• • • PREFACE • • •
IN view of the rapidly increasing number of Symphony Orchestras throughout the country, and the consequent wide-spread interest in the better class of orchestral music, a demand has arisen among music-lovers and students for information concerning the instruments that constitute the modern symphony orchestra. The purpose of this little book is to supply such information as is really needful to the intelligent concert-goer. It is designed to occupy a middle place between the profound technical treatise on the one hand and the insignificant handbook on the other. Its scope covers briefly the construction, tonal qualities, range, and special uses of each instrument, not in its solo capacity, but rather as part of the orchestral ensemble.
Through the courtesy and co-operation of artist members of the New York Philharmonic Society and the Metropolitan Opera House Orchestras it has been possible to illustrate not only the proper manner of holding the various instruments, but also to give a correct idea of their relative sizes—impossible when instruments alone are depicted.
A few words concerning the orchestra as a musical unit may prove of interest. The orchestra as a whole may be regarded as a single, great instrument possessing almost limitless musical possibilities. When one considers that each individual member of an important orchestral organization is an artist who devotes his life to an instrument which, like the human voice, is capable of producing but one tone at a time (double-stopping on the strings need not here be considered), it is not surprising that the results obtained by the intelligent co-operation of seventy-five to a hundred such artists under masterful leadership easily transcend the efforts of the greatest pianist or organist, who is called upon to render with ten fingers all the harmonies and simultaneous melodies which may occur in a piece of music.
Not only is the orchestra capable of rendering at one time a multiplicity of independent themes, but by virtue of the many different tone colors which characterize the various instruments, the melodic line traced by each individual voice may be easily followed by the attentive ear, while all the voices blend in one harmonious whole. It is this complete independence of each voice in respect to power, tonal quality, and style of phrasing which makes the orchestra unapproachable as a means of musical expression.
