF VIBRATION IN A SINGLE STRING.

ist " Partial,"called "fundamental.'

128 Vibr.

2nd Partial.

256 Vibr.

3rd Partial.

384 Vibr.

4th Partial.

512 Vibr.

5th Partial.

640 Vibr.

6th Partial.

768 Vibr.

7th Partial.

896 Vibr.

8th Partial.

1024 Vibr.


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10 THE ORCHESTRAL INSTRUMENTSThe result of this peculiarity of our piano

string is evidently that it gives forth, not a sim-ple tone, as we are accustomed to think, but awhole series of "partial tones," as theorists callthem. Let us suppose that the simplest modeof vibration, that of the string as a whole, pro-duces 128 pulsations per second, as is actuallythe case with the piano string which gives forththe C an octave below middle C. Then thevibration by halves, occurring twice as fast,will give forth the tone middle C ; the vibrationby thirds, thrice as fast, will give forth the Gabove it ; the vibration by fourths, four times asfast, will give forth the C above that; and soon. The whole series of "partial tones" up tothe eighth, for this particular string, areshown in the column to the right, in Figure I,together with their vibration-rates per second.

But why, the reader will ask, do we nothear all these "partial" tones individually?There are two reasons. One is that the higherwe go the fainter become the partial-tones,since the smaller the segment of the string theless is the amount or "amplitude" of the vibra-tion, on which depends the loudness of the tone.(This is clearly shown in the figure.) Hencethe first partial, the "fundamental tone," whichis all we are ordinarily aware of hearing, ismuch louder and more prominent than any ofthe others. Indeed, although theoretically thepartials continue ad infinitum, after the eighththey are so weak we need not consider them.The second reason is the overpowering influ-


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THE NATURE OF SOUND 11ence of habit. As all stringed instruments pro-duce the whole series of partials together, weso habitually hear them all that we are unableto distinguish them one from another. Withtraining, however, sensitive ears are able topick out the first few partials easily and ac-curately.But if we do not hear the partials as quantity,

so to speak, we do, all of us, hear them asquality; for on them depends the peculiar tim-bre of each kind of tone. On account of me-chanical differences, some instruments havemore, or more prominent, upper partials thanothers. The general rule here is that thegreater the number of partials the "richer,""fuller," more "brilliant" is the tone, as in thecase of the violin ; whereas the fewer, or faint-er, the partials, the "purer," "quieter," "sim-pler" is the tone, as in the case of the lowertones of the flute, which have hardly any butthe fundamental tones. The clarinet owes itsindividual quality to the fact that it has onlythe odd-numbered partials, the first, third, fifth,etc. The pungency of the tone of the oboedepends on its possessing high partials of con-siderable strength. Other instances of theeffect of partial tones will meet us as we go on.We have seen then, thus far, that all musicaltones are produced by regularly periodic pulsa-tions of the air, set up by the vibrations of elas-tic bodies, whether the strings of violins andthe like, the air-columns of wind instruments,or the stretched membranes of drums or the


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12 THE ORCHESTRAL INSTRUMENTSmetal of cymbals. We have seen that loudnessdepends on the force of these pulsations, andthat pitch depends on their relative rapidity.Finally, we have seen that since almost everyelastic body vibrates in a highly complex fash-ion, series of vibrations of more than one kindgenerally reach our ears from any one source ;and that on the precise nature of these seriesdepends what we call the quality of the partic-ular tone.

II CONSTITUTION OF THE ORCHESTRA.The instruments used in the modern orches-

tra may be divided into three classes or fam-ilies, according to the various modes in whichtheir tones are produced. The most importantgroup comprises the stringed instruments(often called simply "the Strings"), in whichstretched strings are the vibrating bodies. Thesecond group comprises the wind instruments("the Wind"), in which the vibration arises incolumns of air. The third group comprises thepercussion instruments (sometimes called "theBattery"), in which stretched membranes ormetallic bodies are the sources of vibration.These general groups may be further sub-divided as shown in the following complete listof instruments, in which those seldom used inthe orchestra are marked with asterisks. Thefigures in parenthesis show the number of eachinstrument used in the New York SymphonyOrchestra.


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CONSTITUTION OF THE ORCHESTRA 13CLASSIFIED LIST OP ORCHESTRAL INSTRUMENTS.

I STRINGED INSTRUMENTS.(a) Instruments played with a bow :

Violin (34 18 1st violins, 16 2d violins)Viola (12).Violoncello (12).Double-bass (or contrabass), (10).

(6) Instruments the strings of which areplucked :Harp (i).

*Guitar.*Mandoline.

(c) Instruments the strings of which arestruck by hammers :*Pianoforte.

II WIND INSTRUMENTS.(a) Instruments sounded through a hole in the

side of the tube :Flute (2).Piccolo (i).

(b) Instruments played with a double reed:Oboe (2).English Horn (or alto oboe), (i).Bassoon (3).

*Contra-bassoon(or double bassoon ),(i)(c) Instruments played with a single reed:

Clarinet (2).*Corno di bassetto.Bass Clarinet (i).*Saxophone.

(d) Instruments played with a mouthpiece:Trumpet (4).Cornet.


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14 THE ORCHESTRAL INSTRUMENTSHorn (4).Trombone (3).

*Ophicleide.Tuba (i).(e) Instruments with keyboards:

*Pipe organ.*Reed organ.Ill PERCUSSION INSTRUMENTS.

(a) Tone produced by the vibration of astretched membrane :

Kettle-drums (Timpani), (2).*Bass drum, 1 (4 players for other*Side drum, L percussion instru-*Tambourine, j ments).

(&) Tone produced by the vibration of metallicbodies :*Bells.*Glockenspiel.*Triangle.Cymbals.*Gong (Tam-tam).*Castanets.

Summary of players in the New York Sym-phony Orchestra:

Strings 68Harp iWind 25Percussion 5

99It must not be supposed, however, that this

vast army of instruments is always, or even


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CONSTITUTION OF THE ORCHESTRA 15usually employed. Most of the important sym-phonic works of the nineteenth century can beperformed by an orchestra made up as fol-lows. (The instruments are put down in theorder in which they occur in the full "score"from which the conductor reads) :

Wood wind

Brass and

Percussion

Strings

2 Flutes, i interchangeable with2 Oboes. [piccolo.2 Clarinets.1 Bass Clarinet.2 Bassoons.1 Contrabassoon.4 Horns.2 Trumpets.3 Trombones.1 Tuba.2 Kettle-drums.First Violins.Second Violins.Violas.Violoncellos..Double-basses.

Some of the most imperishable symphoniescall for even fewer instruments. Beethoven'sFifth Symphony, for example, requires no bassclarinet and no tuba, and only two horns. Thelovely Andante of his Pastoral Symphony callsfor only the following instruments, in additionto the usual strings: Two flutes, two oboes,two clarinets, two bassoons, and two horns.This modest combination, called the "small or-chestra" (distinguished from the "grand or-chestra" by lacking trumpets and drums), isalso used by him in the Larghetto of the Second


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16 THE ORCHESTRAL INSTRUMENTSSymphony and in the Allegretto of the Eighth.It has also been used most effectively by somemodern composers, as for instance by Dvorakin his charming Suite for Small Orchestra,Opus 39.The modern tendency, on the other hand,initiated by Berlioz and fostered by Liszt andWagner, has been constantly to increase thenumber and variety of the instruments. Wag-ner, in "Die Walkiire," besides the usualstrings, calls for two piccolos, two flutes, threeoboes, one English horn, three clarinets, onebass clarinet, three bassoons, eight horns, fourtrumpets, one bass trumpet, four trombones,one to four tubas, two pairs of kettle-drums,one pair of cymbals, one bass-drum, and sixharps. Berlioz had what amounted almost toa mania for monster orchestras. In his Re-quiem we find him prescribing sixteen trom-bones, sixteen trumpets, five ophicleides, twelvehorns, eight pairs of kettle-drums, two bass-drums, and a gong, in addition to the usual re-sources. "Prince Metternich," he tells us inhis Memoirs, "said to me one day: 'Are younot the man, monsieur, who composes musicfor five hundred performers?' To which I re-plied: 'Not always, monseigneur; I sometimeswrite for four hundred and fifty.' "

III A BIRD'S-BYE VIEW OF THE ORCHESTRA.Let us now take a general look at the orches-

tra and its arrangement on the stage, before weexamine in more detail the separate instru-ments.


