The name of the instruments of the symphonic orchestra. Brief overview of the musical instruments of the symphony orchestra completed

The modern symphony orchestra consists of 4 main groups. The foundation of the orchestra is a string group (violins, violas, cellos, double basses). In most cases, strings are the main carriers of the melodic beginning in the orchestra. The number of musicians playing strings is approximately 2/3 of the entire band. The group of woodwind instruments includes flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons. Each of them usually has an independent party. Yielding to bowed ones in timbre saturation, dynamic properties and a variety of playing techniques, wind instruments have great power, compact sound, bright colorful hues. The third group of orchestra instruments is brass (horn, trumpet, trombone, tuba). They bring new bright colors to the orchestra, enriching its dynamic capabilities, giving power and brilliance to the sound, and also serve as a bass and rhythmic support.
Percussion instruments are becoming increasingly important in the symphony orchestra. Their main function is rhythmic. In addition, they create a special sound and noise background, complement and decorate the orchestral palette with color effects. According to the nature of the sound, drums are divided into 2 types: some have a certain pitch (timpani, bells, xylophone, bells, etc.), others lack an exact pitch (triangle, tambourine, small and large drum, cymbals). Of the instruments that are not included in the main groups, the role of the harp is the most significant. Occasionally, composers include the celesta, piano, saxophone, organ and other instruments in the orchestra.

Woodwinds

FLUTE

One of the oldest instruments in the world, known in antiquity - in Egypt, Greece and Rome. Since ancient times, people have learned to extract musical sounds from a cut reed, closed at one end. This primitive musical instrument was apparently the distant ancestor of the flute.

In Europe in the Middle Ages, two types of flute became widespread: straight and transverse. The straight flute, or "tipped flute", was held straight ahead, like an oboe or clarinet; oblique, or transverse - at an angle. The transverse flute turned out to be more viable, as it was easy to improve. In the middle of the 18th century, it finally replaced the straight flute from the symphony orchestra. At the same time, the flute, along with the harp and harpsichord, became one of the most beloved home music instruments. The flute, for example, was played by the Russian artist Fedotov and the Prussian king Frederick II.

The flute is the most mobile woodwind instrument: in terms of virtuosity, it surpasses all other wind instruments. An example of this is the ballet suite "Daphnis and Chloe" by Ravel, where the flute actually acts as a solo instrument.

The flute is a cylindrical tube, wooden or metal, closed on one side - at the head. There is also a side hole for air injection. Playing the flute requires a lot of air consumption: when blown in, part of it breaks on the sharp edge of the hole and leaves. From this, a characteristic sibilant overtone is obtained, especially in a low register. For the same reason, sustained notes and wide melodies are difficult to play on the flute.

Rimsky-Korsakov described the sonority of the flute as follows: "The timbre is cold, most suitable for melodies of a graceful and frivolous nature in major, and with a touch of superficial sadness in minor."

Composers often use an ensemble of three flutes. An example is the dance of the shepherdesses from Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker.

OBOE

competes with the flute in the antiquity of its origin: it traces its genealogy to the primitive flute. Of the ancestors of the oboe, the Greek aulos was most widely used, without which the ancient Hellenes could not imagine either a feast or a theatrical performance. The ancestors of the oboe came to Europe from the Middle East.

In the 17th century, an oboe was created from a bombarda - a pipe-type instrument, which immediately became popular in the orchestra. It soon became a concert instrument as well. For almost a century, the oboe has been the idol of musicians and music lovers. The best composers of the 17th-18th centuries - Lully, Rameau, Bach, Handel - paid tribute to this passion: Handel, for example, wrote concertos for the oboe, the difficulty of which can confuse even modern oboists. However, at the beginning of the 19th century, the "cult" of the oboe in the orchestra faded somewhat, and the leading role in the woodwind group passed to the clarinet.

According to its structure, the oboe is a conical tube; at one end of it is a small funnel-shaped bell, at the other - a cane, which the performer holds in his mouth.

Thanks to some design features, the oboe never loses its tuning. Therefore, it has become a tradition to tune the entire orchestra to it. In front of a symphony orchestra, when the musicians are gathering on the stage, it is not uncommon to hear the oboist playing in A in the first octave, and the other performers fine-tuning their instruments.

The oboe has a mobile technique, although it is inferior in this respect to the flute. It is more of a singing than a virtuoso instrument: as a rule, its domain is sadness and elegiac. This is how it sounds in the theme of swans from the intermission to the second act of "Swan Lake" and in the simple melancholic melody of the second part of Tchaikovsky's 4th symphony. Occasionally, the oboe is assigned "comic roles": in Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty, for example, in the variation of "The Cat and the Kitty", the oboe amusingly imitates the cat's meow.

CLARINET

It is a cylindrical wooden tube with a coronet-shaped bell at one end and a cane-tip at the other.

Of all the woodwinds, only the clarinet has the flexibility to change the volume of the sound. This and many other qualities of the clarinet have made it one of the most expressive voices in the orchestra. It is curious that two Russian composers, dealing with the same plot, acted in exactly the same way: in both "The Snow Maiden" - Rimsky-Korsakov and Tchaikovsky - Lel's shepherd tunes are entrusted to the clarinet.

The timbre of the clarinet is often associated with gloomy dramatic situations. This area of ​​expressiveness was "discovered" by Weber. In the "Wolf Valley" scene from "Magic Shooter" he first guessed what tragic effects are hidden in the low register of the instrument. Later, Tchaikovsky used the eerie sound of low clarinets in The Queen of Spades at the moment when the Countess's ghost appears.

Small clarinet.
The small clarinet came to the symphony orchestra from the military brass. It was first used by Berlioz, who entrusted him with the distorted "beloved theme" in the last movement of the Fantastic Symphony. The small clarinet was often used by Wagner, Rimsky-Korsakov, R. Strauss. Shostakovich.

Basset horn.
At the end of the 18th century, the clarinet family was enriched with one more member: the basset horn appeared in the orchestra - an old variety of the alto clarinet. It surpassed the main instrument in size, and its timbre - calm, solemn and matte - occupied an intermediate position between the usual and bass clarinet. He stayed in the orchestra for only a few decades and owed his heyday to Mozart. It was for two basset horns with bassoons that the beginning of the "Requiem" was written (now the basset horns are being replaced by clarinets).

An attempt to revive this instrument under the name of the alto clarinet was made by R. Strauss, but since then it seems to have had no repetitions. Nowadays, basset horns are included in military bands.

Bass clarinet.
The bass clarinet is the most "impressive" member of the family. Built at the end of the 18th century, it won a strong position in the symphony orchestra. The shape of this instrument is quite unusual: its bell is bent upwards, like a smoking pipe, and the mouthpiece is mounted on a curved rod - all this in order to reduce the exorbitant length of the instrument and facilitate its use. Meyerbeer was the first to "discover" the enormous dramatic power of this instrument. Wagner, starting with "Lohengrin", makes him a permanent bass woodwind.

Russian composers often used the bass clarinet in their work. So, the gloomy sounds of the bass clarinet are heard in the fifth picture of the "Queen of Spades" at the time when Herman is reading Liza's letter. Now the bass clarinet is a permanent member of a large symphony orchestra, and its functions are very diverse.

BASSOON

The ancestor of the bassoon is considered to be the old bass pipe - bombarda. The bassoon that replaced it was built by canon Afragno degli Albonesi in the first half of the 16th century. A large wooden pipe bent in half resembled a bundle of firewood, which is reflected in the name of the instrument (the Italian word fagotto means "bundle"). The bassoon conquered his contemporaries with the euphony of the timbre, who, in contrast to the hoarse voice of the bombarda, began to call him "dolcino" - sweet.

In the future, while retaining its external outlines, the bassoon underwent serious improvements. From the 17th century, he entered the symphony orchestra, and from the 18th century - into the military. The conical wooden trunk of the bassoon is very large, so it is "folded" in half. A curved metal tube is attached to the top of the instrument, on which a cane is put on. During the game, the bassoon is hung on a string around the performer's neck.

In the 18th century, the instrument enjoyed great love among contemporaries: some called it "proud", others - "gentle, melancholic, religious". Rimsky-Korsakov defined the color of the bassoon in a very peculiar way: "The timbre is senilely mocking in major and painfully sad in minor." Bassoon performance requires a lot of breathing, and forte in a low register can cause extreme fatigue for the performer. The functions of the tool are very diverse. True, in the 18th century they were often limited to supporting stringed basses. But in the 19th century, with Beethoven and Weber, the bassoon became the individual voice of the orchestra, and each of the subsequent masters found new properties in it. Meyerbeer in "Robert the Devil" forced the bassoons to portray "death laughter, from which frost is tearing at the skin" (the words of Berlioz). Rimsky-Korsakov in "Scheherazade" (a story by Prince Kalender) discovered a poetic narrator in the bassoon. In this last role, the bassoon performs especially often - that is probably why Thomas Mann called the bassoon a "mockingbird". Examples can be found in Prokofiev's Humorous Scherzo for four bassoons and in Prokofiev's Petya and the Wolf, where the bassoon is given the "role" of Grandfather, or at the beginning of the finale of Shostakovich's Ninth Symphony.

Varieties of the bassoon are limited in our time to just one representative - the counterbassoon. It is the lowest range instrument of the orchestra. Lower than the limiting sounds of the contrabassoon, only the pedal basses of the organ sound.

The idea to continue the bassoon scale downward appeared a long time ago - the first counterbassoon was built in 1620. But it was so imperfect that, until the end of the 19th century, when the instrument was improved, very few people turned to it: occasionally Haydn, Beethoven, Glinka.

The modern counterbassoon is an instrument bent three times: its unfolded length is 5 m 93 cm (!); in technique it resembles a bassoon, but is less agile and has a thick, almost organ-like timbre. Composers of the 19th century - Rimsky-Korsakov, Brahms - usually turned to the counterbassoon to enhance the bass. But sometimes interesting solos are written for him. Ravel, for example, in "The Conversation of the Beauty and the Beast" (the ballet "My Mother the Goose") entrusted him with the voice of the monster.

Strings

VIOLIN

A stringed bowed instrument, the highest in sound, the richest in expressive and technical capabilities among the instruments of the violin family. It is believed that the immediate predecessor of the violin was the so-called lira de braccio, which originates from ancient viols; like a violin, this instrument was held at the shoulder (Italian braccio - shoulder), the playing techniques were also similar to violin ones.

From the middle of the XVI century. the violin is established in musical practice as a solo and ensemble instrument. Many generations of craftsmen worked to improve the design, improve the sound qualities of the violin. History has preserved the names of A. and N. Amati, A. and D. Guarneri, A. Stradivari - outstanding Italian masters of the late 16th - early 18th centuries, who created samples of violins that are still considered unsurpassed.

The body of the violin has a characteristic oval shape with notches on the sides. The shell connects two soundboards of the instrument (special holes are cut on the top - efs). There are 4 strings stretched over the fretboard, tuned in fifths.

The range of the violin covers 4 octaves; however, with the help of harmonics, a number of higher sounds can also be extracted.

The violin is a predominantly monophonic instrument. However, harmonic intervals and even 4-sound chords are extracted on it.

