Artist Biography by Rovi Staff
Through the leadership of some of the 20th century's greatest conductors, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra has emerged as one of a handful of orchestras that can be safely regarded as the finest in the world. As Chicago, a major financial, manufacturing, shipping, and packing center on Lake Michigan, developed, so too did its musical life. In the early part of the nineteenth century the city was a major destination for touring ensembles; from 1850 to 1858 the city boasted the first important orchestra of its own, the Chicago Philharmonic. In 1890, Ferdinand W. Peck and other music lovers incorporated the Chicago Orchestral Association and hired German-born Theodore Thomas to become its first conductor. The new ensemble gave its first concert at the Auditorium Theater on October 16, 1890.
The Chicago Orchestra, as it was then known, gained national and international attention when Chicago hosted the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893. During the months-long festivities, Antonín Dvorák conducted an all-Czech concert; Ignace Paderewski was a featured soloist with the orchestra; and Richard Strauss assumed the podium as one of the first of a string of distinguished guest conductors in the orchestra's history. The orchestra's permanent home, Orchestra Hall, was completed in 1904. After Theodore Thomas' death in the following year, the ensemble was renamed the Theodore Thomas Orchestra. In 1912 it assumed its present name, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Frederick Stock, who had served in the orchestra's viola section, became music director. To date, his 35-year tenure with the orchestra is the longest in its history. Stock and the orchestra made further history with a recording of Mendelssohn's Wedding March, the first-ever recording made by a major orchestra under an American music director. In 1920 Stock founded the Civic Music Student Orchestra (now the Civic Orchestra of Chicago), the first American training ensemble affiliated with a permanent professional orchestra.
The year 1934, the hundredth anniversary of the incorporation of Chicago, saw another World's Fair in the city, the Century of Progress Exposition. In three months the orchestra played 125 concerts on the fairgrounds. In commemoration of the orchestra's own fiftieth anniversary in 1940, Stock commissioned a series of new works that included contributions from Darius Milhaud, John Alden Carpenter, Roy Harris, and Igor Stravinsky.
During the Depression, meanwhile, a long-standing outdoor summer music series at Ravinia Park had gone bankrupt. In 1936, the CSO played its first concert at Ravinia, reviving the series and creating one of America's great summer musical events. In 1941, Stock hired the CSO's first full-time female member, hornist Helen Kotas.
After Stock's death in 1943, the all-but-forgotten Desire Dufauw became music director until 1947, ushering in a decade of short, turbulent tenures. Artur Rodzinski led the orchestra from 1948 to 1950, Rafael Kubelik from 1950 to 1953. Kubelik initiated the orchestra's great series of Mercury 'Living Presence' recordings. With the arrival of the uncompromising Fritz Reiner in 1953, the orchestra entered a period during which it achieved unprecedented excellence. Reiner's recordings with the CSO on the RCA Victor label were a triumph of early stereo technology, and those of Strauss and Bartók (including Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, the first CSO recording to win a Grammy) remain, in the estimation of many, unsurpassed. Under Reiner, the orchestra engaged the outstanding Indiana-born choral conductor Margaret Hillis to build a permanent Chicago Symphony Chorus, which quicky evolved into a world-class ensemble in its own right.
Reiner's decade at the helm was followed by another troubled and relatively brief directorship, that of conductor Jean Martinon (1963-1968). His 'French' sound and repertory displeased critics and traditionalists.
Georg Solti's arrival as music director in 1969 marked the beginning of another great era in the orchestra's history. Solti took the CSO on its first overseas tour in 1971; both he and the orchestra garnered lavish (and sometimes astonished) praise during their month-long visit to Europe. In a gesture rarely afforded even the greatest musicians, Chicago gave the members of the orchestra a ticker-tape parade upon their return. In 1989, Solti stepped down as music director and was replaced by Daniel Barenboim. Under Barenboim, his successor Riccardo Muti, and highly regarded guest conductors like Pierre Boulez and Bernard Haitink, the orchestra has enjoyed a continued worldwide reputation, evidenced by its multiple Grammy Awards and other honors. In total, the CSO has appeared on over 900 recordings and collected dozens of Grammy awards, more, in fact, than any other individual or ensemble.
Artist Biography by Marcy Donelson
Founded in 1904 and therefore the oldest of the city's symphony orchestras, the London Symphony Orchestra became world-renowned for recordings that date back to early gramophone records in 1912. Amid decades of diverse classical programming that followed, including performances for radio and TV, the orchestra also became known for its appearances in numerous film scores, including the Star Wars series. The LSO also tours and first visited North America in 1912 (narrowly avoiding passage on the Titanic).
The ensemble's direct antecedent was the Queen's Hall Orchestra, formed in 1895 for conductor Henry Wood's series of Promenade Concerts. The summer series was so successful that a series of weekly Sunday afternoon concerts was established the same year. The orchestra, however, had never become a permanent group; its members could and often did send other musicians to substitute for them at concerts. In 1904, Wood attempted to end this practice, prompting 46 members to leave and form their own orchestra.
The London Symphony Orchestra was organized as a self-governing corporation administered by a board selected by the players. They arranged for the great Hans Richter to conduct the inaugural concert, and continued to engage a variety of conductors, practically introducing the concept of the guest conductor to the London musical scene. Soon, though, the title and post of principal conductor was established for Richter. The LSO's connection with the BBC goes back to 1924 when Ralph Vaughan Williams conducted the orchestra in the premiere broadcast performance of his Pastoral Symphony. It was the unofficial orchestra in residence for the BBC until the formation of the BBC Symphony in 1930 and continued to broadcast concerts and provide background music for many BBC productions. Other conductors most associated with the orchestra's first few decades include Edward Elgar and Thomas Beecham. During World War II, Wood was welcomed for a series of concerts.
The War took its toll on orchestra membership as it had the general populace, and a concurrent drop in private funding led to increased reliance on the state arts council. This eventually led to structural reorganization in the 1950s, resulting in increased professional standards and the abandonment of profit-sharing; players became salaried employees. The revamped orchestra made only its second tour of the United States in 1963 (the first had been in 1912), and in 1964 embarked on its first world tour. In the mid-1960s the city of London broke ground for the Barbican Arts Centre, intended as the LSO's permanent home. The building was an architectural and acoustic success, and since 1982 has provided the orchestra the solid base it lacked during the first 70-plus years of its existence. The venue opened under principal conductor Claudio Abbado, who took over for André Previn in 1979.
In the meantime, the orchestra made its Star Wars debut, performing John Williams' score for the original 1977 film. While the organization had recorded its first film score in 1935 (H.G. Wells' Things to Come) and appeared in such classics as The Bridge on the River Kwai, Doctor Zhivago, and The Sound of Music, Star Wars won three Grammys, an Academy Award, and a BAFTA, among many other accolades, sold over a million copies in the U.S. and over 100,000 in the U.K., and endures as a touchstone in modern film music. The LSO went on to record music for the franchise's entire first two trilogies as well as films like 1981's Raiders of the Lost Ark, 1993's Schindler's List, 1997's Titanic, and select installments of the Harry Potter series. During the tenure of Colin Davis, who was named principal conductor in 1995, the LSO established its own record label, LSO Live. Dvorák's Symphony No. 9, recorded at Barbican Centre in 1999 and released in 2000, bears catalog number 0001. Their 2000 recording of Berlioz's Les Troyens won two Grammys in 2002, and Verdi's Falstaff took home the Best Opera Grammy in 2006. In 2007, Davis took the position of orchestra president, its first since Leonard Bernstein's passing in 1990, and Valery Gergiev became principal conductor. Also known for crossing over into rock, jazz, and Broadway, among other categories, they followed hit recordings such as Symphonic Rolling Stones and Gershwin Fantasy (with Joshua Bell) with albums like 2017's Someone to Watch Over Me, which had them accompanying archival recordings of Ella Fitzgerald. The Jalisco Philharmonic Orchestra.
A modern orchestra concert hall: Philharmony in Szczecin, Poland
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An orchestra (/ˈɔːrkɪstrə/; Italian: [orˈkɛstra]) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families, including bowed string instruments such as the violin, viola, cello, and double bass, brass instruments such as the horn, trumpet, trombone and tuba, woodwinds such as the flute, oboe, clarinet and bassoon, and percussion instruments such as the timpani, bass drum, triangle, snare drum, cymbals, and mallet percussion instruments each grouped in sections. Other instruments such as the piano and celesta may sometimes appear in a fifth keyboard section or may stand alone, as may the concert harp and, for performances of some modern compositions, electronic instruments.
A full-size orchestra may sometimes be called a symphony orchestra or philharmonic orchestra. The actual number of musicians employed in a given performance may vary from seventy to over one hundred musicians, depending on the work being played and the size of the venue. The term chamber orchestra (and sometimes concert orchestra) usually refers to smaller-sized ensembles of about fifty musicians or fewer.[citation needed] Orchestras that specialize in the Baroque music of, for example, Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel, or Classical repertoire, such as that of Haydn and Mozart, tend to be smaller than orchestras performing a Romantic music repertoire,[citation needed] such as the symphonies of Johannes Brahms. The typical orchestra grew in size throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, reaching a peak with the large orchestras (of as many as 120 players) called for in the works of Richard Wagner, and later, Gustav Mahler.
Orchestras are usually led by a conductor who directs the performance with movements of the hands and arms, often made easier for the musicians to see by use of a conductor's baton. The conductor unifies the orchestra, sets the tempo and shapes the sound of the ensemble.[1] The conductor also prepares the orchestra by leading rehearsals before the public concert, in which the conductor provides instructions to the musicians on their interpretation of the music being performed.