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t o


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As the conductor stands on his platform,with his back to the audience, we see extend-ing quite across the stage, at his left hand, thefirst violins, sitting two at a desk, their leader,at the first desk on the outside, being called the"Concert-master." Similarly extended at theconductor's right are the second violins.Grouped just behind the first violins are thevioloncellos; behind the second violins sit theviolas, the slightly larger instruments beinghardly distinguishable, at a distance, from theviolins. The double-basses form a half semi-circle about the left-hand edge of the orchestra,placed well back, so that their ponderous soundwill not drown out the delicate tones of thewood-wind.The wood-wind instruments are usually

grouped in the middle of the entire body, di-rectly in front of the conductor. It is some-what difficult to distinguish them by eye alone,particularly the clarinets and oboes, which lookmuch alike, and are both blown into from theend, unlike the flute, which is held sidewaysand blown across. The clarinets, however, aresomewhat larger than the oboes, and end in amore flaring bell; their mouthpieces, too, arelarger, in spite of containing a single insteadof a double reed. The bassoons, much longerthan either, and extending down between theknees of the player, can be identified unmis-takably by their curved tubular mouthpieces,extending out sideways.The horn-players usually sit behind thewood-wind group and somewhat to the left


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CONSTITUTION OF THE ORCHESTRA 19of the stage. The instruments, of polishedbrass, the tube made into a circle with its veryflaring mouth facing sideways, are not hard toidentify. The trumpets, looking not unlikelarge cornets, are near them. On the outeredge of the orchestra, at the right, are the trom-bones, recognizable by their slides, which theplayers draw in and out to shorten or lengthenthe tubes. And that enormous brass instru-ment which seems as if it would drag the poorplayer to the ground by its sheer weight, andwhich is evidently most exhausting to play,what is that? It is the tuba, the bass of thetrombones.

Finally, there are the kettle-drums, at thevery back, between the tuba-trombone groupand the last of the double-basses, and some-times, next them, the great bass-drum and thebrazen cymbals.


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CHAPTER II.IV THE STRINGED INSTRUMENTS.

The choir of stringed instruments, consistingof first violins, second violins, violas, violon-cellos, and double-basses, is by far the mostimportant single department of the orchestra.The reasons for its supremacy are many. In

the first place, it commands a greater range oftones than any other group, covering no lessthan six octaves. Secondly, its facility of exe-cution is greater. Violins and violas, and evenvioloncellos, can play at almost any rate ofspeed, and can produce with perfect clearnessthe most complicated runs and passages; andunlike the wind instruments they can hold asingle tone as long as may be desired. In thethird place, the strings can play with any de-gree of force from the boldest fortissimo to themerest breath of pianissimo. The wind instru-ments cannot command anything like such adelicate immateriality of tone, and when theycome in on the final chord of a piece endingvery softly often give the hearer a slight shock.Bowed instruments, furthermore, can beplayed for any length of time without fatiguing

the performer, while the wind instrument play-ers must have frequent rests to regain theirbreath and to relax the muscles which, in play-ing such instruments as the horn, have to becontracted in a way that soon becomes weari-some.


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FIRST VIOLIN


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THE VIOLIN 21The hearer, too, can stand more string-tone

than wind-tone. The peculiar timbre of suchinstruments as the oboe, the clarinet, the trum-pet, would grow cloying if we had to listen toit for long stretches of time; the full, round,and yet simple tone of the violins is bettersuited to be "human nature's daily food."For all these reasons the strings are thenucleus of the orchestra. They may, for thesake of contrast, give way to the other instru-ments for short periods, but they are neversilent very long, and they are themselves capa-ble of remarkable variety without any outsidehelp.

V. THE VIOLIN.The violin has four strings, tuned as follows :

FIGURE III.TUNING AND RANGE OF THE VIOLIN.

Range. Sva ....-^ ^r^They are tuned by pegs set in the neck ofthe instrument, are pressed by the fingers ofthe left hand to change their pitch (this iscalled "stopping"), and are set in vibration bythe bow being drawn across them by the righthand. Only a small portion of the tone comes,however, from the strings themselves. The


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22 THE ORCHESTRAL INSTRUMENTSvibrations are carried from them, through thebridge, into the wooden body of the violin,which is so delicately made as to vibrate in"sympathy," producing the larger portion ofthe sound. The extraordinary sonority of theinstrument is due to this delicacy of construc-tion.The bridge over which the strings pass is

arched in such a way that the bow can touchany one string without coming in contact withthe others. This serves very well with a slightpressure such as is used in soft passages; butit is impossible to play heavily on the two mid-dle strings, the D and the A strings, withouttouching adjacent strings. For this reason itwill be found that fortissimo passages generallylie chiefly on the E or the G string. Indeed, thefirst string (E-string) is used so preponder-antly for melody that it is often called the"chanterelle," or "singer." It has been cal-culated that two-thirds of all the tones Mozartwrote for the violin lie on the E-string.The tone of this string has a peculiar in-cisiveness, a penetrating quality that makes iteasily heard above everything else in fortissimopassages for the full orchestra; in pianissimoit is wonderfully clear, pure, ethereal. Whetherloud or soft, it stands in relief above the otherorchestral sounds like a thread of scarlet in amass of duller hues.No small part of the effectiveness of Weber'sorchestration, in his famous overtures, "Eury-anthe" and "Oberon," is due to his use of the


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THE VIOLINFIGURE [V.

23

Allegro confuoco.(a)

MENDELSSOHN :Concerto for Violin.

E-string. An example is shown in Figure IV,(a). For softer but not less thrilling effectswe may turn to Mendelssohn, whose delicate,aristocratic nature made him sensitive to thebeautiful clarity of this tone. (&), in FigureIV, shows the opening theme of his ViolinConcerto, lying entirely on the E-string.The second or A-string, and even more thethird or D-string, are quieter and paler than thechanterelle. Nevertheless they are capable ofvery lovely effects, of which Schumann hasmade use in the slow movement of his secondsymphony, and Beethoven in the mysticalAdagio of the Ninth Symphony (Figure V ).


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24 THE ORCHESTRAL INSTRUMENTSFIGURE V.

Adagio espressivo. SCHUMANN: Symphony II.

Adagio molto e cantabile. BEETHOVEN : Symphony IX.

The fourth or G-string is not only thickerthan all the others, but is wound with wire tomake it heavier and therefore slower in vibra-tion. The result is a remarkable fulness oftone, like that of a rich contralto voice. Inexpression it is intense, earnest, impassioned.We are all familiar with those moments whenthe players, bending their heads close to theirviolins as if caressing them, raise their bow-arms well up to get a free sweep across theG-string. This effect, like all good things, maybe abused, and every trivial "Romance forViolin" has its solo for the fourth string. Butif the melody itself has nobility, it can gainthrough the massive sonority of this string analmost overpowering intensity of expressive-ness, especially when rendered by a large num-ber of instruments, as will be realized by re-ferring to the examples in Figure VI.


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(a)Adagio.

THE VIOLINFIGURE VI.

WAGNBR: "Lohengrin."

25

:E r-*a i i

Mb*:

(fi) Sosttnnto assai. WAGNER : " Tannhauser.'

(c) Adagio assai,BEBTHOVBN : Funeral March,from Symphony III.

(ef) Adagio assai. Ibid.^ggpa*^-ffl-af*

3

Chords of two, three, or four tones may beproduced on the violin by sweeping the bowacross several strings. A sustained tone cannotbe attained, however, on more than two stringsat once, on account of the arched shape of thebridge already mentioned. This process ofplaying chords of two tones, on two strings, iscalled double-stopping, because the left handhas to press or "stop" two strings at once. Inorchestral music only the easiest chords of this


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26 THE ORCHESTRAL INSTRUMENTSkind are written, since the desired effect offull harmony can be better obtained by dividingthe violins into two or more groups, lettingeach play one of the desired tones. The indi-cation for this is the Italian word "divisi."

