An orchestra is an aggregation of many instruments which, under the
baton of an able conductor, should play as one, so far as precision
and expression are concerned. Separately, the instruments are like the
paints on a palette, and the result of the composer's effort, like
that of the painter's, depends upon what he has to express and his
knowledge of how to use his materials in trying to express it.
The orchestra has developed into several distinct groups, which are
capable of playing independently, or in union with each other, and
within these groups themselves there are various subdivisions. It is
the purpose of every modern composer who amounts to anything, to get
as many different quartets as possible out of his orchestra. By this
is meant a grouping of instruments in such a way that as many groups
as possible can play in independent harmony.
It is through this system of orchestral groups that Wagner has been
able to enrich orchestral tone coloring, and to say everything he
wishes to say in exactly the way it should be said. We cannot, for
example, imagine that the Love Motive in "Die Walkuere" could be made
to sound more beautiful on its first entrance in the score than it
does. Nor could it. In that scene it is exactly suited to a solo
violoncello, and to a solo violoncello Wagner gives it. In order,
however, to produce a perfectly homogenous effect, in order that the
violoncello quality of tone shall pervade not only the melody, but
also the supporting harmony, he supports the melody with eight
violoncellos, adding two double basses to give more sonorousness to
the deepest note in the harmony. In other words he has made for the
moment a complete orchestra out of nine violoncellos and two double
basses, and produced a wondrously rich and thrilling effect--because,
having a beautiful melody to score, he knew just the instruments for
which to score it. This is an admirable example of what technique
accomplishes in the hands of a genius. Another composer might have
used an orchestra of a hundred instruments and not have produced the
exquisite thrill that Wagner with his magical orchestral touch
conjures out of this group of violoncellos, a group within a group, an
orchestra of violoncellos within the string band.
[Music illustration]
The woodwind instruments are capable of several similar subdivisions.
Flutes, oboes and bassoons, for example, may form a group capable of
producing independent harmony, so can the clarinets, and the same is
the case with the brass instruments. One of Wagner's most beautiful
leading motives, the Walhalla Motive in the "Ring of the Nibelung," is
sounded on four trombones. In brief, then, the modern composer strives
to constitute his orchestra in such a way that he secures as many
independent groups, and as many little orchestras, as possible, not,
however, for the purpose of using them independently all the time, but
merely in order to do so occasionally for special effects or to
combine them whenever he sees fit in order to enrich his tone coloring
or weave his polyphony.
The grand divisions of the orchestra are the strings--violins, violas,
violoncellos and double basses; the woodwind, consisting, broadly
speaking, of flutes, oboes, clarinets and bassoons; the brass--horns,
trumpets and trombones; and the instruments of percussion, or the
"battery"--drums, triangles, cymbals and instruments of that kind.
The Prima Donna of the Orchestra.
The leading instrument of the string group, and in fact the leading
instrument of the orchestra, is the violin. The first violins are the
prima donnas of the orchestra, and one might say that it is almost
impossible to have too many of them. The first and second violins
should form about one-third of an orchestra, and better still it would
be for the number to exceed that proportion. The Boston Symphony
Orchestra, which has about eighty-one players, has thirty violins.
Theodore Thomas's New York Festival Orchestra in 1882, consisting of
three hundred and fourteen instruments, had one hundred violins.
Great is the capacity of the violin. Its notes may be crisp, sharp,
decisive, brilliant, or long-drawn-out and full of emotion. It has
greater precision of attack than any other instrument in the
orchestra. And right here it is interesting to note that while the
multiplication of instruments gives greater sonority, it also gives
much finer effects in soft passages. The pianissimo of one hundred
violins is a very much finer pianissimo and at the same time
infinitely richer and further carrying than the pianissimo of a solo
violin. It is the very acme of a musical stage whisper.
In this very first and most important group of the orchestra we can
find examples of utilizing subdivisions of groups. Although the violin
cannot be played lower than its G string, which sounds the G below the
treble clef, the violin group nevertheless has been employed entirely
by itself, and even subdivided within itself. The most exquisite
example of this, one cited in every work on the orchestra worth
reading, is the "Lohengrin" prelude. To this the violins are divided
into four groups and on the highest register, with an effect that is
most ethereal.
[Music illustration]
Modern orchestral virtuosity may be gauged by the statement that while
Beethoven but once dared to score for his violins above the high F,
Richard Strauss in the most casual manner carries them an octave
higher.
A little contrivance of wood or metal, with teeth, can be pressed down
over the strings of the violin so as to deaden its vibrations. This is
called the sordine, or mute. A famous example of the use of the
violins _con sordini_ is the Queen Mab Scherzo in Berlioz's "Romeo et
Juliette Symphonie." Another well-known use of the same effect is in
Asa's Death, in Grieg's "Peer Gynt" Suite. Nothing can be more
exquisite than the entrance of the muted violins after a long silence,
in the last act of "Tristan und Isolde," just before _Isolde_ intones
the Love Death.