The leader of the first violin section, commonly called the concertmaster, also plays an important role in leading the musicians. In the Baroque music era (1600–1750), orchestras were often led by the concertmaster or by a chord-playing musician performing the basso continuo parts on a harpsichord or pipe organ, a tradition that some 20th century and 21st century early music ensembles continue. Orchestras play a wide range of repertoire, including symphonies, opera and balletovertures, concertos for solo instruments, and as pit ensembles for operas, ballets, and some types of musical theatre (e.g., Gilbert and Sullivanoperettas).
Amateur orchestras include those made up of students from an elementary school or a high school, youth orchestras, and community orchestras; the latter two typically being made up of amateur musicians from a particular city or region.
The term orchestra derives from the Greek ὀρχήστρα (orchestra), the name for the area in front of a stage in ancient Greek theatre reserved for the Greek chorus.[2]
- 1History
- 2Instrumentation
- 2.2Expanded instrumentation
- 3Organization
- 3.1Selection and appointment of members
- 5Repertoire and performances
- 5.2Issues in performance
- 6Role of conductor
- 6.2Multiple conductors
History[edit]
Instrumental technology[edit]
Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra at the March 2, 1916 American premiere of Mahler's 8th Symphony.
The invention of the piston and rotary valve by Heinrich Stölzel and Friedrich Blühmel, both Silesians, in 1815, was the first in a series of innovations which impacted the orchestra, including the development of modern keywork for the flute by Theobald Boehm and the innovations of Adolphe Sax in the woodwinds, notably the invention of the saxophone. These advances would lead Hector Berlioz to write a landmark book on instrumentation, which was the first systematic treatise on the use of instrumental sound as an expressive element of music.[3]
Wagner's influence[edit]
The next major expansion of symphonic practice came from Richard Wagner's Bayreuth orchestra, founded to accompany his musical dramas. Wagner's works for the stage were scored with unprecedented scope and complexity: indeed, his score to Das Rheingold calls for six harps. Thus, Wagner envisioned an ever-more-demanding role for the conductor of the theatre orchestra, as he elaborated in his influential work On Conducting.[4] This brought about a revolution in orchestral composition, and set the style for orchestral performance for the next eighty years. Wagner's theories re-examined the importance of tempo, dynamics, bowing of string instruments and the role of principals in the orchestra.
20th century orchestra[edit]
As the early 20th century dawned, symphony orchestras were larger, better funded, and better trained than ever before; consequently, composers could compose larger and more ambitious works. The influence of Gustav Mahler was particularly innovational; in his later symphonies, such as the mammoth Symphony No. 8, Mahler pushes the furthest boundaries of orchestral size, employing huge forces. By the late Romantic era, orchestras could support the most enormous forms of symphonic expression, with huge string sections, massive brass sections and an expanded range of percussion instruments. With the recording era beginning, the standards of performance were pushed to a new level, because a recorded symphony could be listened to closely and even minor errors in intonation or ensemble, which might not be noticeable in a live performance, could be heard by critics. As recording technologies improved over the 20th and 21st centuries, eventually small errors in a recording could be 'fixed' by audio editing or overdubbing. Some older conductors and composers could remember a time when simply 'getting through' the music as best as possible was the standard. Combined with the wider audience made possible by recording, this led to a renewed focus on particular star conductors and on a high standard of orchestral execution.[5]
Instrumentation[edit]
Viotti Chamber Orchestra performing the 3rd movement of Mozart's Divertimento in D Major (K136)
The typical symphony orchestra consists of four groups of related musical instruments called the woodwinds, brass, percussion, and strings. Popular malayalam songs karaoke. Other instruments such as the piano and celesta may sometimes be grouped into a fifth section such as a keyboard section or may stand alone, as may the concert harp and electric and electronic instruments. The orchestra, depending on the size, contains almost all of the standard instruments in each group.
In the history of the orchestra, its instrumentation has been expanded over time, often agreed to have been standardized by the classical period[6] and Ludwig van Beethoven's influence on the classical model.[7] In the 20th and 21st century, new repertory demands expanded the instrumentation of the orchestra, resulting in a flexible use of the classical-model instruments and newly developed electric and electronic instruments in various combinations.
The terms symphony orchestra and philharmonic orchestra may be used to distinguish different ensembles from the same locality, such as the London Symphony Orchestra and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. A symphony orchestra will usually have over eighty musicians on its roster, in some cases over a hundred, but the actual number of musicians employed in a particular performance may vary according to the work being played and the size of the venue.
Chamber orchestra usually refers to smaller-sized ensembles; a major chamber orchestra might employ as many as fifty musicians; some are much smaller than that. The term concert orchestra may also be used, as in the BBC Concert Orchestra and the RTÉ Concert Orchestra.
Beethoven's influence[edit]
The so-called 'standard complement' of doubled winds and brass in the orchestra from the first half of the 19th century is generally attributed to the forces called for by Beethoven.[citation needed] The composer's instrumentation almost always included paired flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns and trumpets. The exceptions to this are his Symphony No. 4, Violin Concerto, and Piano Concerto No. 4, which each specify a single flute. Beethoven carefully calculated the expansion of this particular timbral 'palette' in Symphonies 3, 5, 6, and 9 for an innovative effect. The third horn in the 'Eroica' Symphony arrives to provide not only some harmonic flexibility, but also the effect of 'choral' brass in the Trio movement. Piccolo, contrabassoon, and trombones add to the triumphal finale of his Symphony No. 5. A piccolo and a pair of trombones help deliver the effect of storm and sunshine in the Sixth, also known as the Pastoral Symphony. The Ninth asks for a second pair of horns, for reasons similar to the 'Eroica' (four horns has since become standard); Beethoven's use of piccolo, contrabassoon, trombones, and untuned percussion—plus chorus and vocal soloists—in his finale, are his earliest suggestion that the timbral boundaries of symphony might be expanded. For several decades after his death, symphonic instrumentation was faithful to Beethoven's well-established model, with few exceptions.[citation needed]
Expanded instrumentation[edit]
Apart from the core orchestral complement, various other instruments are called for occasionally.[8] These include the flugelhorn and cornet. Saxophones and classical guitars, for example, appear in some 19th- through 21st-century scores. While appearing only as featured solo instruments in some works, for example Maurice Ravel's orchestration of Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition and Sergei Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances, the saxophone is included in other works, such as Ravel's Boléro, Sergei Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet Suites 1 and 2, Vaughan Williams' Symphonies No.6 and 9 and William Walton's Belshazzar's Feast, and many other works as a member of the orchestral ensemble. The euphonium is featured in a few late Romantic and 20th-century works, usually playing parts marked 'tenor tuba', including Gustav Holst's The Planets, and Richard Strauss's Ein Heldenleben. The Wagner tuba, a modified member of the horn family, appears in Richard Wagner's cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen and several other works by Strauss, Béla Bartók, and others; it has a prominent role in Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 7 in E Major.[9] Cornets appear in Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's ballet Swan Lake, Claude Debussy's La Mer, and several orchestral works by Hector Berlioz. Unless these instruments are played by members 'doubling' on another instrument (for example, a trombone player changing to euphonium or a bassoon player switching to contrabassoon for a certain passage), orchestras typically hire freelance musicians to augment their regular ensemble.
The 20th-century orchestra was far more flexible than its predecessors.[10] In Beethoven's and Felix Mendelssohn's time, the orchestra was composed of a fairly standard core of instruments, which was very rarely modified by composers. As time progressed, and as the Romantic period saw changes in accepted modification with composers such as Berlioz and Mahler; some composers used multiple harps and sound effect such as the wind machine. During the 20th century, the modern orchestra was generally standardized with the modern instrumentation listed below. Nevertheless, by the mid- to late 20th century, with the development of contemporary classical music, instrumentation could practically be hand-picked by the composer (e.g., to add electric instruments such as electric guitar, electronic instruments such as synthesizers, non-Western instruments, or other instruments not traditionally used in orchestra).
With this history in mind, the orchestra can be analysed in five periods: the Baroque era, the Classical music period, early/mid-Romantic music era, late-Romantic/early 20th century music and 21st century era. The first is a Baroque orchestra (i.e., J.S. Bach, Handel, Vivaldi), which generally had a smaller number of performers, and in which one or more chord-playing instruments, the basso continuo group (e.g., harpsichord or pipe organ and assorted bass instruments to perform the bassline), played an important role; the second is a typical classical period orchestra (e.g., early Beethoven along with Mozart and Haydn), which used a smaller group of performers than a Romantic music orchestra and a fairly standardized instrumentation; the third is typical of an early/mid-Romantic era (e.g., Schubert, Berlioz, Schumann, Brahms); the fourth is a late-Romantic/early 20th century orchestra (e.g., Wagner, Mahler, Stravinsky), to the common complement of a 2010-era modern orchestra (e.g., Adams, Barber, Aaron Copland, Glass, Penderecki).
Late Baroque orchestra[edit]
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Classical orchestra[edit]
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Early Romantic orchestra[edit]
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Late Romantic orchestra[edit]
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Modern orchestra[edit]
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Organization[edit]
Conducting an orchestra
Among the instrument groups and within each group of instruments, there is a generally accepted hierarchy. Every instrumental group (or section) has a principal who is generally responsible for leading the group and playing orchestral solos. The violins are divided into two groups, first violin and second violin, with the second violins playing in lower registers than the first violins, playing an accompaniment part, or harmonizing the melody played by the first violins. The principal first violin is called the concertmaster (or 'leader' in the UK) and is not only considered the leader of the string section, but the second-in-command of the entire orchestra, behind only the conductor. The concertmaster leads the pre-concert tuning and handles musical aspects of orchestra management, such as determining the bowings for the violins or for all of the string section. The concertmaster usually sits to the conductor's left, closest to the audience. There is also a principal second violin, a principal viola, a principal cello and a principal bass.
