Instruments on the stage and in the wings.
The use of instruments on the stage or in the wings dates from distant times (Mozart, Don Giovanni, string orchestra in Act I, finale). In the middle of last century orchestras of brass instruments, or brass and wood-wind combined, made their appearance on the stage (Glinka, Meyerbeer, Gounod and others). More modern composers have abandoned this clumsy practice, not only unfortunate from the spectators' point of view, but also detrimental to the mediaeval or legendary setting of the majority of operas. Only those stage instruments are now used which suit the scene and surroundings in which the opera is laid. As regards instruments in the wings, invisible to the audience, the question is simple. Nevertheless, for the musician of today the choice of these instruments must be regulated by aesthetic considerations of greater importance than those governing the selection of a military band. The instruments are played in the wings, those visible on the stage are only for ornament. Sometimes stage-instruments may be replicas of those common to the period which the opera represents, (the sacred horns in Mlada, for example). The orchestral accompaniment must vary in power according to the characteristics of the instruments played in the wings. It is impossible to illustrate the use of all the instruments mentioned below, and to outline suitable accompaniments. I can only give a few examples and refer the reader once again to the passages in the full scores.
a) Trumpets:
Servilia 12, 25.
* Legend of Kitesh 53, 55, 60.
* Tsar Saltan 139 and further on.
b) Horns, in the form of hunting horns:
Pan Voyevoda 38-39.
c) Trombones, leaving the orchestra to go on the stage:
Pan Voyevoda 191.
d) Cornets:
Ivan the Terrible, Act III 3, 7.
e) Sacred horns (natural brass instruments in various keys):
Mlada, Act II, pp. 179 onwards.
f) Small clarinets and piccolos:
[No. 299]-[300]. Mlada, Act III 37, 39.
g) Pipes of Pan: instruments, specially made, with many holes which are passed over the lips. These particular pipes produce a special enharmonic scale (B flat, C, D flat, E flat, E, F sharp, G, A), which has the effect of a glissando:
Mlada, Act III 39, 43 (cf. [Ex. 300]).
h) Harp, reproducing the effect of an aeolian harp:
Kashtcheï the Immortal 32 and further on (cf. [Ex. 268], [269]).
i) Lyres. Instruments specially made and tuned so as to be able to perform a glissando chord of the diminished seventh:
Mlada, Act III 39, 43 (cf. [Ex. 300]).
k) Pianoforte, grand or upright:
Mozart and Salieri 22-23.
l) Gong, imitating a church bell:
Ivan the Terrible, Act I 57 and further on.
m) Bass Drum (without cymbals) to imitate the sound of cannon:
Tsar Saltan 139 and later.
n) Small kettle-drum, in D flat (3rd octave):
Mlada, Act III 41 and later (cf. [Ex. 60]).
o) Bells in various keys:
Sadko 128 and 139.
[No. 301.] Legend of Kitesh 181 and further on. See also 241, 323 and later.
* Tsar Saltan 139 and further on.
p) Organ:
[No. 302.] Sadko 299-300.
Wood-wind and strings are comparatively seldom used on the stage or in the wings. In Russian opera the strings are employed in this way by Rubinstein (Gorioucha), and in a splendidly characteristic manner by Serov (Hostile Power): in the latter opera the E flat clarinet is used to imitate the fife in the Carnival procession.[17]
Chapter VI (Supplementary).
VOICES.