Great diversity of expression is possible tothe violin through the various methods of bow-ing or phrasing. When a series of tones isplayed by one movement of the bow (indicatedby putting a slur over them see Figures IV-VI), we get a smooth legato, or "bound to-gether" effect, such as we get with the voicewhen many tones are sung for one syllable.When each tone is given by a separate bow-stroke the effect is of animation, energy, orgrandiloquence. A peculiar delicacy is gained,in rapid tempos, by the use of the "arco sal-tando" or "flying bow," i. e,, the bow allowedto leap up from the string by its own elasticity.The "tremolo" is made by moving the bowback and forth with great rapidity on the same

string or pair of strings, and has a mysterious,menacing, or exciting quality. Like the G-string solo, it is easily abused : in the theatricalmelodrama the approach of the villain is usu-ally accompanied by a tremolo of all the strings.This device is skilfully used by Weber in theintroduction to his "Freischiitz" overture.

Instead of being bowed, the strings may beplucked by the finger. This is called the "piz-zicato" Italian for "plucked." The pizzicatois generally used either to gain a certain in-cisiveness like that of the percussion instru-


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SECOND VIOLIN


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THE VIOLIN 27merits, or to make the tone more delicate andimmaterial. It is oftener used in accompani-ments by the lower strings, or for the bass, thanby the first violin. Schubert makes use ofpizzicato in the violins, violas and double-basses, to accompany a solo by the 'cellos, laterjoined by the oboe, in a well-known passage inthe Andante of his C-major Symphony (FigureVII).

FIGURE VII.A ndante con moto. SCHUBERT. Symphony X.

In his fourth symphony Tschaikowsky makesstriking use of the pizzicato of all the stringsthroughout the scherzo.The "mute," or "sordino," is a little metal


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28 THE ORCHESTRAL INSTRUMENTSclamp which, when placed upon the bridge,impedes the transmission of the vibrations intothe body of the violin, thus making the tone notonly softer, but different in quality thin,veiled, mysterious. Gounod has made use ofthis peculiar quality of tone in the scene o$Marguerite's hallucination in prison, in his"Faust," and Beethoven has used it, in the thirdact of "Fidelio," for the scene between Leonoreand the jailer. Tschaikowsky uses it withgreat impressiveness at the end of his great"Symphonic Pathetique." (See also FiguresXII and XIII a.)By placing his finger lightly on the middle

of one of the strings, or at the point markingexactly one third, one fourth, one fifth of it,etc., the violinist can make it vibrate in certainsegments only, instead of as a whole, thus pro-ducing only certain "partial tones" or "har-monics" (see Figure I , and the explanationin Section I of the mode of vibration of astring). These harmonics have a peculiarthinness and purity of tone, and may be mosttellingly used in the orchestra. Wagner thususes the high ghostly harmonics of four soloviolins at the beginning of his "Lohengrin"Prelude.

There are certain other peculiar effects ob-tainable by special ways of playing the violinand the other stringed instruments, such forexample as the "col legno" (touching thestrings with the back of the bow instead ofwith the hairs), but those we have already


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VIOLA


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THE VIOLA 29mentioned are the most important. They areall applicable to the entire group of stringed in-struments, though harmonics and the mute orsordino are seldom used on the double-bass.A word must be said here as to the secondviolins, the group of players immediately tothe right of the conductor, at the front of thestage. They play, of course, exactly the samekind of instrument as the first violins, and areto be distinguished from them merely by thedifferent functions they are called upon to per-form. While the first violins often carry themain melody, the seconds much less frequentlydo so, but generally fill up one of the harmonic"parts/' When the firsts have a melody lyinghigh up on the E-string, however, the secondsoften reenforce them by playing the same mel-ody an octave lower. Figures so rapid as topresent great difficulties to the players are alsosometimes divided between the two, the firstsplaying only a few measures and then beingrelieved by the seconds. In "tuttis" (an Italianword meaning "all," and indicating those pass-ages, generally loud, where all the orchestra isemployed together), the seconds often join thefirsts, the lower parts of the harmony beingentrusted to other instruments.

VI. THE VIOLA.The viola, in appearance exactly like the

violin save for its slightly greater size, is thealto of the string choir, and is indeed by theFrench called the "Alto." In Germany it isknown as the "Bratsche" (Brah-tcha). Its


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30 THE ORCHESTRAL INSTRUMENTSFIGURE VIII.

TUNING AND RANGE OF THE VIOLA.

*7 -Z=r Second string. ,**"* sttrinfr J-&- Third string. Chanterelle."Fourth string.Written with the alto clef, thus^=^=

Range.


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'CELLO


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THE VIOLONCELLO 31vide the bass in soft, delicate combinationswhen the lower stringed instruments are silentor being otherwise used.

VII. THE VIOLONCELLO.The violoncello, the large stringed instru-ment held between the knees of the player, has

four strings much longer than those of theviola, and tuned an octave lower (see FigureIX ). It is an instrument of remarkable versa-tility, though undoubtedly its most frequent useis to supply the bass, either with or without thedouble-bass, which usually plays an octavelower.

FIGURE IX.TUNING AND RANGE OF THE VIOLONCELLO.

Founding. * ** '"Q ~ (Seldom used above~ here in orchestra.)

The peculiarly full, rich tone of the 'cello,however, especially of its "chanterelle" or A-string, makes it an admirable solo instrument,to which many of the most inspired melodies inorchestral music owe much of their eloquence.How unforgettable is the lovely second themeof the first movement of Schubert's UnfinishedSymphony, sung by the 'cellos against a throb-bing accompaniment of the violas and clari-nets ! l ( See Figure X, a) . Not less deserved-CD The 'cello solo In Figure VII., from Schubert, is

also worthy of note. It lies entirely on the A-strlng.


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32 THE ORCHESTRAL INSTRUMENTSFIGURE X.

(a) Allegro moderate. SCHUBERT : Unfinished Symphony.

(b) Andante con moto. BEETHOVEN : Fifth Symphony.

t rfi_n_LKf>dol,

tg^^F^f^aggfe^^ c_*. 5fe" ' ra~-r*ly famous is the theme of the Andante ofBeethoven's Fifth Symphony, in which the'cellos are joined by the violas (Figure X, b).A more modern example is the chief melody ofGoldmark's overture, "Sakuntala." Here therichness of the 'cello tone is enhanced by theaddition of a clarinet in its low register (FigureXI).

FIGURE XI.Moderate assai. GOLOMARK : " Sakuntala " Overture.

m


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THE VIOLONCELLO 33

dim.

In his "Pathetic Symphony," Tschaikowskyassigns the first entrance of the suave secondtheme to the first violins and the violoncellos,playing an octave apart, and with mutes (sor-dini), (Figure XII ). The accompaniment issupplied almost entirely by wind instruments(horns, clarinets, and bassoons), against whichthe string tone stands out in strong relief.

FIGURE XII.Andante.

ist Violin*Violoncellos

(both tSfimuted.) J

TSCHAIKOWSKY : Pathetic Symphony.


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34 THE ORCHESTRAL INSTRUMENTSOwing to this prominent relief in which the

tone of the 'cello A-string always stands out,the 'cello is often written above the viola whenit is desired to emphasize an important part inthe middle of the orchestral web. In nothing,perhaps, is the skill of the adept orchestratormore subtly shown than in these fine bits ofcoloring which a careless or inexperiencedreader of the score easily misses altogether.At the beginning of that little masterpiece, theAdagietto of Bizet's "L'Arlesienne" Suite, in-tended to accompany the meeting of the oldlovers in the drama, and scored for muted vio-lins, violas, and 'cellos alone, Bizet gives thebass to the violas, saving the 'cellos for themore expressive tenor voice (see Figure XIII,

(a) Adagio.

FIGURE XIII.BIZET: "L'Arlesienne," Suite.

ist Violins. ( rHi

jfl 1 1) f y t jl 0-^-\j*


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THE DOUBLEBASS 35(b) Allegro motto. DVORAK: "New World" Symphony.

This is simplified for piano. In the orchestral version the 'cellostake the half-notes, while the violas fill up the harmony below them.

a). Were the instruments reversed the beauti-ful passage would lose much of its color.Again, in a memorable passage in the "NewWorld" Symphony (Figure XIII, &), Dvorakbrings his violoncellos up above his violas fora few measures, simply to get their mordant,penetrating tone on that wonderful C-sharp inthe fourth measure of our excerpt, which noone who has heard it is likely to forget.Did space permit, many examples of thiskind of subtlety in orchestral coloring might bestudied. It may be said in passing that thehelp which the reading of orchestral scoresgives to the appreciation of just such elusivebeauties is one of its greatest advantages.

