Trying to win an orchestra job is extremely competitive as conservatories churn out exceptional musicians, year after year. And the audition isn't the end. There will be about two weeks of “tryout,” followed by a year or more of probation before a musician is finally accepted as a member of the orchestra.
Named after the Venezuelan national hero Simón Bolívar, it is the apex of the nation's system of youth orchestras, although by 2011, it was no longer officially a youth orchestra because the average age of the players had risen too high. ... Gustavo Dudamel has been the orchestra's artistic director since 1999.
Orchestras Typically Boast Five Different Types of String InstrumentsViolins are the sopranos. There's no doubt that the soprano is "the star" of the orchestra. ... Violas are the altos. ... Cellos form the tenor section. ... The Double Bass lives up to its name. ... The Harp is a celestial addition.
The first semblance of a modern orchestra came in the early 17th century when the Italian opera composer Claudio Monteverdi formally assigned specific instruments to perform his music.
Transitive verb. 1a : to compose or arrange (music) for an orchestra The composer orchestrated the music for the symphony orchestra.
Violin family
An alternative opinion is that Bartòk was sending up the popular tune “I'm going to Maxim's” from the operetta The Merry Widow, by the Hungarian-born Franz Lehár. Of course Bartók could be doing both, as they sound alike, and either could cause the social “interruption” in this “interrupted intermezzo”.
How is orchestrating different than composing? ... If the composer has written a divisi—something where, say, the violins play two different parts—the orchestrator will determine exactly how the music will be divided, whether it's simply between first and second violins or a more unusual arrangement.
A “band” includes brass, percussion, and woodwinds along with flutes, clarinets, and trumpets. An “orchestra” is composed of different string instruments like violins, basses, and violas.
Orchestras most often play classical, instrumental music and you can quickly identify them by their characteristic mix of instruments from four main instrument families (more on those later). When orchestras are really large, we call them symphony orchestras.
First chair, or principal player, is second only to the conductor or maestro in an ensemble. It is the chair quite literally closest to the conductor in each section. ... In a large orchestra ensemble, the concertmaster, or first violinist, gives a subtle mark to the first oboist, who tunes each section with an “A” pitch.
Harp differs from the other plucked-string instruments in that its strings emerge from the sounding board, while all others are side-strung, like lutes and guitars, which belong to the lyre family. The harp is the only plucked-string instrument to be a regular member of the orchestra.
For the purposes of this article, instrumentation refers to the body of knowledge about instruments: the mechanics of sound production and the techniques of performers. Orchestration refers to the use of technical knowledge to assign musical content to instruments in an ensemble to achieve a sonorous effect.
There are 2 to 4 trumpets in an orchestra and they play both melody and harmony and also support the rhythm. You play the trumpet by holding it horizontally, buzzing your lips into the mouthpiece, and pressing down the three valves in various combinations to change pitch.
In a typical concert hall, the sound bounces off a wall near the stage before it reaches a more distant wall and bounces off it. The reflected sound always reaches our ears after the direct sound arrives.
Bach's compositions include hundreds of cantatas, both sacred and secular. He composed Latin church music, Passions, oratorios, and motets. ... He composed concertos, for instance for violin and for harpsichord, and suites, as chamber music as well as for orchestra. Many of his works employ the genres of canon and fugue.
London
Amongst all the three sections, the orchestra has some of the best seats in the theatre. ... For people who would rather not be that close to the stage, there are the elevated front mezzanine seats. The middle seats, numbered 104 to 108, in rows A to C of the mezzanine offer a great look at the stage.
Verb (used with or without object), or·ches·trat·ed, or·ches·trat·ing. to compose or arrange (music) for performance by an orchestra. to arrange or manipulate, especially by means of clever or thorough planning or maneuvering: to orchestrate a profitable trade agreement.
An orchestra tunes itself to a very particular frequency, usually 440 hertz, a note known as A 440. The note is played by the oboist, and the rest of the orchestra tunes their instruments to match it. The oboe leads the tuning because of all the instruments, it is least affected by humidity or other weather conditions.
There are usually 2 to 4 oboes in an orchestra and they produce a wide range of pitches, from haunting sounds to warm, velvety smooth notes, which make the sound of the oboe very memorable. In addition to playing in the orchestra, the first oboist is also responsible for tuning the orchestra before each concert.
A smaller-sized orchestra (forty to fifty musicians or fewer) is called a chamber orchestra. A full-size orchestra (eighty to one hundred musicians or more) may be called a symphony orchestra.