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2 The Orchestral Instruments If we are to communicate clearly with the members of an orchestra, we must understand something of the characteristics of their instruments, and of the variety of ways they can produce sounds. Above all, we need to have some idea of what is dif¤cult for each instrument, and what is easy.1 The Strings We begin with the string family because the violins, violas, violoncellos (or ’cellos), and contrabasses (or bass viols, double basses, string basses, etc.) are the core of the orchestra, both in numbers and in terms of the demands traditionally placed on them by composers. Already in the Baroque period composers were dividing the strings into four orchestral sections: ¤rst violins, second violins, violas, and the basso continuo . From the eighteenth into the nineteenth centuries a gradual process separated the contrabasses—which originally had played in the same octave as the ’cellos—from the latter, ¤rst assigning them a separate staff on the score and a separate octave in the texture, and later allowing them (initially only for special effects) to undertake discrete melodic lines. In this way we came eventually to the standard format of ¤ve string sections. Parallel to this historical evolution of the orchestral ensemble ran experimentation with seating arrangements for the players.2 In the pattern that has become traditional, all the strings except the basses are seated two-to-a-stand, so the lower-ranking one (the “inside” player, generally upstage of his partner) can turn pages, as necessary, while the other plays. By an early stage in this evolutionary process, as orchestras became continuing organizations (rather than ad hoc aggregations) the ¤rst player in each of these sections was given the title “principal,” and his partner on the ¤rst “desk” (or stand) was called the “assistant principal.” By a further convention, the principal ¤rst violinist was called the “concertmaster” and his cohort the “assistant concertmaster.” All the principals have some responsibility for the unity and discipline of their sections. There has been much experimentation with the placement of the string sections within the orchestra. Perhaps the most common practice (shown in ¤gure 1) is to put the ¤rst violins on the conductor’s left, with the ’cellos on his 1. You may wish more detailed information with respect to these matters. The following could be of help: Ivan Galamian, The Principles of Violin Playing and Teaching; Elizabeth Green, Orchestral Bowing; and Walter Piston, Orchestration. 2. There is quite a thorough summary of this evolution, complete with seating charts, in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 6th Edition, pp. 679–691. right, and the contrabasses behind them. This arrangement has the advantage of facing all the violins “toward the audience” (for a signi¤cant increase in the carrying-power of a violin is gained by aiming its “F-holes”—the openings in the top of the violin—at the listener); the second violins are “hidden” behind the ¤rsts in this placement, however, so that any sense of the antiphonal playing which sometimes occurs between the two violin sections is reduced. A common alternative (seen in ¤gure 2) provides for that antiphonal effect by placing the second violins across from the ¤rsts, on the conductor’s right. This arrangement has the added advantage of moving both the violas and the ’cellos to positions from which they speak more directly to the audience; it turns the F-holes of the seconds toward the back of the stage, on the other hand, further weakening what may already be the less con¤dent of the two violin sections. The Violins You already know much about these instruments from your experience and observation. To review concisely a few fundamental considerations: 1. The four strings of the violin are tuned (with very rare exceptions called scordatura) to the G-natural just below “middle C,” and— ascending by perfect ¤fths—to D-natural, A-natural, and E-natural. (The player begins by adjusting the A-natural until it is pitched as he wishes, and then tunes the other strings to it.) The upward range of the violin is quite large, and depends primarily on the skill of the player. 2. The strings are stopped with the ¤ngers of the left hand. The right hand is used to produce sound either (a) by drawing the bow across the strings, or (b) by plucking them (the technique called pizzicato). On very rare occasions the composer may instruct the player to use the Percussion French...

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