VIII. THE DOUBLE-BASS.It is the business of this bulky instrument,

well nicknamed the "bull fiddle," to sustain thebass part, either with or without the help ofthe 'cello, the bassoon, or the tuba. Owing tothe great length and thickness of its strings itis incapable of such rapid figures as the otherstringed instruments. The fingers have totraverse so much space that it is found con-venient to tune the strings in smaller inter-


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36 THE ORCHESTRAL INSTRUMENTSvals than on the 'cello (in fourths instead offifths). (See Figure XIV).

FIGURE XIV.Actual csound :E

TUNING AND RANGE OF THE DOUBLEBASS.* =


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DOUBLEBASS


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THE DOUBLEBASS 37sounds, great inconvenience to the copyistwould result from the many leger lines thatwould have to be used.Before the time of Beethoven the double-bass was a humdrum instrument, invaluableto the ensemble but possessing little individ-uality. Beethoven, with his characteristic in-dependence, used it for special effects, makingit humorous in the scherzo of the Fifth Sym-phony (Figure XV, a) and notably eloquent inthe famous recitatives of the Ninth Symphony.

FIGURE XV.(a) Allegro.Double Bas

Violoncellos.ses and BHBTHOVKN :Fifth Symphony.

TSCHAIKOWSKY : Symphonie Pathetique.

DVORAK: "New WorldSymphony.


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38 THE ORCHESTRAL INSTRUMENTSIn our own day it has been used with daring

originality by Tschaikowsky and others, whosometimes divide the double-basses into sev-eral groups. Thus the memorable opening ofthe "Pathetic Symphony" is scored for double-basses in two divisions and bassoons in theirlow register a most mysterious effect. (Fig-ure XV, &). Dvorak, at the end of the slowmovement of his "New World" Symphony,writes a chord for double-basses alone, in fourgroups, one for each tone. (Figure XV, c).One also finds in modern scores the double-basses sometimes written above the violoncel-los, when the composer has some especial de-sign in view.The harp, although not a regular memberof the orchestral forces, deserves a word here.It has forty-six strings, tuned to the diatonicscale of C-flat, but fastened to pedals oper-ated by the feet, by which they can be sotightened that all keys are available. Theplucking of the strings by the fingers gives acertain not unpleasant twang characteristic ofthe instrument. It is chiefly used in accom-paniment, sounding chords and arpeggios (thelatter word being, by the way, derived from itsItalian name).The "harmonics" of the harp, wondrouslyclear and ethereal, have been cleverly used byBerlioz in his "Dance of Sylphs."


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HARP


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CHAPTER III.IX. THE WOOD-WIND INSTRUMENTS.

The second important division of the or-chestra, after the strings, is the choir of wood-wind instruments, namely flutes, oboes, clari-nets, and bassoons, to which are sometimesadded the kindred instruments, piccolo, Englishhorn, bass clarinet, and contra-bassoon.1

This division is much less homogeneous, andmuch less frequently used en masse, than thatof the strings ; there is far more difference be-tween flutes and oboes, for example, than thereis between violins and violas or 'cellos. More-over, the wood-wind instruments, as was statedabove, are both more fatiguing to play forlong stretches, and more monotonous in theireffect upon the listener, than the strings. Hencethey are used chiefly for contrast and color,either as solo instruments or for intensifyingparticular strands in the web of tone. Fromsuch employment of them, skilfully made, thereresult a hundred shades and half-shades ofcolor as delicate as the iridescent hues of a sea-shell.

In all wind instruments (brass as well aswood) the tone is produced by the vibration

(1) The horns, not to be confused with the Englishhorn, which is an Instrument of the oboe family, areometimes grouped with the wood-wind, although madaof brass, because their tone ia so soft and mellow that itmerges well with wood tone and is often used with it.W shall, however, for simplicity, not take up the hornsuntil after we have treated the wood-wind.


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40 THE ORCHESTRAL INSTRUMENTSof columns of air rather than by that of stringsand their wooden supports, as in the string in-struments. The differences in the tone quali-ties and modes of playing the wind instru-ments arise from differing methods of startingsuch vibration (direct blowing in the flute, adouble-reed in oboes and bassoons, a singlereed in clarinets, etc.), and from differingways of altering the pitch.

In order to understand the latter point, alter-ation of pitch, it is necessary to bear constant-ly in mind two general principles. First, otherthings being equal, the longer the column ofair the slower will be its vibration, and con-sequently the lower will be the tone it emits.Second, a column of air, like a string, canvibrate either as a whole, or in segments of one-half its length, one-third its length, one-fourthits length, etc., or in several of these ways atonce. Each of these modes of vibration givesrise to its own "partial" tone, and on the num-ber and relative strength of the various partialsdepends the peculiar timbre or tone-color char-acteristic of each instrument.

If these facts are borne in mind the readerwill easily grasp the principles of constructionof the various wind instruments.

X. THE FLUTE.The flute is easily identified at sight in theorchestra as the only instrument which theplayer blows across instead of directly into.Made either of wood or of metal, it is pro-vided with keys which when pressed by thefingers open holes in the tube, thus alteringthe pitch by shortening the vibratory column


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FLUTE


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THE FLUTE 41of air. In this way are obtained all the tonesfrom middle C to the C-sharp an octave aboveit (See Figure XVI ), these tones being pro-duced by the vibration of the air column as awhole.

FIGURE XVI.RANGE AND QUALITIES OF THE FLUTK.

First register, produced by low pressure := Woody, dark, menacing.

Second register, produced by increased pressure :a Clear, mellow, "flutey."

Third register, produced by still greater pressure :js.' Bright, brilliant.

The higher registers, also shown in FigureXVI, are obtained by simply blowing harder(with certain changes of fingering), whichcauses the air column to break up and vibratein sections instead of as a whole. This in-creased wind pressure produces the second par-tial, an octave higher than the fundamentaltone, which gives, with the help of the holesand keys in altering the length of the air col-umn, another group of tones an octave higherthan the first. Still greater pressure producesthe third partial, an octave and a fifth higherthan the first or fundamental tone, and so on.The higher registers are keener and more pene-trating in quality than the lower, the extremeupper tones being most brilliant. The char-


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42 THE ORCHESTRAL INSTRUMENTSacteristic qualities of the different registers areindicated in the figure.The flute is most frequently used as a solo

instrument in light, delicate, lyrical passages.The classical instance, often quoted but neverhackneyed, is the filmy scherzo in the "Mid-summer Night's Dream" music of Mendels-sohn, a composer whose fanciful genius hasused the flute with incomparable felicity (Fig-ure XVII ). FIGURE XVII.

Allegro vivace.Flutes.

MENDELSSOHN : Scherzo," Midsummer Night's Dream/

-M. m/I JU 1 yBl**1 i '


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THE FLUTE 43The flute here plays a rapid figure in six-

teenth notes, at first supported by chords forthe strings, later all alone so that it is heardto great advantage. Beginning this part in its"woody" lower register, it gradually climbs upinto brighter regions until, at the return of themain melody, the best tones of the flute areheard in dainty two-part harmony.FIGURE XVIII.

Andantino. BIZBT: Carillon2 flutes. from " L'Arlesienne."


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44 THE ORCHESTRAL INSTRUMENTS

Figure XVIII, from Bizet, shows a differ-ent use of two flutes together. Here the tonesare sustained, melodious, instead of delicatelystaccato, and the style and rhythm of the mu-sic are pastoral. The momentary dissonancecaused by the first flute taking B-naturalagainst the second flute's B-sharp is a point ofspecial beauty. Later the two oboes join in,lending with their more pungent tone addi-tional force to the same dissonance (F-sharpagainst F-double-sharp).

FIGURE XIX.Andante con moto. MENDELSSOHN :Italian Symphony.

(The stems of the notes for the violins are turned upwards, those ofthe notes for the flutes downwards.)

In the passage from Mendelssohn's ItalianSymphony, shown in Figure XIX , the flutes


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THE OBOE 45merely provide an accompaniment to the violinmelody but an accompaniment of what deli-ciously melting harmony ! No one who hasheard this passage is likely to forget its rav-ishing beauty, produced by surprisingly simplemeans.

In forte and fortissimo passages for the fullorchestra ("tutti") the two flutes are ordi-narily either placed with the violins on the mel-ody or given holding chords with the other in-struments of their family.The piccolo is a small flute playing an octavehigher than the ordinary instrument, and usedchiefly to give additional brightness to "tutti"passages, as at the end of Beethoven's "Eg-mont" Overture. The notes for it are writtenan octave lower than they sound.

