harmonics

Notes from the history of orchestra

• During Renaissance around the 1500’s the word "consort" was used to mean a group of instrumentalists and occasionally singers making music together or "in concert".
• In the 1600’s the Italian composer Claudio Monteverdi systematically choose the instruments he wanted to accompany his opera Orfeo (1607),
• First set comprised of fifteen viols of different sizes, two violins, four flutes, two large and two medium. Along with two oboes, two cornetts (small wooden trumpets), four trumpets, five trombones, a harp, two harpsichords, and three small organs.
• In the next century around J.S Bach the orchestra developed still further.
• The violin family, violin, viola, cello, and bass, replaced the viols and the new kind of string section became more prominent to the Baroque orchestra than the viols had been in the Renaissance.
• Musical leadership in the Baroque orchestra came from the musician playing the keyboards, harp or organ acting as leader.
• J.S. Bach worked with an orchestra usually giving cues from his bench as he sat at the organ or harpsichord.
• In the Baroque era a musical director occasionally stood and conducted the orchestra.
• It further underwent several developments till 1800 up to Haydn's and Beethoven's time.
• The string instruments came into the forefront and keyboard instruments took a back seat.
• Composers began to write for the specific instrument keeping in mind how the piece would sound and how could it be played easily.
• Combining instruments produced different sounds and added vibrancy in the orchestra.
• Initially a rolled up piece of white paper was used to conduct the orchestra so that all musicians could see it.
• This led to the design of a baton that conductors use today.
• In the 1800s, conductor-composers such as Carl Maria von Weber and Felix Mendelssohn stood up on a podium and conducted from front and centre.
• Later in the 1800s, the orchestra reached the size and proportions we know today and even went beyond that size.
• New instruments such as the piccolo and the tuba were now available for orchestras.
• Many composers like Berlioz, Verdi, Wagner, Mahler, and Richard Strauss, turned conductors as well.  
• Orchestra mainly comprises of: a big string section, with smaller sections for brasses, woodwinds, percussion, harps and keyboard instruments.

CREDITS:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeP_AS0DqaU

http://www.nyphilkids.org/lockerroom/history_f-r.html