The timbre of the violin is melodious, rich in sound and dynamic shades, in expressiveness it approaches the human voice. To change the timbre during the game, sometimes a mute is used. The violin, which has exceptional technical mobility, is often entrusted with the performance of difficult and fast passages, wide and melodic jumps, various kinds of trills, tremolo.

ALTO

and the way it is played are very reminiscent of the violin, so if you do not notice the difference in size (and it is very difficult to do this: the viola is noticeably larger than the violin), then they can easily be confused. It is believed that the timbre of the viola is inferior to the violin in brilliance and brightness. Nevertheless, this instrument also has its unique advantages: it is indispensable in music of an elegiac, dreamy-romantic nature. In terms of virtuosity, the viola is almost as perfect as the violin, but the large size of the viola requires the player to have appropriate stretching of the fingers and physical strength.

The viola did not immediately receive its proper role among the instruments of the orchestra. After the flourishing of the polyphonic school of Bach and Handel, when the viola was an equal member of the string group, they began to entrust him with a subordinate harmonic voice. Violists in those days were usually unsuccessful violinists. In the works of Gluck, Haydn and, to some extent, Mozart, the viola is used only as the middle or lower voice of the orchestra. Only in the works of Beethoven and Romantic composers does the viola acquire the significance of a melodic instrument.

The viola owes much of its recognition to the outstanding violinists of the last century, especially Paganini, who played the viola in a quartet and performed in a solo concert. Later, Berlioz introduces the part of the solo viola into his symphony "Harold in Italy", entrusting him with the characterization of Harold. After that, the attitude of composers and performers to the viola began to change. Wagner in "Tannhäuser", in a scene called "The Grotto of Venus", writes for the viola an incredibly difficult part for that time. R. Strauss interprets the solo viola even more masterfully in the symphonic film "Don Quixote". Violas are often entrusted with a melodic voice together with cellos, violins, or completely independently, as, for example, in the second act of Rimsky-Korsakov's The Golden Cockerel during the dance of the Queen of Shemakhan.

CELLO

entered the musical life in the second half of the XVI century. It owes its creation to the art of such outstanding instrumental masters as Magini, Gasparo de Salo, and later - Amati and Stradivari. Like the viola, the cello has long been considered a secondary instrument in the orchestra. Until the end of the 18th century, composers used it mainly as a bass voice, and at the very beginning of the century before last, in connection with this, the cello and double bass parts were written in the score on one line.

The cello is twice the size of the viola, its bow is shorter than the violin and viola, the strings are much longer. The cello belongs to the number of "foot" instruments: the performer puts it between his knees, resting the metal spike on the floor.

Beethoven was the first to "discover" the beauty of the cello timbre. Following him, the composers turned its sound into the singing voice of the orchestra - let's recall the second part of Tchaikovsky's VIth symphony.

Quite often, in operas, ballets and symphonic works, the cello is assigned solo - as, for example, in Don Quixote by R. Strauss. In the number of concert pieces written for her, the cello is second only to the violin.

Like the violin and viola, the cello has four strings tuned in fifths, but an octave below the violas. In terms of technical capabilities, the cello is not inferior to the violin, and in some cases even surpasses it. For example, due to the longer strings of the cello, it is possible to obtain a richer series of harmonics on it.

DOUBLE BASS

far surpasses its counterparts both in size and in the volume of the low register: the double bass is twice the size of the cello, which is twice the size of the viola.

Most likely, the double bass, a descendant of the old viol, appeared in the orchestra in the 17th century. The shape of the double bass has retained the features of the old viol to this day: the body pointed upwards, the sloping sides - thanks to this, the performer can bend over the upper part of the body and "reach out" to the bottom of the neck to extract the highest sounds. The instrument is so large that the performer plays it while standing or sitting on a high stool.

In terms of virtuosity, the modern double bass is quite mobile: often, together with the cellos, rather fast passages are performed on it. But "thanks" to its size, it requires a huge stretching of the fingers, and its bow is very heavy. All this makes the technique of the instrument heavier: passages in which lightness is required sound somewhat heavy on it. Nevertheless, his role in the orchestra is enormous: by invariably performing the bass voice parts, he creates the foundation for the sound of the string group, and together with the bassoon and tuba or the third trombone, the entire orchestra. In addition, double basses sound great in an octave with cellos in melodies.

In the orchestra, it is very rare to divide double basses into several parts or perform solos on them.

Brass

PIPE

entered the opera orchestra from its inception; Monteverdi's Orpheus had already sounded five trumpets.

In the 17th and the first half of the 18th century, very virtuosic and high-pitched parts were written for trumpets, the prototype of which were the soprano parts in the vocal and instrumental compositions of that time. To perform these most difficult parts, musicians of the time of Purcell, Bach and Handel used natural instruments common in that era with a long pipe and a mouthpiece of a special device that made it possible to easily extract the highest overtones. A trumpet with such a mouthpiece was called "clarino", the same name was given in the history of music and writing style for it.

In the second half of the 18th century, with a change in orchestral writing, the clarino style was forgotten, and the trumpet became predominantly a fanfare instrument. It was limited in its possibilities like a French horn, and was in an even worse position, since the "closed sounds" expanding the scale were not used on it because of their bad timbre. But in the thirties of the XIX century, with the invention of the valve mechanism, a new era began in the history of the pipe. It became a chromatic instrument and, after several decades, replaced the natural trumpet from the orchestra.

The timbre of the trumpet is not characterized by lyrics, but the heroism he succeeds in the best possible way. Among the Viennese classics, trumpets were a purely fanfare instrument. They often performed the same functions in the music of the 19th century, announcing the beginning of processions, marches, solemn festivities and hunts. Wagner used pipes more than others and in a new way. Their timbre is almost always associated in his operas with chivalrous romance and heroics.

The trumpet is famous not only for its sound power, but also for its outstanding virtuoso qualities.

TROMBONE

got its name from the Italian name for the pipe - tromba - with the magnifying suffix "one": trombone literally means "trumpet". And indeed: the trombone tube is twice as long as that of the trumpet. Already in the 16th century, the trombone received its modern form and since its inception has been a chromatic instrument. The full chromatic scale is achieved on it not through the valve mechanism, but with the help of the so-called backstage. The backstage is a long additional tube, shaped like the Latin letter U. It is inserted into the main tube and lengthened as desired. In this case, the system of the instrument decreases accordingly. The performer pushes the wings down with his right hand, and supports the instrument with his left.

Trombones have long been a "family" consisting of instruments of various sizes. Not so long ago, the trombone family consisted of three instruments; each of them corresponded to one of the three voices of the choir and received its name: trombone-alto, trombone-tenor, trombone-bass.

Playing the trombone requires a huge amount of air, since the movement of the wings takes more time than pressing the valves on a horn or trumpet. Technically, the trombone is less mobile than its neighbors in the group: the scale on it is not so fast and clear, the forte is a bit heavy, the legato is difficult. Cantilena on a trombone requires a lot of tension from the performer. However, this instrument has qualities that make it indispensable in the orchestra: the sound of the trombone is more powerful and masculine. Monteverdi in the opera "Orpheus" perhaps for the first time felt the tragic character inherent in the sound of a trombone ensemble. And starting with Gluck, three trombones became obligatory in an opera orchestra; they often appear at the climax of a drama.

The trombone trio is good at oratorical phrases. Since the second half of the 19th century, the trombone group has been supplemented by a bass instrument - the tuba. Together, three trombones and a tuba form a "heavy brass" quartet.

A very peculiar effect is possible on the trombone - glissando. It is achieved by sliding the backstage at one position of the performer's lips. This technique was known even to Haydn, who in the oratorio "The Four Seasons" used it to imitate the barking of dogs. Glissando is widely used in modern music. The deliberately howling and rude glissando of the trombone in the Saber Dance from Khachaturian's ballet Gayane is curious. The effect of a trombone with a mute is also interesting, which gives the instrument an ominous, bizarre sound.

FRENCH HORN

The progenitor of the modern horn was the horn. From ancient times, the signal of the horn announced the beginning of the battle, in the Middle Ages and later, until the beginning of the 18th century, it was heard at hunting, competitions and solemn court ceremonies. In the 17th century, the hunting horn was occasionally introduced into the opera, but only in the next century did it become a permanent member of the orchestra. And the very name of the instrument - horn - recalls its past role: this word comes from the German "Waldhorn" - "forest horn". In Czech, this instrument is still called the forest horn.

The metal tube of the old French horn was very long: when unfolded, some of them reached 5m 90cm. Such an instrument could not be held straight in the hands; so the horn-pipe was bent and shaped into a graceful shell-like shape.

The sound of the old horn was very beautiful, but the instrument turned out to be limited in its sound capabilities: it was possible to extract only the so-called natural scale, that is, those sounds that arise from dividing the column of air contained in the tube into 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, etc. parts. According to legend, in 1753 the Dresden horn player Gampel accidentally put his hand into the bell and discovered that the horn's tuning had dropped. Since then, this technique has been widely used. Sounds obtained in this way were called "closed". But they were deaf and very different from the bright open ones. Not all composers often risked turning to them, usually satisfied with short, well-sounding fanfare motives built on open sounds.

In 1830, the valve mechanism was invented - a permanent system of additional tubes that allows you to get a full, good-sounding chromatic scale on the horn. A few decades later, the improved French horn finally replaced the old natural one, which was last used by Rimsky-Korsakov in the opera May Night in 1878.

The horn is considered the most poetic instrument in the brass group. In the low register the timbre of the horn is somewhat gloomy, in the upper register it is very tense. The horn can sing or slowly tell. The horn quartet sounds very soft - you can hear it in the "Waltz of the Flowers" from Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker" ballet.

TUBA

Pretty young instrument. It was built in the second quarter of the 19th century in Germany. The first tubas were imperfect and were initially used only in military and garden orchestras. Only when it got to France, in the hands of the instrumental master Adolphe Sax, did the tuba begin to meet the high requirements of the symphony orchestra.

The tuba is a bass instrument capable of reaching the lowest end of the range in the brass group. In the past, its functions were performed by the serpent, a bizarrely shaped instrument that owes its name to it (in all Romance languages, the serpent means "snake") - then the bass and contrabass trombones and the ophicleide with its barbaric timbre. But the sound qualities of all these instruments were such that they did not give the brass band a good, stable bass. Until the tuba appeared, the masters stubbornly searched for a new instrument.

The dimensions of the tuba are very large, its tube is twice as long as the tube of the trombone. During the game, the performer holds the instrument in front of him with the bell up.

The tuba is a chromatic instrument. The air consumption on the tube is enormous; sometimes, especially in forte in a low register, the performer is forced to change his breath on each sound. Therefore, solos on this instrument are usually quite short. Technically, the tuba is movable, although heavy. In an orchestra, she usually serves as bass in a trio of trombones. But sometimes the tuba acts as a solo instrument - so to speak, in characteristic roles. Thus, while instrumenting Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" in the play "Cattle", Ravel entrusted the bass tuba with a humorous image of a rumbling cart dragging along the road. The tuba part is written here in a very high register.

