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Scan 214
Musical instruments, 1925
12 lines. Read by computer on 21 September 2026. Printed page 200. See the scan on archive.org.
1thirty strings, divided thus: 8 First Violins, 8 Second Violins, 5 Violas, 5 'Cellos, 4 Basses. This should balance 2 Flutes, 2 Oboes, 2 Bassoons, 2 Horns, 2 Trumpets. A Beethoven symphony would require an addition of 2 clarinets, 2 extra Horns and Kettle Drums with 12 more strings, 57 to 60 in all.
3Since the time of Meyerbeer, Berlioz and Wagner, the brass group has so grown in importance that to give their works with well proportioned forces an orchestra of from 90 to 110 is requisite.*
5This general average is sought even in the "Monster Concerts" where orchestras of two or more hundred are involved. Even in the great International Peace Jubilee at Boston in June 1872, when there were 2,000 in the orchestra and 20,000 in the chorus, the above mentioned proportions were approximately attained by Mr. P. S. Gilmore, the conductor.
7POSITION OF THE PERFORMERS
9In seating the musicians of the orchestra the ideal sought to give those with the lesser tone an opportunity to be heard to the best advantage. Thus it is that the Violins are placed in the front, the Violas and 'Cellos immediately back of them, then the
11*This doubling of the strings is not always thoroughly grasped by the layman. The writer was once told by an ardent patron of a Western symphony society, that their conductor performed on all the instruments in the orchestra. "Think of that" said the enthusiast, "he plays seventy-five instruments—seventy-five instruments!"
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