A Brief History of the Symphony Orchestra. Sound miracle (about a symphony orchestra) A story about a symphony orchestra for children

Music is, first of all, sounds. They can be loud and quiet, fast and slow, rhythmic and not so…

But each of them, each sounding note in a certain way affects the consciousness of a person listening to music, his state of mind. And if this is orchestral music, then it certainly cannot leave anyone indifferent!

Orchestra. Types of orchestras

An orchestra is a group of musicians who play musical instruments, works that are designed specifically for these instruments.

And from what this composition is, the orchestra has different musical possibilities: in terms of timbre, dynamics, expressiveness.

What types of orchestras are there? The main ones are:

• symphonic;
• instrumental;
• orchestra of folk instruments;
• wind;
• jazz;
• pop.

There is also a military band (performing military songs), a school band (which includes schoolchildren), and so on.

Symphony Orchestra

This type of orchestra contains string, wind and percussion instruments.

There is a small symphony orchestra and a large one.

Maly is the one that plays the music of composers of the late 18th - early 19th centuries. His repertoire may include modern variations. A large symphony orchestra differs from a small one by adding more instruments to its composition.

The composition of the small necessarily contains:

• violins;
• alto;
• cellos;
• double basses;
• bassoons;
• horns;
• pipes;
• timpani;
• flutes;
• clarinet;
• oboe.

The big one includes the following tools:

• flutes;
• oboes;
• clarinets;
• contrabassoons.

By the way, it can include up to 5 instruments of each family. And also in large orchestra are present:

• horns;
• trumpets (bass, small, alto);
• trombones (tenor, tenorbass);
• tube.

And, of course, percussion instruments:

• timpani;
• bells;
• small and big drum;
• triangle;
• plate;
• Indian tom-tom;
• harp;
• piano;
• harpsichord.

A feature of a small orchestra is that there are about 20 string instruments in it, while in a large one there are about 60.

The conductor directs the symphony orchestra. He artistically interprets the work performed by the orchestra with the help of the score - a complete musical notation of all parts of each instrument of the orchestra.

Instrumental orchestra

This type of orchestra differs in its form in that it does not have a clear number of musical instruments of certain groups. And also he can perform any music (unlike a symphony orchestra, which performs exclusively classical).

There are no specific types of instrumental orchestras, but conventionally they include a variety orchestra, as well as an orchestra performing classics in modern processing.

According to historical reference, instrumental music began to actively develop in Russia only under Peter the Great. She, of course, had Western influence on herself, but she was no longer under such a ban as in earlier times. And before it came to such a point that it was forbidden not only to play, but to burn musical instruments. The Church believed that they had neither soul nor heart, and therefore they could not glorify God. And therefore instrumental music developed mainly among the common people.

They play in an instrumental orchestra on a flute, lyre, cithara, flute, trumpet, oboe, tambourine, trombone, pipe, nozzle and other musical instruments.

Most Popular instrumental orchestra XX century - this is the orchestra of Paul Mauriat.

He was its conductor, leader, arranger. His orchestra played a lot of popular musical works of the 20th century, as well as his own composition.

Folk Orchestra

In such an orchestra, the main instruments are folk.

For example, for a Russian folk orchestra, the most typical are: domras, balalaikas, psaltery, button accordions, harmonicas, zhaleika, flutes, Vladimir horns, tambourines. Also, additional musical instruments for such an orchestra are a flute and an oboe.

A folk orchestra first appeared at the end of the 19th century, organized by V.V. Andreev. This orchestra toured a lot and gained wide popularity in Russia and abroad. And at the beginning of the 20th century folk orchestras began to appear everywhere: in clubs, at palaces of culture, and so on.

Brass band

This type of orchestra suggests that it includes various wind and percussion instruments. It comes in small, medium and large.

jazz orchestra

Another orchestra of this kind was called a jazz band.

It consists of such musical instruments: saxophone, piano, banjo, guitar, percussion, trumpets, trombones, double bass, clarinets.

In general, jazz is a direction in music that has developed under the influence of African rhythms and folklore, as well as European harmony.

Jazz first appeared in the southern United States at the beginning of the 20th century. And soon spread to all countries of the world. At home, this musical direction developed and was supplemented by new characteristic features that appeared in one region or another.

At one time in America, the terms "jazz" and "popular music" had the same semantic meaning.

Jazz orchestras began to actively form in the 1920s. And they remained so until the 40s.

As a rule, participants entered these musical groups as early as adolescence, performing their specific part - memorized or from notes.

The 1930s are considered the peak of glory for jazz orchestras. The leaders of the most famous jazz orchestras at that time were: Artie Shaw, Glenn Miller, and others. Their musical works sounded everywhere at that time: on the radio, in dance clubs and so on.

Nowadays, jazz orchestras and melodies written in the jazz style are also very popular.

And although there are more types of musical orchestras, the article discusses the main ones.

Orchestra(from the Greek orchestra) - a large team of instrumental musicians. Unlike chamber ensembles, in the orchestra some of its musicians form groups playing in unison, that is, they play the same parts.
The very idea of ​​simultaneous music-making by a group of instrumental performers goes back to ancient times: even in ancient Egypt, small groups of musicians played together at various holidays and funerals.
The word "orchestra" ("orchestra") comes from the name of the round platform in front of the stage in the ancient Greek theater, which housed the ancient Greek choir, a participant in any tragedy or comedy. During the Renaissance and beyond XVII century, the orchestra was transformed into an orchestra pit and, accordingly, gave the name to the group of musicians located in it.
There are many different types of orchestra: military brass and woodwind orchestras, folk instrument orchestras, string orchestras. The largest in composition and the richest in terms of its capabilities is the symphony orchestra.

Symphoniccalled an orchestra, composed of several heterogeneous groups of instruments - a family of strings, wind and percussion. The principle of such an association has developed in Europe in XVIII century. Initially, the symphony orchestra included groups bowed instruments, wood and brass wind instruments, which adjoined a few percussion musical instruments. Subsequently, the composition of each of these groups expanded and diversified. Currently, among a number of varieties of symphony orchestras, it is customary to distinguish between a small and a large symphony orchestra. The Small Symphony Orchestra is an orchestra of predominantly classical composition (playing music of the late 18th - early 19th century, or modern pastiche). It consists of 2 flutes (rarely a small flute), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 (rarely 4) horns, sometimes 2 trumpets and timpani, string group no more than 20 instruments (5 first and 4 second violins, 4 violas, 3 cellos, 2 double basses). The large symphony orchestra (BSO) includes obligatory trombones in the copper group and can have any composition. Often wooden instruments (flutes, oboes, clarinets and bassoons) reach up to 5 instruments of each family (sometimes more clarinets) and include varieties (pick and alto flutes, cupid oboe and English oboe, small, alto and bass clarinets, contrabassoon). The copper group can include up to 8 horns (including special Wagner tubas), 5 trumpets (including small, alto, bass), 3-5 trombones (tenor and tenorbass) and a tuba. Saxophones are often used (in a jazz orchestra, all 4 types). The string group reaches 60 or more instruments. Percussion instruments are numerous (although timpani, bells, small and large drums, triangle, cymbals and Indian tam-tom form their backbone), harp, piano, harpsichord are often used.
To illustrate the sound of the orchestra, I will use the recording final concert"YouTube Symphony Orchestra". The concert took place in 2011 in the Australian city of Sydney. IN live it was watched on television by millions of people around the world. The YouTube Symphony is dedicated to fostering a love of music and showcasing the vast creative diversity of humanity.

The concert program included well-known and little-known works by well-known and little-known composers.