SAXOPHONE

The creator of the SAXOPHONE is the outstanding Franco-Belgian instrumental maker Adolf Sachs. Sachs proceeded from a theoretical assumption: is it possible to build a musical instrument that would occupy an intermediate position between woodwinds and brass? Such an instrument, capable of linking the timbres of copper and wood, was in great need of the imperfect military brass bands of France. To implement his plan, A. Sachs used a new construction principle: he connected a conical tube with a clarinet reed and an oboe valve mechanism. The body of the instrument was made of metal, the external outlines resembled a bass clarinet; flared at the end, strongly bent upwards tube, to which is attached a cane on a metal tip, bent in the shape of "S". Sachs' idea was brilliantly successful: the new instrument really became the link between brass and woodwinds in military bands. Moreover, its timbre turned out to be so interesting that it attracted the attention of many musicians. The coloring of the saxophone sound is reminiscent of the English horn, clarinet and cello at the same time, but the sound power of the saxophone far exceeds the sound power of the clarinet.

Having begun its existence in the military brass bands of France, the saxophone was soon introduced into the opera and symphony orchestra. For a very long time - several decades - only French composers turned to him: Thomas ("Hamlet"), Massenet ("Werther"), Bizet ("Arlesienne"), Ravel (instrumentation of Mussorgsky's Katrinok from an Exhibition). Then the composers of other countries also believed in him: Rachmaninov, for example, entrusted the saxophone with one of his best melodies in the first part of the Symphonic Dances.

It is curious that on its unusual path the saxophone had to face obscurantism: in Germany during the years of fascism it was banned as an instrument of non-Aryan origin.

In the 1910s, musicians of jazz ensembles drew attention to the saxophone, and soon the saxophone became the "king of jazz".

Many composers of the 20th century appreciated this interesting instrument. Debussy wrote Rhapsody for saxophone and orchestra, Glazunov - Concerto for saxophone and orchestra, Prokofiev, Shostakovich and Khachaturian repeatedly referred to him in their works.

Drums

Timpani

One of the oldest instruments in the world. Since ancient times, they have been widespread in many countries: in the East and Africa, in Greece, in Rome and among the Scythians. By playing the timpani, people accompanied important events in their lives: holidays and wars.

In Europe, small, manual timpani have long existed. Medieval knights used them while on horseback. Large timpani entered Europe only in the 15th century - through Turkey and Hungary. In the 17th century, timpani entered the orchestra.

Modern timpani outwardly resemble large copper cauldrons on a stand, covered with leather. The skin is pulled tight over the cauldron with several screws. They hit the skin with two sticks with soft round tips made of felt.

Unlike other percussion instruments with leather, timpani produce a sound of a certain pitch. Each timpani is tuned to a certain tone, therefore, in order to get two sounds, a pair of timpani began to be used in the orchestra from the 17th century. Timpani can be rebuilt: for this, the performer must tighten or loosen the skin with screws: the greater the tension, the higher the tone. However, this operation is time consuming and risky during execution. Therefore, in the 19th century, craftsmen invented mechanical timpani, quickly tuned using levers or pedals.

The role of the timpani in the orchestra is quite diverse. Their beats emphasize the rhythm of other instruments, forming either simple or intricate rhythmic figures. Rapidly alternating strikes of both sticks (tremolo) produce an effective build-up or thunder reproduction. Haydn also depicted thunderous peals with the help of timpani in The Four Seasons. Shostakovich in the Ninth Symphony makes the timpani imitate the cannonade. Sometimes timpani are assigned small melodic solos, as, for example, in the first movement of Shostakovich's Eleventh Symphony.

PLATES

were already known to the ancient world and the ancient East, but the Turks are famous for their special love and exceptional art of making them. In Europe, plates became popular in the 18th century, after the war with the Ottomans.

Cymbals are large metal dishes made from copper alloys. The cymbals are slightly convex in the center - leather straps are attached here so that the performer can hold the instrument in his hands. The cymbals are played standing up so that nothing interferes with their vibration and so that the sound spreads freely in the air. The usual method of playing this instrument is an oblique, sliding strike of one cymbal against another - after that, a sonorous metallic splash is heard, which hangs in the air for a long time. If the performer wants to stop the vibration of the cymbals, he brings them to his chest, and the vibrations subside. Composers often accompany the strike of cymbals with the thunder of the bass drum; these instruments often sound together, as, for example, in the first bars of the finale of Tchaikovsky's Symphony IV. In addition to oblique impact, there are several other ways to play the cymbals: when, for example, a free-hanging cymbal is struck either with a timpani stick or with wooden snare drum sticks.

A symphony orchestra usually uses one pair of cymbals. In rare cases - as, for example, in Berlioz's Funeral and Triumphal Symphony, three pairs of plates are used.

XYLOPHONE,

apparently born at the moment when primitive man struck a dry wooden block with a stick and heard the sound of a certain tone. Many of these primitive wooden xylophones have been found in South America, Africa and Asia. In Europe, from the 15th century, this instrument fell into the hands of itinerant musicians and only at the beginning of the 19th century became a concert instrument. He owes his improvement to the self-taught musician from Mogilev, Mikhail Iosifovich Guzikov.

The sounding body in the xylophone is wooden blocks of different sizes (xylon - in Greek "tree", phone - "sound"). They are arranged in four rows on matting bundles. The performer can roll them up and lay them out on a special table during the game; The xylophone is played with two wooden goat's feet. The sound of the xylophone is dry, snappy and sharp. It is very characteristic in color, so its appearance in a piece of music is usually associated with a special plot situation or a special mood. Rimsky-Korsakov in "The Tale of Tsar Saltan" entrusts the xylophone with the song "In the garden, in the garden" at the moment when the squirrel gnaws golden nuts. Lyadov draws the flight of Baba Yaga in a mortar with the sounds of a xylophone, trying to convey the crackling of breaking branches. Quite often the timbre of the xylophone evokes a gloomy mood, creates bizarre, grotesque images. The short phrases of the xylophone in the "invasion episode" from Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony sound melancholy.

The xylophone is a very virtuoso instrument. On it, great fluency is possible in fast passages, tremolo and a special effect - glissando: a swift movement of a stick along the bars.

Small DRUM

It is basically a military tool. It is a flat cylinder covered with leather on both sides. Strings are stretched under the skin from the underside; responding to the blows of the sticks, they give the sound of the drum a characteristic crackle. The drum beat sounds very interesting - tremolo with two sticks, which can be brought to the utmost speed. The strength of the sound in such a tremolo varies from a rustle to a thunderous crackle. The overture to Rossini's "The Thieving Magpie" begins with a shot of two snare drums, a dull shot of the snare drum is heard at the moment of the execution of Till Ulenspiegel in a symphonic poem by Richard Strauss.

Sometimes the strings under the lower skin of the drum are lowered, and they stop responding to the beats of the sticks. This effect is equivalent to the introduction of a mute: the snare drum loses its sound power. So it sounds in the dance section "Prince and Princess" in "Scheherazade" by Rimsky-Korsakov.

The snare drum first appeared in the small opera in the 19th century, and at first it was introduced only in military episodes. Meyerbeer was the first to take the snare drum out of the military episodes in the operas The Huguenots and The Prophet.

In some cases, the snare drum becomes the "protagonist" not only in large symphonic episodes, but also in the whole work. An example is the "invasion episode" from Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony and Ravel's "Bolero", where one and then two snare drums hold the entire rhythmic pulse of the music.

Big drum (it. gran casso).

Nowadays there are two types of bass drum. One of them is a metal cylinder of large diameter - up to 72 cm - covered with leather on both sides. This type of bass drum is widely used in military bands, jazz bands, and American symphony bands. Another type of drum is a hoop with leather on one side. It appeared in France and quickly spread to the symphony orchestras of Europe. To strike the skin of the bass drum, a wooden stick with a soft mallet covered with felt or cork is used.

Very often, bass drum beats are accompanied by cymbals or alternate with them, as in the fast-paced dance "In the Hall of the Mountain King" from Grieg's "Peer Gynt". On the big drum, a quick alternation of beats is also possible - tremolo. To do this, use a stick with two mallets at both ends or timpani sticks. Rimksy-Korsakov used the bass drum tremolo very successfully in the instrumentation of Mussorgsky's symphonic painting "Night on Bald Mountain".

At first, the big drum appeared only in "Turkish music", but from the beginning of the 19th century it was often used for sound-visual purposes: to imitate cannonade, thunder. Beethoven included three large drums in the "Battle of Vittoria" - to depict cannon shots. For the same purpose, Rimsky-Korsakov used this instrument in The Tale of Tsar Saltan, Shostakovich in the Eleventh Symphony, Prokofiev in the eighth scene of the opera War and Peace (the beginning of the Battle of Borodino). At the same time, the big drum sounds also where there is no onomatopoeia, and especially often - in noisy, solemn episodes of music.

TRIANGLE

one of the smallest instruments of the symphony orchestra. It is a steel rod bent in the shape of a triangle. It is hung on a vein string and struck with a small metal stick - a ringing, very clear sound is heard.

The ways to play on the triangle are not very diverse. Sometimes only one sound is extracted on it, sometimes simple rhythmic patterns. Sounds good on a tremolo triangle.

The triangle was first mentioned in the 15th century. In the 18th century it was used in an opera by the composer Grétry. Then the triangle became an invariable member of the "Turkish", i.e. exotic music, appearing along with bass drum and cymbals. This percussion group was used by Mozart in "The Abduction from the Seraglio", Beethoven in the "Turkish March" from "The Ruins of Athens" and some other composers who sought to reproduce the musical image of the East. The triangle is also interesting in graceful dance pieces: in Anitra's Dance from Grieg's Peer Gynt, Glinka's Waltz-Fantasy.

BELLS,

probably the most poetic percussion instrument. Its name comes from its ancient variety, where the sounding body was small bells tuned to a certain height. Later they were replaced with a set of metal plates of various sizes. They are arranged in two rows, like piano keys, and are fixed in a wooden box. The bells are played with two metal mallets. There is another variety of this instrument: keyboard bells. They have a piano keyboard and hammers that transmit vibrations from the keys to the metal plates. However, this chain of mechanisms is not very well reflected in their sound: it is not as bright and ringing as on ordinary bells. Nevertheless, yielding to hammer bells in the beauty of sound, keyboards surpass them in technical terms. Thanks to the piano keyboard, rather fast passages and polyphonic chords are possible on them. The timbre of the bells is silvery, gentle and sonorous. They sound in Mozart's Magic Flute when Papageno exits, in the aria with bells in Delibes' Lakma, in Rimsky-Korsakov's The Snow Maiden, when Mizgir, chasing the Snow Maiden, sees the lights of fireflies, in The Golden Cockerel when the Astrologer leaves.

BELLS

Since ancient times, the ringing of bells has called people to religious ceremonies and holidays, and also announced misfortunes. With the development of the opera, with the appearance of historical and patriotic plots in it, composers began to introduce bells into the opera house. The sounds of bells in Russian opera are especially richly represented: the solemn ringing in "Ivan Susanin", "The Tale of Tsar Saltan", "The Girl of Pskov" and "Boris Godunov" (in the coronation scene), the disturbing tocsin in "Prince Igor", the funeral chime in " Boris Godunov. In all these operas, real church bells sounded, which are placed behind the stage in large opera houses. However, not every opera house could afford to have its own belfry, so composers only occasionally introduced small bells into the orchestra - as Tchaikovsky did in the 1812 overture. Meanwhile, with the development of program music, it became increasingly necessary to imitate bell ringing in a symphony orchestra - so, after a while, orchestral bells were created - a set of steel pipes suspended from a frame. In Russia, these bells are called Italian. Each of the pipes is tuned to a specific tone; hit them with a metal hammer with a rubber gasket.

