Performance Essay - Final PDF

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Performance essay discussing differences and changes in traditions...

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Over the past few centuries there have been a number of changes to the performance traditions of orchestras which have resulted in the creation of the modern orchestra. Although each change may have been slight in itself, the accumulative effect has reached a point where a person of the 18th century would barely recognise the orchestra of today. Traditionally the orchestra was a luxury for royalty, aristocrats, the church and the very wealthy. Those that could afford this luxury would have an orchestra perform to guests in their private property usually in the evening, during or after dinner. By the 1800s, attending concerts became a more middle class activity as money became more disposable and this sector of society was working less hours. Due to this change, more public concert venues were built. Towards the late classical period (approximately 1750-1820) very few aristocrats could afford the upkeep costs of a large orchestra and, as the existing public concert venues were making a lot of money, many more were built across Europe. These venues could afford to hire orchestras for themselves. In the early 18th century, the standard orchestra which composers wrote for comprised of around 25 performers and instruments. There were likely to be first and second violins, violas and cellos, a double bass, harpsichord, natural trumpet, bassoon, oboes and a few timpani. In some cases, there was the addition of the flute or horn, to emphasise the melody, but these were rarely used to carry any melody by themselves. As time progressed to the classical period, the orchestra expanded to include up to around 40 members. Another instrumental change was around the time of the 1700s when Bartolomeo Cristofori invented the ‘gravicembalo col piano e forte’ (shortened to pianoforte or piano) which literally translates to a ‘harpsichord with soft and loud’. This was a huge breakthrough for classical music as it provided a much more flexible instrument for composers to use. Because of its usefulness, and as further advances were made in the development of the piano, composers began to compose more music for the piano during the classical period than the harpsichord. With this it became more typical to see the piano in the orchestra. The harpsichord, a previous feature of performance, became less heavily used. Towards the beginning of the 1800s the orchestra expanded further with the addition of the cymbal, bass drum and triangle to the percussion section and up to three trombones, a piccolo and double bassoon added to the brass and woodwind sections. The string section had always been understood to be the most important section of an orchestra as the strings would hold the melody. So, with the introduction of new instruments and the augmentation of orchestral sections, the string section also grew in size to order to keep an even balance of sound. Towards the end of the 1800s the size of the orchestra had grown to up to around 100 instruments. The development of both music composition and music technology has also shaped the orchestra we know today. When these aspects are compared with the 18th and 19th century orchestra, we see a clear difference. The invention of valves for brass instruments means the modern orchestra features many types of instruments which wouldn’t have been used previously. Additions include horns, trumpets, trombones and the tuba in the brass section. An addition in the woodwind section was the saxophone. Instruments were also available in keys which were not previously available, allowing greater versatility. Developments in techniques such as new types of sticks for the percussion made these instruments more flexible and allowed them to create different tones. Stringed instruments were also developing new, lighter bows. Replacing catgut strings with new materials produced a cleaner sound and allowed players to use vibrato with more ease. With these changes, it

became possible to compose and perform more complex music. Nowadays orchestral music is often written for additional instruments such as the xylophone, marimba, theremin and synthesiser which would have been rarely heard of previously, if at all. In the early 18th century, music composed was normally easy listening, decorative music. Polyphonic textures were the main textures used. By the early 19th century, music tended to have a balanced structure and sound with a homophonic texture. In about 1800, Beethoven began creating bigger sounds by adding more instruments. In the modern orchestra there is often more of a focus on varying rhythm and texture which requires more skill from the performers. In the 18th and 19th century the conductor would have been in charge of the whole orchestra and the violinist on the front desk of the first violins nearest the audience would be the leader of all the instruments. As the conductor generally focuses on the sound produced by the orchestra, the lead violinist would focus on specific technicalities. However, in the modern orchestra, there is also usually a lead trumpet who will lead the brass and woodwind sections and occasionally a lead trombone to lead the lower brass. The tuning fork was invented in the early 18th century which helped to standardise pitch to some extent, but even then it was difficult to standardise the pitch completely. It is thought by some musical ensembles that, in the early 18th century, concert pitch would have been a semi-tone lower than it is today. Valve-less brass instruments were limited to a much smaller note range which also limited some orchestras to playing in specific musical keys. In the 19th and 20th centuries, concert pitch became higher in attempts to make music sound brighter and more brilliant. This was a contributing factor to the higher pitch used in the modern orchestra. Now measured in hertz, 440 is the standard pitch of concert A (the A above middle C) although in some countries in continental Europe and other orchestras this may vary. Compared with 18th and 19th century orchestras, modern 21st century orchestras tend to have better funding with more highly trained musicians. With the development and changes to instruments, such as the addition of valves and the improvements in build quality, modern orchestras are able to perform much more complicated music and to a uniform standard. Because of this and with the adoption of a standardised pitch to perform in, there is less likely to be variation between the performance qualities of today’s orchestras than there might have been in previous centuries. The range and styles of music performed, however, is greater. A concert goer of the 18th or 19th century would have had a very different musical experience from the concert goer of today.

Bibliography. A Brief Guide to the Modern Orchestra: Instrumentation [Online] Available from: http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_forum/index.php? act=attach&type=post&id=21832 [Accessed 2 January 2016] Working and Developing in a Musical Ensemble [online] Available from: http://dandanmusic.weebly.com/the-baroque-and-classical-period-orchestras.html [Accessed 2 January 2016]. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/listenup/orchestrasguide.shtml

http://musiced.about.com/od/musicinstruments/a/modernorchestra.htm http://study.com/academy/lesson/instrument-families-of-the-orchestra-string-woodwindbrass-percussion.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orchestra...