Instrumentation and Orchestration Lecture 1

Instrumentation and Orchestration
1740 – 1900 in quarters
1. Haydn and Mozart.
2. Beethoven and Schubert.
3. Wagner and Brahms (Loads of them).
4. Xenakis and Stockhausen.

The Classic Period 1740 – 1815
First stages of the orchestra as we know it. Haydn and Mozart were the first to write symphonies as composers. A great orchestra that greatly influenced everyone else was the Mannheim orchestra. Carl Stamitz was part of Mannheim school that house many composers. He wrote fifty Symphonies and many concertos, not to mention the quantity of chamber works his has done.

In this era, there were heavy emphasis on the woodwind, which was at the tim; oboes and bassoons. 1750 gave birth to the Clarinet, fathered by a man called Johanne Demmen (not sure about his name). Before this, the instrument was called a Shalamo (I think that’s how it is spelt). It was a long time before people started taking the clarinet seriously. Mozart was the first to use the instrument in his works and promptly made a concerto for it. At this time, the Piccolo and the Cor Anglais were used very rarely.

Horn – Before this time, a primitive hunting horn was used without any valves, just a long windy thing that made a screech, like a sound effect. The French made the horn French by shoving their hands up the bell to change the sound it made. This becomes the norm in later years closer to the present. In 1760, slides were invented for the Trombone. Other brass instruments came and went. Trombones were seen as an exotic instrument, so they were rarely used until time accepted them into Opera. The Cornetti were phased out as this point as they were deemed pointless. A couple of hangovers from the medieval era were the Serpent, and the Ophicleide. They were there because the Tuba hadn’t been invented yet.
Timps – Were tuned so they were used purely for a sound effect or whenever the time came that they could be used in harmony with the other instruments. The Theorbo and the Lute were still used at this point.


The basso continuo had been vanquished by this point.
Strings – The wind was always being used to double the strings at this point in history and there was no soloist stuff at all except for the man Mozart. Haydn’s “Symphony No. 6” was the sound of the 1760s. Before hand, orchestras were always just string quartet score blown out into bigger proportion. By 1780, things had changed; the viola had more identity, it’s own voice finally. Divisi was happening more and more often now. The cello up until now was just locked with the double bass in the continuo part. Pizz and muting were also being used. In the 1777 Mozart goes to Mannheim. Mannheim was literally the centre of everything new and current. People would get together to share their thoughts and teach each other new things about music. Symphonies that were important at the time were the Prague, Paris and Jupiter Symphonies that were composed in the 70s. Crescendos were also being invented, what the hell was it like before hand? In the “Paris Symphony” by Mozart we can hear dynamic markings, five part writing, diminuendos, foreground and background play. Recapitulation is coming back, rather than the simple et effective but boring copy and paste method.
Haydn’s “Oxford” – Horns are now more than just glue between strings and woodwind. No percussion except for timps was used during this era with exception to Haydn’s Military Symphony. “Idomenio” 1781 by Mozart was something that was pushing boundaries with no limit (well with a bit). Haydn wrote in the 1780s “The Seasons and The Creation”. At this time, Piccolo was considered exotic and not to be used in much apart from the Arias.
So in order of most common orchestras, we have at the top
• Strings alone.
• Woodwind.
• Strings with Woodwind.
• Woodwind with Horns.
• Strings with Horns.
• Strings with Percussion.
Key Players:
• Mozart.
• Haydn.
• Everyone else in Mannheim.
Next big period – 1800 to 1900. Everything happened here.
All wind instruments become chromatic by the end of the century.
• Theobard Bohm 1847 he modernised the flute. He was a key figure in this era through modernising instruments and making them better.
• Ivan Mulluer 1843 he modernised the clarinet. Loads of different clarinets were created after this guy tampered with the instrument; Bass clarinet, sub-bass, etc, the list goes on and on.
• Almenrader modernised the bassoon. Tenoroons were created but they were never needed so they quickly died out. It was basically a small bassoon .
Anyway, everything becomes modernised and mechanised. But nothing has been totally perfected yet. Now there were two valves, piston and rotary. No more shitty natural horns anymore, well, actually they get phased out completely much later.
There is a massive division between the French and the Germans over what style of music and what instruments to play were.
Meyerbeer, a composer trail-blazed and experimented with instrumentation and orchestration. He was the first composer to specify that he wanted valve trumpets instead of natural ones. Donsetti, Berlioz, Tchaikovsky and loads of others got the valve trumpets stuck in the system. There was however, a lot of wrestling between the natural and the valve trumpets for good reason as it was apparent at first why they should make the switch. The natural trumpet sounded pretty good and the valve was something new that didn’t initially need to happen. But, as things got chromatic etc, it was a necessity to make the switch. Almost like standard definition and HD.
Beethoven 1770 – 1830 for Beethoven was the time when he used the natural trumpets. Beyond that, he used valve trumpets in his pieces. The Cornet arrived in French Opera. But more importantly than that, the Tuba was finally invented. Saxhorns, keyed Bugal were invented with valves, but there was again no need for them so they instantly died out. Bass Trumpets , Saxotrombas, the Sarrusophone and the Wagner Tuba . These were not foreign instruments, they were spin offs of their predecessors. The harp also comes into play now . It remains diatonic until 1810 . Erard, who was French, modernises it with the pedals.
First Quarter of the 20th Century
• Beethoven.
• Schubert.
• Weber – Notable for extending virtuosity.
• Rossini.
• Caribini.
The standard lineup was
• 2 Flutes. – Piccolo
• 2 Oboes. – Cor Anglais
• Bassoons. – Contra Bassoon
• Clarinets. – Bass Clarinet
• 2 Horns.
• 2 Trumpets. – Pre valve technology
• Rare to see Trombones. – Only in Opera
• Timps. – These are the regular percussive instruments
• Bass drum, snare drum, cymbal, triangle.
Text books also start to appear on instrumentation and orchestration, the major one being written by Berlioz “Treaty” in 1858. So it all starts to formulise. Now doubling other instruments is phased out due to the fact that it is rather boring for the composer just to copy and paste stuff elsewhere. The cello is now fully liberated and says goodbye to its old pal the double bass. It is now considered as much of a melodic instrument as the violin. 7th and 8th position for the violin become quite normal causing the range of the orchestra to drastically increase. Tremelo was very usual now as well. There are now more notes on the page for people to play as well. The sound of the Horn stays the same as it sounded in Mozart’s day; nothing has really changed there. There was also no change to the trumpets either. Three Trombones are now standard in the orchestra as people start to appreciate their ability. The Trombone is now used pianissimo as people start to appreciate the sound it makes when it is that quiet, before hand, it was just belting out sound. This also happens to the Timps as well. For the first time, harp harmonics appear in the Opera La Dame Blanche in 1825. Crescendos and Diminuendos were being written as hairpins in Mannheim. Triple Fs and Ps were appearing as composers demanded more expression and more extreme dynamics. Weber was the pioneer of these newly found techniques as his main interest was colour when it came down to music. In 1821 he composed “Der Freischutz Operetta”, this piece is all about variety, virtuosity and colour. Agility is also something that is greatly considered aqui.