Here is his program:

Hector Berlioz - Roman Carnival - Overture, Op. 9 (featuring Android Jones - digital artist)
Meet Maria Chiossi
Percy Grainger - Arrival on a Platform Humlet from in a Nutshell - Suite
Johan Sebastian Bach
Meet Paulo Calligopoulos - Electric Guitar and violin
Alberto Ginastera - Danza del trigo (Wheat Dance) and Danza final (Malambo) from the ballet Estancia (conducted by Ilyich Rivas)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - "Caro" bell "idol mio" - Canon in three voices, K562 (featuring the Sydney Children's Choir and soprano Renee Fleming via video)
Meet Xiomara Mass - Oboe
Benjamin Britten - The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, Op. 34
William Barton - Kalkadunga (featuring William Barton - Didgeridoo)
Timothy Constable
Meet Roman Riedel - Trombone
Richard Strauss - Fanfare for the Vienna Philharmonic (featuring Sarah Willis, Horn, Berlin Philharmoniker and conducted by Edwin Outwater)
*PREMIERE* Mason Bates - Mothership (specially composed for the YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2011)
Meet Su Chang
Felix Mendelssohn - Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64 (Finale) (featuring Stefan Jackiw and conducted by Ilyich Rivas)
Meet Ozgur Baskin - Violin
Colin Jacobsen and Siamak Aghaei - Ascending Bird - Suite for string orchestra (featuring Colin Jacobsen, violin, and Richard Tognetti, violin, and Kseniya Simonova - sand artist)
Meet Stepan Grytsay - Violin
Igor Stravinsky - The Firebird (Infernal Dance - Berceuse - Finale)
*ENCORE* Franz Schubert - Rosamunde (featuring Eugene Izotov - oboe, and Andrew Mariner - clarinet)

History of the symphony orchestra

The symphony orchestra has been formed over the centuries. Its development for a long time took place in the depths of opera and church ensembles. Such teams in XV - XVII centuries were small and varied. They included lutes, viols, flutes with oboes, trombones, harps, and drums. Gradually, stringed bowed instruments won the dominant position. The viols were replaced by violins with their richer and more melodious sound. Back to top XVIII V. they already reigned supreme in the orchestra. A separate group and wind instruments (flutes, oboes, bassoons) have united. From the church orchestra they switched to the symphony trumpets and timpani. The harpsichord was an indispensable member of instrumental ensembles.
Such a composition was typical for J. S. Bach, G. Handel, A. Vivaldi.
From the middle XVIII V. symphony genres begin to develop and instrumental concert. The departure from the polyphonic style led the composers to strive for timbre diversity, the relief singling out of orchestral voices.
The functions of the new tools are changing. The harpsichord, with its weak sound, is gradually losing its leading role. Soon, composers completely abandoned it, relying mainly on the string and wind group. By the end XVIII V. the so-called classical composition of the orchestra was formed: about 30 strings, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, 2 pipes, 2-3 horns and timpani. The clarinet soon joined the brass. J. Haydn, W. Mozart wrote for such a composition. Such is the orchestra in the early compositions of L. Beethoven. IN XIX V.
The development of the orchestra went mainly in two directions. On the one hand, increasing in composition, it was enriched with instruments of many types (the merit of romantic composers, primarily Berlioz, Liszt, Wagner, is great for this), on the other hand, the internal capabilities of the orchestra developed: sound colors became cleaner, texture clearer, expressive resources are more economical (such is the orchestra of Glinka, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov). Significantly enriched the orchestral palette and many composers of the late XIX - 1st half of XX V. (R. Strauss, Mahler, Debussy, Ravel, Stravinsky, Bartok, Shostakovich and others).

Composition of the symphony orchestra

A modern symphony orchestra consists of 4 main groups. The foundation of the orchestra is a string group (violins, violas, cellos, double basses). In most cases, strings are the main carriers of the melodic beginning in the orchestra. The number of musicians playing strings is approximately 2/3 of the entire band. The group of woodwind instruments includes flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons. Each of them usually has an independent party. Yielding to bowed ones in timbre saturation, dynamic properties and a variety of playing techniques, wind instruments have great power, compact sound, bright colorful hues. The third group of orchestra instruments is brass (horn, trumpet, trombone, trumpet). They bring new bright colors to the orchestra, enriching its dynamic capabilities, giving power and brilliance to the sound, and also serve as a bass and rhythmic support.
All greater value acquire percussion instruments in a symphony orchestra. Their main function is rhythmic. In addition, they create a special sound and noise background, complement and decorate the orchestral palette with color effects. According to the nature of the sound, drums are divided into 2 types: some have a certain pitch (timpani, bells, xylophone, bells, etc.), others lack an exact pitch (triangle, tambourine, small and large drum, cymbals). Of the instruments that are not included in the main groups, the role of the harp is the most significant. Occasionally, composers include the celesta, piano, saxophone, organ and other instruments in the orchestra.
More information about the instruments of a symphony orchestra - string group, woodwinds, brass and percussion can be found at website.
I can not ignore another useful site, "Children about Music", which I discovered during the preparation of the post. No need to be intimidated by the fact that this is a site for children. There are some pretty serious things in it, only told in a simpler, more understandable language. Here link on him. By the way, it also contains a story about a symphony orchestra.

Throughout its history, thousands and thousands of years, mankind has created musical instruments and combined them into various combinations. But it was only about four hundred years ago that these combinations of instruments developed into a form already close to that of a modern orchestra.

In the old days, when musicians got together to play, they used whatever instruments were around. If there were three players on the lute, two on the harp and on the flute, that's how they played. By the early 16th century, an era known as the Renaissance, the word "ensemble" was used to refer to a group of musicians, sometimes singers, who performed music together or "in an ensemble".

Composers early renaissance they usually did not specify for which instrument they wrote the part. This meant that parts could be played on any available instrument. But at the beginning of the 17th century in Italy, the composer Claudio Monteverdi chose which instruments should accompany his opera Orpheus (1607), and indicated exactly for which instruments the parts were written: fifteen violas of various sizes, two violins, four flutes (two large and two medium ones), two oboes, two cornets (small wooden pipes), four trumpets, five trombones, a harp, two harpsichords and three small organs.

As seen, " renaissance orchestra"Monteverdi already looked like what we imagined an orchestra to be: the instruments are organized into groups, there are many bowed string instruments, a great variety.

In the next century (until 1700, the time of J.S. Bach), the orchestra developed even more. The violin family (violin, viola, cello and bass) replaced the viols, in the Baroque orchestra the violin family was much more representative than the viols in the Renaissance orchestra. The musical leadership in the Baroque orchestra was held by the keyboards, the musicians who played the harpsichord or sometimes the organ acted as leaders. When J.S. Bach worked with an orchestra, he sat at the organ or harpsichord and led the orchestra from his seat.

In the Baroque era, a musical conductor sometimes led an orchestra while standing, but this was not yet the conducting that we know now. Jean-Baptiste Lully, who was in charge of music at the court of the French king in the 1600s, used to beat the rhythm for his musicians with a long pole on the floor, but one day he accidentally injured his leg, gangrene developed, and he died!

In the next 19th century, the time of Haydn and Beethoven, there were even more profound changes in the orchestra. Stringed bowed instruments have become more important than ever, and keyboard instruments on the contrary, they went into the shadows. Composers began to write for a specific musical instrument. This meant knowing the voice of each instrument, understanding what kind of music would sound better and be easier to play on the chosen instrument. Composers have become more free and even adventurous in combining instruments to produce richer and more varied sounds and tones.

The first violinist (or accompanist) directed the performance of the orchestra from his chair, but sometimes he had to give instructions with gestures, and in order to be better seen, he first used an ordinary sheet of white paper rolled into a tube. This led to the emergence of the modern conductor's baton. In the early 1800s, composer-conductors such as Carl Maria von Weber and Felix Mendelssohn were the first to lead musicians from a podium in the center in front of the orchestra.

As orchestras got bigger and bigger, not all musicians could see and follow the accompanist. By the end of the 19th century, the orchestra reached the size and proportions that we know today and even exceeded modern ones. Some composers, such as Berlioz, began to compose music only for such huge orchestras.

The design, construction and quality of musical instruments have been constantly improved, created new musical instruments that found their place in the orchestra, such as the piccolo (piccolo) and trumpet. Many composers, including Berlioz, Verdi, Wagner, Mahler and Richard Strauss, became conductors. Their experimentation with orchestration (the art of distributing musical material between the instruments of an orchestra in order to make the most advantageous use of each instrument) showed the way to the 20th century.