Orchestral bells were used by Puccini in the opera "Tosca", Rachmaninov in the vocal-symphonic poem "The Bells". Prokofiev in "Alexander Nevsky" replaced the pipes with long metal bars.

tambourine (tambourine)

One of the oldest instruments in the world, the tambourine, appeared in the symphony orchestra in the 19th century. The device of this instrument is very simple: as a rule, it is a wooden hoop, on one side of which the skin is stretched. Metal trinkets are attached to the slot of the hoop (on the side), and small bells are strung inside, on a star-shaped string stretched. All this rings at the slightest shaking of the tambourine.

The part of the tambourine, as well as other drums that do not have a certain height, is usually recorded not on the stave, but on a separate ruler, which is called a "thread".

The methods of playing the tambourine are very diverse. First of all, these are sharp blows to the skin and beating complex rhythmic patterns on it. In these cases, both the skin and the bells make the sound. With a strong blow, the tambourine rings sharply, with a weak touch, a slight jingling of bells is heard. There are many ways when the performer makes only bells sound. This is a swift shaking of the tambourine - it gives a piercing tremolo; it is a gentle shaking; and finally, a spectacular trill is heard when the performer runs a wet thumb over the skin: this technique causes a lively ringing of bells.

The tambourine is a characteristic instrument, therefore it is far from being used in every work. Usually he appears where the East or Spain should come to life in music: in Scheherazade and in Rimsky-Korsakov’s Spanish Capriccio, in the dance of Arab boys in the ballet Raymond by Glazunov, in the temperamental dances of the Polovtsy in Borodin’s Prince Igor, in Bizet's Carmen.

CASTANETS

The name "CASTANETS" in Spanish means "little chestnuts". Spain, most likely, was their homeland; there the castanets became a real national instrument. Castanets are made of hard wood: ebony or boxwood, castanets are similar in shape to shells.

In Spain, two pairs of castanets were used to accompany dancing and singing; each pair was fastened with a cord that was pulled together around the thumb. The remaining fingers, remaining free, tapped intricate rhythms on the wooden shells. Each hand required its own size of castanets: in the left hand, the performer held shells of large volume, they emitted a lower tone and had to tap out the main rhythm. Castanets for the right hand were smaller; their tone was higher. Spanish dancers and dancers mastered this complex art to perfection, which they were taught from childhood. The dry, fervent clicking of castanets has always accompanied the temperamental Spanish dances: bolero, seguidillo, fandango.

When composers wanted to introduce castanets into symphonic music, a simplified version of this instrument was designed - orchestral castanets. These are two pairs of shells mounted on the ends of a wooden handle. When they are shaken, a clicking sound is heard - a weak copy of real Spanish castanets.

In the orchestra, castanets began to be used primarily in music of a Spanish nature: in Glinka's Spanish overtures "The Hunt of Aragon" and "Night in Madrid", in Rimsky-Korsakov's "Spanish Capriccio", in Spanish dances from Tchaikovsky's ballets, and in Western music - in " Carmen" by Bizet, in the symphonic works "Iberia" by Debussy, "Alborada del Gracioso" by Ravel. Some composers have taken castanets beyond the scope of Spanish music: Saint-Saens used them in the opera "Samson and Dalida", Prokofiev - in the third piano concerto.

FRUSTA

consists of two wooden boards, one of which has a handle, and the second is fixed with its lower end above the handle on a hinge - with a sharp swing or with the help of a tight spring, it produces a cotton on the other with its free end. As a rule, only separate, not too often successive claps forte, fortissimo are extracted on fruste.

Frusta is a percussion instrument that does not have a certain height, therefore its part, like the part of a tambourine, is recorded not on a stave, but on a "thread".

Frusta contenta is often found in modern scores. With two claps on this instrument, the third part of "Lorelei" from Shostakovich's Fourteenth Symphony begins.

WOOD BLOCK

Percussion instrument of Chinese origin. Before its appearance in the percussion group of the symphony orchestra, wood block was very popular in jazz.

A wood block is a small, rectangular hardwood block with a deep, narrow cut in the front. The technique of playing the wood block is drumming: the sound is extracted by hitting the upper plane of the instrument with sticks from a snare drum, wooden mallets, sticks with rubber heads. The resulting sound is sharp, high, characteristically clattering, indefinite in pitch.

As a percussion instrument, indefinite in height, the wood block is notated on a "thread" or on a combination of rulers.

TEMPLE BLOCK

An instrument of Korean or North Chinese origin, an attribute of a Buddhist cult. The tool has a rounded shape, hollow inside, with a deep cut in the middle (like a laughing mouth), and is made of hard wood.

Like most other "exotic" percussion instruments, the temple block was first spread in jazz, from where it penetrated into the composition of the symphony orchestra.

The sound of a temple block is more gloomy and deeper than that of a wood block close to it, it has a fairly definite pitch, so using a set of temple blocks, you can get melodic phrases - for example, S. Slonimsky used these instruments in "Concert -buff".

Temple blocks are played by striking the top with rubber-tipped sticks, wooden mallets, and snare drum sticks.

GUIRO, reco-reco

These instruments are of Latin American origin, they are similar both in their constructive principle and in the way they play.

They are made from a bamboo segment (reco-reco), from a dried gourd (guiro), or from another hollow object that is a resonator. On one side of the tool, a series of notches or notches is made. In some cases, a plate with a corrugated surface is mounted. These notches are carried out with a special wooden stick, as a result of which a high, sharp, with a characteristic crackling sound is extracted. The most common variety of these related instruments is the guiro. I. Stravinsky was the first to introduce this instrument into the symphony orchestra - in "The Rite of Spring". Reko-reko is found in Slonimsky's "Concert-buff".

MARACA

is a round or egg-shaped wooden rattle on a handle and stuffed with shot, grains, pebbles or other bulk materials. These folk instruments are made, as a rule, from a coconut or a hollow dried gourd on a natural handle. Maracas are very popular in dance music orchestras, in jazz. As part of a symphony orchestra, S. Prokofiev was the first to use this instrument ("Dance of the Antilles Girls" from the ballet "Romeo and Juliet", cantata "Alexander Nevsky"). Now a pair of instruments is usually used - the performer holds them in both hands and, shaking, extracts a sound. Like other percussion instruments without a specific pitch, the maracas is notated on the "thread". According to the principle of sound production, maracas are close to chocalo and cameso. These are metal - check - or wooden - cameso - cylinders, filled, like maracas, with some kind of loose substance. In some models, the side wall is tightened with a leather membrane. Both chekalo and cameso are louder and sharper than maracas. They are also held with both hands, shaken vertically or horizontally, or rotated.

KABACA

At first, this instrument of Afro-Brazilian origin was popular in orchestras of Latin American music, from where it received its further distribution. Outwardly, the tavern resembles a doubled maracas, covered with a net with large beads strung on it. The performer holds the instrument in one hand and either simply beats it with the fingers of the other hand, or scrolls the grid with beads with a tangential movement of the palm. In the latter case, a rustling, longer sound, reminiscent of the sound of maracas, occurs. One of the first kabatsu was used by Slonimsky in "Concert-buff".

KONG

This instrument is of Cuban origin. After modernization, the congas became widely used in dance music orchestras, jazz, and even in works of serious music. Congas have the following device: on a wooden cylindrical body (height from 17 to 22 cm) skin is stretched and fixed with a metal hoop (its tension is adjusted from the inside with screws). The metal rim does not rise above the level of the skin: this is what determines such a characteristic playing on congas with the palms - con le mani or fingers - con le dita. Two congas with different diameters are usually connected to each other by a common holder. The smaller cong sounds about a third higher than the wider one. The sound of the conga is high, specifically "empty" and varies depending on the place and method of impact.

Singles

HARP

One of the oldest musical instruments of mankind. It originated from a bow with a stretched string, which sounded melodious when fired. Later, the sound of the bowstring was used as a signal. The man who first pulled three or four bowstrings on a bow, which, due to their unequal length, made sounds of different heights, became the creator of the first harp. Even in Egyptian frescoes of the 15th century BC, harps still resemble a bow. And these harps are not the most ancient: the oldest archaeologists found during excavations of the Sumerian city of Ur in Mesopotamia - it was made four and a half thousand years ago, in the XXVI century BC.

In ancient times, in the East, in Greece and Rome, the harp remained one of the most common and beloved instruments. It was often used to accompany singing or playing other instruments. The harp appeared early in medieval Europe: here Ireland was famous for its special art of playing it, where folk singers - bards - sang their sagas to its accompaniment.

The harp is a stringed plucked instrument. It is believed that the beauty of her appearance surpasses all her neighbors in the orchestra. Its graceful outlines hide the shape of a triangle, the metal frame is decorated with carvings. Strings (47-48) of different lengths and thicknesses are pulled onto the frame, which form a transparent mesh. At the beginning of the 19th century, the famous piano master Erar improved the ancient harp. He found a way to quickly change the length of the strings and thus the pitch of the harp.

The virtuoso possibilities of the harp are quite peculiar: wide chords, passages from arpeggios, glissando - sliding the hand along all the strings tuned to some chord, harmonics are excellent on it.

The role of the harp in the orchestra is not so much emotional as colorful. The harp often accompanies various instruments in the orchestra; at other times, she is tasked with spectacular solos. There are many of them in the ballets of Tchaikovsky, Glazunov, in the works of Rimsky-Korsakov. Of the Western European composers of the 19th century, the harp was most widely used by Berlioz, Meyerbeer, Wagner and Liszt. The well-known part of two harps in the "Waltz" from Berlioz's "Fantastic Symphony" marked the beginning of that virtuoso style that has become the leading one in the last three centuries. Earlier, from the moment of its appearance in the symphony orchestra of the 18th century until Berlioz, the harp imitated the sound of a lute, a guitar (as in Glinka's "The Aragonese Hunt") or a harpsichord. The harp was also used in cases where it was necessary to evoke an association with antiquity. Gluck's Orpheus or Beethoven's Prometheus are examples.

The orchestra usually uses one or two harps, but in some cases their number is increased. Thus, Rimsky-Korsakov's "Mlada" has three harps, while Wagner's "Rheingold Gold" has six.

PIANO

The source of sound in the PIANO is metal strings, which begin to sound from the impact of felt-covered wooden hammers, and the hammers are driven by finger pressure on the keys.

The first keyboard instruments, already known at the beginning of the 15th century, were the harpsichord and clavichord (in Italian - clavicembalo). On the clavichord, the strings were vibrated by metal levers - tangents, on the harpsichord - by crow feathers, and later - by metal hooks. The sound of these instruments was dynamically monotonous and faded quickly.

The first hammer-action piano, so named because it played both forte and piano sounds, was most likely built by Bartolomeo Cristofori in 1709. This new instrument quickly gained recognition and, after many improvements, became the modern concert grand. A piano was built in 1826 for home music-making.