1800 – 1825
• Beethoven.
• Schubert.
These guys took the orchestra to its perfect entity. Weber punched through that creating a big divide between the composers.
The four main works to look at are:
• Schubert – Symphony 8
• Beethoven – Symphony 9
• Weber – Der Freishutz 1821
• Rossini – William Tell 1829
o Semiramide 1823
In Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 the orchestra was at its most polished.
In this Second Quarter there was also another composer called Meyerbeer (1791 – 1864). He was the trail blazer when it came to orchestration and instrumentation. But the big guy was Hectar Berlioz (1803 – 69). A great composer who did a lot of work on orchestration, remember that I said he had written a book on orchestration?

There were three other composers around this time that did a lot of work on orchestration:
• Glinka.
• Mendolsoln.
• Schumann.
These guys were the bridge between the perfect Classical orchestra and Wagner.
The Italians loved their separate and frilly colours in their music. The Germans, being German, loved to mash things up and make “Brown Sound”. Schumann is the key man here when considering this brown mash up sound. Berlioz was the outsider, iconoclastic to Mendolsoln who was loved and celebrated for his immense works at the time. Berlioz was the one who was cutting edge though, only his music was felt by others at a much later period when people had started to mature.
Instrumentation:

Bohm, Muller and Almenrader. They had perfected the brass and woodwind sections and instruments. Opera was the first to specify whether valve instruments would be used over the natural horns. Here we are getting close to a decent, stand alone brass section. Piccolo and Trombones are integrated more into the orchestra. In French Opera, there are now four bassoons. At this point, composers were playing with the idea that the strings don’t have to play the entire time and were shutting them up for sometimes whole movements. Harmonic texture is changing, that is, instead of just having the notes of a chord splashed together in a chord, composers were separating them out in arpeggios instead. Mahler does this a lot as well as Rimski Korsakov. And now thanks to Weber, the Clarinet is fully integrated with the rest of the orchestra and is no longer an outsider. The French Horn is now a melodic instrument thanks to Schumann and his 1st Symphony and Mendolsoln’s 3rd Symphony. It has become a musical instrument, rather than just a sound effect. The trumpet now gets melodies given to it, but only in Opera at this time. Cornets are also being used as a melodic instrument in French Opera.

There was a large divide between the French and the Germans over the Trombones; the Germans thought that it should be split into three tears, the French thought that there should not be tears, just three identical Trombones. This is where the French Horn gets its name from.

Berlioz now sees orchestration as the primary means of composition, rather than just sitting at a piano and then blowing the score into an the size of an orchestra.