Wagner went even further, he designed and manufactured a bass trumpet ( Wagner trumpet), combining elements of bugle and trumpet to introduce a new, special sound to her immortal opera Der Ring des Nibelungen. He was also the first conductor to turn his back on the audience in order to better control the orchestra. In one of his symphonies, Strauss wrote part for alpine horn, a wooden folk instrument 12 feet long. Now the alpine horn is being replaced by a pipe. Arnold Schoenberg created his work "Songs Gurre" (Gurrelieder) for orchestra with 150 instruments.

The 20th century was a century of freedom and new experiments with the orchestra. The conductors became completely individual persons and their own superstars rose among them. Responsibility has increased many times, but the recognition of the audience too.

The basis of the orchestra was as it was in the late 19th century, and composers sometimes added or removed instruments, depending on the effect they desired. Sometimes it was an extremely extended group of percussion instruments or woodwinds and brass. But the composition of the orchestra has become fixed and basically remains constant: a large group of bowed instruments and small groups of wind, percussion, harps and keyboard instruments.

After so many years, it still works!

, cellos , double basses . Gathered together, in the hands of experienced musicians, subject to the will of the conductor, they form a musical instrument capable of expressing and conveying with sounds any musical content, any image, any thought. Many combinations of instruments of the orchestra gives an almost inexhaustible set of diverse sounds - from thunderous, deafening to barely audible, from sharply cutting ear to caressingly soft. And multi-story chords of any complexity, and patterned and sinuous plexus of heterogeneous melodic ornaments, and cobweb-thin fabric, small sound "shards" when, according to figurative expression S. S. Prokofiev, “as if they are dusting the orchestra”, and powerful unisons of many instruments simultaneously playing the same sounds - all this is subject to the orchestra. Any of the orchestral groups - string, wind, percussion, plucked, keyboard - is able to separate from others and lead its own musical narration while the others are silent; but all of them completely, partially or as individual representatives, merging with another group or part of it, form a complex timbre alloy. For more than two centuries, the most cherished thoughts of composers, the brightest milestones in the history of the art of sounds, have been connected with music conceived, written, and sometimes even arranged for a symphony orchestra.

Arrangement of musical instruments of a symphony orchestra.

Everyone who loves music knows and remembers the names of J. Haydn, W. A. ​​Mozart, F. Schubert, R. Schumann, I. Brahms, G. Berlioz, F. Liszt, S. Frank, J. Bizet, J. Verdi, P. I. Tchaikovsky, N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov, A. P. Borodin. M. P. Mussorgsky , S. V. Rachmaninov , A. K. Glazunov , I. F. Stravinsky , S. S. Prokofiev , N. Ya. Myaskovsky , D. D. Shostakovich , A. I. Khachaturian , K. Debussy, M. Ravel, B. Bartok and other masters whose symphonies, suites, overtures, symphonic poems, paintings, fantasies, instrumental concertos accompanied by an orchestra, and finally, cantatas, oratorios, operas and ballets are written for a symphony orchestra or involve its participation . The ability to write for him is the highest and most complex area of ​​the art of musical composition, requiring deep special knowledge, extensive experience, practice, and most importantly - special musical ability, giftedness, talent.

The history of the emergence and development of a symphony orchestra is the history of the gradual restructuring of old and the invention of new instruments, an increase in its composition, the history of improving the ways in which combinations of instruments are used, that is, the history of that area of ​​​​musical science that is called orchestration or instrumentation, and, finally, the history of the symphony, opera, oratorio music. All these four terms, the four sides of the concept of "symphony orchestra", are closely related. Their influence on each other was and still is diverse.

The word "orchestra" in Ancient Greece meant a semicircular area in front of the theater stage, where the choir was located - an indispensable participant in dramatic performances in the era of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes. Around 1702, this word first denoted a small space intended for an ensemble of instrumentalists accompanying the opera. So called instrumental groups in chamber music. In the middle of the XVIII century. introduced a decisive distinction for the history of the orchestra - a large orchestra was opposed to small chamber music - an ensemble. Until that time, no clear line was drawn between chamber music and orchestral music.

The concept of "symphony orchestra" appeared in the era of classicism, when K. V. Gluck, L. Boccherini, Haydn, Mozart lived and worked. It arose already after the composers began to accurately write out in the notes the names of each instrument playing this or that voice, this or that musical line. As early as the beginning of the 17th century. K. Monteverdi in "Orpheus" before each number only listed the instruments that could perform it. The question of who should play which line remained open. Therefore, in any of the 40 opera houses in his native Venice, one performance of Orpheus could be unlike another. J. B. Lully, composer, violinist, conductor, was probably the first to write for a specific set of instruments, for the so-called "24 Violins of the King" - a string ensemble formed at the court of Louis XIV and led by Lully himself. He had the upper voice of the string group also backed up by oboes, and the lower voice by bassoons. Oboes and bassoons without strings, in contrast to the full composition, participated in the middle sections of his compositions.

Throughout the 17th century and the first half of the 18th century. the initial basis of the orchestra is formed - the string group. Gradually, representatives of the wind family are added - flutes, oboes and bassoons, and then horns. The clarinet entered the orchestra much later due to its extreme imperfection at the time. M. I. Glinka in his "Notes on Instrumentation" calls the sound of the clarinet "goose". Yet wind group as part of flutes, oboes, clarinets and horns (two in all) appears in Mozart's Prague Symphony, and before that with his French contemporary, F. Gossec. In Haydn's London Symphonies and the early symphonies of L. Beethoven, two trumpets appear, as well as timpani. In the 19th century the wind group in the orchestra is further enhanced. For the first time in the history of orchestral music, a piccolo flute, a contrabassoon, and three trombones, previously used only in operas, take part in the finale of Beethoven's 5th symphony. R. Wagner adds another tuba and brings the number of pipes to four. Wagner is primarily an operatic composer, but at the same time he is rightfully considered an outstanding symphonist and reformer of the symphony orchestra.

The desire of composers of the XIX-XX centuries. To enrich the sound palette led to the introduction into the orchestra of a number of instruments with special technical and timbre capabilities.

TO late XIX V. the composition of the orchestra is brought to impressive, and sometimes to gigantic proportions. Thus, Mahler's 8th symphony is not accidentally called "the symphony of a thousand participants." In the symphonic canvases and operas of R. Strauss, numerous varieties of wind instruments appear: alto and bass flutes, baritone oboe (haeckelphone), small clarinet, contrabass clarinet, alto and bass pipes, etc.

In the XX century. the orchestra is replenished mainly with percussion instruments. Prior to this, the usual members of the orchestra were 2–3 timpani, cymbals, bass and snare drums, a triangle, less often a tambourine and tom-toms, bells, a xylophone. Now composers use a set of orchestral bells that gives a chromatic scale, the celesta. They introduce into the orchestra such instruments as flexatone, bells, Spanish castanets, a clattering wooden box, a rattle, a whip-cracker (its blow is like a shot), a siren, wind and thunder machines, even the singing of a nightingale recorded on a special record (it was used V symphonic poem Italian composer O. Respighi "The Pines of Rome").

In the second half of the XX century. from jazz to the symphony orchestra come such percussion instruments as vibraphone, tomtoms, bongos, combined drum kit- with "Charleston" ("hi-hat"), maracas.

As for the string and wind groups, their formation by 1920 was basically completed. The orchestra sometimes includes individual representatives of the saxophone group (in the works of Wiese, Ravel, Prokofiev), a brass band (cornets by Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky), harpsichord, domra and balalaika, guitar, mandolin, etc. Composers are increasingly creating works for partial compositions of a symphony orchestra: for strings alone, for strings and brass, for a wind group without strings and percussion, for strings with percussion.

