Who leads the musicians in an orchestra?

There were 1,224 symphony orchestras in the United States as of 2014.

These characteristics ultimately divide instruments into four families: woodwinds, brass, percussion, and strings.

The Classical orchestra came to consist of strings (first and second violins, violas, violoncellos, and double basses), two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two or four horns, two trumpets, and two timpani.

A symphony is a large-scale musical composition, usually with three or four movements. An orchestra is a group of musicians with a variety of instruments, which usually includes the violin family.

London Symphony Orchestra

Timpani drums are an important member of the orchestral percussion family because they support the rhythm, melody, and harmony of the music. Most orchestras feature a set of four timpani where each is of different size and set to a unique pitch.

Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers, with one performer to a part (in contrast to orchestral music, in which each string part is played by a number of performers). ... Because of its intimate nature, chamber music has been described as "the music of friends".

Woodwinds are color instruments, and can be used for just about anything. Like the strings and the brass they can play as a choir, they can split up and double various other parts, they can provide secondary or primary themes, and they can solo gloriously.

The saxophone was used experimentally in orchestral scores, but never came into widespread use as an orchestral instrument. In 1853-54 the orchestra of Louis Antoine Jullien featured a soprano saxophone on a concert tour of the United States.

Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Orchestral jazz is a jazz genre that developed in New York City in the 1920s. ... The fusion of jazz's rhythmic and instrumental characteristics with the scale and structure of an orchestra, made orchestral jazz distinct from the musical genres that preceded its emergence.

The conductor is there to bring a musical score to life, communicating their own highly refined sense of the work through an individual language of gestures, which might sculpt the musical line, tease out nuances, emphasise certain musical elements while controlling others, and essentially re-imagine an old piece anew.

“The role of a Conductor is to unify a large group of musicians into a core sound instead of a wild bunch of different sounds surging out; the role of a Concertmaster is to decode the conductor's information, and transmit it to the orchestra, plus to his section; the role of Principals is to use all this information ...

It's just called tuning. Also, although when to start is indicated by the violinist (usually assistant leader, as the leader will walk on with the conductor), it's actually an oboe that gives the note which everyone tunes to (an A).

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Percussion occupies the whole back row, still with kettledrums in the middle, followed by horns, trombones and trumpets in the next row, then clarinets and bassoons, and in front (just behind the violas) flutes and oboes.

A modern full-scale symphony orchestra consists of approximately one hundred permanent musicians, most often distributed as follows: 16–18 1st violins, 16 2nd violins, 12 violas, 12 cellos, 8 double basses, 4 flutes (one with piccolo as a specialty), 4 oboes (one with English horn as a specialty), 4 clarinets (one with ...

A person who leads an orchestra is a Conductor.

The word "balcony" has a certain nose-bleed connotation, and ticket buyers are less spooked by the word "mezzanine." Front mezzanine seats are usually as good as orchestra seats, sometimes better, depending on the show. For a show with a visual sweep or intricate choreography, you might be better off in the mezzanine.

WHY: Composers use these instruments for their singing quality and depth of sound. HOW MANY: There are four sizes of stringed instruments: violin, viola, cello and bass. A total of forty-four are used in full orchestras.