The complete idiot's guide to classical music (14 page)

The clarinet is another fluid instrument that has the capability to create flowing melodies as well as virtuosic racings up and down the scale. These qualities have made it equally welcome in jazz and symphonic circles. The bass clarinet is just what the name implies: a larger version of the clarinet with a lower range.

The remaining four orchestral winds make up a four-member clan, just like the violins, violas, cellos, and basses do within the string section. The fiddle’s equivalent is the oboe, with a rather nasal tone (sort of like a clarinet with a cold) and the distinction of being the instrument to which all the other instruments tune to. The windy version of the viola is the English horn, which as a wit once observed, is neither English nor a horn. It’s actually an alto oboe, the misnomer probably arising from its French name “cor anglais,” meaning angled (not English) since the instrument has a little bend near the mouthpiece, as opposed to the oboe, which is straight.

The cello and bass equivalents in the woodwind family are the bassoons and contrabassoons, and if you think they look like bundles of sticks tied together, welcome to the club. The Italians called the bassoon “fagotto,” and the Germans “fagott,” both words meaning a bundle of sticks.

The French horn looks like a whole lot of tubing curled up into a circle, which is not too surprising since the French horn
is
a whole lot of tubing curled up into a circle. It’s not especially French, but you can’t have everything. It has a wonderfully mellow sound, and in the orchestra, it often travels around in groups of four, like city buses, because a lot of composers wrote parts for four horns in their symphonies and other large-scale works. The instruments evolved from animal horns, which were among the first primitive instruments. The French part is there because the modern horn was developed primarily in

 
Music Word
The position of the player’s mouth around the reed or mouthpiece of wind and brass instruments is called
embouchure,
which comes from the French word “boucher,” to kiss. Watch a horn player next time, and you’ll see why.

France. Fingering the valves on a trumpet or horn (or tuba, which we’ll get to in a moment) serves a similar purpose to pressing the strings on a violin or cello: It changes the length of the vibrating material, causing the pitch tone to rise or fall. The longer the tube (or string), the lower the tone; the shorter the tube, the higher the tone.

Trombones are funny-looking gadgets shaped like overgrown paper clips. They usually don’t have valves to change the length of the vibrating tube, but a long, U-shaped slide that the player moves back and forth, preferably not poking the player sitting in front of him. Its Renaissance ancestor was the sackbut, from the Moorish word for pump!

Tubas are those tubby things in the back row that give the orchestra its deepest brass notes, the symphonic harmony its most solid foundation. The tuba often hangs out with three trombones, forming a deep-voice instrumental choir that just can’t be beat in moments of solemn pomp and circumstance.

Again, we can generally divide percussion instruments into three units, although some noisemakers defy any such cubbyhole attempts. Perhaps the most familiar is the drum, where a parchment is stretched across a (usually round) frame. Then we have the cymbals and other discs or plates of metal that are either crashed together or struck with a stick.

And there are the instruments with metal or wood bars laid out in the manner of a piano keyboard, such as the vibraphone, xylophone, and marimba, producing specific tones when struck by a mallet.

Other familiar orchestral percussion instruments are the triangle, the castanets, the gong, and the tambourine, although composers are forever coming up with other things that will make even more unusual noises. When Tchaikovsky wanted to emphasize the victory celebrations after Napoleon’s defeat, he stuck bells into the score of his “1812 Overture.” You can hear real anvils in Verdi’s “Anvil Chorus,” and Wagner asked for 18 anvils when the ring of the Nibelung is forged in
Das Rheingold.

 
Bet You Didn’t Know
Edgar Varese’s “Ionization” calls for 42 different percussion instruments plus two sirens, but even that pales alongside the performance of Verdi’s “Anvil Chorus” during the 1872 Peace Jubilee in Boston, when the orchestra was augmented by 100 city firemen, each hammering away at an anvil.

In the following sections you’ll learn about the lineup of the regular players in the symphony orchestra.

The smallest of the stringed instruments, the violin is the soprano of the string family. Its strings are stretched over a hollow wooden structure and are designed to produce a clear and concise sound. The violin is the true melody maker of the orchestra; it is the most important player of all the instruments. The strings can be made of several materials, from sheep gut to nylon or steel. The violin’s remarkable sounds are produced when the bow (horsehair stretched along a wooden bow) is drawn over the strings. The strings are of different thicknesses, with the thinner strings producing higher notes. The pitch is also changed as the violinist presses the string with a finger. The shorter the string, the higher the note. The violin has an amazing range of sounds and has been used to evoke just about every human emotion, as well as the sounds of several members of the animal kingdom.

