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    Classic FM Handy Guides: The Orchestra
    Classic FM Handy Guides: The Orchestra
    Classic FM Handy Guides: The Orchestra
    Ebook84 pages1 hour

    Classic FM Handy Guides: The Orchestra

    By Darren Henley

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    About this ebook

    The orchestra is one of the cornerstones of classical music, beloved of music lovers around the world. Packed full of essential information, this pocket-sized handbook explores the make-up and functions of the different sections, from strings to percussion, as well as some of the greatest orchestras around the world and the incredible music that they perform. Classic FM's Handy Guides are a fun and informative set of introductions to standout subjects within classical music, each of which can be read and digested in one sitting: a perfect collectible series whether you are new to the world of classical music or an aficionado.  
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherElliott & Thompson
    Release dateJan 8, 2015
    ISBN9781909653634
    Classic FM Handy Guides: The Orchestra
    Author

    Darren Henley

    Darren Henley OBE is chief executive of Arts Council England. His two independent government reviews into music and cultural education resulted in England's first National Plan for Music Education, new networks of Music Education Hubs, Cultural Education Partnerships and Heritage Schools, the Museums and Schools programme, the BFI Film Academy and the National Youth Dance Company. Before joining the Arts Council, he led Classic FM for fifteen years. He holds degrees in politics from the University of Hull, in management from the University of South Wales and in history of art from the University of Buckingham. A recipient of the British Academy President's Medal for his contributions to music education, music research and the arts, his books include The Virtuous Circle: Why Creativity and Cultural Education Count and The Arts Dividend: Why Investment in Culture Pays

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      Book preview

      Classic FM Handy Guides - Darren Henley

      THE ORCHESTRA

      Contents

      Introduction

      Preface

      1  Back at the Beginning

      2  The Conductor

      3  The String Section

      4  The Brass Section

      5  The Woodwind Section

      6  The Percussion Section

      7  Great British Orchestras

      8  Great Orchestras of the World

      9  The Music Orchestras Play

      About Classic FM

      About the Author

      Index

      Introduction

      At Classic FM, we spend a lot of our time dreaming up wonderful ways of making sure that as many people as possible across the UK have the opportunity to listen to classical music. As the nation’s biggest classical music radio station, we feel that we have a responsibility to share the world’s greatest music as widely as we can.

      Over the years, we have written a variety of classical music books in all sorts of shapes and sizes. But we have never put together a series of books quite like this.

      This set of books covers a whole range of aspects of classical music. They are all written in Classic FM’s friendly, accessible style and you can rest assured that they are packed full of facts about classical music. Read separately, each book gives you a handy snapshot of a particular subject area. Added together, the series combines to offer a more detailed insight into the full story of classical music. Along the way, we shall be paying particular attention to some of the key composers whose music we play most often on the radio station, as well as examining many of classical music’s subgenres.

      These books are relatively small in size, so they are not going to be encyclopedic in their level of detail; there are other books out there that do that much better than we could ever hope to. Instead, they are intended to be enjoyable introductory guides that will be particularly useful to listeners who are beginning their voyage of discovery through the rich and exciting world of classical music. Drawing on the research we have undertaken for many of our previous Classic FM books, they concentrate on information rather than theory because we want to make this series of books attractive and inviting to readers who are not necessarily familiar with the more complex aspects of musicology.

      For more information on this series, take a look at our website: www.ClassicFM.com/handyguides.

      Preface

      The great British conductor Sir Thomas Beecham left behind him a collection of witticisms on virtually every aspect of classical music life. As someone who spent his days – and nights – standing baton in hand in front of various groups of musicians, he developed a pretty acute understanding of what was required from them. ‘There are two golden rules for an orchestra’, he once said. ‘Start together and finish together. The audience doesn’t give a damn what goes on in between.’

      Other conductors have offered a slightly more nuanced view on the role of the orchestra, but many of them recognise the power of the collective body of musicians that sat before them. Kurt Masur believed that ‘You have to change your mind with every orchestra because every orchestra has a different character.’ While composer and conductor Robert Schumann talked of the almost military might of a group of musicians playing together in unison, saying: ‘I feel so entirely in my element with a full orchestra; even if my mortal enemies were marshalled before me, I could lead them, master them, surround them, or repulse them.’

      There is no getting away from the importance of the orchestra in classical music. While works for solo instruments or small groups of musicians are without question a vital part of the lifeblood of the genre, there is nothing quite so special as hearing a performance by an orchestra at the top of its game. And, over the years, our greatest composers have proven this by marshalling the forces of countless orchestral musicians in the creation of many of the most enduring and popular classical works of all time.

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      Back at the Beginning

      Originally the word ‘orchestra’ did not mean a group of people playing music at all. Instead, it was the place where they stood or sat. In a Greek amphitheatre, the natural slope of the seats was called the ‘loilon’; the backdrop to the stage was known as the ‘scena’, and the semi-circular piece of flat ground between the two was the ‘orchestra’. Eventually, it came to mean the people who played there, too.

      The modern orchestra, like the ancient one before it, was also born in the theatre, where it accompanied plays and operas. The Dresden Staatskapelle is the world’s oldest orchestra, tracing its roots back as far as 1548. It was soon joined by others, as churches, courts, cities and towns across Europe founded their own ensembles over the following couple of centuries. The virtuoso Mannheim orchestra (run by the local Elector) was particularly important in advancing the cause. The UK’s oldest surviving symphony orchestra is the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, which was founded in 1840 and became a fully professional

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