Symphony orchestra

“ It is all a great tumult, a rising of the people. There are in fact only two characters, Rienzi and the populace. It is more like a magnificent symphony with choruses than like an opera as ordinarily heard. The orchestra has become the great power, the science of which the composer fully understands and controls.
In the first act, the call to arms—
"When the trumpet shall have sounded thrice,"
is marked by a proud enthusiasm which extends to the chorus, whose voices carry on the theme swelling and augmenting it to a superb crescendo. ”

“ The burden of the hymn heard above the symphonic struggle of the orchestra is joy, love and brotherhood for all mankind, or that charity which is the true essence of the Christian religion. Like Dante's Divine Comedy or Bach's Passion Music, the Ninth Symphony will live as one of the greatest monuments of genius. ”

“ His art of orchestration, like his art of writing for the pianoforte, is peculiarly his own, and again is the most fitting imaginable to the quality of his inspiration. It is often striking. The introduction to the last movement of the first symphony, the coda of the first movement of the second symphony, the adagio of the fourth symphony are all points of color which as color cannot be forgotten; and in all his works for orchestra this is what Hugo Riemann calls a ‘gothic’ interweaving of parts, which, if it be not a subtle coloration, is at any rate most beautiful shading. ”

“ The slow movement is of the most lulling and soothing character, and about the time the audience should be falling into its first snooze, the instruments having all died away into the softest pianissimo, the full orchestra breaks out with a frightful BANG. It is a question whether the most vigorous performance of this symphony would startle an audience nowadays, accustomed to the strident effects of Wagner and Liszt. ”

“ It is true, the audience were at first startled by the novelty, and were seen whispering together; but when the music began and the orchestra executed the well-known symphony with unusual power and precision, the general approbation was shewn immediately on the conclusion of the first part by a long-sustained clapping of hands. The triumph of the baton as a time-giver was decisive, and no one was seen any more seated at the piano during the performance of symphonies and overtures. ”

“ In composition the band is not far removed from the orchestra, except that woodwind instruments, such as flutes and clarinets, take the place of strings, but the result is that the band in its own field of music more particularly stimulates activities of the body where the symphony orchestra makes a stronger appeal to mental activity. ”

“ Many a musician may dislike the symphony, but none can help [Pg 358] respecting it. The orchestra, though not large for our day, was revolutionary in its time. It included, in one movement or another (besides the usual strings) a small flute and two large ones; oboes; two clarinets, a small clarinet, and an English horn; four horns, two trumpets, two cornets à pistons, and three trombones; four bassoons, two ophicleides, four pairs of kettle-drums, cymbals, bells, and bass drum.
A challenge to the timid spirits of the time; and a thing of revolutionary significance to modern music. ”

“ One must be an experienced and well-known musician to do it. They sing no chants in the service, but only chorales.
To-night is the last Royal Symphony Concert of this season, and of course I shall go. This wonderful orchestra carries me completely away. It is too marvellous how they play! such expression, such élan! I heard them give Beethoven's Leonora Overture last week in such a fashion as fairly electrified me. This overture sums up the opera of Fidelio, and in one part of it, just as the hero is going to be executed, you hear the post-horn sound which announces his delivery. ”

“ IN view of the rapidly increasing number of Symphony Orchestras throughout the country, and the consequent wide-spread interest in the better class of orchestral music, a demand has arisen among music-lovers and students for information concerning the instruments that constitute the modern symphony orchestra. ”

“ Symphony orchestras are always seated in approximately the same way, and if our small ensemble group consists of twenty players or more, it will be well for the conductor to arrange them in somewhat the same manner as a larger orchestra. ”

“ Paul in 1905, New Orleans in 1906, Seattle in 1908, while the Symphony Society of New York was reorganized in 1905, and a Russian Symphony orchestra established in New York City. The term "Symphony Orchestra" has been universally adopted, till we have symphony orchestras even in the moving picture houses. ”

“ The orchestra is a regular visitor each season to many large cities.... Each season the demand for the orchestra has increased, and thus it has become a national educator, a notable benefactor in the musical development of this country, probably traversing a larger area than any of the great symphony orchestras.' In addition to its regular conductors the orchestra has at various times played under the leadership of guest conductors, including Richard Strauss, Eugen d'Albert, Walter Damrosch, and Edward Elgar. ”

“ Many of the players teach; but few beyond the violinists and cellists have that resource open to them. The purpose is—and it is effectively realized—to make the orchestra, during the season, a united body of men with but one main object in view and free to devote themselves to it—following a single director’s counsels of perfection, with as little as possible to weary them or to distract them from it. How high an ideal that is, and how few of the great orchestras of the world make any pretense of reaching it, is perhaps not often realized. ”

“ I grant that the composition of an original opera is a high achievement, but we know how many composers have won success in the operatic field from whom we should never expect a symphony. From comparatively few have we great works in both forms. Consider, furthermore, how complicated a tool is the present orchestra, as a tool, to say nothing of the invention of ideas. Many years of study are required to attain a certainty of calculation in sonority and nuance, and the mere writing out the score of a symphony requires unremitting toil. ”

“ Orchestral playing has never reached a high plane in England, but the London Philharmonic Society has an important history because of the famous works written for it, among them symphonies and overtures by Cherubini, Spohr’s second symphony, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, and Mendelssohn’s Italian symphony. ”

