Stacey McKenzie, age 16,of Pocatello, Ida., for her question: _
WHEN WAS AN ORCHESTRA FIRST USED?
An orchestra is a group of musicians playing musical instruments together. The first such group dates back to prehistoric times when crude musical instruments were played. Usually they were more rhythmic than they were musical.
It wasn't until the 1600s that the modern orchestra came into being. Helping this to become a reality was the appearance of bowed string instruments and the development of wind instruments that could be controlled. Also, it was necessary to work out a system of writing music before the real orchestra could be formed.
The first orchestras had a harpsichord, lute, lyre and three flutes that accompanied singers.
A man named Claudio Monteverdi in the 1600s added strings to the instrumental choir. And from then the orchestra .became independent of vocal music, acquiring a style and dramatic power of its own.
An early composer named Jean Baptists Lully arranged much of his operatic music for stringed instruments, adding flutes, oboes, trumpets and drums. Lully also used bassoons.
A bit later two composers named Alessandro Scarlatti and Henry Purcell wrote special parts for wind instruments including the French horn. This helped to expand the orchestra.
The orchestra really blossomed in the early 1700s. Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frederic Handel came up with orchestras that included flutes, oboes, bassoons, horns, trumpets, drums and lots of strings.
Helping to establish the modern orchestra during the 1700s were Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. They enlarged the group of musicians in the orchestra. They also arranged for a balance of the stringed instruments and added a large number of improvements in the section of the orchestra that included the wind instruments.
Trombones and tubas were added to the orchestra in the 1800s. Also, the string section was greatly enlarged. There was much progress in the manner and style of writing orchestra scores.
By the end of the:1800s, the full symphony orchestra had been established. There were now between 90 and 100 musicians is the orchestra.
Today an orchestra can be of almost any size.
The famous New York Philharmonic orchestra was organized back in 1842. And it wasn't much later when musical groups were established in other large cities in the United States.
Certainly one of the most important members of the orchestra is the conductor. He has two main jobs: he must conduct the rehearsals and then see that his directions are followed during the performance.
The conductor leads the musicians with his baton, hand gestures, facial expressions and even movements of his body.