Weber starts to set divisi in the basses. Auxiliary woodwind like the Piccolo get larger sections dedicated to them. Double basses are now being used as melody instruments sometimes (!!). Grippin and Stockhausen start to use offstage brass bands, two harps, then proceeding to become even more extreme. There are new ideas, like special positioning of instruments to make a special effect (once performed by Andy Sherwood when he put an oboe up high for some reason). There was also more interaction with the players, in that; the composer would specify what string to play on. All of this comes back to Berlioz. Solo Cor Anglais, solo Contra Bassoon, the freak of nature just wouldn’t fit into the jigsaw of music.
1840 – Grand Funeral and Triumphant Symphony of Berlioz.

When people were writing concertos though, they still kept to the old fassioned Classic Orchestra of Beethoven and Schubert. A perfect example is Schumann.

Third Quarter
The biggest name that comes to mind is Wagner. But only in his later years was he totally radical and different to the others. Other names that come to mind are:
• Liszt.
• Smeliar.
• Gouno.
• Bizet. – Harks back to the old French style. All about purity and segregation of colours.
All this was preparing the ground for Debussy (the man).
All of these guys just ignore Berlioz totally, but the valve trumpet the now become totally normal.
You would have though that with all of this immensity and bounding forward to “The Serpent” would have been extinct by now right? No! Not until finally the Tuba was invented. Harps are now also frequently added. This is all near close to the optimal standard of the orchestra. Wagner takes the baton from Belioz’s dying fingers. Wagner now employs about 8 horns, some Contrabass Tubas, and about six Harps. All he is doing is blowing it up massively. To be honest, I would have wanted to get away form this personally. He just makes everything bigger to match his totally humungous ego. The strings were just getting higher and higher, the range was expanding like nobody’s business. Cello becomes even more liberated, now a super singing instrument. The brass is now totally locked off, with Wagner though, the brass is split up into smaller groups called choirs. Orchestras within orchestras now exist, my God! Dynamic counterpoint starts happening, an example would be Prokfiev’s Romeo and Juliet at the beginning with the silent strings versus the immense brass. Octave stacks become quite normal making the sound even more immense than it was. Liszt ws similar to Wagner, but didn’t go all the way in being massive, he put more emphasis on being virtuosic. He was progressive in his orchestral writings, clearly visible in his Andante Symphonies (1849 – 1859).

As we progress further through time, we find that gigantic orchestras are really accountable only for Wagner. No one else can be arsed with them their so heavy. Now the key composers are
• Brahms.
• Franc (k).
• Risovski.
• Saints Saens.
• De Lib.
• Bruch.
• Puccini.
The instruments that were now being used were:
• Celloni.
• Violot.
• Bass flutes.
• Finally Saxophones appear.
• Tuba.
• Celesta.
• Xylophone.
• Guitar.
• Banjo.
• Piano.
• Wind Machines (?).
• Double Bass bows are modernised and thus improved.
The first three instruments didn’t stay for long. There were pretty much useless.
Now there are tons of orchestra and instrumentation text-books on the shelves.
Brahms, in all his immensity, bypasses Wagner’s influence and just goes straight back to the genius and perfection of Beethoven. He gets Schumann’s shitty orchestrations and makes them into masterpieces. But other composers were now using a huge orchestra; 9-10 cellos strong and god knows how many violins.

Bruch drew his influence from Mendolsoln. Bruchnar takes the baton from Wagner’s dying and trembling fingers. Delicacy still lingers though in Saint Saens. He is the ultimate King of this. Tchaikovsky was all about primary colours. His orchestras were nothing special, it was what he did it that made a pure and utter genius. Look at the third movement of Symphony 6 to find some antiphony. Tchaikovsky also unifies the whole tune with the orchestra creating a massive sound scape of the tune. Kosokov, an unusual and exotic composer influenced Stravinsky. Greig was the one who took the baton literally from Schumann.

Then comes a new breed of composer:
• Elgar.
• Mahler
• Strauss.
• Debussy.
• Sibelius.
• Deliass.
Strauss (1884 – 1913) used brass trills, flutter tonging, he used the wrong sticks for percussion, Glockenspeil trills, and note bends. These are all classic 20th Century techniques. Strauss’s major works come in 1895, 96, 97 and 98. Here, he uses maximum divisi in the strings so that they all have the own parts. No fair, that is. All Hollywood’s sentimental stuff comes from Strauss’s Eine Heldenlaben. Schoenberg did what Strauss did but to the power of 10.

Sibelius though, decided that he wanted to remove some of the instruments in his “Swan of Telonlaber”.
Debussy – Boulez says he is the birth of modernism. Small orchestras classically distilled, rarely does he use Tutti and the percussion is totally sophisticated.
So the general rules for orchestration on the timeline:
• Pre 1740 the tone colour changes with each movement.
• In the Classic Period, the tone colour changes with each theme.
• In the 19th Century, the tone colour changes with each phrase.
• In the 20th Century, well every note is freaking different.

THE END