After Bach and Handel, trumpet playing declined. Haydn, the great successor of these two masters, did not do well with trumpets. When Haydn entered the service of Prince Esterhazy, music-loving prince of Austria, his orchestra at first did not include trumpets at all.
As late as 1766, the regular personnel of this orchestra, one of the foremost in Europe, consisted of six violins and violas, one cello, one string bass, one flute, two oboes, two bassoons and four horns but no trumpets or cornets. Several years later the resources of the orchestra were enlarged so that trumpets and tympani could be added when needed.
Even when Haydn did use trumpets, he scored for them so they played an octave or a sixth above the horns. To this thin arrangement he added drums for accompaniment. He probably felt the need of filling in with something, and the drums seemed the most appropriate.
Mozart, who was at first Haydn’s pupil but whose genius lifted him to a place above his master, seemed to share Haydn’s dislike for trumpets. This antipathy for trumpets was due to an extremely sensitive nature. Until Mozart was ten years old, the sound of the trumpet was excruciatingly […]
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In 1590 French churchman Guillaume of Auxerre invented the serpent, a weird-looking wind instrument about eight feet long. Its tubing was made in a shape suggesting a squirming snake which had been struck with a stick. For about two hundred years it flourished as an important bass instrument, but now it is chiefly known for its many and varied progeny.
Among these are the ophicleides, a family of six; the saxhorns, a family of eight; the saxtrombas, a family of eight; the tubas, a family of nine; and the muchmaligned saxophones, which have now grown to a family of nine.
Too much credit cannot be given Guillaume for his invention, because the serpent is little more than a bass member of the large family of cornettos, or zinken. These instruments put in an appearance in Europe in the fourteenth century.
In England they were called cornettos and were built in three keys. The little treble cornetto in F was only about eighteen inches long and had a thin, weak tone. Another was the cornetto in C, about two feet long. The third was the great cornetto in G, approximately three feet long. In Germany these same instruments were known as […]
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There are many other odd and interesting woods which will be found in every symphony orchestra. Drumsticks will be found made of snakewood from Dutch Guiana, a reddish-brown wood with spots in color from brown to black, similar in markings to that of a snake.
The fingerboards, pegs and tailpieces of violins are made from African ebony, brought ail the way from the tropical forests of Africa. The bars of xylophones and marimbas and often the castanets are made of rosewood from Brazil or Central America.
This wood ranges in color from reddish brown to deep purple or black, with streaks of purple through it, and it gets its name from its fragrance. It is ideal wood for the purpose, since it is hard, dense, takes a high polish and produces a brilliant, resonant tone when struck.
Then there is mahogany for drum shells, hickory for drumsticks and drum hoops, walnut for tambourines, maple for violin backs and bassoons, and basswood for “cases.
Some people find less music in the orchestra when they learn that the death of from two to three sheep is required before one violin can be equipped with strings. It doesn’t seem necessary, but such is […]
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