The principal trombone is considered the leader of the low brass section, while the principal trumpet is generally considered the leader of the entire brass section. While the oboe often provides the tuning note for the orchestra (due to 300-year-old convention), no principal is the leader of the woodwind section though in woodwind ensembles, often the flute is leader.[11] Instead, each principal confers with the others as equals in the case of musical differences of opinion. Most sections also have an assistant principal (or co-principal or associate principal), or in the case of the first violins, an assistant concertmaster, who often plays a tutti part in addition to replacing the principal in his or her absence.
A section string player plays in unison with the rest of the section, except in the case of divided (divisi) parts, where upper and lower parts in the music are often assigned to 'outside' (nearer the audience) and 'inside' seated players. Where a solo part is called for in a string section, the section leader invariably plays that part. The section leader (or principal) of a string section is also responsible for determining the bowings, often based on the bowings set out by the concertmaster. In some cases, the principal of a string section may use a slightly different bowing than the concertmaster, to accommodate the requirements of playing their instrument (e.g., the double-bass section). Principals of a string section will also lead entrances for their section, typically by lifting the bow before the entrance, to ensure the section plays together. Tutti wind and brass players generally play a unique but non-solo part. Section percussionists play parts assigned to them by the principal percussionist.
In modern times, the musicians are usually directed by a conductor, although early orchestras did not have one, giving this role instead to the concertmaster or the harpsichordist playing the continuo. Some modern orchestras also do without conductors, particularly smaller orchestras and those specializing in historically accurate (so-called 'period') performances of baroque and earlier music.
The most frequently performed repertoire for a symphony orchestra is Western classical music or opera. However, orchestras are used sometimes in popular music (e.g., to accompany a rock or pop band in a concert), extensively in film music, and increasingly often in video game music. Orchestras are also used in the symphonic metal genre. The term 'orchestra' can also be applied to a jazz ensemble, for example in the performance of big-band music.
Selection and appointment of members[edit]
In the 2000s, all tenured members of a professional orchestra normally audition for positions in the ensemble. Performers typically play one or more solo pieces of the auditionee's choice, such as a movement of a concerto, a solo Bach movement, and a variety of excerpts from the orchestral literature that are advertised in the audition poster (so the auditionees can prepare). The excerpts are typically the most technically challenging parts and solos from the orchestral literature. Orchestral auditions are typically held in front of a panel that includes the conductor, the concertmaster, the principal player of the section for which the auditionee is applying, and possibly other principal players.
The most promising candidates from the first round of auditions are invited to return for a second or third round of auditions, which allows the conductor and the panel to compare the best candidates. Performers may be asked to sight read orchestral music. The final stage of the audition process in some orchestras is a test week, in which the performer plays with the orchestra for a week or two, which allows the conductor and principal players to see if the individual can function well in an actual rehearsal and performance setting.
There are a range of different employment arrangements. The most sought-after positions are permanent, tenured positions in the orchestra. Orchestras also hire musicians on contracts, ranging in length from a single concert to a full season or more. Contract performers may be hired for individual concerts when the orchestra is doing an exceptionally large late-Romantic era orchestral work, or to substitute for a permanent member who is sick. A professional musician who is hired to perform for a single concert is sometimes called a 'sub'. Some contract musicians may be hired to replace permanent members for the period that the permanent member is on parental leave or disability leave.
Sex of ensembles[edit]
Historically, major professional orchestras have been mostly or entirely composed of male musicians. The first female members hired in professional orchestras have been harpists. The Vienna Philharmonic, for example, did not accept women to permanent membership until 1997, far later than comparable orchestras (the other orchestras ranked among the world’s top five by Gramophone in 2008).[12] The last major orchestra to appoint a woman to a permanent position was the Berlin Philharmonic.[13] In February 1996, the Vienna Philharmonic's principal flute, Dieter Flury, told Westdeutscher Rundfunk that accepting women would be 'gambling with the emotional unity (emotionelle Geschlossenheit) that this organism currently has'.[14] In April 1996, the orchestra’s press secretary wrote that 'compensating for the expected leaves of absence' of maternity leave would be a problem.[15]
In 1997, the Vienna Philharmonic was 'facing protests during a [US] tour' by the National Organization for Women and the International Alliance for Women in Music. Finally, 'after being held up to increasing ridicule even in socially conservative Austria, members of the orchestra gathered [on 28 February 1997] in an extraordinary meeting on the eve of their departure and agreed to admit a woman, Anna Lelkes, as harpist.'[16] As of 2013, the orchestra has six female members; one of them, violinist Albena Danailova, became one of the orchestra’s concertmasters in 2008, the first woman to hold that position.[17] In 2012, women made up 6% of the orchestra's membership. VPO president Clemens Hellsberg said the VPO now uses completely screened blind auditions.[18] Restore order in wycome.
In 2013, an article in Mother Jones stated that while '[m]any prestigious orchestras have significant female membership—women outnumber men in the New York Philharmonic's violin section—and several renowned ensembles, including the National Symphony Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony, and the Minnesota Symphony, are led by women violinists', the double bass, brass, and percussion sections of major orchestras '..are still predominantly male.'[19] A 2014 BBC article stated that the '..introduction of ‘blind’ auditions, where a prospective instrumentalist performs behind a screen so that the judging panel can exercise no gender or racial prejudice, has seen the gender balance of traditionally male-dominated symphony orchestras gradually shift.'[20]
Amateur ensembles[edit]
There are also a variety of amateur orchestras:
- School orchestras: These orchestras consist of students from an elementary or secondary school. They may be students from a music class or program or they may be drawn from the entire school body. School orchestras are typically led by a music teacher.
- University or conservatory orchestras: These orchestras consist of students from a university or music conservatory. In some cases, university orchestras are open to all students from a university, from all programs. Larger universities may have two or more university orchestras: one or more orchestras made up of music majors (or, for major music programs, several tiers of music major orchestras, ranked by skill level) and a second orchestra open to university students from all academic programs (e.g., science, business, etc.) who have previous classical music experience on an orchestral instrument. University and conservatory orchestras are led by a conductor who is typically a professor or instructor at the university or conservatory.
- Youth orchestras: These orchestras consist of teens and young adults drawn from an entire city or region. The age range in youth orchestras varies between different ensembles. In some cases, youth orchestras may consist of teens or young adults from an entire country (e.g., Canada's National Youth Orchestra).
- Community orchestras: These orchestras consist of amateur performers drawn from an entire city or region. Community orchestras typically consist mainly of adult amateur musicians. Community orchestras range in level from beginner-level orchestras which rehearse music without doing formal performances in front of an audience to intermediate-level ensembles to advanced amateur groups which play standard professional orchestra repertoire. In some cases, university or conservatory music students may also be members of community orchestras. While community orchestra members are mostly unpaid amateurs, in some orchestras, a small number of professionals may be hired to act as principal players and section leaders.
Repertoire and performances[edit]
Orchestras play a wide range of repertoire ranging from 17th-century dance suites, 18th century divertimentos to 20th century film scores and 21st-century symphonies. Orchestras have become synonymous with the symphony, an extended musical composition in Western classical music that typically contains multiple movements which provide contrasting keys and tempos. Symphonies are notated in a musical score, which contains all the instrument parts. The conductor uses the score to study the symphony before rehearsals and decide on their interpretation (e.g., tempos, articulation, phrasing, etc.), and to follow the music during rehearsals and concerts, while leading the ensemble. Orchestral musicians play from parts containing just the notated music for their instrument. A small number of symphonies also contain vocal parts (e.g., Beethoven's Ninth Symphony).
Orchestras also perform overtures, a term originally applied to the instrumental introduction to an opera.[21] During the early Romantic era, composers such as Beethoven and Mendelssohn began to use the term to refer to independent, self-existing instrumental, programmatic works that presaged genres such as the symphonic poem, a form devised by Franz Liszt in several works that began as dramatic overtures. These were 'at first undoubtedly intended to be played at the head of a programme'.[21] In the 1850s the concert overture began to be supplanted by the symphonic poem.
Orchestras also play with instrumental soloists in concertos. During concertos, the orchestra plays an accompaniment role to the soloist (e.g., a solo violinist or pianist) and, at times, introduces musical themes or interludes while the soloist is not playing. Orchestras also play during operas, ballets, some musical theatre works and some choral works (both sacred works such as Masses and secular works). In operas and ballets, the orchestra accompanies the singers and dancers, respectively, and plays overtures and interludes where the melodies played by the orchestra take centre stage.
Performances[edit]
In the Baroque era, orchestras performed in a range of venues, including at the fine houses of aristocrats, in opera halls and in churches. Some wealthy aristocrats had an orchestra in residence at their estate, to entertain them and their guests with performances. During the Classical era, as composers increasingly sought out financial support from the general public, orchestra concerts were increasingly held in public concert halls, where music lovers could buy tickets to hear the orchestra. Aristocratic patronage of orchestras continued during the Classical era, but this went on alongside public concerts. In the 20th and 21st century, orchestras found a new patron: governments. Many orchestras in North America and Europe receive part of their funding from national, regional level governments (e.g., state governments in the U.S.) or city governments. These government subsidies make up part of orchestra revenue, along with ticket sales, charitable donations (if the orchestra is registered as a charity) and other fundraising activities. With the invention of successive technologies, including sound recording, radio broadcasting, television broadcasting and Internet-based streaming and downloading of concert videos, orchestras have been able to find new revenue sources.