Second violinists were once selected by virtue of their not quite qualifying for first violin (sort of the runners-up). This distinction, however, no longer prevails in most major symphony orchestras, where first and second violinists are musicians of equal stature.

The first violins are usually grouped to the conductor’s left, with the second violins to the left of the first violins. First violins traditionally carry more of the melody, with the seconds providing more of the harmonic underpinnings.

Violin concertos and sonatas proliferate among classical works. Vivaldi’s
The Four Seasons,
one of the most popular works in the entire repertoire, is actually a set of four violin concertos. Mozart and Beethoven are celebrated for their violin concertos (is there any surprise?), as are Haydn, Prokofiev, Saint-Saens, Schumann, and a host of others, including Stravinsky.

Mozart composed 42 violin sonatas (only slightly surpassing the number of his symphonies). Beethoven, Bach, Mendelssohn, Prokofiev, and Bartok are among those who have created sonatas for violin.

The larger viola is the alto of the strings. It produces a richer, fuller, and deeper sound than the violin, although without quite so much brilliance and audacity. It does not step out in a solo role nearly so often as the violin, but it is indispensable to complete the string harmonies within the orchestra.

 
Bet You Didn’t Know
The supposed lesser status of violists, compared to their violin colleagues, has spawned so many jokes that there’s a whole page on the Internet devoted to them. Even violists like to tell these jokes, wherefore this gem from the distinguished violist and Juilliard professor, Toby Appel. It seems an opera conductor got sick just before a performance of
La Boheme
, and one of the violists had to take the podium in his stead. Everything went off without a hitch, but the next night, when the player returned to his regular seat, the violist in the next chair glared and him and snapped: “So where the hell were
you
last night?”

Mozart’s
Sinfonia Concertante
(K. 364) for violin, viola, and orchestra draws the viola out from its supporting status, as does Berlioz’s
Harold in Italy
for viola and orchestra. Debussy featured the viola in Sonata No. 2 for Flute, Viola, and Harp, and Bartok composed his Concerto for Viola and Orchestra. The real fan of violas was Hindemith, who just happened to be a viola virtuoso. He composed several viola sonatas, along with “Der Schwanendreher” for viola and orchestra. To show his love for the instrument, Hindemith also composed both a concerto and a sonata for the viola d’amore of the Baroque period.

Once known as the violoncello, the regal, resonant cello excels at evoking melancholy. Devotees of the cello marvel at its expressive quality, and played by a first-rate cellist, it is indeed evocative. The longer and thicker strings of the cello produce notes an octave deeper than the viola’s, making it the tenor or baritone of the string family.

Beethoven and Saint-Saens are noted for their popular cello sonatas, and cello sonatas have been written by composers as diverse as Bach and Debussy. Brahms, Hindemith, Haydn, and Dvorak are among the composers who have created cello concertos.

The double bass can simply be called bass. Or you can choose from string bass (the choice of jazz musicians), bass viol, and contrabass. The instrument has also been dubbed the bull fiddle, but most double bass players would rather forget that one. With its thick strings, the double bass covers the lower registers of the musical spectrum. Like the other strings, it can be plucked as well as bowed. When used as a jazz instrument, it is usually plucked. Many orchestral instruments have an outrigging device attached over the scrollwork, called a “low-C extension.” This enables the bassist to produce sounds two tones lower than the instrument’s normal range.

Beethoven was a big fan of the double bass, and made it an important player in the Fifth Symphony. He also gave it some prominence in the Fourth and Ninth symphonies. And it may be argued that what was good enough for Beethoven is good for the symphony orchestra.

The imposing triangular harp stands 68 inches tall, which makes it taller than some of the people who play it. With its roots in the Old Testament, the modern harp made its first appearance in Europe during the 12th century. Pedals were added a few centuries later. Its signature sound is the glissando, an effect produced by swiftly sliding the fingers over the strings. The unfortunate use of this device in movies—where all the good guys turn into angels—has made it seem a bit hackneyed to some critics. However, at the hands of a virtuoso harpist, and with music composed by the likes of Debussy, Berlioz, Liszt, Ravel, Mozart, or Wagner, the harp is a beautiful and lyrical instrument.