Scan 551
Grove's dictionary of music and musicians ed. by J. A. Fuller Maitland, 1907
12 lines. Read by computer on 5 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1sufficient to show the confused state of instrumental music in the 16th century: and when we add that the manner of writing, even for a 'Consort of Viols,' was exactly the same as that used for unaccompanied voices—insomuch that we constantly meet with compositions 'apt for voyces or viols'—it will be readily understood that, in France at least, the orchestra was in its infancy. Nevertheless, this is really the earliest instrumental band used in connection with a dramatic performance of which we have any certain record; we must therefore accord to France the honour which is justly her due.
3In Italy the orchestra developed itself from small beginnings, with an uninterrupted regularity which led to very unexpected results. The earliest dramatic representation in which we hear of the employment of a regular staff of instrumental performers is the oratorio called 'La Rappresentazione dell' Anima e del Corpo,' composed by Emilio del Cavalieri, and first performed at Rome, in the Oratory attached to the Church of S. Maria in Vallicella, in the month of February 1600. The orchestra used on this occasion consisted of a double lyre (or viol di gamba), a harpsichord, a double guitar (or bass lute), and two flutes. This little band—modest indeed compared with that used at the Château de Moutiers—was kept entirely out of sight, like the orchestra at Bayreuth; but the composer recommended that the various characters employed in the drama should carry instruments in their hands, and at least play, or pretend to play, during the symphonies, and also that a violin should play in unison with the soprano voice throughout.
5Ten months after the production of this primitive oratorio, that is to say in December 1600, Peri produced at Florence the first Opera Seria, 'Euridice,' which was accompanied by an orchestra, consisting of a harpsichord, a large guitar, a great lyre (or viol di gamba), and a large lute (or theorbo). These instruments were also hidden behind the proscenium, as were, in all probability, three flutes used in a certain scene, in which the Shepherd, Tirsi, pretends to play upon a triple pipe (Triflauto), which he holds in his hand.
7The next advance was made by Monteverde, who used for the accompaniment of his 'Orfeo,' produced at Mantua in 1608, an orchestra consisting of two harpsichords, two bass viols (Contrabassi di Viola), ten tenor viols (Viole da brazzo), one double harp, two little French violins, two large guitars, two organs of wood, two viole di gamba, four trombones, one regal, two cornets, one little octave flute (Flautino alla vigesima secunda), one clarion, and three trumpets with mutes (1 Clarino e 3 Trombe sordine). We have no means of ascertaining whether the performers upon these instruments were kept out of sight or not, though it seems scarcely probable that Monteverde would have abandoned a plan which had already been successfully adopted both by Emilio del Cavalieri and Peri. The one thing that strikes us as peculiar is, that the performers should have been allowed so very much latitude with regard to the notes they were to play. So much of the opera is accompanied by a simple figured bass, that unless separate parts not included in the score were written for the other instruments—which seems very unlikely indeed—the members of the orchestra must have been allowed to play pretty much as they pleased.
9As the rapid progress of dramatic music rendered the exhibition of more artistically constructed accompaniments an absolute necessity, this heterogeneous mixture of instruments gradually gave place to a more orderly arrangement, in which viols of various kinds played an important part, the Thoroughbass being played by the viol di gamba and other large stringed instruments, while the harmony was sustained by the harpsichord. [Here, then, before 1650, we find the elements of an orchestra consisting then as now of strings, wood, and brass, but the art of using these elements developed very slowly and gradually (see INSTRUMENTATION). The constitution of early orchestras was very fluctuating and uncertain, depending, doubtless, upon local circumstances. So strikingly is this the case with J. S. Bach that it seems probable that he sometimes wrote for instruments which he did not possess, filling in their parts himself at the organ. This would explain certain eccentricities in his scoring, which are otherwise perplexing. See also Oxford History of Music, vol. iv. pp. 120-38.
11Among the curiosities of orchestral history must certainly be reckoned the Handel Commemoration held at Westminster Abbey in 1784, on which occasion the band consisted of 48 first and 47 second violins, 26 violas, 21 violoncellos, 15 double basses, 6 flutes, 26 oboes, 26 bassoons, 1 double bassoon, 12 trumpets, 12 horns, 6 trombones, 4 drums, and 2 organs. But the normal constitution of an orchestra at all times has depended more upon the question of cost than anything else, and it is easy to understand why Haydn and Mozart were generally restricted to a tiny force of about 6 first violins and other strings in proportion, 1 flute, 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets and drums. As the literature of the orchestra grew, the chains of custom and convention (always so binding in our art) grew more and more rigid; the 'Beethoven orchestra'—the above list with the addition of two clarinets—was for a good fifty years the accepted mould into which all composers were expected to run their ideas, and the few who, like Berlioz and Wagner, insisted upon extra instruments, ran the risk of not getting their works played at all. It was the widening of harmonic boundaries that forced
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