Scan 307
The American history and encyclopedia of music, 1910
10 lines. Read by computer on 9 September 2026. Printed page 267. See the scan on archive.org.
1Strauss waltzes are always in the joyous major keys, expressing only gaiety, with never an undercurrent of sadness, as in the Polish mazurkas.
3As the preceding chapters of this volume have given the reader a knowledge of the elements of composition we will no longer dwell upon musical structure in general but attempt to give some hints which may prove of value in interpreting music as performed on various instruments or by the human voice. We may differ in our opinions of what is good music and in a particular interpretation of a composition but when we come to the technical qualities of a performance differences of judgment should not exist. A good or bad execution of a symphony is not a question of opinion but of fact, and the musical critic, cognizant of the technics of the art, can pronounce judgment upon the performance with absolute certainty.
5THE ORCHESTRA.
7Because the modern orchestra is perhaps the most potent and the greatest of all instruments we consider it first. As it is intended to perform the most complex music it must necessarily contain a great compass, wide range of timbre or tone color, the greatest flexibility, and a solid sonority which can be maintained from the finest pianissimo to the heaviest forte. If it is not possible for you to distinguish by ear the various wood, brass and string instruments during the performance, it would be well to have some musician identify them for you, as they can be learned only by hearing them often.
9The orchestra consists of four groups of instruments, or choirs, as they are called. The first includes the viols, that is violins, violas, violoncellos and doublebasses; the second, the wind instruments of wood: flutes, oboes, clarinets and bassoons; the third, the wind instruments of brass: trumpets, horns, trombones and bass tuba; and the last group
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