Composers of the 20th century write a lot of music for chamber orchestra. It consists of 15-20 strings, one woodwind each, one or two horns, a percussion group with one performer, a harp (instead of it there may be a piano or harpsichord). Along with these, works appear for an ensemble of soloists, where there is one representative from each variety (or from some of them). Such are the chamber symphonies and plays by A. Schoenberg, A. Webern, Stravinsky's suite "The Story of a Soldier", the works of Soviet composers - our contemporaries M. S. Weinberg, R. K. Gabichvadze, E. V. Denisov and others. Increasingly, authors are turning to compositions that are unusual, or, as they say, emergency. They need unusual, rare sounds, since the role of timbre in contemporary music has grown like never before.

Nevertheless, in order to always have the opportunity to perform music, both old and new, and the latest, the composition of the symphony orchestra remains stable. The modern symphony orchestra is subdivided into a large symphony orchestra (about 100 musicians), medium (70–75), small (50–60). On the basis of a large symphony orchestra, it is possible to select for each work the composition necessary for its performance: one for “Eight Russian Folk Songs” by A.K. » Stravinsky or Ravel's fiery Bolero.

How are the musicians on the stage? In the XVIII-XIX centuries. the first violins sat to the left of the conductor, and the second to the right, the violas sat behind the first violins, and the cellos behind the second. Behind the string group, they sat in rows: in front of the woodwind group, and behind it the brass group. Double basses were located in the background on the right or left. The rest of the space was devoted to harps, celesta, piano and percussion. In our country, musicians sit according to the scheme introduced in 1945 by the American conductor L. Stokowski. According to this scheme, cellos are placed in the foreground instead of second violins to the right of the conductor; their former place is now occupied by the second violins.

A symphony orchestra is led by a conductor. He unites the musicians of the orchestra and directs all their efforts towards the realization of his performing plan during rehearsals and at the concert. Conducting is based on a specially designed hand movement system. The conductor usually holds a baton in his right hand. The most important role is played by his face, look, facial expressions. The conductor must be a highly educated person. He needs knowledge of music of various eras and styles, orchestra instruments and their capabilities, a keen ear, the ability to penetrate deeply into the composer's intention. The talent of the performer must be combined with his organizational and pedagogical abilities.

• background
• Orchestral genres and forms
• Mannheim Chapel
• court musicians

background

Since ancient times, people have known about the impact of the sound of musical instruments on the human mood: the soft but melodious play of a harp, lyre, cithara, kemancha or reed flute evoked feelings of joy, love or peace, and the sound of animal horns (for example, Hebrew shofars ) or metal pipes contributed to the emergence of solemn and religious feelings. Drums and other percussion, added to the horns and trumpets, helped to cope with fear and awakened aggressiveness and militancy. It has long been noticed that the joint playing of several similar instruments enhances not only the brightness of the sound, but also the psychological impact on the listener - the same effect that occurs when a large number of people sing the same melody together. Therefore, wherever people settled, associations of musicians gradually began to emerge, accompanying battles or public solemn events with their playing: rituals in the temple, marriages, burials, coronations, military parades, amusements in palaces.

The very first written references to such associations can be found in the Pentateuch of Moses and in the Psalms of David: at the beginning of some psalms there is an appeal to the leader of the choir with an explanation of which instruments should be used to accompany this or that text. There were groups of musicians in Mesopotamia and the Egyptian pharaohs, in ancient China and India, Greece and Rome. In the ancient Greek tradition of performing tragedies, there were special platforms on which musicians sat, accompanying the performances of actors and dancers by playing instruments. Such platform-elevations "orchestra" were called. So the patent for the invention of the word "orchestra" remains with the ancient Greeks, although in fact orchestras existed much earlier.

Fresco from a Roman villa in Boscoreal. 50-40s BC e. The Metropolitan Museum of Art

In Western European culture, the association of musicians as an orchestra did not immediately begin to be called. At first, in the Middle Ages and in the Renaissance, it was called a chapel. This name was associated with belonging to a specific place where music was performed. Such chapels were at first church, and then court. And there were also village chapels, consisting of amateur musicians. These chapels were practically a mass phenomenon. And although the level of village performers and their instruments could not be compared with professional court and temple chapels, one should not underestimate the influence of the tradition of village, and later urban folk instrumental music on great composers and European musical culture as a whole. The music of Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, Weber, Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Bruckner, Mahler, Bartok, Stravinsky, Ravel, Ligeti is literally fertilized by the traditions of folk instrumental music-making.

As well as in more ancient cultures, in Europe there was no initial division into vocal and instrumental music. Starting from the early Middle Ages, the Christian church dominated everything, and instrumental music in the church developed as an accompaniment, support for the gospel word, which always dominated - after all, "in the beginning was the Word." Therefore, the early chapels are both people who sing and people who accompany the singers.

At some point, the word "orchestra" appears. Although not everywhere at the same time. In Germany, for example, this word was established much later than in the Romance countries. In Italy, orchestra has always meant the instrumental rather than the vocal part of the music. The word orchestra was borrowed directly from the Greek tradition. Italian orchestras arose at the turn of the 16th-17th centuries, along with the advent of the opera genre. And because of the extraordinary popularity of this genre, this word quickly conquered the whole world. Thus, it is safe to say that contemporary orchestral music has two sources: the temple and the theatre.

Christmas mass. Miniature from the Magnificent Book of Hours of the Duke of Berry by the Limburg brothers. 15th century Ms. 65/1284, fol. 158r / Musee Conde / Wikimedia Commons

And in Germany for a long time they held on to the medieval-revival name "chapel". Until the 20th century, many German court orchestras were called chapels. One of the most ancient orchestras in the world today is the Saxon State (and in the past - the Saxon Court) Chapel in Dresden. Its history goes back over 400 years. She appeared at the court of the Saxon Electors, who always appreciated the beautiful and were ahead of all their neighbors in this respect. There are still the Berlin and Weimar State Chapels, as well as the famous Meiningen Court Chapel, in which Richard Strauss began as a bandmaster (currently a conductor). By the way, the German word "kapellmeister" (chapel master) is still sometimes used today by musicians as an equivalent to the word "conductor", but more often in an ironic, sometimes even negative sense (in the sense of a craftsman, not an artist). And in those days, this word was pronounced with respect, as the name of a complex profession: "the leader of a choir or orchestra, which also composes music." True, in some German orchestras this word has been preserved as a designation of the position - for example, in the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the chief conductor is still called the Gewandhaus Kapellmeister.

XVII-XVIII centuries: the orchestra as a court decoration

Louis XIV in the Royal Ballet of the Night by Jean Baptiste Lully. Sketch by Henri de Gisset. 1653 In the production, the king played the role of the rising sun. Wikimedia Commons

Renaissance orchestras, and later Baroque orchestras, were mostly court or ecclesiastical. Their purpose was to accompany worship or to appease and entertain those in power. However, many feudal rulers had a fairly developed aesthetic sense, and besides, they liked to show off to each other. Someone boasted of the army, someone - of bizarre architecture, someone laid out gardens, and someone kept a court theater or orchestra.

The French king Louis XIV, for example, had two such orchestras: the Ensemble of the Royal Stables, which consisted of wind and percussion instruments, and the so-called "24 violins of the king", led by famous composer Jean Baptiste Lully, who also collaborated with Moliere and went down in history as the creator of French opera and the first professional conductor. Later, the English King Charles II (son of the executed Charles I), returning from France during the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, also created his "24 King's Violins" in the Royal Chapel according to the French model. The Royal Chapel itself has existed since the 14th century and reached its peak during the reign of Elizabeth I - its court organists were William Bird and Thomas Tallis. And at the court of Charles II, the brilliant English composer Henry Purcell served, combining the position of organist in Westminster Abbey and in the Royal Chapel. In the 16th-17th centuries in England there was another, specific name for an orchestra, usually a small one - "consort". In the later Baroque era, the word "consort" fell into disuse, and the concept of chamber, that is, "room" music appeared instead.

