Although experiments with larger or smaller aggregations of instruments had been going on for two centuries, especially for accompaniment, the true orchestra as a large ensemble for independent use, and a true theory of orchestration as a distinct branch of musicianship, hardly began before 1750. Two factors cooperated in this advance—the cultivation of chamber music, which brought out the capacities of particular instruments, and the growing custom of public concerts, for which the orchestra became the favorite artistic apparatus. In this period the excellence of particular orchestras became a powerful factor in musical progress, as they offered adequate means for giving extended works, stimulated virtuosity on various instruments, and set a standard of artistic quality generally.
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Fig. 95.—Trombone. The pitch of the tone is partly determined by sliding the lower crook out or in upon itself, thus altering the length of the tube.
A striking instance was the Kapelle of Karl
Theodor, Elector Palatine from 1743, residing
at Mannheim, and Elector of Bavaria from 1778,
residing at Munich. He was devoted to good
music, as to other arts and sciences, and his band
became the best in Europe under the able leadership
of Johann Stamitz (d. 1757), concertmaster
in 1743-57, Ignaz Holzbauer (d. 1783), choirmaster
from 1753, and Christian Cannabich (d. 1798), concertmaster
from 1759. These leaders developed a
unanimity, a balance of tone and a perfection of
shading entirely unknown before. The influence of
this establishment was felt far and wide, being, for
example, one of the potent factors in the unfolding
of Mozart's genius. In it, indeed, the whole modern
idea of concert orchestration may be said to have
taken its rise (see sec. 148).
A somewhat similar instance was the impulse given at Paris from 1751 by the original genius of François Joseph Gossec (d. 1829), who antedated Haydn as a symphonist, founded the Concerts des amateurs in 1770, reorganized the Concerts spirituels in 1773, etc., besides winning fame as an opera-writer, sacred composer and teacher (see secs. 154, 177). His endeavors were more or less hampered by the absorption of the Parisian public in the opera rather than concerts, and after 1790 the unfolding of all musical art in France was temporarily checked by the outbreak of the Revolution.