XI. THE OBOE.The oboe differs from the flute in that the

column of air within its tube is set in motionnot directly, but through the medium of adouble-reed, consisting of two thin slips ofcane set against each other so as to leave apassage for the air, and placed in the mouth-piece of the instrument. This mode of startingthe vibration, producing as it does a tone con-taining several "upper partials," is the reasonfor the peculiar "reedy," almost querulousquality of the oboe tone. As in the flute, thechanges of pitch are produced in part by amechanism of holes and keys, in part by varia-


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46 THE ORCHESTRAL INSTRUMENTStions of breath-pressure. The range and qual-ities of the oboe are shown in Figure XX.

FIGURE XX.RANGE AND QUALITIES OF THE OBOE.

. es Harsh, nasal.

Reedy, penetrating,plaintive.(The best register.)

m Thin, weak.It is a peculiarity of the oboe that the wind-

pressure has to be very light, so light indeedthat the player can never fully empty his lungs.For this reason he soon becomes fatigued, andrests have to be given him frequently.

In common with the other double-reed in-struments, the English horn, the bassoon, andthe double-bassoon, and with single-reed in-struments such as the clarinet, the oboe has amuch more expressive tone, and a greaterrange of power between pianissimo and fortis-simo, than the flute, and adapts itself conse-quently to a greater diversity of uses in theorchestra. It is much more used as a soloinstrument, however, than in any other way,as its tone is so penetrating that it cannoteasily be subordinated to anything else.


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OBOE


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THE OBOEFIGURE XXI.

47

Allegro. BBBTHOVBN : Pastoral Symphony.

-*?-.-*-Beethoven had a great fondness for the oboe,

and his scores abound in oboe solos of the mostvaried character, always effective. He fre-quently avails himself of the half-humorous,half-tender qualities of the oboe in staccato ortripping utterance, as for example in the mel-ody from the scherzo of the Pastoral Sym-phony shown above. On the other hand,no one knew better its capacities for seriousexpression. In the great Funeral Marchof his "Eroica" Symphony, after announcinghis theme on the G-string of the violins (asshown in Figure VI, c), he answers them, withpoignant beauty, by the thinner, slighter, yetinfinitely plaintive tones of the oboe (FigureXXII). FIGURE XXII.

BBBTHOVBN : Eroica Symphony.

cresc. dfcretc. Ji


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48 THE ORCHESTRAL INSTRUMENTSFIGURE XXIII.

Andante con tnoto. SCHUBERT : Unfinished Symphony.ist Oboe.

A remarkably imaginative treatment of theoboe is Schubert's in the slow movement ofhis Unfinished Symphony (Figure XXIII )


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THE OBOE 49a treatment in which the appropriate use ofthe instrument is enhanced by harmonic in-genuities. Against gently pulsing chords in thestrings the oboe outlines a quiet, sad melody,which soon becomes agitated and reaches thehigh F with an almost passionate intensity.Here it rests for three measures, sinking backby delicate gradations to piano, while the har-mony similarly lapses from the key of B-flat,through the minor, to that of D-flat. The finalE of the oboe is another instance of those long-held notes, gradually dying away, which itrenders so incomparably.

Largo.Clarinet.

FIGURE XXIV.DVORAK : " New World" Symphony.

BVf *E J J * >s^


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SO THE ORCHESTRAL INSTRUMENTSThough used infrequently for anything but

melody, oboe-tone is sometimes just what iswanted to give saliency, depth, or richness tosome minor strand of the harmony. The ex-ample from Dvorak (Figure XXIV ) illus-trates this sort of case. Here two oboes areused as an accompaniment to a somber melodygiven to the clarinet a combination as novelas it is happy. The profound melancholy ofboth theme and tone-color in this beautifulpassage make it one of the finest things inmodern musical literature.The English horn, misleadingly named, is in

reality not a horn at all, but a larger and lower-pitched oboe. It is indeed the alto of the oboefamily, bearing much the relation to the ordi-nary oboe that the viola bears to the violin.Its tube is half as long again as that of theoboe, and its pitch and range a fifth lower. Itis a transposing instrument, the music for itbeing written a fifth higher than it sounds.

In the English horn the richness and ex-pressiveness of oboe tone are enhanced by thelower pitch, so that it is one of the most elo-quent of solo instruments for melodies of amelancholy or exotic character. It has neverbeen used to better purpose than by Dvorak inthe symphony from which we have alreadyquoted so often in the slow movement, ofwhich it announces the theme:


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ENGLISH HORN


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THE ENGLISH HORNFIGURE XXV.

51

Largo. DVORAK : "New World" Symphony.n English Horn.

1 Strings.

It is also finely used by Goldmark in his"Sakuntala" Overture, where he assigns to itand the oboe, in octaves, the languorous secondtheme :

Andante assai.Oboe.

FIGURE XXVI.GOLDMARK : " Sakuntala " Overture."S-j^S-S-

English Horn. LLJ

IAt the end of the "Scene in the Fields" in

his "Symphonie Fantastique," Berlioz hasgiven fragments of his theme to the Englishhorn, accompanied only by four kettle-drums,


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52 THE ORCHESTRAL INSTRUMENTSpianissimo. Of this passage he himself re-marks, in his treatise on Orchestration: "Thefeelings of absence, of forgetfulness, of sor-rowful loneliness, which arise in the bosoms ofthe audience on hearing this forsaken melodywould lack half their power if played by anyother instrument than the English horn."

XIL THE CLARINET.The clarinet, perhaps the most useful of all

wood-wind instruments on account of its greatrange, its beautiful quality, and its facility ofexecution as regards both speed and variationof force, differs mechanically from the oboe,which it closely resembles in appearance, in twoimportant respects. It is played not by adouble but by a single reed, which is pressedagainst the player's lower lip, and its tube iscylindrical instead of conical.A curious result of this construction is thatthe evenly numbered partial tones, the second,

fourth, sixth, etc., are not produced, and thepresence of only the odd partials in the tonegive it a most individual coloring. This ab-sence of the useful second partial tone, whichgives flute and oboe their second octave, alsoproduces inequalities of tone in the differentregisters, and necessitates irregularities offingering.

Three different clarinets are in use in theorchestra, identical as to holes, keys, and finger-ing, but differing in length, and consequentlyin pitch. These are the clarinet in C, the clari-


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CLARINET


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THE CLARINET 53net in B-flat, and the clarinet in A, commonlycalled "C clarinet/' "B clarinet," and "A clari-net." Of these the C clarinet, on account of itsslightly inferior tone-quality, is least used ; butas it is the type of all clarinets it must be de-scribed first.The full length of the tube of the C clarinet,

with low breath-pressure, sounds the E belowmiddle C. With the same breath-pressure, theplayer obtains by the use of the keys all thetones up to the E just above middle C. Thisregister is called the "Chalumeau" (see FigureXXVII ), and is of a wondrous mellownessand richness of tone.

FIGURE XXVII.RANGE AND QUALITIES OF THE CLARINET.