The piano is widely known as a solo concert instrument. But sometimes he also acts as an ordinary instrument of the orchestra. Russian composers, starting with Glinka, began to introduce the piano (piano part) into the orchestra, sometimes together with the harp, in order to recreate the sonority of the harp. This is how it is used in Bayan's songs in Glinka's "Ruslan and Lyudmila", in "Sadko" and in Rimsky-Korsakov's "May Night". Sometimes the piano reproduces the sound of a bell, as in Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov, orchestrated by Rimsky-Korsakov. But not always it only imitates other timbres. Some composers use it in the orchestra as a decorating tool that can introduce sonority and new colors into the orchestra. So, Debussy wrote in the symphonic suite "Spring" the piano part for four hands. Finally, sometimes it is considered as a kind of percussion instrument with a strong, dry tone. The sharp, grotesque scherzo in Shostakovich's First Symphony is an example of this.

ORGAN

Keyboard wind instrument - ORGAN - was known in ancient times. In ancient organs, air was pumped with bellows by hand. In medieval Europe, the organ became an instrument of church worship. It was in the spiritual environment of the 17th century that organ polyphonic art was born, the best representatives of which were Frescobaldi, Bach and Handel.

The organ is a gigantic instrument with many different timbres.

"This is a whole orchestra, which in skillful hands can convey everything, express everything," Balzac wrote about him. Indeed, the range of the organ exceeds that of all instruments in the orchestra combined. The organ includes bellows for air supply, a system of pipes of various designs and sizes (in modern organs, the number of pipes reaches 30,000), several manual keyboards - manuals and a foot pedal. The largest pipes reach a height of 10 meters or more, the height of the smallest - 8 millimeters. This or that coloring of a sound depends on their device.

A set of pipes of a single timbre is called a register. Large cathedral organs have more than a hundred registers: in the Notre Dame organ, their number reaches 110. The coloring of the sounds of individual registers resembles the timbre of a flute, oboe, English horn, clarinet, bass clarinet, trumpet, cello. The richer and more varied the registers, the more opportunities the performer gets, because the art of organ playing is the art of good registration, i.e. skillful use of all the technical resources of the tool.

In the latest orchestral music (especially theatrical), the organ was primarily used for sound-visual purposes - where it was necessary to reproduce the church atmosphere. Liszt, for example, in his symphonic poem "The Battle of the Huns", with the help of an organ, opposed the Christian world to the barbarians.

An orchestra is a group of musicians who play various instruments. But it should not be confused with the ensemble. This article will tell you what types of orchestras are. And their compositions of musical instruments will also be consecrated.

Varieties of orchestras

An orchestra differs from an ensemble in that in the first case, the same instruments are combined into groups playing in unison, that is, one common melody. And in the second case, each musician is a soloist - he plays his part. "Orchestra" is a Greek word and translates as "dance floor". It was located between the stage and the audience. The choir was located on this site. Then it became similar to modern orchestra pits. And over time, musicians began to settle down there. And the name "orchestra" went to groups of performers-instrumentalists.

Types of orchestras:

• Symphonic.
• String.
• Wind.
• Jazz.
• Pop.
• Orchestra of folk instruments.
• Military.
• School.

The composition of the instruments of different types of orchestra is strictly defined. Symphonic consists of a group of strings, percussion and brass. String and brass bands are made up of instruments corresponding to their names. Jazz can have a different composition. The variety orchestra consists of brass, strings, percussion, keyboards and

Varieties of choirs

A choir is a large ensemble of singers. There must be at least 12 artists. In most cases, choirs perform accompanied by orchestras. Types of orchestras and choirs are different. There are several classifications. First of all, the choirs are divided into types according to their composition of voices. It can be: women's, men's, mixed, children's, as well as boys' choirs. According to the manner of performance, folk and academic are distinguished.

Choirs are also classified by the number of performers:

• 12-20 people - vocal and choral ensemble.
• 20-50 artists - chamber choir.
• 40-70 singers - average.
• 70-120 participants - a large choir.
• Up to 1000 artists - consolidated (from several groups).

According to their status, choirs are divided into: educational, professional, amateur, church.

Symphony Orchestra

Not all types of orchestras include. This group includes: violins, cellos, violas, double basses. One of the orchestras, which includes a string-bow family, is a symphony one. It consists of several different groups of musical instruments. Today, there are two types of symphony orchestras: small and large. The first of them has a classical composition: 2 flutes, the same number of bassoons, clarinets, oboes, trumpets and horns, no more than 20 strings, occasionally timpani.

It can be of any composition. It can include 60 or more string instruments, tubas, up to 5 trombones of different timbres and 5 trumpets, up to 8 horns, up to 5 flutes, as well as oboes, clarinets and bassoons. It may also include such varieties from the wind group as oboe d "amour, piccolo flute, contrabassoon, English horn, saxophones of all types. It can include a huge number of percussion instruments. Often a large symphony orchestra includes an organ, piano, harpsichord and harp.

Brass band

Almost all types of orchestras have a family in their composition. This group includes two varieties: copper and wooden. Some types of bands consist only of brass and percussion instruments, such as brass and military bands. In the first variety, the main role belongs to cornets, bugles of various types, tubas, baritone-euphoniums. Secondary instruments: trombones, trumpets, horns, flutes, saxophones, clarinets, oboes, bassoons. If the brass band is large, then, as a rule, all the instruments in it increase in quantity. Very rarely harps and keyboards may be added.

The repertoire of brass bands includes:

• Marches.
• Ballroom European dances.
• opera arias.
• Symphonies.
• Concerts.

Brass bands perform most often in open street areas or accompany the procession, as they sound very powerful and bright.

Orchestra of Folk Instruments

Their repertoire includes mainly compositions of a folk character. What is their instrumental composition? Each nation has its own. For example, the Russian orchestra includes: balalaikas, psaltery, domra, zhaleika, whistles, button accordions, rattles and so on.

military band

The types of orchestras consisting of wind and percussion instruments have already been listed above. There is another variety that includes these two groups. These are military bands. They serve to sound solemn ceremonies, as well as to participate in concerts. Military bands are of two types. Some consist of brass and brass. They are called homogeneous. The second type is mixed military bands, which, among other things, include a group of woodwinds.

"Lighting a fire in the heart,

The drums are arguing again.
And the camp plays with the wave,
And love burns in the eyes.

Leila

Percussion instruments have always been an important part of any musical culture. Therefore, the number of musical and instrumental groups in which percussion instruments are needed can hardly be accurately determined. One of these musical groups is a modern symphony orchestra, which is impossible to imagine without a group of percussion instruments that convey such means of musical expression as rhythm, tempo and dynamics. The group of percussion instruments in a symphony orchestra has changed over time, thanks to the development and changes in music from different eras and directions. In a modern symphony orchestra, a lot of attention is paid to the percussion group; it can be varied in terms of the composition of instruments, depending on the nature of the pieces being performed. Drums convey to the listener a certain message and thought of the composer. For completeness of perception, it is very important to maintain the balance of the sonorities of the percussion group with the various groups of the symphony orchestra. Percussion instruments differ in shape and size, and the material from which they are made, and, finally, the nature of the sound from other groups of the symphony orchestra, so it is necessary to understand their peculiarity when interacting with other groups of the orchestra, the influence of their sound on the work and their influence on the perception of music by the listener .

The relevance of this research problem has existed since the creation of the symphony orchestra by J. Haydn to the present day. The essence of this problem at the present stage lies in the need to indicate the importance of the role of the percussion group of the symphony orchestra.

Based on the relevance of the problem, we formulatedresearch topic: "Percussion instruments of the symphony orchestra".

Based on the research topic, we formulated purpose of this essay - to show the role of a group of percussion instruments in a symphony orchestra.

Research objectives:

1. To study the history of the development of percussion instruments and analyze the development of percussion in the orchestra;
2. Present in the abstract a group of percussion instruments of a symphony orchestra;
3. Compare the level of percussion taking into account their development;
4. To systematize information on this problem, to summarize information on the topic.

Research methods:

1. Selection, study and analysis of literature;
2. Systematization of the studied material;
3. Summarizing the received information.

1. Chapter I. Symphony Orchestra Percussion Instruments

1. 1.1. The concept of the orchestra, origin and composition

Orchestra (from the Greek orchestra) - a large team of instrumental musicians. Unlike chamber ensembles, in the orchestra some of its musicians form groups playing in unison, that is, they play the same parts.
The very idea of ​​simultaneous music-making by a group of instrumental performers goes back to ancient times: even in ancient Egypt, small groups of musicians played together at various holidays and funerals.
The word "orchestra" ("orchestra") comes from the name of the round platform in front of the stage in the ancient Greek theater, which housed the ancient Greek choir, a participant in any tragedy or comedy. During the Renaissance and further in the 17th century, the orchestra was transformed into an orchestra pit and, accordingly, gave the name to the group of musicians located in it.

There are many different types of orchestra: military brass and woodwind orchestras, folk instrument orchestras, string orchestras. The largest in composition and the richest in terms of its capabilities is the symphony orchestra.

Symphonic called an orchestra, composed of several heterogeneous groups of instruments - a family of strings, wind and percussion. The principle of such unification took shape in Europe in the 18th century. Initially, the symphony orchestra included groups of bowed instruments, woodwinds and brass instruments, which were joined by a few percussion instruments. Subsequently, the composition of each of these groups expanded and became more diverse. Currently, among a number of varieties of symphony orchestras, it is customary to distinguish between a small and a large symphony orchestra.Small Symphony Orchestra- this is an orchestra of predominantly classical composition (playing music of the late 18th - early 19th century, or modern stylizations). It consists of 2 flutes (rarely a small flute), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 (rarely 4) horns, sometimes 2 trumpets and timpani, a string group of no more than 20 instruments (5 first and 4 second violins, 4 violas, 3 cellos, 2 double basses).Grand Symphony Orchestraincludes obligatory trombones in the copper group and can have any composition. Often wooden instruments (flutes, oboes, clarinets and bassoons) reach up to 5 instruments of each family (clarinets sometimes more) and include varieties (pick and alto flutes, cupid oboe and English oboe, small, alto and bass clarinets, contrabassoon). The copper group can include up to 8 horns (including special Wagner tubas), 5 trumpets (including small, alto, bass), 3-5 trombones (tenor and tenorbass) and a tuba. Saxophones are often used (in a jazz orchestra, all 4 types). The string group reaches 60 or more instruments. Percussion instruments are numerous (although timpani, bells, small and large drums, triangle, cymbals and Indian tam-tom form their backbone), harp, piano, harpsichord are often used.