Warrior costume from the Royal Ballet of the Night. Sketch by Henri de Gisset. 1653 Wikimedia Commons

Baroque forms of entertainment were becoming late XVII- the beginning of the XVIII century, more and more luxurious. And it was no longer possible to manage with a small number of tools - customers wanted "bigger and more expensive". Although, of course, everything depended on the generosity of the “illustrious patron”. If Bach was forced to write letters to his masters, persuading them to allocate at least two or three violins per instrumental part, then at Handel, at the same time, 24 oboists, 12 bassoonists, 9 horn players took part in the first performance of "Music for the Royal Fireworks" , 9 trumpeters and 3 timpani players (i.e. 57 musicians for 13 prescribed parts). And in the performance of Handel's "Messiah" in London in 1784, 525 people took part (although this event belongs to a later era, when the author of the music was no longer alive). Most baroque authors wrote operas, and the theatrical opera orchestra has always been a kind of creative laboratory for composers - a place for all sorts of experiments, including with unusual instruments. So, for example, at the beginning of the 17th century, Monteverdi introduced a trombone part to the orchestra of his opera Orfeo, one of the very first operas in history, to depict infernal furies.

Since the time of the Florentine Camerata (the turn of the 16th-17th centuries), in any orchestra there was a basso continuo part, which was played by a whole group of musicians and recorded on one line in the bass clef. The numbers under the bass line denoted certain harmonic sequences - and the performers had to improvise all the musical texture and decorations, that is, create anew with each performance. Yes, and the composition varied depending on what instruments were at the disposal of a particular chapel. The presence of one keyboard instrument, most often the harpsichord, was obligatory. church music this instrument was most often the organ; one stringed bow - cello, viola da gamba or violone (the forerunner of the modern double bass); one stringed plucked lute or theorbo. But it happened that in the basso continuo group six or seven people played at the same time, including several harpsichords (Purcell and Rameau had three or four of them). In the 19th century, keyboards and plucked instruments disappeared from orchestras, but reappeared in the 20th century. And since the 1960s, it has become possible to use almost any instrument in the world in a symphony orchestra - almost baroque flexibility in approach to instrumentation. Thus, we can consider that the Baroque gave birth to the modern orchestra.

Instrumentation, structure, notation

Miniature from the Commentary on the Apocalypse of Beat of Lieban in the list of the monastery of San Millan de la Cogoglia. 900-950 Biblioteca de Serafín Estébanez Calderón y de San Millán de la Cogolla

The word "orchestra" for the modern listener is most likely associated with excerpts from the music of Beethoven, Tchaikovsky or Shostakovich; with that massively monumental and at the same time smoothed sound, which was deposited in our memory from listening to modern orchestras - live and in recordings. But orchestras did not always sound like this. Among the many differences between ancient orchestras and modern ones, the main thing is the instruments used by the musicians. In particular, all instruments sounded much quieter than modern ones, since the rooms in which music was played were (generally) much smaller than modern ones. concert halls. And there were no factory horns, no nuclear turbines, no internal combustion engines, no supersonic aircraft - the general sound of human life was several times quieter than today. Its loudness was still measured by natural phenomena: the roar of wild animals, thunder during thunderstorms, the noise of waterfalls, the crackling of falling trees or the rumble of a mountain fall, and the roar of the crowd in the city square on a fair day. Therefore, music could compete in brightness only with nature itself.

The strings that were strung on stringed instruments were made from ox sinew (today's are made of metal), the bows were smaller, lighter and slightly different in shape. Due to this, the sound of the strings was "warmer", but less "smoothed" than today. Wooden wind instruments did not have all the modern valves and other technical devices that allow you to play more confidently and accurately. The woodwinds of that time sounded more individual in terms of timbres, sometimes somewhat out of tune (it all depended on the skill of the performer) and several times quieter than modern ones. Brass wind instruments were all completely natural, that is, they could produce only the sounds of a natural scale, which most often were only enough to play a short fanfare, but not an extended melody. Animal skin was stretched over drums and timpani (this practice still exists today, although percussion instruments with plastic membranes have long appeared).

The order of the orchestra was generally lower than today - on average by half a tone, and sometimes by a whole tone. But even here there was no single rule: the tone system for the first octave (according to which the orchestra is traditionally tuned) at the court of Louis XIV was 392 on the Hertz scale. At the court of Charles II, they tuned A from 400 to 408 hertz. At the same time, the organs in temples were often tuned to a tone higher than the harpsichords that stood in the palace chambers (perhaps this was due to heating, since string instruments rise in tune from dry heat, and, on the contrary, decrease from cold; wind instruments often have reverse trend). Therefore, in the time of Bach, there were two main systems: the so-called kammer-ton (modern "tuning fork" - a word derived from it), that is, "room system", and orgel-ton, that is, "organ system" (aka "choral tone "). And the room tuning for A was 415 hertz, while the organ tuning was always higher and sometimes reached 465 hertz. And if we compare them with the modern concert tuning (440 hertz), then the first one turns out to be half a tone lower, and the second one is a half tone higher than the modern one. Therefore, in some of Bach's cantatas, written with the organ system in mind, the author wrote out the parts of wind instruments immediately in transposition, that is, half a step higher than the part of the choir and basso continuo. This was due to the fact that wind instruments, which were mainly used in court chamber music, were not adapted to the higher tuning of the organ (flutes and oboes could even be slightly lower than the camertone, and therefore there was also a third one - low camertone). tone). And if, without knowing this, today you try to play such a cantata literally from notes, you will get a cacophony that the author did not intend.

This situation with "floating" systems persisted in the world until the Second World War, that is, not only in different countries, but in different cities of the same country, the systems could differ significantly from each other. In 1859, the French government made the first attempt to standardize the tuning by issuing a law approving the tuning of A - 435 hertz, but in other countries the tunings continued to be extremely different. And only in 1955 international organization On standardization, the law on the concert tuning of 440 hertz was adopted to this day.

Heinrich Ignaz Biber. Engraving from 1681 Wikimedia Commons

Baroque and classical authors also carried out other operations in the field of tuning, relating to music for string instruments. We are talking about a technique called "scordatura", that is, "tuning the strings." At the same time, some strings, say violins or violas, were tuned to a different, atypical interval for the instrument. Thanks to this, the composer got the opportunity to use, depending on the key of the composition, a larger number of open strings, which led to a better resonance of the instrument. But this scordatura was often recorded not in real sound, but in transposition. Therefore, without preliminary preparation of the instrument (and the performer), such a composition is impossible to perform properly. A famous example of scordatura is Heinrich Ignaz Bieber's cycle of violin sonatas Rosary (Mysteries) (1676).

In the Renaissance and in the early stage of the Baroque, the range of modes, and later the keys, in which composers could compose was limited by a natural barrier. The name of this barrier is the Pythagorean comma. The great Greek scientist Pythagoras was the first to suggest tuning instruments according to a pure fifth - one of the first intervals of the natural scale. But it turned out that if you tune stringed instruments in this way, then after passing through a full circle of fifths (four octaves), the C-sharp note sounds much higher in C. And since ancient times, musicians and scientists have tried to find an ideal instrument tuning system, in which this natural flaw of the natural scale - its unevenness - could be overcome, which would allow equal use of all tonalities.

Each era had its own systems of order. And each of the systems had its own characteristics, which seem false to our ears, accustomed to the sound of modern pianos. Since the beginning of the 19th century, all keyboard instruments have been tuned in a uniform scale, dividing an octave into 12 perfectly equal semitones. The even tuning is a compromise very close to the modern spirit, which allowed solving the problem of the Pythagorean comma once and for all, but sacrificing the natural beauty of the sound of pure thirds and fifths. That is, none of the intervals (except for the octave) played by a modern piano corresponds to the natural scale. And in all the numerous tuning systems that have existed since the late Middle Ages, a certain number of pure intervals have been preserved, due to which all the keys received a sharply individual sound. Even after the invention of good temperament (see Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier), which made it possible to use all the keys on the harpsichord or organ, the keys themselves still retained their individual coloring. Hence the emergence of the theory of affects, fundamental to Baroque music, according to which all musical means of expression- melody, harmony, rhythm, tempo, texture and the choice of tonality itself are inseparably linked with specific emotional states. Moreover, the same tonality could, depending on the one used in this moment building to sound pastoral, innocent or sensual, solemnly mournful or demonically intimidating.

