Envision

An orchestra is a large group of musicians playing each of their own musical instrument. Examples of these instruments are violin, cello, double bass, trumpet, oboe, percussions and many, many more.

There are 2 types of orchestra:
1. Less than forty people - Chamber Orchestra
2. More than forty people - Symphony/Philharmonic Orchestra

The magic of orchestral music is displayed when all, different types of instruments play at the same time. Although they produce different sounds, but if played accurately according to the songs, the sound is wonderful.

This is the layout of a usual symphony/philharmonic orchestra:

Coordination of an orchestra is the most important. The conductor must synchronise the movement and timing of each and every participant in the orchestra. For example, the conductor flicks his baton once, meaning one beat in the song. Besides, the string instruments movement of their bow(stick) is of highest priority too, to maintain the fluency of motion in the entire orchestra.

Here is a list of the instruments:

• Woodwinds: piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon (double bassoon)
• Brass: 2 to 8 horns, 2 to 5 trumpets, 2 trombones and 1 bass trombone, tuba
• Percussion: timpani, snare drum, tenor drum, bass drum, cymbals, triangle, wood block, tambourine, marimba, xylophone, glockenspiel, gong (tam-tam), tubular bells, etc.
• Strings: harp(s), 16 to 30 violins, 8 to 12 violas, 8 to 12 violoncellos (cellos), and 5 to 8 double basses.

Click on any instrument to find out more about it!

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This entry was posted on Sunday, March 16th, 2008 at 4:57 pm and is filed under MusicalWorld. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.