What are the string instruments in an orchestra?

Engineers use a wide variety of techniques when recording orchestras or small ensembles, from simply placing one stereo microphone just above and behind the conductor's head to using several spot mics for each instrument section in conjunction with one to several ambient microphones.

Each instrument has unique characteristics, such as the different ways they produce a sound, the materials used to create them, and their overall appearance. These characteristics ultimately divide instruments into four families: woodwinds, brass, percussion, and strings.

Orchestras always tune to 'A', because every string instrument has an 'A' string. The standard pitch is A=440 Hertz (440 vibrations per second). Some orchestras favor a slightly higher pitch, like A=442 or higher, which some believe results in a brighter sound.

Transposing musical instrument, instrument that produces a higher or lower pitch than indicated in music written for it. Examples include clarinets, the English horn, and saxophones. Musical notation written for transposing instruments shows the relative pitches, rather than the exact pitches, produced.

Orchestras are usually led by a conductor who directs the performance with movements of the hands and arms, often made easier for the musicians to see by use of a conductor's baton. ... The leader of the first violin section – commonly called the concertmaster – also plays an important role in leading the musicians.

Orchestration & Arranging: Composers can professionally arrange music at an average yearly salary of approximately $30,000. Orchestration can actually be very lucrative, with composers charging as much as $75 or more per four measures of orchestrating a reduced piano score.

A symphony orchestra and a philharmonic are the same thing - sort of. They're the same size and they play the same kind of music. ... “Symphony orchestra” is a generic term, whereas “philharmonic orchestra” is always part of a proper name.

Anyway, the guitar section would hardly blend into the orchestra. ... That's because guitars have strong attack. The sound of the guitar section would be too sharp to blend it with the other sections. That's why you can only see a solo guitar playing in some orchestral pieces.

You may be surprised that the saxophone is not here. This is the one instrument that is always found in bands and wind ensembles, but only very rarely plays in the orchestra. Although flutes may be made of wood, the orchestral flute is usually made of metal. It also does not have a reed.

Orchestration is the combination of a conductor's musical ideas with the composer's musical ideas. Composers choose instrument combinations when orchestrating a piece.

Cadenza: A point near the end of a movement in a work such as a concerto where the orchestra will stop playing and the soloist will perform an elaborate passage showing his or her virtuosity on the instrument.

The principal conductor of an orchestra or opera company is sometimes referred to as a music director or chief conductor, or by the German words Kapellmeister or Dirigent (or, in the feminine, Dirigentin).

The Festive Basic Baroque Orchestra contained violins (divided into two groups, called violins 1 and violins 2), Violas, Cellos and Bass viol (playing the same music as the cellos an octave lower. To this was added 2 oboes, 3 trumpets, 2 timpani (kettledrums) and a keyboard instrument, generally a harpsichord.

Since the 1970s many baroque orchestras have been formed across Europe, as well as some in North America.

Today, the concertmaster tunes the orchestra, plays solo passages and specifies how the violin parts should be played, and acts as a liaison between the conductor and musicians. They may also assume the role of conductor in circumstances call for it.

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Major orchestra salaries range by the orchestra from a little over $100,000 to a little over $150,000. Principals, the ranking member of each orchestra section, can make a great deal more, in some instances more than $400,000. And most major orchestras play for a season lasting only about nine- months a year.

3.5 hours

Aaron Copland was born in Brooklyn, New York, on November 14, 1900. He was the youngest of five children in a Conservative Jewish family of Lithuanian origins.

The modern symphony orchestra varies in size, but typically has a strength of about 100. The largest lot of these are from the strings, which contain some 60 to 70 players. This typically comprises some 16 first and second violins, 14 violas, 14 cellos and 8 - 10 double basses.

The word derives from the ancient Greek part of a stage where instruments and the chorus combined music and drama to create theater. 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.