For the composer, the choice of one key or another was inextricably linked with a certain set of emotions until the turn of the 18th-19th centuries. Moreover, if for Haydn D major sounded like “majestic thanksgiving, militancy”, then for Beethoven it sounded like “pain, anguish or a march”. Haydn associated E major with "thoughts of death", and for Mozart it meant "solemn, sublime transcendence" (all these epithets are quotes from the composers themselves). Therefore, among the obligatory virtues of musicians performing early music is a multidimensional system of musical and general cultural knowledge, which makes it possible to recognize the emotional structure and "codes" different compositions various authors, and at the same time the ability to technically implement it in the game.

In addition, there are also problems with notation: composers of the 17th-18th centuries deliberately recorded only part of the information related to the upcoming performance of the work; phrasing, nuance, articulation, and especially exquisite decoration - an integral part of the Baroque aesthetic - all this was left to the free choice of musicians, who thus became co-creators of the composer, and not just obedient executors of his will. Therefore, a truly masterful performance of baroque and early classical music on vintage instruments is a task no less (if not more) difficult than the virtuoso mastering of later music on modern instruments. When over 60 years ago the first enthusiasts of playing ancient instruments (“authenticists”) appeared, they were often met with hostility among their colleagues. This was partly due to the inertia of the musicians of the traditional school, and partly to the insufficient skill of the pioneers of musical authenticity themselves. In musical circles, there was a kind of condescendingly ironic attitude towards them as losers who did not find a better use for themselves than to publish plaintive fake bleating on “withered wood” (woodwinds) or “rusty scrap metal” (brasswinds). And this (certainly unfortunate) attitude persisted until recently, until it became clear that the level of playing on ancient instruments has grown so much over the past decades that, at least in the field of baroque and early classics, authenticists have long caught up and surpassed more monotonous and ponderous sounding modern orchestras.

Orchestral genres and forms

Fragment of a portrait of Pierre Moucheron with his family. Author unknown. 1563 Rijksmuseum Amsterdam

Just as the word "orchestra" did not always mean what we mean by it today, so the words "symphony" and "concert" originally had slightly different meanings, and only gradually, over time, they acquired their modern meanings.

Concert

The word "concert" has several possible origins. Modern etymology tends to translate "to come to an agreement" from the Italian concertare or "to sing together, praise" from the Latin concinere, concino. Another possible translation is “dispute, competition” from the Latin concertare: individual performers (soloists or a group of soloists) compete in music with a team (orchestra). In the early Baroque era, a vocal-instrumental work was often called a concerto, later it became known as a cantata - from the Latin canto, cantare ("to sing"). Over time, the concerts became purely instrumental genre(although among the works of the 20th century one can also find such a rarity as the Concerto for Voice and Orchestra by Reinhold Gliere). baroque era made a distinction between a solo concerto (one instrument and an accompanying orchestra) and a "big concerto" (concerto grosso), where music was transferred between a small group of soloists (concertino) and a group with more instruments (ripieno, that is, "filling", "filling "). The musicians of the ripieno group were called ripienists. It was these ripienists who became the forerunners of modern orchestral players. As ripieno, only string instruments were involved, as well as basso continuo. And the soloists could be very different: violin, cello, oboe, recorder, bassoon, viola d'amour, lute, mandolin, etc.

There were two types of concerto grosso: concerto da chiesa ("church concert") and concerto da camera ("chamber concert"). Both came into use mainly thanks to Arcangelo Corelli, who composed a cycle of 12 concertos (1714). This cycle had a strong influence on Handel, who left us two concerto grosso cycles, recognized as masterpieces of this genre. Bach's Brandenburg concertos also bear the clear features of a concerto grosso.

The heyday of the baroque solo concerto is associated with the name of Antonio Vivaldi, who composed more than 500 concertos for various instruments accompanied by strings and basso continuo in his life (although he also wrote over 40 operas, a huge number of church choral music and instrumental symphonies). Recitals were, as a rule, in three parts with alternating tempos: fast - slow - fast; this structure became dominant in the later samples of the instrumental concerto - right up to the beginning of the 21st century. The most famous creation of Vivaldi was the cycle "The Seasons" (1725) for violin and string orchestra, in which each concerto is preceded by a poem (perhaps written by Vivaldi himself). The poems describe the main moods and events of a particular season, which are then embodied in the music itself. These four concertos, which were part of a larger cycle of 12 concertos entitled Contest of Harmony and Invention, are today considered one of the first examples of program music.

This tradition was continued and developed by Handel and Bach. Moreover, Handel composed, among other things, 16 organ concertos, and Bach, in addition to the concertos traditional at that time for one and two violins, also wrote concertos for the harpsichord, which had hitherto been exclusively an instrument of the basso continuo group. So Bach can be considered the progenitor of the modern piano concerto.

Symphony

Symphony in Greek means "consonance", "joint sound". In the ancient Greek and medieval traditions, the symphony was called the euphony of harmony (in today's musical language - consonance), and in more recent times, various musical instruments began to be called symphony, such as: dulcimer, hurdy gurdy, spinet or virginal. And only at the turn of the XVI-XVII centuries the word "symphony" began to be used as the name of a composition for voices and instruments. The earliest examples of such symphonies are the Musical Symphonies by Lodovico Grossi da Viadana (1610), the Sacred Symphonies by Giovanni Gabrieli (1615) and the Sacred Symphonies (op. 6, 1629, and op. 10, 1649) by Heinrich Schütz. In general, during the entire Baroque period, a variety of compositions, both ecclesiastical and secular, were called symphonies. Most often, symphonies were part of a larger cycle. With the advent of the genre of the Italian opera seria (“serious opera”), associated primarily with the name of Scarlatti, the instrumental introduction to the opera, also called the overture, was called the symphony, usually in three sections: fast - slow - fast. That is, "symphony" and "overture" for a long time meant about the same thing. By the way, in Italian opera, the tradition of calling the overture a symphony survived until the middle of the 19th century (see Verdi's early operas, for example, Nebuchadnezzar).

Since the 18th century, a fashion for instrumental multi-part symphonies has arisen throughout Europe. They played an important role in both public life as well as in church services. However, the main place of origin and performance of symphonies were the estates of aristocrats. By the middle of the 18th century (the time of the appearance of the first Haydn symphonies), there were three main centers for composing symphonies in Europe - Milan, Vienna and Mannheim. It was thanks to the activities of these three centers, but especially the Mannheim Court Chapel and its composers, as well as the work of Joseph Haydn, that the symphony genre experienced its first flowering in Europe at that time.

Mannheim Chapel

Jan Stamitz Wikimedia Commons

The chapel, which arose under Elector Charles III Philip in Heidelberg, and after 1720 continued to exist in Mannheim, can be considered the first prototype of the modern orchestra. Even before moving to Mannheim, the chapel was more numerous than any other in the surrounding principalities. In Mannheim, it grew even more, and due to the involvement of the most talented musicians of that time, the quality of performance also improved significantly. Since 1741, the choir was headed by the Czech violinist and composer Jan Stamitz. It was from this time that we can talk about the creation of the Mannheim school. The orchestra included 30 string instruments, paired wind instruments: two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets (then still rare guests in orchestras), two bassoons, two to four horns, two trumpets and timpani - a huge composition for those times. For example, in the chapel of Prince Esterhazy, where Haydn served for almost 30 years as bandmaster, at the beginning of his activity the number of musicians did not exceed 13-16 people, at Count Morzin, with whom Haydn served several years before Esterhazy and wrote his first symphonies, there were even more musicians. less - there, judging by the scores of Haydn of those years, there were not even flutes. In the late 1760s, the Esterhazy Chapel grew to 16-18 musicians and by the mid-1780s reached its maximum number of 24 musicians. And in Mannheim there were 30 people of strings alone.