Issues in performance[edit]
Faking[edit]
One of the 'great unmentionable [topics] of orchestral playing' is 'faking', the process by which an orchestral musician gives the '..impression of playing every note as written', typically for a very challenging passage that is very high or very fast, while not actually playing the notes that are in the printed music part.[22] An article in The Strad states that all orchestral musicians, even those in the top orchestras, occasionally 'fake' certain passages.[22] One reason that musicians 'fake' is because there are not enough rehearsals.[22] Another factor is the extreme challenges in 20th century and 21st century contemporary pieces; professionals interviewed by the magazine said 'faking' was '..necessary in anything from ten to almost ninety per cent of some modern works.[22] Professional players who were interviewed were of a consensus that faking may be acceptable when a part is not written well for the instrument, but faking 'just because you haven’t practised' the music is not acceptable.[22]
Counter-revolution[edit]
With the advent of the early music movement, smaller orchestras where players worked on execution of works in styles derived from the study of older treatises on playing became common. These include the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the London Classical Players under the direction of Sir Roger Norrington and the Academy of Ancient Music under Christopher Hogwood, among others.[citation needed]
Recent trends in the United States[edit]
In the United States, the late 20th century saw a crisis of funding and support for orchestras. The size and cost of a symphony orchestra, compared to the size of the base of supporters, became an issue that struck at the core of the institution. Few orchestras could fill auditoriums, and the time-honored season-subscription system became increasingly anachronistic, as more and more listeners would buy tickets on an ad hoc basis for individual events. Orchestral endowments and—more centrally to the daily operation of American orchestras—orchestral donors have seen investment portfolios shrink or produce lower yields, reducing the ability of donors to contribute; further, there has been a trend toward donors finding other social causes more compelling. While government funding is less central to American than European orchestras, cuts in such funding are still significant for American ensembles. Finally, the drastic falling-off of revenues from recording, tied to no small extent to changes in the recording industry itself, began a period of change that has yet to reach its conclusion.
U.S. orchestras that have gone into Chapter 11 bankruptcy include the Philadelphia Orchestra (in April 2011), and the Louisville Orchestra, in December 2010; orchestras that have gone into Chapter 7 bankruptcy and have ceased operations include the Northwest Chamber Orchestra in 2006, the Honolulu Orchestra in March 2011, the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra in April 2011, and the Syracuse Symphony in June 2011. The Festival of Orchestras in Orlando, Florida ceased operations at the end of March, 2011.
One source of financial difficulties that received notice and criticism was high salaries for music directors of US orchestras,[23] which led several high-profile conductors to take pay cuts in recent years.[24][25][26] Music administrators such as Michael Tilson Thomas and Esa-Pekka Salonen argued that new music, new means of presenting it, and a renewed relationship with the community could revitalize the symphony orchestra. The American critic Greg Sandow has argued in detail that orchestras must revise their approach to music, performance, the concert experience, marketing, public relations, community involvement, and presentation to bring them in line with the expectations of 21st-century audiences immersed in popular culture.
It is not uncommon for contemporary composers to use unconventional instruments, including various synthesizers, to achieve desired effects. Many, however, find more conventional orchestral configuration to provide better possibilities for color and depth. Composers like John Adams often employ Romantic-size orchestras, as in Adams' opera Nixon in China; Philip Glass and others may be more free, yet still identify size-boundaries. Glass in particular has recently turned to conventional orchestras in works like the Concerto for Cello and Orchestra and the Violin Concerto No. 2.
Along with a decrease in funding, some U.S. orchestras have reduced their overall personnel, as well as the number of players appearing in performances. The reduced numbers in performance are usually confined to the string section, since the numbers here have traditionally been flexible (as multiple players typically play from the same part).
Role of conductor[edit]
Apo Hsu, using a baton, conducts the NTNU Symphony Orchestra in Taipei, Taiwan
Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance, such as an orchestral or choralconcert. The primary duties of the conductor are to set the tempo, ensure correct entries by various members of the ensemble, and 'shape' the phrasing where appropriate.[27] To convey their ideas and interpretation, a conductor communicates with their musicians primarily through hand gestures, typically though not invariably with the aid of a baton, and may use other gestures or signals, such as eye contact with relevant performers.[28] A conductor's directions will almost invariably be supplemented or reinforced by verbal instructions or suggestions to their musicians in rehearsal prior to a performance.[28]
The conductor typically stands on a raised podium with a large music stand for the full score, which contains the musical notation for all the instruments and voices. Since the mid-18th century, most conductors have not played an instrument when conducting,[citation needed] although in earlier periods of classical music history, leading an ensemble while playing an instrument was common. In Baroque music from the 1600s to the 1750s, the group would typically be led by the harpsichordist or first violinist (see concertmaster), an approach that in modern times has been revived by several music directors for music from this period. Conducting while playing a piano or synthesizer may also be done with musical theatre pit orchestras. Communication is typically non-verbal during a performance (this is strictly the case in art music, but in jazz big bands or large pop ensembles, there may be occasional spoken instructions, such as a 'count in'). However, in rehearsals, frequent interruptions allow the conductor to give verbal directions as to how the music should be played or sung.
Conductors act as guides to the orchestras or choirs they conduct. They choose the works to be performed and study their scores, to which they may make certain adjustments (e.g., regarding tempo, articulation, phrasing, repetitions of sections, and so on), work out their interpretation, and relay their vision to the performers. They may also attend to organizational matters, such as scheduling rehearsals,[29] planning a concert season, hearing auditions and selecting members, and promoting their ensemble in the media. Orchestras, choirs, concert bands and other sizable musical ensembles such as big bands are usually led by conductors.
Conductorless orchestras[edit]
In the Baroque music era (1600–1750), most orchestras were led by one of the musicians, typically the principal first violin, called the concertmaster. The concertmaster would lead the tempo of pieces by lifting his or her bow in a rhythmic manner. Leadership might also be provided by one of the chord-playing instrumentalists playing the basso continuo part which was the core of most Baroque instrumental ensemble pieces. Typically, this would be a harpsichord player, a pipe organist or a luteist or theorbo player. A keyboard player could lead the ensemble with his or her head, or by taking one of the hands off the keyboard to lead a more difficult tempo change. A lutenist or theorbo player could lead by lifting the instrument neck up and down to indicate the tempo of a piece, or to lead a ritard during a cadence or ending. In some works which combined choirs and instrumental ensembles, two leaders were sometimes used: a concertmaster to lead the instrumentalists and a chord-playing performer to lead the singers. During the Classical music period (ca. 1720–1800), the practice of using chordal instruments to play basso continuo was gradually phased out, and it disappeared completely by 1800. Instead, ensembles began to use conductors to lead the orchestra's tempos and playing style, while the concertmaster played an additional leadership role for the musicians, especially the string players, who imitate the bowstroke and playing style of the concertmaster, to the degree that is feasible for the different stringed instruments.
In 1922, the idea of a conductor-less orchestra was revived in post-revolutionarySoviet Union. The symphony orchestra Persimfans was formed without a conductor, because the founders believed that the ensemble should be modeled on the ideal Marxist state, in which all people are equal. As such, its members felt that there was no need to be led by the dictatorial baton of a conductor; instead they were led by a committee, which determined tempos and playing styles. Although it was a partial success within the Soviet Union, the principal difficulty with the concept was in changing tempo during performances, because even if the committee had issued a decree about where a tempo change should take place, there was no leader in the ensemble to guide this tempo change. The orchestra survived for ten years before Stalin's cultural politics disbanded it by taking away its funding.[30]
In Western nations, some ensembles, such as the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, based in New York City, have had more success with conductorless orchestras, although decisions are likely to be deferred to some sense of leadership within the ensemble (for example, the principal wind and string players, notably the concertmaster). Others have returned to the tradition of a principal player, usually a violinist, being the artistic director and running rehearsal and leading concerts. Examples include the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Amsterdam Sinfonietta & Candida Thompson and the New Century Chamber Orchestra. As well, as part of the early music movement, some 20th and 21st century orchestras have revived the Baroque practice of having no conductor on the podium for Baroque pieces, using the concertmaster or a chord-playing basso continuo performer (e.g., harpsichord or organ) to lead the group.
Multiple conductors[edit]
Offstage instruments[edit]
Some orchestral works specify that an offstage trumpet should be used or that other instruments from the orchestra should be positioned off-stage or behind the stage, to create a haunted, mystical effect. To ensure that the offstage instrumentalist(s) play in time, sometimes a sub-conductor will be stationed offstage with a clear view of the principal conductor. Examples include the ending of 'Neptune' from Gustav Holst's The Planets. The principal conductor leads the large orchestra, and the sub-conductor relays the principal conductor's tempo and gestures to the offstage musician (or musicians). One of the challenges with using two conductors is that the second conductor may get out of synchronization with the main conductor, or may mis-convey (or misunderstand) the principal conductor's gestures, which can lead to the offstage instruments being out of time. In the late 20th century and early 21st century, some orchestras use a video camera pointed at the principal conductor and a closed-circuit TV set in front of the offstage performer(s), instead of using two conductors.
Contemporary music[edit]
The techniques of polystylism and polytempo[31] music have led a few 20th and 21st century composers to write music where multiple orchestras or ensembles perform simultaneously. These trends have brought about the phenomenon of polyconductor music, wherein separate sub-conductors conduct each group of musicians. Usually, one principal conductor conducts the sub-conductors, thereby shaping the overall performance. In Percy Grainger's 'The Warriors' which includes three conductors: the primary conductor of the orchestra, a secondary conductor directing an off-stage brass ensemble, and a tertiary conductor directing percussion and harp. One example in the late century orchestral music is Karlheinz Stockhausen's Gruppen, for three orchestras, which are placed around the audience. This way, the 'sound masses' could be spacialized, as in an electroacoustic work. Gruppen was premiered in Cologne, in 1958, conducted by Stockhausen, Bruno Maderna and Pierre Boulez. It has been[when?] performed by Simon Rattle, John Carewe and Daniel Harding.
