The Orchestra

An orchestra is a group of musicians who play together on various instruments. Sometimes it performs alone ,at other times it plays along with a group of singers. Orchestras give concerts and play for ballets or operas. They also provide background music for moviesand TV shows.

When we speak of orchestras we usually mean symphony orchestras. They have many instruments and play mostly classical music which is performed in concerts.

Some symphony orchestras have only professional musicians. The most famous are in the larger cities of the world. Among them are the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic, the Boston and London Symphony.

Orchestral music is written in the form of a score, which shows the notes that are played by each instrument. Every musician only sees the notes that he or she plays. The conductor stands in front of the orchestra and directs the musicians .

An orchestra can have up to 20 kinds of different instruments. Large symphony orchestras can have a hundred musicians . Smaller ones like chamber orchestras have between 5 

and 40 players. They originally were small enough to play in a chamber or hall.

Sections of an Orchestra 

A modern orchestra consists of four sections or families of instruments. The string section is the most important part of a symphonyorchestra. It has more than half of the musicians and consists of violins, violas , cellos and string basses . The violinists play high sounds and are divided into two groups. The first violins and the second violins usually play different parts. The leading first violinist is the concertmaster of the orchestra. He helps the other musicians tune their instruments and serves as the assistant . Cellos and string basses play low sounds .

The woodwind section consists of flutes, bassoons , oboes and clarinets. An orchestra can have between two and four of each of these instruments. Sometimes these musicians change instruments , for example, a flutist may switch to a piccolo . These two instruments have high piercing tones , whereas the bassoon may have the lowest tones of the whole orchestra.

The brass section has several trumpets, French horns, trombones and one tuba . These instruments are especially important in the loud, exciting parts of the music. Trumpets and horns play the higher parts, trombones and tubas dominate the lower parts. This section is located mostly at the centre and back of the orchestra.

The percussion section has all sorts of instruments, especially those that you can hit, rattle or shake . The drums are the best knownamong these instruments. In a symphony orchestra, kettledrums or timpani make the music more exciting . Other percussioninstruments include bells, cymbals , gongs, tambourines or xylophones.

Other instruments like the harp , piano or saxophone may be added to the orchestra if they are needed.

The Conductor

A conductor directs the musicians with a stick, called the baton. But he does important things before the performance . He chooses the music that is to be played at a concert and decides how it should be played- loud or soft, fast or slow. Then he calls the musicians torehearsals where he often lets sections or individual musicians play their parts over and over again until the sound is perfect.