But the main virtue of the Mannheim virtuosos was not their quantity, but the incredible quality and coherence of the collective performance at that time. Jan Stamitz, and after him other composers who wrote music for this orchestra, found more and more sophisticated, hitherto unheard of effects that have since become associated with the name of the Mannheim Chapel: a joint increase in sound (crescendo), fading of sound (diminuendo), sudden a joint interruption of the game (general pause), as well as various musical figures, such as: the Mannheim rocket (the rapid rise of the melody according to the sounds of a decomposed chord), the Mannheim birds (imitations of birds chirping in solo passages) or the Mannheim culmination (preparation for a crescendo, and then in the decisive moment is the cessation of the playing of all wind instruments and the active-energetic playing of some strings). Many of these effects found their second life in the works of Mannheim's younger contemporaries Mozart and Beethoven, and some still exist today.

In addition, Stamitz and his colleagues gradually found the ideal type of a four-part symphony, derived from the baroque prototypes of the church sonata and chamber sonata, as well as the Italian opera overture. Haydn came to the same four-part cycle as a result of his many years of experiments. The young Mozart visited Mannheim in 1777 and was deeply impressed by the music and orchestral playing he heard there. With Christian Cannabih, who led the orchestra after the death of Stamitz, Mozart had a personal friendship since his visit to Mannheim.

court musicians

The position of the court musicians, who were paid a salary, was very advantageous at that time, but, of course, it obliged a lot. They worked very hard and had to fulfill any musical whim of their masters. They could be picked up at three or four in the morning and told that the owner wants entertainment music - to listen to some kind of serenade. The poor musicians had to go into the hall, put up lamps and play. Very often the musicians worked seven days a week - such concepts as the production rate or the 8-hour working day, of course, did not exist for them (according to modern standards, an orchestral musician cannot work more than 6 hours a day, when it comes to rehearsals for a concert or theatrical performance). We had to play all day, so we played all day. However, the owners music lovers, most often understood that a musician cannot play without a break for several hours - he needs both food and rest.

Detail of a painting by Nicola Maria Rossi. 1732 Bridgeman Images/Fotodom

Haydn and Prince Esterhazy Chapel

Legend has it that Haydn, writing the famous Farewell Symphony, thus hinted to his master Esterhazy about the promised but forgotten rest. In its finale, the musicians all stood up in turn, put out the candles and left - the hint is quite understandable. And the owner understood them and let them go on vacation - which speaks of him as a person with insight and a sense of humor. Even if it's fiction, it remarkably conveys the spirit of that era - in other times, such hints at the mistakes of the authorities could have cost the composer quite dearly.

Since Haydn's patrons were quite educated people and sensitive to music, he could count on the fact that any of his experiments - whether it be a symphony in six or seven movements or some incredible tonal complications in the so-called developmental episode - would not be received with condemnation. It seems even the opposite: the more complex and unusual the form was, the more they liked it.
Nevertheless, Haydn became the first outstanding composer, liberated from this seemingly convenient, but in general slavish existence of the courtier. When Nikolaus Esterházy died, his heir disbanded the orchestra, although he retained Haydn's title and the (reduced) salary of bandmaster. Thus, Haydn involuntarily received an indefinite leave and, taking advantage of the invitation of the impresario Johann Peter Salomon, went to London at a rather advanced age. There he actually created a new orchestral style. His music became more solid and simpler. The experiments were cancelled. This was due to commercial necessity: he found that the general English public is much less educated than the sophisticated listeners on the Esterhazy estate - for her, you need to write shorter, clearer and more succinctly. While each symphony written by Esterhazy is unique, the London symphonies are of the same type. All of them were written exclusively in four parts (at that time it was the most common form of symphony, which was already in full use by the composers of the Mannheim school and Mozart): the obligatory sonata allegro in the first part, the more or less slow second part, the minuet and the fast finale. The type of orchestra and musical form, as well as the kind of technical development of themes used in Haydn's last symphonies, already became a model for Beethoven.

Late 18th - 19th century: the Viennese school and Beethoven

Interior of the Theater an der Wien in Vienna. Engraving. 19th century Brigeman Images/Fotodom

It so happened that Haydn outlived Mozart, who was 24 years younger than him, and found the beginning of Beethoven's career. Haydn worked most of his life in today's Hungary, and towards the end of his life had a stormy success in London, Mozart was from Salzburg, and Beethoven was a Fleming born in Bonn. But the creative paths of all three giants of music were connected with the city, which, during the reign of Empress Maria Theresa, and then her son Emperor Joseph II, took the position of the musical capital of the world - with Vienna. Thus, the work of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven went down in history as the "Viennese classical style". True, it should be noted that the authors themselves did not at all consider themselves "classics", and Beethoven considered himself a revolutionary, a pioneer and even a subverter of traditions. The very concept of "classical style" is an invention of a much later time ( mid XIX century). The main features of this style are the harmonious unity of form and content, the balance of sound in the absence of baroque excesses and the ancient harmony of musical architectonics.

The crown of the Viennese classical style in the field of orchestral music, Haydn's London symphonies, Mozart's last symphonies, and all of Beethoven's symphonies are considered. In the late symphonies of Haydn and Mozart, the musical lexicon and syntax of the classical style were finally established, as well as the composition of the orchestra, which crystallized already in the Mannheim school and is still considered classical: a string group (divided into first and second violins, violas, cellos and double basses), a pair composition woodwinds - usually two flutes, two oboes, two bassoons. However, starting from the last works of Mozart, the clarinets also firmly entered the orchestra and established themselves. Mozart's passion for the clarinet largely contributed to the widespread distribution of this instrument as part of the orchestra's wind group. Mozart heard clarinets in 1778 in Mannheim in Stamitz's symphonies and wrote admiringly in a letter to his father: "Oh, if only we had clarinets!" - meaning by "us" the Salzburg Court Chapel, which introduced clarinets only in 1804. It should be noted, however, that as early as 1769 clarinets were regularly used in princely-archbishopric military bands.

Two horns were usually added to the already mentioned woodwinds, and sometimes two trumpets and timpani, which came to symphonic music from the military. But these instruments were used only in symphonies, the keys of which allowed the use of natural pipes, which existed in only a few tunings, usually in D or C major; sometimes trumpets were also used in symphonies written in G major, but never timpani. An example of such a symphony with trumpets but without timpani is Mozart's Symphony No. 32. The timpani part was later added to the score by an unidentified person and is considered inauthentic. It can be assumed that this dislike of the authors of the 18th century for the G major in connection with the timpani is explained by the fact that for the Baroque timpani (tuned not by convenient modern pedals, but by manual tension screws), they traditionally wrote music consisting of only two notes - the tonic (1 -th degree of tonality) and dominants (5th degree of tonality), which were called upon to support the pipes that played these notes, but the main note of the key G major in the upper octave on the timpani sounded too sharp, and in the lower - too muffled. Therefore, the timpani in G major was avoided because of their dissonance.

All other instruments were considered acceptable only in operas and ballets, and some of them sounded even in the church (for example, trombones and basset horns in the Requiem, trombones, basset horns and piccolo in The Magic Flute, percussion "Janissary" music in "The Abduction from seraglio" or mandolin in Mozart's "Don Giovanni", basset horn and harp in Beethoven's ballet "The Works of Prometheus").

The basso continuo gradually fell into disuse, first disappearing from orchestral music, but remaining for some time in opera to accompany recitatives (see The Marriage of Figaro, All Women Do It, and Mozart's Don Giovanni, but also later - V early XIX century, in some comic operas by Rossini and Donizetti).

If Haydn went down in history as the greatest inventor in the field symphonic music, then Mozart experimented much more with the orchestra in his operas than in his symphonies. The latter are incomparably more strict in their compliance with the norms of that time. Although there are, of course, exceptions: for example, in the Prague or Paris symphonies there is no minuet, that is, they consist of only three parts. There is even a one-movement symphony No. 32 in G major (however, it is built on the model of the Italian overture in three sections, fast - slow - fast, that is, it corresponds to older, pre-Haydnian norms). But on the other hand, as many as four horns are involved in this symphony (as, by the way, in Symphony No. 25 in G minor, as well as in the opera Idomeneo). Clarinets are introduced into Symphony No. 39 (Mozart's love for these instruments has already been mentioned), but traditional oboes are absent. And Symphony No. 40 even exists in two versions - with and without clarinets.