See also[edit]
- List of symphony orchestras
Notes and references[edit]
- ^Michael Kennedy & Joyce Bourne Kennedy (2007). 'Conducting'. Oxford Concise Dictionary of Music (Fifth ed.). Oxford University Press, Oxford. ISBN978-0-19-920383-3.CS1 maint: Uses authors parameter (link)
- ^ὀρχήστρα, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
- ^Hector Berlioz. Traite d'instrumentation et d'orchestration (Paris: Lemoine, 1843).
- ^Richard Wagner. On Conducting (Ueber das Dirigiren), a treatise on style in the execution of classical music (London: W. Reeves, 1887).
- ^See Lance W. Brunner. (1986). 'The Orchestra and Recorded Sound', pp. 479–532 in Joan Peyser Ed. The Orchestra: Origins and Transformations, New York: Scribner's Sons.
- ^Jack Westrup, 'Instrumentation and Orchestration: 3. 1750 to 1800', New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed., edited by Stanley Sadie (New York: Grove, 2001).
- ^D. Kern Holoman, 'Instrumentation and Orchestration: 4. 19th Century', in ibid.
- ^G.W. Hopkins and Paul Griffiths, 'Instrumentation and Orchestration: 5. Impression and Later Developments', in ibid.
- ^'The Wagner Tuba'. The Wagner Tuba. Retrieved 2014-06-04.
- ^G.W. Hopkins and Paul Griffiths, op. cit.
- ^Ford, Luan; Davidson, Jane W. (2003-01-01). 'An Investigation of Members' Roles in Wind Quintets'. Psychology of Music. 31: 53–74. doi:10.1177/0305735603031001323. Retrieved 2014-06-04.
- ^'The world's greatest orchestras'. gramophone.co.uk. 2012-10-24. Retrieved 2013-04-29.
- ^James R. Oestreich, 'Berlin in Lights: The Woman Question', Arts Beat, The New York Times, 16 November 2007
- ^Westdeutscher Rundfunk Radio 5, 'Musikalische Misogynie', 13 February 1996, transcribed by Regina Himmelbauer; translation by William Osborne
- ^'The Vienna Philharmonic's Letter of Response to the Gen-Mus List'. Osborne-conant.org. 1996-02-25. Retrieved 2013-10-05.
- ^Jane Perlez, 'Vienna Philharmonic Lets Women Join in Harmony”, The New York Times, February 28, 1997
- ^Vienna opera appoints first ever female concertmasterArchived 2013-10-28 at the Wayback Machine, France 24
- ^James R. Oestrich, 'Even Legends Adjust To Time and Trend, Even the Vienna Philharmonic', The New York Times, 28 February 1998
- ^Hannah Levintova. 'Here's Why You Seldom See Women Leading a Symphony'. Mother Jones. Retrieved 2015-12-24.
- ^Burton, Clemency (2014-10-21). 'Culture – Why aren't there more women conductors?'. BBC. Retrieved 2015-12-24.
- ^ abBlom 1954.
- ^ abcdeMcVeigh, Alice. 'Faking it – the great unmentionable of orchestral playing' in The Strad, June 2006. http://www.thestrad.com/faking-it-the-great-unmentionable-of-orchestral-playing/
- ^Michael Cooper (2015-06-13). 'Ronald Wilford, Manager of Legendary Maestros, Dies at 87'. The New York Times. Retrieved 2015-07-11.
- ^Zachary Lewis (2009-03-24). 'Cleveland Orchestra plans 'deep' cuts; Welser-Most takes pay cut'. Cleveland Plain Dealer. Retrieved 2015-07-11.
- ^Donna Perlmutter (2011-08-21). 'He conducts himself well through crises'. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2015-07-11.
- ^Graydon Royce (2014-05-09). 'Osmo Vänskä hires on to rebuild Minnesota Orchestra'. Minneapolis Star-Tribune. Retrieved 2015-07-11.
- ^Michael Kennedy and Joyce Bourne Kennedy (2007). Oxford Concise Dictionary of Music (Fifth ed.). Oxford University Press, Oxford. ISBN978-0-19-920383-3.
Conducting
CS1 maint: Uses authors parameter (link) - ^ abHolden, Raymond: 'The technique of conducting', p. 3 in The Cambridge Companion to Conducting' ed. José Antonio Bowen
- ^'About.com: The Conductor'. Archived from the original on April 15, 2013. Retrieved 2016-08-30.CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link)
- ^John Eckhard, 'Orchester ohne Dirigent', Neue Zeitschrift für Musik 158, no. 2 (1997): 40–43.
- ^'Polytempo Music Articles'. Greschak.com. Archived from the original on 2002-08-20. Retrieved 2014-06-04.
Bibliography[edit]
- Raynor, Henry (1978). The Orchestra: A History. Scribner. ISBN978-0-684-15535-7.
- Sptizer, John, and Neil Zaslaw (2004). The Birth of the Orchestra: History of an Institution, 1650–1815. Oxford University Press. ISBN978-0-19-816434-0.
External links[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Orchestras. |
- The Orchestra: A User's Manual—A fairly concise overview, including detailed video interviews with players of each instrument and various resources
- Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). 'Orchestra' . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Orchestra&oldid=903452635'
A performance of Gustav Mahler's Eighth Symphony in the Kölner Philharmonie
A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often written by composers for orchestra. Although the term has had many meanings from its origins in the ancient Greek era, by the late 18th century the word had taken on the meaning common today: a work usually consisting of multiple distinct sections or movements, often four, with the first movement in sonata form. Symphonies are almost always scored for an orchestra consisting of a string section (violin, viola, cello, and double bass), brass, woodwind, and percussioninstruments which altogether number about 30 to 100 musicians. Symphonies are notated in a musical score, which contains all the instrument parts. Orchestral musicians play from parts which contain just the notated music for their own instrument. Some symphonies also contain vocal parts (e.g., Beethoven's Ninth Symphony).
Origins[edit]
The word symphony is derived from the Greek word συμφωνία (symphonia), meaning 'agreement or concord of sound', 'concert of vocal or instrumental music', from σύμφωνος (symphōnos), 'harmonious'.[1] The word referred to a variety of different concepts before ultimately settling on its current meaning designating a musical form.
In late Greek and medieval theory, the word was used for consonance, as opposed to διαφωνία (diaphōnia), which was the word for 'dissonance'.[2] In the Middle Ages and later, the Latin form symphonia was used to describe various instruments, especially those capable of producing more than one sound simultaneously.[2]Isidore of Seville was the first to use the word symphonia as the name of a two-headed drum, and from c. 1155 to 1377 the French form symphonie was the name of the organistrum or hurdy-gurdy. In late medieval England, symphony was used in both of these senses, whereas by the 16th century it was equated with the dulcimer. In German, Symphonie was a generic term for spinets and virginals from the late 16th century to the 18th century.[3]
In the sense of 'sounding together,' the word begins to appear in the titles of some works by 16th- and 17th-century composers including Giovanni Gabrieli's Sacrae symphoniae, and Symphoniae sacrae, liber secundus, published in 1597 and 1615, respectively; Adriano Banchieri's Eclesiastiche sinfonie, dette canzoni in aria francese, per sonare, et cantare, op. 16, published in 1607; Lodovico Grossi da Viadana's Sinfonie musicali, op. 18, published in 1610; and Heinrich Schütz's Symphoniae sacrae, op. 6, and Symphoniarum sacrarum secunda pars, op. 10, published in 1629 and 1647, respectively. Except for Viadana's collection, which contained purely instrumental and secular music, these were all collections of sacred vocal works, some with instrumental accompaniment.[4][5]
In the 17th century, for most of the Baroque period, the terms symphony and sinfonia were used for a range of different compositions, including instrumental pieces used in operas, sonatas and concertos—usually part of a larger work. The opera sinfonia, or Italian overture had, by the 18th century, a standard structure of three contrasting movements: fast, slow, fast and dance-like. It is this form that is often considered as the direct forerunner of the orchestral symphony. The terms 'overture', 'symphony' and 'sinfonia' were widely regarded as interchangeable for much of the 18th century.[5]
In the 17th century, pieces scored for large instrumental ensemble did not precisely designate which instruments were to play which parts, as is the practice from the 19th century to the current period. When composers from the 17th century wrote pieces, they expected that these works would be performed by whatever group of musicians were available. To give one example, whereas the bassline in a 19th-century work is scored for cellos, double basses and other specific instruments, in a 17th-century work, a basso continuo part for a sinfonia would not specify which instruments would play the part. A performance of the piece might be done with a basso continuo group as small as a single cello and harpsichord. However, if a bigger budget was available for a performance and a larger sound was required, a basso continuo group might include multiple chord-playing instruments (harpsichord, lute, etc.) and a range of bass instruments, including cello, double bass, bass viol or even a serpent, an early bass woodwind instrument.
18th century[edit]
LaRue, Bonds, Walsh, and Wilson write in the second edition of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians that 'the symphony was cultivated with extraordinary intensity' in the 18th century.[6] It played a role in many areas of public life, including church services,[7] but a particularly strong area of support for symphonic performances was the aristocracy. In Vienna, perhaps the most important location in Europe for the composition of symphonies, 'literally hundreds of noble families supported musical establishments, generally dividing their time between Vienna and their ancestral estate [elsewhere in the Empire]'. I am alive song download. [8] Since the normal size of the orchestra at the time was quite small, many of these courtly establishments were capable of performing symphonies. The young Joseph Haydn, taking up his first job as a music director in 1757 for the Morzin family, found that when the Morzin household was in Vienna, his own orchestra was only part of a lively and competitive musical scene, with multiple aristocrats sponsoring concerts with their own ensembles.[9]
LaRue, Bonds, Walsh, and Wilson's article traces the gradual expansion of the symphonic orchestra through the 18th century.[10] At first, symphonies were string symphonies, written in just four parts: first violin, second violin, viola, and bass (the bass line was taken by cello(s), double bass(es) playing the part an octave below, and perhaps also a bassoon). Occasionally the early symphonists even dispensed with the viola part, thus creating three-part symphonies. A basso continuo part including a bassoon together with a harpsichord or other chording instrument was also possible.[10]
The first additions to this simple ensemble were a pair of horns, occasionally a pair of oboes, and then both horns and oboes together. Over the century, other instruments were added to the classical orchestra: flutes (sometimes replacing the oboes), separate parts for bassoons, clarinets, and trumpets and timpani. Works varied in their scoring concerning which of these additional instruments were to appear. The full-scale classical orchestra, deployed at the end of the century for the largest-scale symphonies, has the standard string ensemble mentioned above, pairs of winds (flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons), a pair of horns, and timpani. A keyboard continuo instrument (harpsichord or piano) remained an option.
