Dream of Dobbs then add sugar

Most of us like listening to music of one sort or another.  Many times we listen to a symphony orchestra, possibly without even recognizing that it is a symphony orchestra.  For instance many TV commercials have a symphony orchestra playing in the background.  Often the movies have a symphony orchestra playing the sound track, or at least a portion of it.

 Have you ever thought about what a symphony orchestra consists of? 

 In today’s world of music making a symphony orchestra can be anything from about 24 to 120 musicians in size.  That is quite a variation.  The smaller orchestras are usually referred to as chamber orchestras but when you get more than 50 musicians playing together it is called a symphony orchestra.

 The symphony orchestra is usually divided into sections which are described with a collective noun which suggests the sort of sounds they make.  The usual sections are:  strings, woodwinds, brass and percussion.  Of course there can be instruments used that don’t easily fit into one of these categories such as harp, piano, guitar, celeste, organ for example.

Just imagine that your daughter was getting married and for such a romantic event you decide to engage a symphony orchestra to play the wedding march and her favourite Tchaikovsky symphony at the reception.  Assuming that since it is your only daughter money is not an issue then you would want to engage a symphony orchestra of 105 musicians.

 The string instruments are the violin, the viola, the violoncello (usually referred to as a cello) and the contrabass (usually referred to as doublebass, or just bass).  There is an argument for including harp, guitar, banjo etc in the string group.  However, as you can imagine that suggestion not only does not come from string players but also it is loudly opposed by them almost always.

 You will note that I said almost always.  When discussing what an orchestral musician might or might not think or say one can never generalize without taking quite a risk or some sort of retribution.

In an orchestra of that size the string orchestra would be about 68 musicians divided into 16 first violins, 16 second violins, 14 violas, 12 cellos and 10 doublebasses.  They would all be seated in pairs.  Each pair would have one music stand and one of the players would turn the pages during the performance, so in order to have continuity of sound and better ensemble the strings traditionally sit in pairs.

I will continue with a detailed description of the symphony orchestra as well as talking a bit about each of the instruments in the orchestra in the following pages.  I will also spend some time talking about specific positions in the orchestra such as the concertmaster, principal players and rank and file players (not principals).  The casual players who are from time to time required will also be discussed.  In addition to all that, if we all live that long, I will write about the profession of being an orchestra musician including why one would do such a thing and what the rewards as well as the drawbacks are.

Dream of being able to engage a symphony orchestra of 105 players until we meet again on the next page where you will find out more.