In terms of formal parameters, Mozart moves in most of his symphonies according to Mannheim and Haydnian schemes - of course, deepening and refining them with the power of his genius, but without changing anything essential at the level of structures or compositions. However, in the last years of his life, Mozart began to study in detail and deeply the work of the great polyphonists of the past - Handel and Bach. Thanks to this, the texture of his music is increasingly enriched with various kinds of polyphonic tricks. A brilliant example of the combination of a homophonic warehouse typical of a symphony of the late 18th century with a Bach-type fugue is Mozart's last, 41st symphony "Jupiter". It begins the revival of polyphony as the most important developmental method in symphonic genre. True, Mozart followed the path beaten before him by others: the finales of two symphonies by Michael Haydn, No. 39 (1788) and 41 (1789), certainly known to Mozart, were also written in fugue form.

Portrait of Ludwig van Beethoven. Joseph Karl Stieler. 1820 Wikimedia Commons

Beethoven's role in the development of the orchestra is special. His music is a colossal combination of two eras: classical and romantic. If in the First Symphony (1800) Beethoven is a faithful student and follower of Haydn, and in the ballet The Works of Prometheus (1801) he is the successor of the traditions of Gluck, then in the Third, Heroic Symphony (1804) there is a final and irrevocable rethinking of the Haydn-Mozart tradition in a more modern key. The Second Symphony (1802) outwardly still follows classic patterns, but there are a lot of innovations in it, and the main one is the replacement of the traditional minuet with a rough-peasant scherzo (“joke” in Italian). Since then, minuets have not been found in Beethoven's symphonies anymore, with the exception of the ironically nostalgic use of the word "minuet" in the title of the third movement of the Eighth Symphony - "At the pace of the minuet" (by the time the Eighth was composed - 1812 - minuets had already fallen into disuse everywhere, and Beethoven here clearly uses this reference to the genre as a sign of "a sweet but distant past"). But also the abundance of dynamic contrasts, and the conscious transfer of the main theme of the first movement to cellos and double basses, while the violins play an unusual role for them as accompanists, and the frequent separation of the functions of cellos and double basses (that is, the emancipation of double basses as an independent voice), and extended, developing the codas in the extreme parts (practically turning into second developments) are all traces of the new style, which found its stunning development in the next, the Third Symphony.

At the same time, the Second Symphony bears the beginnings of almost all of Beethoven's subsequent symphonies, especially the Third and Sixth, as well as the Ninth. In the introduction to the first part of the Second, there is a D-minor motif that is two drops similar to the main theme of the first part of the Ninth, and the linking part of the finale of the Second is almost a sketch of “Ode to Joy” from the finale of the same Ninth, even with identical instrumentation.

The Third Symphony is both the longest and the most complex of all symphonies written so far, and musical language, and on the most intensive study of the material. It contains dynamic contrasts unprecedented for those times (from three pianos to three fortes!) and an equally unprecedented, even in comparison with Mozart, work on the “cellular transformation” of the original motives, which is not only present in each individual movement, but, as it were, permeates through the entire four-part cycle, creating a sense of a single and indivisible narrative. The Heroic Symphony is no longer a harmonious sequence of contrasting parts of an instrumental cycle, but a completely new genre, in fact, the first symphony-novel in the history of music!

Beethoven's use of the orchestra is not just virtuoso, it pushes instrumentalists to the limit, and often goes beyond the conceivable technical limitations of each instrument. Beethoven's famous phrase, addressed to Ignaz Schuppanzig, violinist and leader of the Count Lichnowsky Quartet, the first performer of many Beethoven quartets, in response to his critical remark about the "impossibility" of one Beethoven passage, remarkably characterizes the composer's attitude to technical problems in music: "What do I care to his unfortunate violin, when the Spirit speaks to me?!” The musical idea always comes first, and only after it should there be ways to implement it. But at the same time, Beethoven was well aware of the possibilities of the orchestra of his time. By the way, the widely held opinion about the negative consequences of Beethoven's deafness, allegedly reflected in his later compositions and therefore justifying later intrusions into his scores in the form of all kinds of retouches, is just a myth. Enough to listen good performance his late symphonies or quartets on authentic instruments, to make sure that they have no flaws, but only a highly idealistic, uncompromising attitude to their art, based on a detailed knowledge of the instruments of their time and their capabilities. If Beethoven had had a modern orchestra with modern technical capabilities at his disposal, he would certainly have written in a completely different way.

In terms of instrumentation, in his first four symphonies, Beethoven remains true to the standards of the later symphonies of Haydn and Mozart. Although the Heroic Symphony uses three horns instead of the traditional two, or the rare but traditionally acceptable four. That is, Beethoven calls into question the very sacred principle of following any traditions: he needs a third horn voice in the orchestra - and he introduces it.

And already in the Fifth Symphony (1808), Beethoven introduces in the finale the instruments of a military (or theatrical) orchestra - a piccolo flute, contrabassoon and trombones. By the way, a year before Beethoven, Swedish composer Joachim Nicholas Eggert used trombones in his Symphony in E flat major (1807), and in all three movements, and not just in the finale, as Beethoven did. So in the case of trombones, the palm is not for the great composer, but for his much less famous colleague.

The Sixth Symphony (Pastoral) is the first program cycle in the history of the symphony, in which not only the symphony itself, but also each part, is preceded by a description of some kind of internal program - a description of the feelings of a city dweller who finds himself in nature. Actually, descriptions of nature in music have not been new since Baroque times. But, unlike Vivaldi's The Seasons and other baroque examples of program music, Beethoven does not deal with sound writing as an end in itself. The Sixth Symphony, in his own words, is "rather an expression of feelings than a painting." The pastoral symphony is the only one in Beethoven's work in which the four-part symphonic cycle is violated: the scherzo is followed without interruption by the fourth movement, free in form, entitled The Thunderstorm, and after it, also without interruption, the finale follows. Thus, there are five movements in this symphony.

Beethoven's approach to the orchestration of this symphony is extremely interesting: in the first and second movements, he strictly uses only strings, woodwinds and two horns. In the scherzo, two trumpets are connected to them, in The Thunderstorm the timpani, a piccolo flute and two trombones join, and in the finale the timpani and piccolo fall silent again, and the trumpets and trombones cease to perform their traditional fanfare function and merge into the general wind choir of pantheistic doxology.

The culmination of Beethoven's experiment in the field of orchestration was the Ninth Symphony: in its finale, not only the already mentioned trombones, piccolo flute and contrabassoon are used, but also a whole set of "Turkish" percussion - a bass drum, a cymbal and a triangle, and most importantly - the choir and soloists! By the way, the trombones in the finale of the Ninth are most often used as an amplification of the choral part, and this is already a reference to the tradition of church and secular oratorio music, especially in its Haydnian-Mozartian refraction (see "Creation of the World" or "The Seasons" of Haydn, Mass before minor or Mozart's Requiem), which means that this symphony is a fusion of the genre of symphony and spiritual oratorio, only written on a poetic, secular text by Schiller. Another major formal innovation of the Ninth Symphony was the rearrangement of the slow movement and the scherzo. The ninth scherzo, being in second place, no longer plays the role of a cheerful contrast that sets off the finale, but turns into a harsh and completely “militaristic” continuation of the tragic first part. And the slow third movement becomes the philosophical center of the symphony, falling precisely on the zone of the golden section - the first, but by no means the last case in the history of symphonic music.

With the Ninth Symphony (1824), Beethoven takes the leap into a new era. This coincides with the period of the most serious social transformations - with the final transition from the Enlightenment to a new, industrial age, the first event of which took place 11 years before the end of the previous century; an event witnessed by all three representatives of the Viennese classical school. We are talking, of course, about the French Revolution.