The 'Italian' style of symphony, often used as overture and entr'acte in opera houses, became a standard three-movement form: a fast movement, a slow movement, and another fast movement. Over the course of the 18th century it became the custom to write four-movement symphonies,[11] along the lines described in the next paragraph. The three-movement symphony died out slowly; about half of Haydn's first thirty symphonies are in three movements;[12] and for the young Mozart, the three-movement symphony was the norm, perhaps under the influence of his friend Johann Christian Bach.[13] An outstanding late example of the three-movement Classical symphony is Mozart's 'Prague' Symphony, from 1787.
The four-movement form that emerged from this evolution was as follows:[14][15]
- an opening sonata or allegro
- a slow movement, such as adagio
- a minuet or scherzo with trio
- an allegro, rondo, or sonata
Variations on this layout, like changing the order of the middle movements or adding a slow introduction to the first movement, were common. Haydn, Mozart and their contemporaries restricted their use of the four-movement form to orchestral or multi-instrument chamber music such as quartets, though since Beethoven solo sonatas are as often written in four as in three movements.[16]
The composition of early symphonies was centred on Milan, Vienna, and Mannheim. The Milanese school centred around Giovanni Battista Sammartini and included Antonio Brioschi, Ferdinando Galimberti and Giovanni Battista Lampugnani. Early exponents of the form in Vienna included Georg Christoph Wagenseil, Wenzel Raimund Birck and Georg Matthias Monn, while later significant Viennese composers of symphonies included Johann Baptist Wanhal, Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf and Leopold Hofmann. The Mannheim school included Johann Stamitz.[17]
The most important symphonists of the latter part of the 18th century are Haydn, who wrote at least 107 symphonies over the course of 36 years,[18] and Mozart, with at least 47 symphonies in 24 years.[19]
19th century[edit]
Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 Performed by the Skidmore College Orchestra. Music courtesy of Musopen | |
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At the beginning of the 19th century, Beethoven elevated the symphony from an everyday genre produced in large quantities to a supreme form in which composers strove to reach the highest potential of music in just a few works.[20] Beethoven began with two works directly emulating his models Mozart and Haydn, then seven more symphonies, starting with the Third Symphony ('Eroica') that expanded the scope and ambition of the genre. His Symphony No. 5 is perhaps the most famous symphony ever written; its transition from the emotionally stormy C minor opening movement to a triumphant major-key finale provided a model adopted by later symphonists such as Brahms[21] and Mahler.[citation needed] His Symphony No. 6 is a programmatic work, featuring instrumental imitations of bird calls and a storm; and, unconventionally, a fifth movement (symphonies usually had at most four movements). His Symphony No. 9 includes parts for vocal soloists and choir in the last movement, making it a choral symphony.[22]
Of the symphonies of Franz Schubert, two are core repertory items and are frequently performed. Of the Eighth Symphony (1822), Schubert completed only the first two movements; this highly Romantic work is usually called by its nickname 'The Unfinished'. His last completed symphony, the Ninth (1826) is a massive work in the Classical idiom.[23]
Of the early Romantics, Felix Mendelssohn (five symphonies) and Robert Schumann (four) continued to write symphonies in the classical mold, though using their own musical language. In contrast, Hector Berlioz favored programmatic works, including his 'dramatic symphony' Roméo et Juliette and the highly original Symphonie fantastique. The latter is also a programme work and has both a march and a waltz and five movements instead of the customary four. His fourth and last symphony, the Grande symphonie funèbre et triomphale (originally titled Symphonie militaire) was composed in 1840 for a 200-piece marchingmilitary band, to be performed out of doors, and is an early example of a band symphony. Berlioz later added optional string parts and a choral finale.[24] In 1851, Richard Wagner declared that all of these post-Beethoven symphonies were no more than an epilogue, offering nothing substantially new. Indeed, after Schumann's last symphony, the 'Rhenish' composed in 1850, for two decades the Lisztiansymphonic poem appeared to have displaced the symphony as the leading form of large-scale instrumental music. If the symphony had been eclipsed, it was not long before it re-emerged in a 'second age' in the 1870s and 1880s, with the symphonies of Anton Bruckner, Johannes Brahms, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Camille Saint-Saëns, Alexander Borodin, Antonín Dvořák, and César Franck—works which continued to dominate the concert repertory for at least a century.[20]
Over the course of the 19th century, composers continued to add to the size of the symphonic orchestra. Around the beginning of the century, a full-scale orchestra would consist of the string section plus pairs of flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns, trumpets, and lastly a set of timpani.[25] This is, for instance, the scoring used in Beethoven's symphonies numbered 1, 2, 4, 7, and 8. Trombones, which had previously been confined to church and theater music, came to be added to the symphonic orchestra, notably in Beethoven's 5th, 6th, and 9th symphonies. The combination of bass drum, triangle, and cymbals (sometimes also: piccolo), which 18th century composers employed as a coloristic effect in so-called 'Turkish music', came to be increasingly used during the second half of the 19th century without any such connotations of genre.[25] By the time of Mahler (see below), it was possible for a composer to write a symphony scored for 'a veritable compendium of orchestral instruments'.[25] In addition to increasing in variety of instruments, 19th century symphonies were gradually augmented with more string players and more wind parts, so that the orchestra grew substantially in sheer numbers, as concert halls likewise grew.[25]
20th century[edit]
At the beginning of the 20th century, Gustav Mahler wrote long, large-scale symphonies. His Eighth Symphony, for example, was composed in 1906 and is nicknamed the 'Symphony of a Thousand' because of the large number of voices required to perform the work. Additionally, his Third Symphony is one of the longest regularly performed symphonies at around 100 minutes in length for most performances. The 20th century also saw further diversification in the style and content of works that composers labeled symphonies (Anon. 2008). Some composers, including Dmitri Shostakovich, Sergei Rachmaninoff, and Carl Nielsen, continued to write in the traditional four-movement form, while other composers took different approaches: Jean Sibelius' Symphony No. 7, his last, is in one movement, whereas Alan Hovhaness's Symphony No. 9, Saint Vartan—originally op. 80, changed to op. 180—composed in 1949–50, is in twenty-four.[26]
A concern with unification of the traditional four-movement symphony into a single, subsuming formal conception had emerged in the late 19th century. This has been called a 'two-dimensional symphonic form', and finds its key turning point in Arnold Schoenberg's Chamber Symphony No. 1, Op. 9 (1909), which was followed in the 1920s by other notable single-movement German symphonies, including Kurt Weill’s First Symphony (1921), Max Butting’s Chamber Symphony, Op. 25 (1923), and Paul Dessau's 1926 Symphony.[27]
There remained, however, certain tendencies. Designating a work a 'symphony' still implied a degree of sophistication and seriousness of purpose. The word sinfonietta came into use to designate a work that is shorter, of more modest aims, or 'lighter' than a symphony, such as Sergei Prokofiev's Sinfonietta for orchestra (Kennedy 2006a).[28]
In the first half of the century, Edward Elgar, Gustav Mahler, Jean Sibelius, Carl Nielsen, Igor Stravinsky, Bohuslav Martinů, Roger Sessions, and Dmitri Shostakovich composed symphonies 'extraordinary in scope, richness, originality, and urgency of expression' (Steinberg 1995, 404). One measure of the significance of a symphony is the degree to which it reflects conceptions of temporal form particular to the age in which it was created. Five composers from across the span of the 20th century who fulfil this measure are Sibelius, Stravinsky, Luciano Berio (in his Sinfonia, 1968–69), Elliott Carter (in his Symphony of Three Orchestras, 1976), and Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen (in Symphony/Antiphony, 1980).[29]
Beginning in the 20th century, more symphonies have been written for concert band than in past centuries. Although examples exist from as early as 1932, the first such symphony of importance since Hector Berlioz wrote the Grande symphonie funèbre et triomphale in 1840 is Nikolai Miaskovsky’s Symphony No. 19, Op. 46, composed in 1939 (Battisti 2002, 42). Some further examples are Paul Hindemith's Symphony in B-flat for Band, composed in 1951[citation needed]; Morton Gould's Symphony No. 4 'West Point', composed in 1952; Vincent Persichetti's Symphony No. 6, Op. 69, composed in 1956; Vittorio Giannini's Symphony No.3, composed in 1959[citation needed]; Alan Hovhaness's Symphonies No. 4, op. 165, No. 7, 'Nanga Parvat', op. 175, No. 14, 'Ararat', op. 194, and No. 23, 'Ani', op. 249, composed in 1958, 1959, 1961, and 1972 respectively[citation needed]; Alfred Reed's 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th symphonies, composed in 1979, 1988, 1992, and 1994 respectively[citation needed]; and Johan de Meij's Symphony No. 1 'The Lord of the Rings', composed in 1988, and his Symphony No. 2 'The Big Apple', composed in 1993[citation needed].
