Kim Walder, age 15, of Birmingham, Ala., for her question:
WHEN WAS THE FIRST SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA FORMED?
Orchestras date back to the prehistoric days of man. Primitive peoples had crude musical instruments which they played in orchestral groups.
Real orchestras did not appear until bowed string instruments became common and wind instruments were developed so that the pitch could be controlled. It was also necessary to have a system of writing music before real orchestras could fully develop.
We donut know exactly when the first symphony orchestra was formed, but we know that the modern orchestra began its slow growth about 300 years ago.
The small and poorly balanced groups of the 1600s were very different from the symphony orchestra of our day. One of the composers of that period, Jean Baptists Lully, scored much of his music for stringed instruments although he was one of the first to add flutes, oboes, trumpets and drums.
Lully also used bassoons. But his wind instruments did not have their own parts to play. They merely doubled or played along with the string parts.
Later, during the early 1700s, Alessandro Scarlatti and Henry Purcell were composers who wrote special parts for the wind instruments and included French horns.
Prominent in the middle 1700s were the symphony orchestras of Johann Sebastian Bach and George Friedrich Handel. Their orchestras had two flutes, two oboes, one or two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, drums and strings.
Then in the late 1700s Christoph Gluck added two clarinets and some special percussion instruments and Jospeh Haydn and Wolfgang Mozart enlarged the orchestra still further. During the period up to 1800, the clarinet became a fixed part of the orchestra. At this time also a balance of stringed instruments was established in the orchestra and improvements were made in wind instruments.
In the 1800s, the orchestra added the trombone and tuba, increased the number of horns and enlarged the string section. Great progress was made in the manner and style of writing scores.
By the end of the 1800s, the full symphony orchestra was established, with its 90 to 100 players.
The symphony orchestral instruments today can be grouped under four main types: strings, woodwind, braes and percussion.
The conductor is one of the most important members of the orchestra. He has two main duties: he must first conduct the rehearsals and then see that his directions are followed during the actual performance.
The conductor leads the musicians by means of his baton, hand gestures, facial expressions and movements of his body. Each movement has a meaning which all players must know. Some conductors use no scores. They have memorized entire symphonies.