“ Not only is the orchestra capable of rendering at one time a multiplicity of independent themes, but by virtue of the many different tone colors which characterize the various instruments, the melodic line traced by each individual voice may be easily followed by the attentive ear, while all the voices blend in one harmonious whole. It is this complete independence of each voice in respect to power, tonal quality, and style of phrasing which makes the orchestra unapproachable as a means of musical expression. ”

“ For instance, it is quite customary to allow the full body of strings to play a Mozart symphony, although the wood-winds and brasses are not appreciably greater in number in the modern orchestra than they were in Mozart’s time. [31] Lack of proportion and over-emphasis are the natural results.
It is only the composers who have invented the modern orchestra, Berlioz, Liszt, Wagner, Strauss, Reger, Strawinsky and Scriabine—to mention a few names—who get justice done to their compositions. In fact, as it stands, the modern orchestra exists for the perfect playing of modern music. ”

“ Many new men came from Europe at his summons,—young men of eager blood, like the “young lions” of the Conservatory orchestra that were the delight of Berlioz in Paris,—for whom the orchestra was not a refuge, but a field for ambitious and energetic labor. ”

“ We have no organized orchestral or symphony society, as we should have; but we have with us always the elements of a good orchestra, who always work well together, and never better than last year under the enterprise and drill of Mr. Zerrahn. Then we had glorious symphonies and overtures, both old and new; and we shall have as good, and still more brilliant concerts soon, if hard times do not daunt the leader's very sanguine purpose. ”

“ The orchestra and its music, therefore, represents the extreme height of man’s work in music, for even when choral forces are joined to the orchestra, the instrumental idea dominates, as, for example, in the Ninth Symphony of Beethoven, in which the chorus is simply a vocal band added to the other groups. The orchestra is a great means for musical expression because it offers to the composer the maximum of resources. ”

“ As a symphony simply is a sonata for orchestra, 36 it follows that through the sonata and thus through the pianoforte the form in which the classical composers cast their greatest works was established. Richard Strauss, in his revision of Berlioz’s book on orchestration, even goes so far as to assert that Beethoven, and after him Schumann and Brahms, treated the orchestra pianistically; but the discussion of this point is better deferred until we take up the orchestra and orchestral music. ”

“ Command of the orchestra makes itself felt by degrees; first the separate parts become free and independent, a special movement is given to the second violins by characteristic passages and imitative treatment, and the basses too gain life and independence; they are in free imitation for the first time in a Symphony in G major (no K.) belonging to the year 1771. As development proceeded the subjects became fuller, and the whole work gained in consistency and substance, although it still wanted finish and elaboration. ”

“ When a concerto is played on two pianos (without orchestra) , this does not mean that there is no orchestral part, but that there is no orchestra to play it, and so the parts that should be played by the orchestral instruments have simply been arranged for a second piano (sometimes organ) .
156. A symphony is a sonata for full orchestra. In general its construction is the same as that of the sonata, but it is usually of much larger proportions and has in it much greater variety of both tonal and rhythmic material. ”

“ The composer thinks that the time has come for the symphony to benefit by the progress of modern instrumentation, and he therefore establishes his orchestra as follows: three flutes, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, double bassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, three kettledrums, organ, pianoforte (now for two hands and now for four) , triangle, a pair of cymbals, bass drum, and the usual strings. ”

“ When the presence of the chorus-singers in front of the orchestra is not necessary, the conductor must take care to send them away; since this large number of human bodies injures the sonority of the instruments. A symphony performed by an orchestra thus more or less stifled, loses much of its effect. ”

“ Pictures and books are fine for those that have the time to study ’em, but they don’t shoot out on the road and holler ‘This is what little old Zenith can put up in the way of Culture.’ That’s precisely what a Symphony Orchestra does do. Look at the credit Minneapolis and Cincinnati get. An orchestra with first-class musickers and a swell conductor—and I believe we ought to do the thing up brown and get one of the highest-paid conductors on the market, providing he ain’t a Hun—it goes right into Beantown and New York and Washington ”

“ In the midst of this clamour, too, the many errors in harmony will be equally hidden. It may be observed, that the rules we have thus laid down are equally applicable in the composition of a symphony, terzetto, aria, duet, finale, &c., since in all our modern works the same form, the same colouring, the same general process is considered indispensable: above all, it must never be forgotten that, on every occasion, the orchestra should be everything ”

“ The symphony is simply a sonata, on a large scale, for orchestra; the overture is a similar piece for orchestra, in one movement; the concerto is, as it were, a symphony with a solo instrument emphasized or placed in the foreground; trios, quartets, quintets, etc., are sonatas for various groups of string and wind instruments. Thus it will be seen that the bulk of all instrumental music is cast in this ever available and useful form of the sonata. ”

“ There was no such thing as a “permanent orchestra.” The musicians of the Symphony Society, for instance, played in six symphony concerts during the winter, each preceded by a public rehearsal. They also officiated at four concerts of the Oratorio Society, and this was almost the extent of their efforts in that direction. The rest of the time they made their living by teaching, playing in theatres, at dances, and some of them even at political or military processions and mass meetings. If a better “job” came along than the symphony concert they would simply send my father a substitute. ”

“ Chapter XII The Classic Orchestral Composers
"Sinfonia avanti l'Opera"—Its development into the overture—Effect of this on orchestral composition—The classical symphony—Haydn and his achievements—Exploring the secrets of orchestral writing—Mozart and his notable system—Condition of the symphony when Beethoven began writing. THE classic orchestral composers are those who wrote the classic piano sonatas, and they developed their orchestral works on the same lines as those of their piano works. The symphony, as I have already said, is nothing more nor less than a sonata for orchestra ”