THE ORCHESTRA AND ITS
INSTRUMENTS
PRELUDE
We have just arrived in the Concert Hall, have taken off our wraps and are comfortably seated in our chairs waiting eagerly for the concert to begin.
The Orchestra is entering from the doors at the sides of the stage.
Here come the Violins. They all sit in a group together. These in front of us and on the left of the Conductor’s stand are the First Violins; these on the right of the Conductor’s stand are the Second Violins. These ten men who seem to carry very large violins are the Violas and they are taking their seats by the side of the Second Violins. Opposite them ten Violoncellos are taking their seats by the side of the First Violins. Behind the Violoncellos stand the Double-Basses.
In the meanwhile, the players of the Woodwind have entered and have seated themselves in a row facing the Conductor,—the Clarinets by the Violas; then the Oboe and Cor Anglais (English Horn); and then the Flutes. Behind the Flutes are the Bassoons; and behind the Oboes and Clarinets are the French Horns. In the back row are Trombones, Trumpets, Drums, Triangle, Cymbals and other Percussion instruments. On the right, behind the First Violins, is the Harp.
They are all here now, each instrument in its own group, or family.
We cannot understand what any great city is like if we do not know something about the people who compose that city. Take New York, for instance; or London, or Paris, or Boston, or Washington, or Chicago, or San Francisco. Each city has a personality of its own; and so we speak of New York, or London, or Paris, or Boston, or Washington, just as if we were talking of an individual.
It is exactly the same with an Orchestra. Though composed of a collection of individual instruments, the Orchestra has an individual character of its own. It is a personality that speaks to us in the beautiful and inspiring language of music; and, therefore, after we learn about the instruments and what part each instrument has to play in forming this little orchestral city, as it were, we shall then turn our thoughts to the Orchestra itself.