Other modern usages of 'symphony'[edit]
The word 'symphony' is also used to refer to the orchestra, the large ensemble that often performs these works. The word 'symphony' appears in the name of many orchestras, for example, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the St. Louis Symphony, the Houston Symphony, or Miami's New World Symphony. For some orchestras, '(city name) Symphony' provides a shorter version of the full name; for instance, the OED gives 'Vancouver Symphony' as a possible abbreviated form of Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.[30] As well, in common usage, a person may say they are going out to hear a symphony perform, a reference to the orchestra and not the works on the program.
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^'Symphony', Oxford English Dictionary (online version ed.)
- ^ abBrown, Howard Mayer (2001), 'Symphonia', in Stanley Sadie; John Tyrrell (eds.), The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (Second ed.), London: Macmillan Publishers
- ^Marcuse, Sybil (1975). Musical Instruments: A Comprehensive Dictionary (Revised ed.). New York: W. W. Norton. p. 501. ISBN0-393-00758-8.
- ^Bowman, Carl Byron (1971). The Ecclesiastiche Sinfonie (Opus 16) of Adriano Banchieri (1568–1634) (Ph.D. diss. ed.). New York: New York University. p. 7. OCLC605998103.
- ^ abLaRue, Jan; Bonds, Mark Evan; Walsh, Stephen; Wilson, Charles (2001), 'Symphony', in Stanley Sadie; John Tyrrell (eds.), The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (Second ed.), London: Macmillan Publishers
- ^LaRue, Bonds, Walsh, and Wilson (2001), §I.2, citing two scholarly catalogs listing over 13,000 distinct works: LaRue 1959 and 1988.
- ^LaRue (2001), §I.2.
- ^LaRue, Bonds, Walsh, and Wilson (2001), §I.10.
- ^Carpani, Giuseppe (1823). Le Haydine, ovvero Lettere su la vita e le opere del celebre maestro Giuseppe Haydn (Second ed.). p. 66.
- ^ abLaRue, Bonds, Walsh, and Wilson (2001), §I.4.
- ^Hepokoski, James; Darcy, Warren (2006). Elements of Sonata Theory : Norms, Types, and Deformations in the Late-Eighteenth-Century Sonata. Oxford University Press. p. 320. ISBN0198033451.
- ^Count taken from Graham Parkes, 'The symphonic structure of Also sprach Zarathustra: a preliminary outline,' in Luchte, James (2011). Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra: Before Sunrise. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN978-1441118455.. Excerpts on line at [1].
- ^The conjecture about the child Mozart's three-movement preference is made by Gärtner, who notes that Mozart's father Leopold and other older composers already preferred four. See Gärtner, Heinz (1994). John Christian Bach: Mozart's Friend and Mentor. Hal Leonard Corporation. ISBN0931340799. Excepts on line at [2].
- ^Jackson, Timothy L. (1999). 'Tchaikovsky, Symphony no. 6 (Pathétique)'. Cambridge Music Handbooks. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 26. ISBN0-521-64111-X.
- ^Stein, Leon (1979). Structure & Style: The Study and Analysis of Musical Forms (expanded ed.). Princeton, N.J.: Summy-Birchard Music. p. 106. ISBN0-87487-164-6.
- ^Prout, Ebenezer (1895). Applied Forms: A Sequel to 'Musical Form' (third Augener's Edition, no. 9183. London: Augener. Facsimile reprint ed.). New York: AMS Press, 1971. p. 249. ISBN0-404-05138-3.
- ^Anonymous, 'Mannheim School', Encyclopædia Britannica
- ^Webster, James; Feder, Georg (2001), 'Haydn, (Franz) Joseph', in Stanley Sadie; John Tyrrell (eds.), The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (Second ed.), London: Macmillan Publishers
- ^Eisen, Cliff; Sadie, Stanley (2001), 'Mozart (3): (Johann Chrysostum) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart', in Stanley Sadie; John Tyrrell (eds.), The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (Second ed.), London: Macmillan Publishers
- ^ abDahlhaus, Carl (1989). Nineteenth-Century Music. Translated by Robinson, J. Bradford. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 265. ISBN978-0-520-07644-0. OCLC17951591.
- ^Libbey, Theodore (1999). The NPR Guide to Building a Classical CD Collection (Second ed.). New York: Workman Publishing. p. 40. ISBN978-0761104872.
- ^Beethoven's Ninth is not the first choral symphony, though it is surely the most celebrated one. Beethoven was anticipated by Peter von Winter’s Schlacht-Sinfonie ('Battle Symphony'), which includes a concluding chorus and was written in 1814, ten years before Beethoven's Ninth. Source: Jan LaRue et al. (n.d.) 'Symphony,' in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (online edition).
- ^Rosen, Charles (1997). The Classical Style: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven (expanded ed.). London: Faber and Faber. p. 521. ISBN9780571192878. OCLC38185106.
- ^Macdonald, Hugh (2001), 'Berlioz, Hector', in Stanley Sadie; John Tyrrell (eds.), The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (Second ed.), London: Macmillan Publishers, pp. §3: 1831–42
- ^ abcdLaRue (2001), II.1.
- ^Tawa, Nicholas E. (2001). From Psalm to Symphony: A History of Music in New England. Boston: Northeastern University Press. p. 352. ISBN978-1-55553-491-2.
- ^Vande Moortele, Steven (2013), 'Two-dimensional' Symphonic Forms: Schoenberg's Chamber Symphony, Before and After', in Julian Horton (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to the Symphony, Cambridge Companions to Music, Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 269, 284n9, ISBN9781107469709
- ^Temperley, Nicholas (2001), 'Sinfonietta', in Stanley Sadie; John Tyrrell (eds.), The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (Second ed.), London: Macmillan Publishers
- ^Grimley, Daniel M (2013), 'Symphony/Antiphony: Formal Strategies in the Twentieth-Century Symphony', in Julian Horton (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to the Symphony, Cambridge Companions to Music., Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, p. 287, ISBN978-0521884983, OCLC795504217
- ^OED, definition 5d:ellipt. for ‘symphony orchestra’. (1926) P. Whiteman & M. M. McBride Jazz xiv. 287 The unknown composer has to pay to get his compositions played by a good symphony.
Sources[edit]
- Anon. n.d. 'Mannheim School'. Encyclopædia Britannica (accessed 27 January 2015).
- Anon. 2008. 'Symphony.' The Oxford Dictionary of Music, second edition, revised, edited by Michael Kennedy, associate editor Joyce Bourne. Oxford Music Online (Accessed 24 July 2008) (subscription required).
- Battisti, Frank L. 2002. The Winds of Change: The Evolution of the Contemporary American Wind Band/Ensemble and Its Conductor. Galesville, MD: Meredith Music Publications. ISBN9780634045226.
- Berlioz, Hector. 1857. Roméo et Juliette: Sinfonie dramatique: avec choeurs, solos de chant et prologue en récitatif choral, op. 17. Partition de piano par Th. Ritter. Winterthur: J. Rieter-Biedermann.
- Berlioz, Hector. 2002. Berlioz's Orchestration Treatise: A Translation and Commentary, translated by Hugh Macdonald. Cambridge University Press, 2002. ISBN0-521-23953-2.
- Bowman, Carl Byron. 1971. 'The Ecclesiastiche Sinfonie (Opus 16) of Adriano Banchieri (1568–1634)'. Ph.D. diss. New York: New York University.
- Brown, Howard Mayer. 2001. 'Symphonia'. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.
- Dahlhaus, Carl. 1989. Nineteenth-Century Music, translated by J. Bradford Robinson. Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press. ISBN978-0-520-07644-0.
- Eisen, Cliff, and Stanley Sadie. 2001. 'Mozart (3): (Johann Chrysostum) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart'. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan.
- Grimley, Daniel M. 2013. 'Symphony/Antiphony: Formal Strategies in the Twentieth-Century Symphony'. In The Cambridge Companion to the Symphony, edited by Julian Horton, 285–310. Cambridge Companions to Music. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN9781107469709.
- Hansen, Richard K. 2005. The American Wind Band: A Cultural History. Chicago, Ill: GIA Publications. ISBN1-57999-467-9.
- Hopkins, Antony. 1981. The Nine Symphonies of Beethoven. London: Heinemann.
- Horton, Julian (ed.). 2013. The Cambridge Companion to the Symphony. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN978-0-521-88498-3.
- Jackson, Timothy L. 1999. Tchaikovsky, Symphony no. 6 (Pathétique). Cambridge Music Handbooks. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN0-521-64111-X (cloth); ISBN0-521-64676-6 (pbk).
- Kennedy, Michael. 2006a. 'Sinfonietta'. The Oxford Dictionary of Music, second edition, revised, Joyce Bourne, associate editor. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
- Kennedy, Michael. 2006b. 'Symphony'. The Oxford Dictionary of Music, second edition, revised, Joyce Bourne, associate editor. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
- LaRue, Jan. 1959. 'A Union Thematic Catalogue of 18th Century Symphonies'. Fontes Artis Musicae 6:18–20.
- LaRue, Jan. 1988. A Catalogue of 18th-Century Symphonies, i: Thematic Identifier. Bloomington, IN.
- LaRue, Jan, Mark Evan Bonds, Stephen Walsh, and Charles Wilson. 2001. 'Symphony'. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.
- Libbey, Theodore. 1999. The NPR Guide to Building a Classical CD Collection, second edition. Workman Publishing. New York: Workman Publishing Company. ISBN978-0761104872
- Macdonald, Hugh. 2001b. 'Berlioz, Hector'. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.
- Marcuse, Sybil. 1975. Musical Instruments: A Comprehensive Dictionary. Revised edition. The Norton Library. New York: W. W. Norton. ISBN0-393-00758-8.
- Prout, Ebenezer. 1895. Applied Forms: A Sequel to 'Musical Form', third edition. Augener's Edition, no. 9183. London: Augener. Facsimile reprint, New York: AMS Press, 1971. ISBN0-404-05138-3.