Symphony Orchestraformed over centuries. Its development for a long time took place in the depths of opera and church ensembles. Such groups in the XV-XVII centuries. were small and varied. They included lutes, viols, flutes with oboes, trombones, harps, and drums. Gradually, stringed bowed instruments won the dominant position. The viols were replaced by violins with their richer and more melodious sound. By the beginning of the XVIII century. they already reigned supreme in the orchestra. A separate group and wind instruments (flutes, oboes, bassoons) have united. From the church orchestra they switched to the symphony trumpets and timpani. The harpsichord was an indispensable member of instrumental ensembles.
Such a composition was typical for J. S. Bach, G. Handel, A. Vivaldi.
From the middle of the XVIII century. the genres of symphony and instrumental concerto begin to develop. The departure from the polyphonic style led the composers to strive for timbre diversity, the relief singling out of orchestral voices.
The functions of the new tools are changing. The harpsichord, with its weak sound, is gradually losing its leading role. Soon, composers completely abandoned it, relying mainly on the string and wind group. By the end of the 18th century eka the so-called classical composition of the orchestra was formed: about 30 strings, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, 2 pipes, 2-3 horns and timpani. The clarinet soon joined the brass. J. Haydn, W. Mozart wrote for such a composition. Such is the orchestra in the early compositions of L. Beethoven. In the 19th century
The development of the orchestra went mainly in two directions. On the one hand, increasing in composition, it was enriched with instruments of many types (the merit of romantic composers, primarily Berlioz, Liszt, Wagner, is great for this), on the other hand, the internal capabilities of the orchestra developed: sound colors became cleaner, texture clearer, expressive resources are more economical (such is the orchestra of Glinka, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov). Significantly enriched the orchestral palette and many composers of the late XIX - 1st half of the XX century. (R. Strauss, Mahler, Debussy, Ravel, Stravinsky, Bartok, Shostakovich and others).

Contemporary symphony orchestraconsists of 4 main groups. The foundation of the orchestra is a string group (violins, violas, cellos, double basses). In most cases, strings are the main carriers of the melodic beginning in the orchestra. The number of musicians playing strings is approximately 2/3 of the entire band. The group of woodwind instruments includes flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons. Each of them usually has an independent party. Yielding to bowed ones in timbre saturation, dynamic properties and a variety of playing techniques, wind instruments have great power, compact sound, bright colorful hues. The third group of orchestra instruments is brass (horn, trumpet, trombone, trumpet). They bring new bright colors to the orchestra, enriching its dynamic capabilities, giving power and brilliance to the sound, and also serve as a bass and rhythmic support.
Percussion instruments are becoming increasingly important in the symphony orchestra. Their main function is rhythmic. In addition, they create a special sound and noise background, complement and decorate the orchestral palette with color effects. Bysound characterdrums are divided into 2 types: some have a certain pitch (timpani, bells, xylophone, bells, etc.), others lack an exact pitch (triangle, tambourine, snare and bass drum, cymbals). Of the instruments that are not included in the main groups, the role of the harp is the most significant. Occasionally, composers include the celesta, piano, saxophone, organ and other instruments in the orchestra.

Orchestral writing by Haydn

The modern large symphony orchestra is based on the orchestral composition developed by Haydn and the composers of the Mannheim School.

Before Haydn, the instruments in the orchestra had a weak uneven sound. Lutes, theorbos, harpsichord were used, at which the bandmaster sat, filling in the missing harmonies, linking individual instruments into one whole.

Like all composers of the 18th century, Haydn wrote his symphonies to the composition of the orchestra, "which at the moment was at his fingertips." The first symphonies written for Count Morcin were performed by 12-16 musicians.

In July 1762, Prince Miklos Esterhazy approved an orchestra of 14 people (7 string players and 7 wind players). Later, the composition of the orchestra grew to 25 or more musicians (16 strings, flutes, oboe, bassoons, trumpets, horns and timpani).

In our time, the Academy of Early Music Orchestra, under the baton of the famous English conductor Christopher Hogwood, has performed Haydn's symphonies on instruments of that era. In the hall of Esterhaz Castle, where these symphonies were performed during the composer's lifetime, the musicians played them in the same composition, with a strange, at first glance, ratio of stringed, wooden and brass instruments. What was the composition of the Esterhazy orchestra during Haydn's time? It included: 4 first violins, 4 second violins, cello, double bass, viola, 2 oboes, 2 horns and timpani.

Then K. Hogwood tried to play symphonies in a different, modern ratio of strings, namely: 6 first violins, 4 second ones, 3 violas, 2 cellos, double bass.

It turned out that the Haydnian ratio of instruments in this hall was the most successful! It became obvious that Haydn was a great connoisseur of the orchestra.

Salomon's London Orchestra consisted of 40 musicians. For such a composition, Haydn wrote his 12 London Symphonies. True, the composer used clarinets only in symphonies 101, 103 and 104. It probably happened under the influence of Mozart. The introduction of clarinets to the orchestra expanded the woodwind group to a full pairing. Thus, the formation of a small or "classical" symphony orchestra was completed.

Interestingly, the clarinet, invented at the end of the seventeenth century, did not become a permanent "member" of the orchestra until 100 years later. Haydn tried to introduce the clarinet into Prince Esterhazy's orchestra in the eighteenth century, but as the instrument was still imperfect, clarinets were replaced by trumpets.

Many people think that playing the drum is easy. I want to give you an example: when Ravel's Bolero is performed, the snare drum is pushed forward and placed next to the conductor's stand, because in this work Ravel entrusted the drum with a very responsible role. A musician playing the snare drum must maintain the unified rhythm of the Spanish dance without slowing it down or speeding it up. The expression gradually grows, more and more new instruments are added, the drummer is drawn to play a little faster. But this will distort the composer's intention, and the listeners will get a different impression. You see what kind of skill is required from a musician playing such a simple instrument in our understanding. D. Shostakovich even introduced three snare drums into the first part of his Seventh Symphony: they sound ominously in the episode of the fascist invasion. The drum also once had sinister functions: under its measured fraction, revolutionaries were led to execution, soldiers were driven through the ranks. And now, to the sounds of drums and trumpets, they are marching to the parade. African drums were once a means of communication, like the telegraph. The sound of the drum carries far, it is noticed and used. Signal drummers lived within earshot of each other. As soon as one of them began to transmit the message encoded in the drumbeat, the other received and transmitted to the next. Thus, good or sad news spread over great distances. Over time, the telegraph and telephone made this type of communication unnecessary, but even now in some African countries there are people who know the language of the drum.

1. 1.2. Percussion group in an orchestra

The fourth association of the modern symphony orchestra is percussion instruments. They bear no resemblance to the human voice and do not speak to his inner sense in a language he understands. Their measured and more or less defined sounds, their tinkling and crackling, have rather a "rhythmic" meaning.

Their melodic duties are extremely limited, and their whole being is deeply rooted in the nature of dance in the broadest sense of this concept. It is as such that some of the percussion instruments were used in ancient times and were widely used not only by the peoples of the Mediterranean and Asian East, but also acted, apparently, among all the so-called "primitive peoples" in general. Some tinkling and ringing percussion instruments were used in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome as instruments accompanying dances and dances, but not a single percussion instrument from the drum family was allowed by them into the field of military music. These tools had a particularly wide application in the life of the ancient Jews and Arabs, where they performed not only civil duties, but also military ones.

On the contrary, among the peoples of modern Europe, various types of percussion instruments have been adopted in military music, where they are of great importance. However, the melodic poverty of percussion instruments did not prevent them, nevertheless, from penetrating into the opera, ballet and symphony orchestras, where they occupy far from the last place. However, there was a time in the artistic music of European peoples when access to these instruments was almost closed to the orchestra and, with the exception of the timpani, they made their way into symphonic music through the orchestra of opera and ballet, or, as they would say now, through the orchestra of "dramatic music ".

In the history of the "cultural life" of mankind, percussion instruments arose before all other musical instruments in general. Nevertheless, this did not prevent percussion instruments from being pushed into the background of the orchestra at the time of its inception and the first steps of its development. And this is all the more surprising since it is still impossible to deny the enormous “aesthetic” significance of percussion instruments in art music. The history of percussion instruments is not very exciting. All those "tools for the production of measured noise", which were used by all primitive peoples to accompany their warlike and religious dances, at the beginning did not go beyond simple planks and wretched drums. And only much later, many tribes of Central Africa and some peoples of the Far East acquired such instruments that served as worthy models for creating more modern European percussion instruments that are already accepted everywhere.

With regard to musical qualities, all percussion instruments are very simply and naturally divided into two kinds or kinds. Some emit a sound of a certain pitch and therefore quite naturally enter the harmonic and melodic basis of the work, while others, capable of producing a more or less pleasant or characteristic noise, perform purely rhythmic and decorating duties in the broadest sense of the word. In addition, various materials are involved in the device of percussion instruments and, in accordance with this feature, they can be divided into instruments “with skin” or “webbed”, and “self-sounding”, in the device of which various types and grades of metal, wood are involved. and lately - glass. Kurt Sachs, assigning them a definition that is not very successful and extremely ugly to the ear - idiophones, obviously loses sight of what it is. the concept in the meaning of "peculiar-sounding" can be, in essence, on equal grounds: applied to any musical instrument or their kind.

In an orchestral score, the commonwealth of percussion instruments is usually placed in the very middle of it, between brass and bowed ones. With the participation of the harp, piano, celesta and all other stringed-plucked or keyboard instruments, the percussion always retain their place and are then located immediately after the brass ones, giving way after themselves to all the “decorating” or “accidental” voices of the orchestra. The absurd way of writing percussion instruments below the bowed quintet must be strongly condemned as very inconvenient, unjustified and extremely ugly. It originally arose in ancient scores, then acquired a more isolated position in the bowels of the brass band and, having an insignificant justification, now, however, violated and completely overcome, was perceived by some composers who wished to attract attention to themselves with at least something and in whatever way. no matter what.

But the worst thing is that this strange innovation turned out to be all the more durable and dangerous because some publishing houses went towards such composers and printed their scores according to the “new model”. Fortunately, there were not so many such "publishing pearls" and they, like works that were predominantly weak in their artistic merits, were drowned in an abundance of truly excellent examples of the diverse creative heritage of all peoples. The only place where the indicated method of presenting percussion instruments now reigns - at the very bottom of the score - is a variety ensemble. But there, in general, it is customary to arrange all the instruments differently, guided only by the altitude sign of the participating instruments. In those distant times, when only one timpani still acted in the orchestra, it was customary to place them above all other instruments, obviously believing such a presentation to be more convenient. But in those years, the score was generally composed somewhat unusually, which now there is no need to recall. We must agree that the modern method of presentation-score is sufficiently simple and convenient, and therefore there is no point in engaging in all sorts of fabrications, which have just been mentioned in detail.

As already mentioned, all percussion instruments are divided into instruments with a certain pitch and instruments without a certain pitch. At present, such a distinction is sometimes disputed, although all the proposals made in this direction come down rather to confusing and deliberately emphasizing the essence of this extremely clear and simple proposition, in which there is not even a direct need to mention the self-evident concept of pitch every time. In the orchestra, instruments “with a certain sound” mean, first of all, a five-line stave or staff, and instruments “with an indefinite sound” - a conditional method of musical notation - “hook” or “thread”, that is, one single line on which note heads represent only the required rhythmic pattern. Such a transformation, done very opportunely, was intended to gain a place, and, with a significant number of percussion instruments, to simplify their presentation. However, not so long ago, for all percussion instruments “without a definite sound”, ordinary staves with the keys of Sol and Fa were adopted, and with a conditional placement of note heads between spaces. The inconvenience of such a recording was not long in affecting as soon as the number of percussive-noise instruments increased to "astronomical limits", and the composers themselves, who used this method of presentation, were lost in the insufficiently developed order of their outline.

