Books › The instruments of the modern orchestra & early records of the precursors of the violin family, with over 500 illustrations and plates;, 1910 › scan 42
Scan 42
The instruments of the modern orchestra & early records of the precursors of the violin family, with over 500 illustrations and plates;, 1910
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1being reserved for special effects), that the difference lies; in fact, tone-colour was not understood then as it is now. In the modern orchestra the instruments are treated more in groups. We have complete quartets of strings, oboes, clarinets, horns, tubas and trombones, all richly scored for. Haydn may be called the father of the modern orchestra. He was the first to treat it independently as a great power opposed to the solo and chorus. He greatly increased the resources of instrumental music by treating the instruments in groups to produce certain effects. Haydn learnt much from Mozart about the use of instruments, the clarinet particularly, and all the characteristics mentioned above became noticeable after his intercourse with Mozart, whose tone-painting was, however, never so rich as Haydn's. Haydn was, above all, human, and depicted in his music the life he saw around him, and nature as it impressed him, whereas, of his predecessors, Bach was, above all, a Lutheran. Handel's subjects were mainly concerned with the Old Testament heroes, Gluck's with those of classical Greece. The latter, the prototype of Wagner, led the way by his reforms. Haydn and Mozart followed, helping on the evolution of form, which reached its culminating point under Beethoven, who did much to individualise the instruments, writing beautiful solo passages for them; even the double basses have independent and wonderful phrases assigned to them. Weber modelled his orchestration on Beethoven's, but his originality asserted itself, and struck out into new paths. He was the first to appreciate to the full the value of the clarinets and horns. Weber is eminently dramatic; his influence is to be felt in the music of Meyerbeer and Wagner. Schubert was the first to bring out the full beauty of the wood wind family by scoring for its members solos and duets. Brahms and Dvorák have followed him in this innovation.
3Although Schumann's fame rests less on his orchestral than on his piano and chamber music, he has the merit of having
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