Books › The instruments of the modern orchestra & early records of the precursors of the violin family : with over 500 illustrations and plates, 1910 › scan 37
Scan 37
The instruments of the modern orchestra & early records of the precursors of the violin family : with over 500 illustrations and plates, 1910
6 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1little entr'acte scenes of instrumental music, song, recitative and dialogue introduced between the acts of the spoken Drama, and also the "Symphoniae Sacrae" of the two Gabrieli's, were scored for no less than twenty-one different kinds of instruments. It seemed as if Italy had been waiting for the Opera, for the latter found favour at once, and Peri's impetus produced, in an incredibly short time, in all parts of Italy, writers of operas.
3Our Orchestra.—We owe the composition of our orchestra to Monteverde, of Cremona, who was the first to see that the best balance is obtained by having a preponderance of stringed instruments. His orchestra in 1608, when his opera "Orfeo" was produced, consisted of two gravi cembali, two violins, ten viols, one double harp, two chitarroni, two positives, one regal, three viols da gamba and two double-basses, four trombones, two cornets, one small octave flute, one soprano trumpet and three muted trumpets: in all twenty strings, against eleven wind instruments and three keyed. Monteverde anticipated Wagner's principle that the exigencies of the action and the requirements of the texts should rule the musical design of the lyrical drama, and the instrumental portions should, quite as much as those assigned to voices, illustrate the progress of the scene and the significance of words. The latter is exemplified by Monteverde's use of particular instruments for the music of particular persons, so as to characterise every member individually. In his Opera of "Tancredi e Clorinda" Monteverde depicts in the orchestra the feelings which the voice is not able to express alone. Making a great advance in the use of bowed instruments, he invented the tremolo on strings to thrill the audience when Tancredi mortally wounds Clorinda by mistake. He also invented the pizzicato to imitate the clashing and drawing of swords.
5The Violins of Cremona.—The demand for more perfect stringed instruments created by Monteverde's instrumental
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