The Piano & The Modern Symphony Orchestra
Question: What is an orchestra? What instruments are found in it?
Answer: The modern symphony orchestra is a fairly large ensemble of about 100 performers.
The primary instrument family contained in an orchestra is the String family: Violins, Violas, Cellos, and Basses. The instrumentation of the modern orchestra includes brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments as well. Keyboard instruments such as the piano or celesta are not a regular part of the orchestra, but some works call for them. In these cases, they are typically considered part of the percussion section.
Question: Can you have an orchestra without strings?
Answer: A large ensemble containing brass, woodwind, and percussion, but not strings, is called a band or wind ensemble — not an orchestra.
Question: Are there different kinds of orchestras? What’s the difference?
Answer: A large ensemble containing only strings is called (logically enough) a string orchestra. There are also symphony orchestras, philharmonic orchestras, chamber orchestras, and studio orchestras.
Question: Philharmonic? Symphony? Do these mean anything different?
Answer: There is not a lot of practical difference between philharmonic and symphony orchestras. These designations typically serve to differentiate between two orchestras which call the same city their home (i.e., London Philharmonic and London Symphony orchestras).
Question: What’s a chamber orchestra?
Answer: A chamber orchestra is a smaller ensemble, containing 30 to 50 performers. This structure dates back to Mozart’s day, and some purists prefer to hear music of that period performed by chamber orchestras; they consider it more authentic.
Question: And a studio orchestra? What’s that?
Answer: There are two different definitions of a studio orchestra.
The first type of studio orchestra is an orchestra employed by a movie or television studio. This ensemble does not give public performances, but rather, provides music for movie or TV soundtracks.
The other meaning of studio orchestra is a large jazz ensemble of 15 – 20 players or more, or a combination of a jazz ensemble and orchestra. This is sometimes called a big band, in comparison to smaller jazz ensembles such as trios or quintets. (The big band is actually smaller than a typical symphonic wind ensemble or marching band.)
Question: Orchestras don’t normally use keyboards, so why should I care?
Answer: While it’s true that keyboards are used only occasionally within the ensemble, a keyboard artist should still become familiar with the orchestra. There are occasions when the keyboard is vital to an orchestral work. For example, when Tchaikovsky’s “Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy” from The Nutcracker Suite is played, nothing but the celesta — a keyboard instrument — will do.
Moreover, it will help your understanding of the piano works of famous composers such as Beethoven and Mozart if you have an appreciation for the wide range of other musical works they produced.
Besides, some of the most famous works in Western music are piano concerti (that’s the fancy way of saying the plural of “concerto”). A concerto is a challenging solo work accompanied by a full orchestra. Only those who have mastered an instrument can attempt to perform a concerto in concert. All the great Baroque, Classical, and Romantic composers wrote concerti for piano and orchestra. Mozart often performed his own piano concerti while simultaneously conducting the orchestra which accompanied him! (As if it weren’t challenging enough simply to perform the piano solo part!)
As a student of the keyboard, you should familiarize yourself with these great works, too. And that means getting a good basic understanding of the orchestra itself. Who knows? Maybe someday you’ll be the piano soloist performing one of these great works!
Tags: baroque, Beethoven, classical, concerti, concerto, mozart, music, music performance, orchestra, philharmonic, piano, piano concerti, piano concerto, piano performance, romantic, Symphony