An unusual effect is produced by using the back of the bow instead of
the horsehair. Liszt uses it in his symphonic poem, "Mazeppa," for
imitating the snorting of the horse; Wagner in "Siegfried," for
accompanying the mocking laugh of _Mime_; and Richard Strauss in
"Feuersnot," to produce the effect of crackling flames. But, as
Strauss remarks in his revision of Berlioz's work on instrumentation,
it is effective only with a large orchestra. The plucking of the strings
with the fingers--pizzicato--is a familiar device. Tschaikowski
employed it almost throughout an entire movement, the "Pizzicato
Ostinato" in his Fourth Symphony.
Viola, Violoncello and Double Bass.
The viola is a deeper violin, with a very beautiful and expressive
tone. Mehul, the French composer, scored his one-act opera, "Uthal,"
without violins, employing the viola as the highest string instrument
in his score. This, however, was not a success, the brilliant tone of
the violin being missed more and more as the performance of the work
progressed, until Gretry is said to have risen in his seat and
exclaimed: "A thousand francs for an E string!"
Meyerbeer, who was among the first to appreciate the beauty of the
viola as a solo instrument, used a single viola for the accompaniment
to _Raoul's_ romance, "Plus blanche que la blanche hermine," in the
first act of "Les Huguenots." Strictly speaking, he wrote it for the
viola d'amour, which is somewhat larger than the ordinary viola; but
it almost always is played on the latter. Berlioz made exquisite use
of it in his "Harold Symphony," practically making a _dramatis
persona_ of it, for in the score a solo viola represents the
melancholy wanderer; and in his "Don Quixote," Richard Strauss assigns
to the instrument an equally important role.
The violoncello is one of the most tenderly expressive of all the
instruments in the orchestra. Beethoven employs it for the theme of
the slow movement in his Fifth Symphony, and although the viola joins
with the violoncello in playing this melody, the passage owes its
beauty chiefly to the latter. One of the most exquisite melodies in
all symphonic music is the theme which Schubert has given to the
violoncellos in the first movement of his "Unfinished Symphony." They
also are used with wonderfully expressive effect in the "Tristan
Vorspiel." Rossini gives a melodious passage, in the introduction to
the overture to "William Tell," to five violoncellos. But the most
striking employment of the violoncellos as an independent group is in
the Love Motive in the first act of "Die Walkuere."
Double basses first were used to simply double the violoncello part in
the harmony. But through Beethoven's employment of them in the Fifth
and Ninth Symphonies, in the former for a remarkably effective passage
in the Scherzo and in the latter for a highly dramatic recitative,
their importance as independent instruments in the orchestra was
established. Verdi has made very effective use of them in the scene in
"Otello" as the _Moor_ approaches _Desdemona's_ bed. In the
introduction to "Rheingold," Wagner has half his double basses tuned
down to E flat, which is half a note deeper than the usual range of
the instrument, and in the second act of "Tristan und Isolde" two
basses are obliged to tune their E string down to C sharp.
Dividing the String Band.
I have pointed out several examples in which the groups of instruments
in the string band are divided within themselves, as in the prelude to
"Lohengrin" and in the first act of "Die Walkuere." The entire string
band can be divided and subdivided with telling effect, when done by a
master. When in the second act of "Tristan" _Brangaene_ warns the
lovers from her position on the watch-tower, the accompaniment stirs
the soul to its depth, because it gives the listener such a weird
thrill of impending danger that he almost longs to inform the lovers
of their peril. In this passage Wagner divides the string band into no
less than fifteen parts. In the thunder-storm in "Rheingold" the
strings are divided into twenty-one parts. Richard Strauss points out
how in the introduction to "Die Walkuere" much of the stormy effect is
produced by strings only--sixteen second violins, twelve violas,
twelve violoncellos and four double basses--a storm for strings where
another composer would have unleashed a whole orchestra, including
cymbals and bass drum, and crashed and thrashed about without
producing a tithe of Wagner's effect! He also cites the tremolo at the
beginning of the second act of "Tristan" as a wonderful example of
tone painting which produces the effect of whispering foliage and
conveys to the audience a sense of mystery and danger.
Theodore Thomas always was insistent that the various divisions of a
string band should bow exactly alike. It is said that he once stopped
an orchestra because he had detected something wrong with the tonal
effect, and, after watching the players, had discovered that one
violoncellist among sixteen was bowing differently from the others.
Richard Strauss, on the other hand, never insists on the same bowing
throughout each division of strings. He thinks it robs the melody of
intensity and beauty if each individual is not allowed to play
according to his own peculiar temperament.