. *-


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54 THE ORCHESTRAL INSTRUMENTSlow E, which is the B above middle C. Fromthe chalumeau to this B, therefore, extends theso-called "Break" in the instrument, of whichthe tones are produced by extra keys, and areof inferior quality. They are also difficult toproduce rapidly. This break is the most un-fortunate feature of the clarinet, and, as weshall presently see, is one of the chief reasonswhy it is desirable to use clarinets of varyingpitch.The register produced by the third partialtones (altered in pitch, of course, by the keys)extends for about an octave above the B abovemiddle C, and is called the middle register.This is of a fine clarity and nobility of tone.Above it extends the highest register of the in-strument, useful though less brilliant than thesame tones of the flute, and produced by stillgreater breath-pressure, with certain complexi-ties of fingering into which it is not necessaryto enter.The registers of the B clarinet correspond

exactly to those of the instrument in C, savethat on account of the greater length of thetube they are throughout a major second lower.The registers of the A clarinet are in the sameway a minor third lower. ( See Figure XXVII ).The reader will now ask, Why is it necessaryto use these other instruments at all? Whycannot one kind of clarinet play all clarinetmusic?The reason is, first, that music written in

keys in which there are many sharps or flats


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THE CLARINET 55involves great difficulties in fingering, whichmay become almost insuperable in complicatedpassages, but which are easily evaded by usinga differently tuned instrument. For example,suppose we are writing in the key of F-sharp,which has six sharps. If we were to use Cclarinets the players would throw up theirhands in despair at so many sharps, and verylikely declare their parts unplayable. If, how-ever, we should use B clarinets, which producetones a major second lower than those writ-ten, we should be able to write their part in thekey of A-flat (a major second higher than F-sharp) which would give them only four flats ;and flats, moreover, are easier for wind instru-ments than sharps. Or we could use A clari-nets, writing them in the key of A, which hasbut three sharps. Since the A clarinet sounds aminor third lower than written, this wouldbring them where we want them.In short, like all transposing instruments theB and A clarinets are used when and wheretheir parts will be easiest and most effective,the composer remembering that a B clarinetwill sound a major second or whole step lowerthan it is written, an A clarinet a minor third,or step and a half, lower.A further reason for the practice, in thecase of the clarinets, is the "Break." Supposewe want the notes lying just at the upper edgeof the "break*' in the C clarinet: we can getthem in a good quality of tone and with nodifficulties for the player by simply changing to


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56 THE ORCHESTRAL INSTRUMENTSan A clarinet, on which these same tones lie inthe excellent middle register."The clarinet," says Berlioz, "is an epic in-strument. Its voice is that of heroic love. Thecharacter of the sounds of the medium register,imbued with a kind of loftiness tempering anoble tenderness, render them favorable for theexpression of sentiments and ideas the mostpoetic." This lofty and impassioned tender-ness of the clarinet is splendidly utilized in thesolo from the "Freischiitz" Overture of Weber,a composer who made the clarinet peculiarlyhis own, shown in Figure XXVIII, a. The long

FIGURE XXVIII.(a) Molto vivace. WEBKR : " Freischutz " Overture.

(J) Allegretto. BKKTHOVHN : Seventh Symphony.


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THE CLARINET 57(c) Allegro, grazioso. BRAHMS: Third Symphony.

*mm ci.-


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58 THE ORCHESTRAL INSTRUMENTSThe lower notes given to the right hand in thispiano version are carried by the bassoon, thetone of which merges perfectly with that of theclarinet.

It is less frequently that we find the clarinetused for gay pastoral tunes, for which the fluteand the oboe are better suited; neverthelessMendelssohn thus uses it, most successfully, inthe jig-like Scherzo of his Scotch Symphony,as shown in Figure XXIX.

FIGURE XXIX.MENDELSSOHN :Vivace non troppo. Scotch Symphony.

The tone of the chalumeau register is high-ly individual rich and mellow, yet with a cer-tain somberness. Weber was the first to ap-preciate fully its possibilities for dramatic ex-pression, and the example he set has beenfollowed by many modern composers. ThusTschaikowsky, for example, opens his FifthSymphony with a mournful theme allotted totwo clarinets in unison, in the chalumeau reg-ister, accompanied by the low strings: (FigureXXX ). This register can be used for accom-paniment as effectively as for melodies, sincethe individuality of the tone is sufficientlystrong to color the whole combination. The


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BASS CLARINET


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THE CLARINET 59passage from Dvorak shown in Figure XXIV,is soon repeated, an octave lower, the oboes re-placed by the clarinets (chalumeau) and themelody assigned to the G-string of the firstviolins a combination of remarkable sonority.

Andante.

FIGURE XXX.TSCHAIKOWSKY : Fifth Symphony.


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60 THE ORCHESTRAL INSTRUMENTSholding tones in the lower part of the harmony.A single example will suffice a monologue forbass clarinet in A, unaccompanied, from Liszt's"Dante" Symphony: (Figure XXXI ).

FIGURE XXXI.Esfressivo dolente. LISZT : " Dante " Symphony.

"T" . r m *- ^ ^,clariSetjiig^ H -L- I

'

*l=W *r=*3ntf

-3~sf ritenuto. r*- -^y f^r.

XIII. THE BASSOON.The bassoon, the bass instrument of the oboe

family, has a conical tube about nine feet long,which, to make it less unwieldy, is doubledupon itself in such a way that the instrumentlooks somewhat like a bundle of fagotswhence its Italian name, "Fagotto." Its doublereed is connected with it by a bent brass tubefor the convenience of the player. As in theoboe, the lower register is obtained by moder-ate breath-pressure, while increased pressuregives higher "partial" tones. The completerange is shown in Figure XXXII.

FIGURE XXXII.RANGE AND QUALITIES OF THE BASSOON.

. . . . Somewhat like 'celloAn excellent bass Best r,egV?ter for tone> but Burner.melodies.


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BASSOON


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THE BASSOON 61The bassoons are used in the orchestra for

many purposes, chief of which are: (1) toprovide or to reenforce the bass; (2) to "fillup" the harmony in the middle, for which theirround yet unobtrusive tone well suits them ; (3)to outline secondary melodic figures accom-panying the chief melody; (4) to double amelody given out by some other instrument;(5) to give the melody alone.There is an indescribable grotesqueness in

the sound of the bassoon, especially when it isplayed staccato, that has earned for it the repu-tation of being "the clown of the orchestra."This is hardly fair to the versatility of theinstrument ; but it is certainly capable of beingirresistibly ludicrous. Beethoven, of all com-posers the most humorous, has given thebassoon a prominent part in his most jovialsymphony the Eighth examples from whichare shown in Figure XXXIII. Mendelssohn,

FIGURE XXXIII.(a) Allegro vivace.

lit Bassoon, f :J


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62 THE ORCHESTRAL INSTRUMENTSin his "Midsummer Night's Dream" music, hasaccompanied the entrance of Quince, Snug,Bottom, and the rest with a droll tune for twobassoons. M. Vincent d'Indy, in his "Wallen-stein," suggests the sermon of a wordy priestby a fugue on the following theme, given outby bassoons: FIGURE XXXIV.

VINCENT D'INDY: " Wallenatein."

There is also about the bassoon tone, how-ever, a certain level drone, a bloodless indiffer-ence and lack of inflection, that can well suggestthe inhuman and the terrifyingly supernatural.Such is the suggestion of a remarkable passagein Meyerbeer's "Robert le Diable" the pass-age for two bassoons in the scene of the risingof the nuns : FIGURE XXXV.

Andante sostenuto. MEYERBEER : " Robert le Diable."2 Bassoons.


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CONTRABASS CLARINET OR CONTRABASSOON


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THE BASSOON 63

In our own day Tschaikowsky, for whom themurky, sinister coloring of chords in the ex-treme low register has a special fascination, hasdemonstrated new possibilities for this many-sided instrument in such passages as the fol-lowing, from his "Pathetic Symphony":

Adagio.Bassoons.

FIGURE XXXVI.TSCHAIKOWSKY : " Pathetic Symphony."

I Horn.3

f.._.-zr

An instrument comparatively seldom em-ployed in the orchestra is the contra-bassoonor contra-fagotto, related to the bassoon muchas the double-bass is related to the violoncello.Its tube being twice as long, its pitch is oneoctave lower. Like the double-bass, it is writtenan octave higher than it sounds.


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CHAPTER IV.XIV. THE BRASS INSTRUMENTS.

We come now to the third group of theorchestra, the brass instruments, of which themost important are horns, trumpets, trombones,and tuba. These all differ technically from thewood-wind instruments in one vital respect;they use many more of the partial tones pro-duced by different wind-pressure, dependingindeed chiefly on these, and not on changes inthe length of the tube, for their alterations ofpitch. They require, therefore, in the player,great delicacy and certainty in the managementof the lips and breath a complex muscularadjustment for which the technical name is"embouchure," from the French "bouche,"mouth which is the chief element in theirtechnique. The false notes one frequently hearsfrom the horns are the result of slight mis-calculations of the needed embouchure, or offatigue of the over-strained lip-muscles. Thatany one can play the horn at all is wonderfulto the layman who has ever tried.