But what brought to life the combination of keys and threads is very difficult to say. Most likely, the matter began with a misprint, which then attracted some composers who began to set the treble clef on a string, Intended for relatively high percussion instruments, and the Fa key for relatively low ones. Is it necessary to speak here of the absurdity and complete inconsistency of such a presentation? As far as we know, for the first time the keys on the thread were found in the scores of Anton Rubinstein, printed in Germany, and representing undoubted misprints, and much later revived in the scores of the Flemish composer Arthur Meulemans (1884-?), who made it a rule to supply the middle thread with the key Sol, and the most low - key Fa. Such a presentation looks especially wild in those cases when, between two threads not marked with keys, one appears with the key Fa. In this sense, the Belgian composer Francis de Bourguignon (1890-?) turned out to be more consistent, supplying the key to each thread participating in the score.

French publishing houses adopted a special "key" for percussion instruments in the form of two vertical bold bars resembling the Latin letter "H" and crossing out the thread at the chord itself. There is nothing to object to such an event, as long as it ultimately leads to some external completeness of the orchestral score in general.

However, it would be quite fair to recognize all these eccentricities as equal to zero in the face of the "unsettledness" that still exists - to this day in the presentation of percussion instruments. Rimsky-Korsakov also suggested that all self-sounding instruments, or, as he calls them, “percussion and ringing without a definite sound,” can be considered as high ones - a triangle, castanets, bells, medium ones - a tambourine, rods, a snare drum, cymbals, and as low-bass drum and tam-tam, "meaning by this their ability to be combined with the corresponding areas of the orchestral scale in instruments with sounds of a certain pitch." Leaving aside some details, due to which “rods” should be excluded from the list of percussion instruments, as an “accessory of percussion instruments”, but not a percussion instrument in its proper meaning, Rimsky-Korsakov’s observation remains to this day in full force. Based on this assumption, and supplementing it with all the latest percussion instruments, it would be most reasonable to arrange all percussion instruments in the order of their pitch and write "high" above "medium" and "medium" above "low". However, there is no unanimity among composers and the presentation of percussion instruments is carried out more than arbitrarily.

This situation can be explained to a lesser extent only by the accidental participation of percussion instruments, and to a greater extent by a complete disregard for the composers themselves and the bad habits or erroneous assumptions they have adopted. The only justification for such an “instrumental hodgepodge” can be the desire to present the entire composition of the percussion instruments operating in this case, in the order of parties, when strictly defined instruments are assigned to each performer. Finding fault with words, such an exposition makes more sense in the parts of the drummers themselves, and in the score it is useful only when it is sustained with "pedantic precision".

Returning to the issue of presentation of percussion instruments, the desire of many composers, including quite prominent ones, to place cymbals and a bass drum immediately after the timpani, and the triangle, bells and xylophone - below these latter, must be recognized as unconditionally unsuccessful. There are, of course, no sufficient grounds for such a solution to the problem, and all this can be attributed to an unjustified desire to be “original”. The most simple and natural, and in the light of the exorbitant number of percussion instruments operating in a modern orchestra, the most reasonable can be considered the placement of all percussion instruments using a staff, higher than those using a thread.

In each individual association it would, of course, be desirable to adhere to the views of Rimsky-Korsakov and place the votes in accordance with their relative pitch. For these reasons, after the timpani, which retain their primacy according to the "original tradition", one could place bells, vibraphone and tubaphone above the xylophone and marimba. In instruments without a specific sound, such a distribution will be somewhat more difficult due to the large number of participants, but in this case, nothing will prevent the composer from adhering to the well-known rules, about which much has already been said above.

One must think that the determination of the relative pitch of a self-sounding instrument, in the main, does not cause rumors, and if this is so, then it does not cause any; difficulties for its implementation. Only bells are usually placed below all percussion instruments, since their party is most often content with the conventional outline of notes and their rhythmic duration, and not with a full “ring”, as is usually done in the corresponding recordings. Part of the "Italian" or "Japanese" bells, which look like long metal pipes, requires the usual five-line staff, placed below all other instruments "with a certain sound." Consequently, the bells here also serve as a frame for the staves, united by one common feature of "definiteness" and "uncertainty", sound. Otherwise, there are no peculiarities in the recording of percussion instruments, and if for some reason they appear, they will be mentioned in the proper place.

In a modern symphony orchestra, percussion instruments serve only two purposes - rhythmic, to maintain clarity and sharpness of movement, and decorating in the broadest sense, when the author, through the use of percussion instruments, contributes to the creation of enchanting sound pictures or “moods”, full of excitement, ardor or impetuosity. From what has been said, of course, it is clear that percussion instruments have to be used with great care, taste and moderation. The varied sonority of percussion instruments can quickly tire the attention of listeners, and therefore the author must always remember what his percussion instruments are doing. Only the timpani enjoy certain advantages, but even these can be nullified by excessive excesses.

The classics paid a lot of attention to percussion instruments, but they never raised them to the level of the only members of the orchestra. If something like this happened, then the performance of the drums was most often limited to only a few beats of a bar or was content with an extremely insignificant duration of the entire construction. Of the Russian musicians, Rimsky-Korsakov used one of the percussion instruments as an introduction to very rich and expressive music in the Spanish Capriccio, but most often solo percussion instruments are found in “dramatic music” or in ballet, when the author wants to create a particularly sharp, extraordinary or “ an incredible feeling." This is exactly what Sergei Prokofiev did in the musical performance Egyptian Nights. Here, the sonority of percussion instruments accompanies the scene of commotion in the house of Cleopatra's father, to which the author prefixes the title "Alarm". Did not refuse the services of percussion instruments and Victor Oransky (1899-1953). He had the opportunity to use this amazing sonority in the ballet Three Fat Men, where he entrusted one percussion accompaniment to the sharp rhythmic canvas of the "eccentric dance". Finally, quite recently, the services of some percussion instruments used in an intricate sequence of "dynamic

The French, laughing at such an “artistic revelation”, rather venomously ask if the new French word bruisme originated from here, as a derivative of brui, “noise”. There is no equivalent concept in the Russian language, but the Orchestrators themselves have already taken care of a new name for such music, which they quite evilly dubbed the definition of “percussive thresher”. In one of his early symphonic works, Alexander Cherepnin devoted a whole part to such an "ensemble". There was already a chance to talk a little about this work about the connection with the use of the bow quintet as percussion instruments, and therefore there is no urgent need to return to it a second time. Shostakovich also paid tribute to the unfortunate "shock" delusion in those days when his creative worldview was not yet sufficiently stable and mature.

The “onomatopoeic” side of the matter stands completely aside, when the author, with the smallest number of percussion instruments actually used, has a desire or, more precisely, an artistic need to create only a “feeling of percussion” of all music intended mainly for string and woodwind instruments. One such example, extremely witty, funny and excellent-sounding "in an orchestra", if the composition of the instruments participating in it can be defined precisely by this concept, is found in Oransky's ballet Three Fat Men and is called "Patrol".

But the most outrageous example of musical formalism remains the work written by Edgard Varèse (1885-?). It is designed for thirteen performers, is intended for two combinations of percussion instruments and is called by the author lonisation, which means "Saturation". This "work" involves only sharp-sounding percussion instruments with piano. However, this latter is also used as a “percussion instrument” and the performer acts on it according to the newest “American method” of Henry Cauel (1897-?), who, as you know, suggested playing with only one elbow, outstretched across the entire width of the keyboard. According to the reviews of the then press - and this happened in the thirties of the current century - the Parisian listeners, brought by this work to a state of wild frenzy, urgently demanded its repetition, which was immediately carried out. Without saying a bad word, the history of the modern orchestra does not yet know the second such out of the line "case".

1. Bibliography

1. "Musical Encyclopedia", Yu.V. Keldysh, volume 2, publishing houses "Soviet Encyclopedia" and "Soviet Composer", 1974

2. "Musical Encyclopedia", Yu.V. Keldysh, volume 5, publishing houses "Soviet Encyclopedia" and "Soviet Composer", 1981

3. "Conversations about the orchestra", Dm. Rogal-Levitsky, State Musical Publishing House, Moscow, 1961

4. “Cello, double bass and other musical instruments”, H. Tserashi, Music Publishing House, 1979

5. "Percussion instruments in modern orchestras", A.N. Panayotov, 1973

6. A group of percussion instruments in an orchestra

7. Percussion instruments: names and types

Orchestra(from the Greek orchestra) - a large team of instrumental musicians. Unlike chamber ensembles, in the orchestra some of its musicians form groups playing in unison, that is, they play the same parts.
The very idea of ​​simultaneous music-making by a group of instrumental performers goes back to ancient times: even in ancient Egypt, small groups of musicians played together at various holidays and funerals.
The word "orchestra" ("orchestra") comes from the name of the round platform in front of the stage in the ancient Greek theater, which housed the ancient Greek choir, a participant in any tragedy or comedy. During the Renaissance and beyond XVII century, the orchestra was transformed into an orchestra pit and, accordingly, gave the name to the group of musicians located in it.
There are many different types of orchestra: military brass and woodwind orchestras, folk instrument orchestras, string orchestras. The largest in composition and the richest in terms of its capabilities is the symphony orchestra.

Symphoniccalled an orchestra, composed of several heterogeneous groups of instruments - a family of strings, wind and percussion. The principle of such an association has developed in Europe in XVIII century. Initially, the symphony orchestra included groups of bowed instruments, woodwinds and brass instruments, which were joined by a few percussion musical instruments. Subsequently, the composition of each of these groups expanded and diversified. Currently, among a number of varieties of symphony orchestras, it is customary to distinguish between a small and a large symphony orchestra. The Small Symphony Orchestra is an orchestra of predominantly classical composition (playing music of the late 18th - early 19th century, or modern pastiche). It consists of 2 flutes (rarely a small flute), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 (rarely 4) horns, sometimes 2 trumpets and timpani, a string group of no more than 20 instruments (5 first and 4 second violins, 4 violas, 3 cellos, 2 double basses). The large symphony orchestra (BSO) includes obligatory trombones in the copper group and can have any composition. Often wooden instruments (flutes, oboes, clarinets and bassoons) reach up to 5 instruments of each family (clarinets sometimes more) and include varieties (pick and alto flutes, cupid oboe and English oboe, small, alto and bass clarinets, contrabassoon). The copper group can include up to 8 horns (including special Wagner tubas), 5 trumpets (including small, alto, bass), 3-5 trombones (tenor and tenorbass) and a tuba. Saxophones are often used (in a jazz orchestra, all 4 types). The string group reaches 60 or more instruments. Percussion instruments are numerous (although timpani, bells, small and large drums, triangle, cymbals and Indian tam-tom form their backbone), harp, piano, harpsichord are often used.
To illustrate the sound of the orchestra, I will use the recording of the final concert of the YouTube Symphony Orchestra. The concert took place in 2011 in the Australian city of Sydney. It was watched live on television by millions of people around the world. The YouTube Symphony is dedicated to fostering a love of music and showcasing the vast creative diversity of humanity.

The concert program included well-known and little-known works by well-known and little-known composers.