XV. THE HORN.Let us imagine a brass tube sixteen feet in

length, curled over upon itself to save room andprovided with a mouth-piece at one end and aflaring "bell" at the other. If the air-column


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FRENCH HORN


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THE HORN 65contained in such a tube is now set in vibra-tion by the lips of a player, it is capable of pro-ducing the whole series of tones shown in Fig-ure XXXVII, which tone comes out depending

FIGURE XXXVII.(a) SERIES OF PARTIAL TONES PRODUCIBLE IN A

TUBE SIXTEEN FEET LONG,i 3 3 4 5 689 10 12=t 3t=t=>

() AVAILABLE PARTIAL TONES OF A "NATURAL"HORN IN E FLAT.2 3 4 S.6 89 10

on the force of the breath and the position ofthe lips. These tones are the partial tones, orovertones, of the low C, which is called the"fundamental" of the series. Such an instru-ment was the old-fashioned "horn in C" of theeighteenth and early nineteenth century, thetype of the horns used by the great classic mas-ters Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven.It will be noted that the seventh and theeleventh partial tones are omitted in the figure :this is because they are not in tune in the key(that is, not in its scale, being either too sharpor too flat in pitch), and are therefore useless.The partials above the twelfth are also omitted,because to produce them is an almost intoler-


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66 THE ORCHESTRAL INSTRUMENTSable strain on the lips of the player. Further-more, the fundamental or first partial cannot beproduced with the mouthpiece used, and thesecond and third are rather difficult and seldomused. Hence the resources of the old "horn inC" were confined to the seven tones beginningwith the fourth partial in Figure XXXVII ,together with a few others which the playerobtained by "stopping" the orifice of the hornwith his hand, and which were therefore called"stopped" tones, and were of a slightly veiledquality.

In order to make the old-fashioned "natural"horn (so-called to distinguish it from the mod-ern valve-horn, to be explained presently)available for other keys besides C, it was pro-vided with small bent tubes of brass, called"crooks," which by being inserted in the instru-ment altered its length, and thus changed itspitch. If the music was in the key of E, theplayer used the proper crook to make hisinstrument into an "E horn"; if in B-flat, heused his B-flat crook, etc. But since it washighly necessary that a glance at the writtennote should tell him what embouchure wasneeded to produce it, no matter what its actualpitch might be, the horn part was always writ-ten in C, the necessary change of pitch beingprovided for by the indication at the beginning"Horn in E-flat," "Horn in F," etc.

This mode of notation is still used, so thatthe horn is a transposing instrument. Thescore-reader has to calculate what tone will


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THE HORN 67actually be sounded by considering what crookis in use. Fortunately for him the horn in F isused almost universally nowadays, as being, allthings considered, the easiest and best. Sincea C sounds the F below it on this horn, thereader merely has to remember that the horn-part will sound a perfect fifth lower than it iswritten.To return, however, to the old-fashioned

horn. Even with its crooks, the "open tones"(that is, the partials of its natural series, unal-tered by the hand) which it could sound werevery few, and its limitations must often havebeen a sore trial to composers. Thus, for ex-ample, Beethoven, using in his Fifth Symphonytwo horns in E-flat, of which the open tones areshown in Figure XXXVII, b, introduces hissecond theme with a highly effective fan-fare for horns alone, consisting of thetwelfth, eighth, ninth, and sixth partialtones; but when, later, he wishes torepeat this fanfare in the key of C-major, hecannot get the necessary tones with his E-flathorns, and has to choose the lesser of two evilsand give the passage to the bassoons, whosetimbre is hardly appropriate to it. Nowadays,valve-horns being in use, this passage is playedby them, much to its advantage.As an example of what can nevertheless bedone even with the old-fashioned horn may becited a famous horn duet from Weber's "Frei-schiitz" Overture (Figure XXXVIII). By


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68 THE ORCHESTRAL INSTRUMENTSFIGURE XXXVIII.

Adagio.Horns in C.

|

iip^=


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THE HORNFIGURE XXXIX.

69

TECHNIQUE AND RANGE OF THE VALVE-HORN IN F.Partial No. 456 8 9 10 n

"Open vtones.

With

With(or i and

Range, complete scale from F^with infrequently used lower partial* (a and 3).

A glance at Figure XXXIX will show whatadded possibilities this means. The first lineof notes shows the "open" or natural tones ofthe horn in F which, as we have said, is thehorn generally used to-day, from the fourth tothe twelfth partial. The second line showsthese tones lowered a semitone by means of thesecond piston. The third line shows them low-ered a whole tone by means of the first piston.


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70 THE ORCHESTRAL INSTRUMENTSThe other lines show further lowerings by otherpistons or combinations of pistons.

Altogether we thus get the complete rangeof tones shown in the same figure, to whichmay also be added the infrequently used secondand third partial tones. Thanks to the valvesani pistons, the horn is now as conspicuousfor its wide availability as it has always beenfor nobility of tone. 1One last interesting fact about the complextechnique of the horn is this: The embou-chure for the low partials is so different fromthat for the high that few individual playerscan produce both. Hence the horns are dividedinto pairs, first and second, and third andfourth. The first and third players form thehabit of producing the higher partials, the sec-ond and fourth become habituated to the lower ;the composer bears this in mind in writing theirparts.The tone-quality of the horn is unforgettable

to any one who has once heard it : sonorous andblaring in fortissimo, ominous, threatening inthe "stopped tones/' mysterious and poetic inpianissimo, its variety is almost unlimited, andcan hardly be more than hinted at in the fewexamples which our space permits us. Thehorns, too, though more suitable for sustained

(1) Strauss, Mahler, and other modern composers some-times use also the fifteenth and sixteenth partials, bywhich the range shown In Figure XXXIX Is extended upto the F on the top line of the staff.


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72 THE ORCHESTRAL INSTRUMENTS(b) Allegro con anima. TSCHAIKOWSKY : Fifth Symphony.

jrt*' -rgEJL^j^4 Horns, tutti.

J=Jr*; r- *- -- '^-(Strings& trom bones.)

j.. JL. JL. yj.

dimin.


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THE HORN 73In Figure XL the reader will find two inter-

esting passages for horns used en masse: inFigure XLI are two not less striking hornsolos. Figure XL, a is the beginning of thefamous and inimitably beautiful trio from thescherzo of Beethoven's "Eroica" Symphony, ofwhich Sir George Grove well said: "If hornsever talked like flesh and blood, they do ithere." This entire trio should be examined inthe score. The D-flat for the second horn nearthe end (it is written B-flat, as the horns arein E-flat) is certainly one of the most inspiredthings in all music.

Figure XL,&, in a very different style, istaken from the portion of Tschaikowsky's FifthSymphony, the first movement, immediatelypreceding the return of the main theme. Thegradual diminuendo of horns from loudest for-tissimo to magical pianissimo, always mosteffective, is nowhere managed better than here,where its aesthetic effect is enhanced by thedescent from D to C-sharp, and from C-sharpto C, and by the gradual subsidence of therhythmic movement. The theme in E-minor,too, with its quaint suspensions, is eminentlywell-suited to the bassoon, and affords an addi-tional example for that instrument.

In solo the horn is generally quiet and poetic.Our two examples, one from Tschaikowsky andone from Brahms, call for no special comment.It would not be difficult to cite many other ex-amples from modern composers, with whom thehorn is a favorite instrument.


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74 THE ORCHESTRAL INSTRUMENTSFIGURE XLI.

(a) Andante cantabile. TSCHAIKOWSKY : Fifth Symphony.

(i) Poco allegretto. BRAHMS : Third Symphony.. k - t^^-t 1 l^^g^- '*^^-i

^C* i fe^-i ^"""*^ 1 -\j-J-- *--4r-^^teri^

XVI. THE TRUMPET.In many respects like the horn, the trumpet

has a tube only half as long, and is thereforein pitch an octave higher. Like the horn, itis provided with crooks to change its generalpitch, and with valves to give tones not pro-


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TRUMPET


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THE TRUMPET 75vided for by its natural series of partials. Thisseries of partials, on a trumpet in C, eight feetlong, would be one octave higher than the seriesshown in Figure XXXVII, a. Like the horn,the trumpet cannot sound the fundamental tone(partial No. 1) and can sound only with greatdifficulty partials higher than the twelfth.The usage of composers in the selection ofthe crooks differs : some use whenever possibletrumpets in the key in which they are writing;others use almost invariably either the trumpetin A or that in B-flat, the transpositions ofwhich are exactly like those of the A and Bclarinets (see page 54). In our examples, how-ever, as in those for the other transposing in-struments, we shall write the tones just as theysound."The quality of tone of the trumpet/' says

Berlioz, "is noble and brilliant; it comportswith warlike ideas, with cries of fury and ofvengeance, as with songs of triumph; it lendsitself to the expression of all energetic, lofty,and grand sentiments, and to the majority oftragic accents." The military associations ofthe instrument make themselves keenly felt inthose fanfares for several trumpets together, ofwhich Mendelssohn and Wagner have givensuch stirring specimens in their famousmarches. Less frequently are they used forsustained melodies, but they are neverthelesshighly effective in such use when the themesthemselves are of triumphant or jubilant char-acter. Dvorak gives to trumpets and horns,


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76 THE ORCHESTRAL INSTRUMENTSaccompanied by great chords of the full orches-tra on the accents, one of the themes of his"New World" Symphony (Figure XLJI.a).