Here is his program:

Hector Berlioz - Roman Carnival - Overture, Op. 9 (featuring Android Jones - digital artist)
Meet Maria Chiossi
Percy Grainger - Arrival on a Platform Humlet from in a Nutshell - Suite
Johan Sebastian Bach
Meet Paulo Calligopoulos - Electric Guitar and violin
Alberto Ginastera - Danza del trigo (Wheat Dance) and Danza final (Malambo) from the ballet Estancia (conducted by Ilyich Rivas)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - "Caro" bell "idol mio" - Canon in three voices, K562 (featuring the Sydney Children's Choir and soprano Renee Fleming via video)
Meet Xiomara Mass - Oboe
Benjamin Britten - The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, Op. 34
William Barton - Kalkadunga (featuring William Barton - Didgeridoo)
Timothy Constable
Meet Roman Riedel - Trombone
Richard Strauss - Fanfare for the Vienna Philharmonic (featuring Sarah Willis, Horn, Berlin Philharmoniker and conducted by Edwin Outwater)
*PREMIERE* Mason Bates - Mothership (specially composed for the YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2011)
Meet Su Chang
Felix Mendelssohn - Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64 (Finale) (featuring Stefan Jackiw and conducted by Ilyich Rivas)
Meet Ozgur Baskin - Violin
Colin Jacobsen and Siamak Aghaei - Ascending Bird - Suite for string orchestra (featuring Colin Jacobsen, violin, and Richard Tognetti, violin, and Kseniya Simonova - sand artist)
Meet Stepan Grytsay - Violin
Igor Stravinsky - The Firebird (Infernal Dance - Berceuse - Finale)
*ENCORE* Franz Schubert - Rosamunde (featuring Eugene Izotov - oboe, and Andrew Mariner - clarinet)

History of the symphony orchestra

The symphony orchestra has been formed over the centuries. Its development for a long time took place in the depths of opera and church ensembles. Such teams in XV - XVII centuries were small and varied. They included lutes, viols, flutes with oboes, trombones, harps, and drums. Gradually, stringed bowed instruments won the dominant position. The viols were replaced by violins with their richer and more melodious sound. Back to top XVIII in. they already reigned supreme in the orchestra. A separate group and wind instruments (flutes, oboes, bassoons) have united. From the church orchestra they switched to the symphony trumpets and timpani. The harpsichord was an indispensable member of instrumental ensembles.
Such a composition was typical for J. S. Bach, G. Handel, A. Vivaldi.
From the middle XVIII in. the genres of symphony and instrumental concerto begin to develop. The departure from the polyphonic style led the composers to strive for timbre diversity, the relief singling out of orchestral voices.
The functions of the new tools are changing. The harpsichord, with its weak sound, is gradually losing its leading role. Soon, composers completely abandoned it, relying mainly on the string and wind group. By the end XVIII in. the so-called classical composition of the orchestra was formed: about 30 strings, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, 2 pipes, 2-3 horns and timpani. The clarinet soon joined the brass. J. Haydn, W. Mozart wrote for such a composition. Such is the orchestra in the early compositions of L. Beethoven. AT XIX in.
The development of the orchestra went mainly in two directions. On the one hand, increasing in composition, it was enriched with instruments of many types (the merit of romantic composers, primarily Berlioz, Liszt, Wagner, is great for this), on the other hand, the internal capabilities of the orchestra developed: sound colors became cleaner, texture clearer, expressive resources are more economical (such is the orchestra of Glinka, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov). Significantly enriched the orchestral palette and many composers of the late XIX - 1st half of XX in. (R. Strauss, Mahler, Debussy, Ravel, Stravinsky, Bartok, Shostakovich and others).

Composition of the symphony orchestra

The modern symphony orchestra consists of 4 main groups. The foundation of the orchestra is a string group (violins, violas, cellos, double basses). In most cases, strings are the main carriers of the melodic beginning in the orchestra. The number of musicians playing strings is approximately 2/3 of the entire band. The group of woodwind instruments includes flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons. Each of them usually has an independent party. Yielding to bowed ones in timbre saturation, dynamic properties and a variety of playing techniques, wind instruments have great power, compact sound, bright colorful hues. The third group of orchestra instruments is brass (horn, trumpet, trombone, trumpet). They bring new bright colors to the orchestra, enriching its dynamic capabilities, giving power and brilliance to the sound, and also serve as a bass and rhythmic support.
Percussion instruments are becoming increasingly important in the symphony orchestra. Their main function is rhythmic. In addition, they create a special sound and noise background, complement and decorate the orchestral palette with color effects. According to the nature of the sound, drums are divided into 2 types: some have a certain pitch (timpani, bells, xylophone, bells, etc.), others lack an exact pitch (triangle, tambourine, small and large drum, cymbals). Of the instruments that are not included in the main groups, the role of the harp is the most significant. Occasionally, composers include the celesta, piano, saxophone, organ and other instruments in the orchestra.
More information about the instruments of a symphony orchestra - string group, woodwinds, brass and percussion can be found at website.
I can not ignore another useful site, "Children about Music", which I discovered during the preparation of the post. No need to be intimidated by the fact that this is a site for children. There are some pretty serious things in it, only told in a simpler, more understandable language. Here link on him. By the way, it also contains a story about a symphony orchestra.

A symphony orchestra is a fairly large group of musicians who perform various musical works. As a rule, the repertoire includes music of the Western European tradition. What is the composition of a symphony orchestra? How is it different from other musical groups? More on this later.

Composition of the symphony orchestra by groups

Four categories of musical performers are involved in the modern collective. Where should one begin to consider the composition of a symphony orchestra? The instruments played by musicians are distinguished by their diversity, dynamic properties, rhythmic and sound features.

The foundation of the band is considered to be musicians playing the strings. Their number is about 2/3 of the total number of performers. The symphony orchestra includes double bassists, cellists, violinists, and violists. As a rule, strings act as the main carriers of the melodic beginning.

The next group is woodwinds. These include bassoons, clarinets, oboes, flutes. Each instrument has its own part. In comparison with bowed instruments, woodwinds do not have such a breadth and variety in performance techniques. However, they have more power, brightness of shades with a compact sound.

The symphony orchestra also includes brass instruments. These include trumpets, trombones, tubas, horns. Thanks to their presence, the performance of musical pieces becomes more powerful, as they act as a rhythmic and bass support.

Strings

The violin is considered the highest sounding. This instrument is characterized by rich technical and expressive possibilities. The violin is often entrusted with difficult and fast passages, various trills, melodic and wide jumps, tremolo.

Another is alt. The method of playing it is similar to violin. It is generally accepted that the viola is somewhat inferior to the violin in terms of brightness and brilliance of timbre. But at the same time, this instrument perfectly conveys music of a dreamy-romantic, elegiac character.

The cello is twice as large as the viola, but its bow is shorter than the viola and violin ones. This tool belongs to the category of "foot": it is installed between the knees, resting on the floor with a metal spire.

The double bass is much larger in size - you have to play it sitting on a high stool or standing. This instrument is great for playing fairly fast passages. The double bass forms the foundation for the sound of the strings, performing the parts of the bass voice. Quite often he is part of a jazz orchestra.

Woodwinds

The flute is one of the most ancient instruments in the world. The first mention of it can be found in the scrolls of Egypt, Rome, Greece. Of all the woodwinds, the flute is considered the most mobile instrument, and in its virtuosity it far surpasses the rest.

The oboe is considered no less ancient. This instrument is unique in that, due to the peculiarities of its design, it does not lose its settings. Therefore, all other "participants" are configured according to it.

Another fairly popular instrument is the clarinet. Only he has access to a fairly flexible change in the strength of the sound. Due to this and other properties, the clarinet is considered one of the most expressive "voices" that make up the brass band.

Drums. general information

Considering the composition of the symphony orchestra by groups, percussion instruments should be noted. Their function is rhythmic. At the same time, they form a rich sound-noise background, decorate and complement the palette of melodies with various effects. According to the nature of the sound, percussion instruments can be divided into two types. The first includes those that have a certain timpani, bells, xylophone and others. The second type includes instruments that lack accurate sound pitch. These, in particular, include cymbals, drums, a tambourine, a triangle.

Description

Quite ancient, like some of the instruments described above, is the timpani. They were quite common in many countries: Greece, Africa, among the Scythians. Unlike other leather instruments, timpani have a certain pitch.

Cymbals are large round metal plates. In the center they are slightly convex - in this place the straps are fixed so that the performer can hold them in his hands. They are played standing up - this is how sound spreads best in the air. A symphony orchestra usually includes one pair of cymbals.

The xylophone is a fairly original device. Wooden blocks of different sizes are used as a sounding body. It should be said that the xylophone is often part of the Russian folk orchestra. The sound that wooden blocks make is sharp, clicking, "dry". Sometimes they evoke a gloomy mood, creating grotesque, bizarre images. The orchestra, whose composition may include not only the xylophone, most often performs in a special storyline - usually in fairy tales or epic episodes.

Brass

The trumpet was the very first to enter the opera orchestra. Her timbre is not characterized by lyricism. As a general rule, trumpets are considered exclusively fanfare instruments.

The most poetic in the "collective" is the French horn. In the low register, its timbre is somewhat gloomy, and in the upper register it is quite tense.

The saxophone occupies in some way an intermediate position between woodwinds and brass. The power of its sound is much higher than that of the clarinet. Since the beginning of the 20th century, the saxophone has become one of the main "voices" that make up jazz ensembles.

Tuba refers to "bass". It is able to cover the lowest part of the range of the copper group.

Single tools. Harp

The main composition of the symphony orchestra is described above. Instruments can be introduced additionally. For example, the harp. This instrument is considered one of the oldest in the musical history of mankind. It came from a bow with a stretched bowstring, which sounded quite melodious when fired. The harp belongs to Beauty and its appearance is superior to all other "participants".

The harp has rather peculiar virtuosic abilities. On it, passages from arpeggios, wide chords, glissandos, and harmonics are excellent. The role of the harp is not so much emotional as colorful to a certain extent. The instrument often accompanies others. In addition, the harp is given spectacular solos.

piano

The sound source of this instrument is metal strings. Wooden hammers, covered with felt, begin to knock on them when you press the keys with your fingers. The result is a different sound. The piano gained wide popularity as a solo instrument. But in some cases, he can also act as an "ordinary participant." Some composers use the piano as a decorative element, bringing new colors and sonority to the sound of the entire orchestra.

Organ

This wind was known in the most distant antiquity. At that time, air was blown with bellows by hand. Subsequently, the design of the instrument was improved. In ancient Europe, the organ was used in church services. This is a gigantic instrument with a wide variety of timbres. The range of the organ is greater than that of all the instruments in the orchestra put together. The design provides for furs that pump air, a system of pipes of various sizes and devices, keyboards - foot and several manual ones.

Pipes of the same timbre in one set are called "register". Large cathedral organs have about a hundred registers. The coloring of sounds in some of them resembles the sound of a flute, oboe, clarinet, cello and other orchestral instruments. The more diverse and "richer" the registers, the more opportunities the performer has. The art of playing the organ is based on the ability to skillfully "register", that is, the use of all technical potential.

When using the organ in the latest music, theatrical in particular, the composers pursued primarily a sound-representative goal, especially in those moments where it was necessary to reproduce the church atmosphere. So, for example, Liszt in "The Battle of the Huns" (a symphonic poem) contrasted the Christian world with the barbarians using the organ.