FIGURE XLII.(a) A llegro con fuoco. DVORAK: " New World " Symphony.

(a Trumpets and 2 Horns.)

ff^ \ - r~^TE3=^3^

=*-==-&=*=(ist Trumpet an octave higher.)Z3 m ,y*^ -s-

f m 0T^ i-r r 'r

Allegro. BRAHMS : Academic Overture.I !

foto.\ (Horn.) Y\ (3rdTr.)

pp (Kettledrum.)

The brilliantly sonorous quality of the trum-pet tone in forte makes it easily stand out aboveall the other sounds of the full orchestra. Thusused, however, it is generally accompanied by


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TROMBONE


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TROMBONES AND TUBA 77trombones and tuba, and we shall thereforepostpone our examples of this kind of passageuntil we have studied those instruments.

In its softer accents the trumpet is wonder-fully clear, round, and pure, with a most imag-ination-stirring suggestion of distance and mys-tery. With high poetic fancy Schubert intro-duces, during one of the repetitions of the oboetheme of the slow movement of his C-majorSymphony, a soft trumpet call which lends themusic an indescribable charm. It is like aslender line of scarlet in a quiet colored paint-ing. (Full score, Peters edition, page 43.) Anot less lovely passage, for three trumpets.piano, from Brahms's "Academic" Overture isshown in Figure XLJI.fc.

XVII. TROMBONES AND TUBA.Though its name means in Italian "great

trumpet," the trombone differs from the trum-pet in two most important respects. First, theshape of the tube is such (see the illustration)that its lengthening can be managed by meansof a section which slides in and out, instead ofby means of valves and pistons (hence its nameof "slide-trombone" 1 ). Secondly, the tube isso much wider than in horn and trumpet thatthe rich first partial tone (fundamental) un-available on those instruments, can be sounded.A slight compensating disadvantage is that the

(1) There IB also a valve-trombone In common use tnmilitary bands, of which the tone is, however, far Inferiorto that of the orchestral Instrument. "It will be an evilday for the orchestra," says Professor Prout, "If this In-strument, easier to play, should ever supplant the nobUelide trombone."


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78 THE ORCHESTRAL INSTRUMENTSupper partials, above the eighth, are difficultand seldom used.As the slide is capable of the most minute

adjustments, the trombone need never be evenslightly out of tune, as are certain tones of thehorn and trumpet. Moreover, owing to itsstraight tube, free from those sharp cornersintroduced by valves, its air-column vibratesmore evenly and regularly, giving it a sonorityincomparably rich. For pure four-part har-mony in simple chords there is no medium likethe quartet of trombones.

FIGURE XLIII."POSITIONS" AND RANGE OF THE COMMONTENOR TROMBONE.Partial No. i a 3.4 5 6 8

First I


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TROMBONES AND TUBA 79Range (exclusive of the rarely r

Range of the Bass Tuba : hfc .--

Trombones are made in various sizes, themost important of which is the tenor trombonein B-flat. This is of such proportions thatwhen the slide is closed (which is called "firstposition") the tube gives out the first series oftones shown in Figure XLIII. Six other posi-tions, obtained by gradually drawing out theslide, give the other series shown in the figure,each a semitone lower than the preceding, asin the series obtained on the horn by the useof valves (compare Figure XXXIX). Thefundamental tones are easily obtainable only inthe first four positions, and are seldom used.

There are also bass trombones having arange somewhat lower than the tenor, and therewere formerly in use alto, and even soprano,trombones. The modern usage is however towrite either for three tenor trombones, or fortwo tenors and a bass, to which are often addeda part for the bass tuba, which will be describedin a moment.The trombones are not transposing instru-

ments, but are written where they sound.The bass tuba is an instrument of the sax-horn family (the other members of which areused only in military bands) ; its tone merges sowell with that of trombones that it is often used


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80 THE ORCHESTRAL INSTRUMENTSwith them to form a brass quartet. It is avalve-instrument of enormous proportions andvery low pitch. The range of the most com-mon tuba, sometimes called the Bombardon, isshown in Figure XLJII.The three trombones and tuba, forming whatwe may call for convenience the trombonechoir, constitute the most powerfully sonorousgroup of the entire orchestra, capable of dom-inating everything else. It must be confessedthat this choir is often used vulgarly in mod-ern scores, for the sake of mere noise; Proutcleverly remarks of it that "like charity, it cov-ers a multitude of sins." Properly used, never-theless, it is incomparably noble and moving.It "suggests to the imagination," says M.Gevaert, "the idea of a power strange to man,superior to man: a power sometimes benign,sometimes sinister, but always redoubtable."

FIGURE XLIV.TSCHAIKOWSKY : " Pathetic Symphony."(a) Allegro vivo. Min. score, p. 58.

4 Horns.

a Trumpets.

(N. B. Strings and wood-wind fill up the rests.)


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TUBA


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TROMBONES AND TUBA 81(6) Andante. Ibid, p. 133.

We cite two examples from Tschaikowsky'sgreatest symphony (Figure XLJV), one fortis-simo in a "tutti" the other />iano and unaccom-panied. In the first the trumpets play an octavehigher than the upper trombones, while thefour horns complete the harmony; this is anexcellent illustration of the use of all the brassinstruments in a "tutti," of which we post-poned discussion above. The student will findit well worth while to play over the parts sep-arately, and then imagine the combined effect.

In the great majority of "tuttis" the brass isgrouped in close harmonies in somewhat thisfashion, making a solid core of harmony in thesonorous middle register, to which high stringsand wood-wind add brilliancy. This is thescheme in the climax of the same composer'sFifth Symphony, of which a page of the fullscore is reproduced in Figure XLVI.

Sometimes, again, the trombones or thetrumpets are used alone, not to give full har-


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82 THE ORCHESTRAL INSTRUMENTSmony but to blare forth some imposing theme.In the miniature score of the Pathetic Sym-phony the reader will find, at page 69, an extra-ordinarily impressive use of the trombones inthis way, and at page 44 a similar use of thetrumpets. Indeed this score exhibits model aftermodel of what we may without undue paradoxcall the legitimately sensational use of the brass.One may also consult the scores of Wagner orof Richard Strauss, but not without findingsome passages in which there is less music thannoise.


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KETTLEDRUMS


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CHAPTER V.XVIII. PERCUSSION INSTRUMENTS.

By far the least important department of theorchestra is the group of percussion instru-ments, many fineworks not employing them atall. They are divided, as we saw in Section II,into two classes, according as the vibration isstarted by stretched membranes or by metallicbodies. The most important members of thefirst class are the kettledrums or "timpani" andthe bass-drum ; the most important of the sec-ond class are the cymbals.The kettledrums, hemispheres of copper overwhich are stretched parchment "heads" capableof adjustment by screws, have the great ad-vantage over other drums that they can giveforth definite tones instead of mere noises. Twokettledrums, general tuned to the tonic anddominant, are found in the classic orchestra;three or four, often tuned for special effects,and even retuned in the course of a movement,are used by modern composers.While the most constant function of the ket-

tledrums is to add their throb to the excitementof "tuttis," they are capable of delightful ef-fects in piano and pianissimo, either alone oras a bass for light combinations. Beethovenfirst discerned all their possibilities in this direc-tion, and his symphonies abound in interestingkettledrum passages.


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84 THE ORCHESTRAL INSTRUMENTSSince Beethoven the quasi-solo use of the

kettledrums is not infrequent. Let it suffice,however, to quote one striking example theannouncement in Wagner's "Walkure" of theHunding motive by one kettledrum, almost un-accompanied (Figure XLV).

Moderate.(Brass.)

the orchestral instruments and what they do

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