- Randel, Don Michael. 2003. The Harvard Dictionary of Music, fourth edition. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. ISBN9780674011632.
- Rosen, Charles. 1997. The Classical Style: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, expanded edition. London: Faber and Faber; New York: W. W. Norton. ISBN9780571192878 (Faber and Faber, cloth); ISBN9780571228126 (Faber and Faber, pbk); ISBN9780393040203 (Norton, cloth); ISBN9780393317121 (Norton, pbk).
- Stainer, John, and Francis W Galpin. 1914. 'Wind Instruments – Sumponyah; Sampunia; Sumphonia; Symphonia'. In The Music of the Bible, with Some Account of the Development of Modern Musical Instruments from Ancient Types, new edition. London: Novello and Co.; New York: H.W. Gray Co.
- Stein, Leon. 1979. Structure & Style: The Study and Analysis of Musical Forms, expanded edition. Princeton, N.J.: Summy-Birchard Music. ISBN0-87487-164-6.
- Steinberg, Michael. 1995. The Symphony: A Listener's Guide. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN978-0-19-506177-2 (cloth); ISBN978-0-19-512665-5 (pbk) (accessed 27 January 2015).
- Tawa, Nicholas E. From Psalm to Symphony: A History of Music in New England. Boston: Northeastern University Press. ISBN978-1-55553-491-2.
- Temperley, Nicholas. 2001. 'Sinfonietta.' The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.
- Thomson, Andrew. 2001. 'Widor, Charles-Marie(-Jean-Albert)', 2. Works. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.
- Vande Moortele, Steven. 2013. 'Two-dimensional' Symphonic Forms: Schoenberg's Chamber Symphony, Before and After'. In The Cambridge Companion to the Symphony, edited by Julian Horton, 268–84. Cambridge Companions to Music. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN9781107469709.
- Webster, James, and Georg Feder. 2001. 'Haydn, (Franz) Joseph'. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.
Further reading[edit]
- Ballantine, Christopher. 1983. Twentieth Century Symphony. London: Dennis Dobson. ISBN0-234-72042-5.
- Brown, A. Peter. 2002. The Symphonic Repertoire, Volume II: The First Golden Age of the Viennese Symphony: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert. Bloomington and London: Indiana University Press. ISBN978-0-253-33487-9.
- Brown, A. Peter. 2007. The Symphonic Repertoire, Volume III, Part A: The European Symphony from ca. 1800 to ca. 1930: Germany and the Nordic Countries. Bloomington and London: Indiana University Press. ISBN978-0-253-34801-2.
- Brown, A. Peter. 2007. The Symphonic Repertoire, Volume IV: The Second Golden Age of the Viennese Symphony: Brahms, Bruckner, Dvořák, Mahler, and Selected Contemporaries. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. ISBN978-0-253-33488-6.
- Brown, A. Peter with Brian Hart. 2008. The Symphonic Repertoire, Volume III, Part B: The European Symphony from ca. 1800 to ca. 1930: Great Britain, Russia, and France. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. ISBN978-0-253-34897-5.
- Cuyler, Louise. 1995. The Symphony. Second Edition. Detroit Monographs in Musicology, Studies in Music 16. Warren, MI: Harmonie Park Press. ISBN978-0-899-90072-8.
- Holoman, D. Kern. 1996. The Nineteenth-Century Symphony. Studies in Musical Genres and Repertoires. New York: Schirmer. ISBN978-0-028-71105-8.
- Layton, Robert, ed. 1993. Companion to the Symphony. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN978-0-671-71014-9.
- Morrow, Mary Sue, and Bathia Churgin, eds. 2012. The Symphonic Repertoire, Volume I: The Eighteenth-Century Symphony. Bloomington and London: Indiana University Press. ISBN978-0-253-35640-6.
- Ritzarev, Marina. 2014. Tchaikovsky's Pathétique and Russian Culture. Farnham, Surrey; Burlington, Vermont: Ashgate. ISBN978-1-4724-2411-2.
- Simpson, Robert, ed. 1967. The Symphony, Volume I: Haydn to Dvořák. Baltimore, MD: Penguin Books. ISBN978-0-140-20772-9.
- Simpson, Robert, ed. 1967. The Symphony, Volume II: Elgar to the Present Day. Baltimore, MD: Penguin Books. ISBN978-0-140-20773-6.
- Stedman, Preston. 1992. The Symphony. Second Edition. Pearson. ISBN978-0-13-880055-0.
- Wyn Jones, David. 2006. The Symphony in the Age of Beethoven. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN978-0-521-86261-5.
- Young, Percy M. 1968. Symphony. Phoenix Music Guides. Boston: Crescendo Publishers. SBN: 87597-018-4.
External links[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Symphonies. |
- 'Symphony' . Encyclopædia Britannica. 26 (11th ed.). 1911. pp. 290–291.
- Gann, Kyle. 'A Chronology of the Symphony 1730-2005'. Archived from the original on 4 August 2015. A list of selected major symphonies composed 1800-2005, with composers of 18th, 19th, 20th and 21st century symphonies
- 'List of symphonists, mostly active after 1800', compiled by Thanh-Tâm Lê: 'A to D'.'E to J'.'K to O'.'P to Z'.
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Symphony&oldid=903469539'
Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) | |
---|---|
Orchestra | |
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Symphony Center, December 2005, Jazz at the bottom | |
Former name | Chicago Orchestra, Theodore Thomas Orchestra |
Founded | 1891 |
Concert hall | Orchestra Hall, Symphony Center |
Music director | Riccardo Muti |
Website | www.cso.org |
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) was founded by Theodore Thomas in 1891. The ensemble makes its home at Orchestra Hall in Chicago and plays a summer season at the Ravinia Festival. The music director is Riccardo Muti, who began his tenure in 2010. The CSO is one of five American orchestras commonly referred to as the 'Big Five'.[1]
- 6Music directors, conductors
- 7Honors and awards
History[edit]
Theodore Thomas, founding father and first conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
In 1890, Charles Norman Fay, a Chicago businessman, invited Theodore Thomas to establish an orchestra in Chicago. Under the name 'Chicago Orchestra,' the orchestra played its first concert October 16, 1891 at the Auditorium Theater. It is one of the oldest orchestras in the United States, along with the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra.
Orchestra Hall, now a component of the Symphony Center complex, was designed by Chicago architect Daniel H. Burnham and completed in 1904. Maestro Thomas served as music director for thirteen years until his death shortly after the orchestra's newly built residence was dedicated December 14, 1904. The orchestra was renamed 'Theodore Thomas Orchestra' in 1905 and today, Orchestra Hall still has 'Theodore Thomas Orchestra Hall' inscribed in its façade.
In 1905, Frederick Stock became music director, a post he held until his death in 1942. The orchestra was renamed the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1913.
Subsequent music directors have included Désiré Defauw, Artur Rodziński, Rafael Kubelík, Fritz Reiner, Jean Martinon, Georg Solti, and Daniel Barenboim.
On May 5, 2008, the CSO Association's president Deborah Rutter announced that the orchestra had named Riccardo Muti as its 10th music director, starting with the 2010–2011 season, for an initial contract of 5 years.[2] His contract has been renewed for another five years, through the 2020 season.[3]
The orchestra has also hosted many distinguished guest conductors, including Thomas Beecham, Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, Edward Elgar, Morton Gould, Paul Hindemith, Erich Kunzel, Erich Leinsdorf, Charles Munch, Eugene Ormandy, André Previn, Sergei Prokofiev, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Maurice Ravel, Arnold Schoenberg, Leonard Slatkin, Leopold Stokowski, Richard Strauss, George Szell, Klaus Tennstedt, Michael Tilson Thomas, Bruno Walter, and John Williams. Many of these guests have also recorded with the orchestra. Carlos Kleiber made his only symphonic guest appearances in America with the CSO in October 1978 and June 1983.
The three principal guest conductors of the orchestra have been Carlo Maria Giulini, Claudio Abbado, and Pierre Boulez.
The CSO holds an annual fundraiser, originally known as the Chicago Symphony Marathon, more recently as 'Radiothon' and 'Symphonython,' in conjunction with Chicago radio station WFMT. As part of the event, from 1986 through 2008, the orchestra released tracks from their broadcast archives on double LP/CD collections, as well as two larger sets of broadcasts and rarities (CSO: The First 100 Years, 12 CDs, 1991; CSO in the 20th Century: Collector's Choice, 10 CDs, 2000).
On March 10, 2019, CSO musicians went on strike, claiming that management wanted to cut their pension benefits in addition to reducing overall salary. The players picketed outside of Orchestra Hall for 12 hours the next day, stating that they would continue to do so daily until 'a contract that is fair to the musicians is reached'.[4] On March 12, it was announced that all concerts at Symphony Center through March 16 were cancelled.[5][6][7][8] On March 22, the musicians announced that they would hold a series of free concerts.[9][10]
Ravinia Festival[edit]
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra maintains a summer home at the Ravinia Festival in Highland Park, Illinois. The CSO first performed there during Ravinia Park's second season in November 1905 and continued to appear there on and off through August 1931, after which the Park fell dark due to the Great Depression. The CSO helped to inaugurate the first season of the Ravinia Festival in August 1936 and has been in residence at the Festival every summer since.
Many conductors have made their debut with the Chicago Symphony at Ravinia, and several have gone on to become Music Director at Ravinia, including Seiji Ozawa (1964–68), James Levine (1973–93), and Christoph Eschenbach (1995–2003). Currently, the position of Music Director of the Ravinia Festival is unfilled; the last Music Director, James Conlon, held the title from 2005–15.[11]
The Ravinia Festival created an honorific title for James Levine—'Conductor Laureate'—and signed him to a five-year renewable contract beginning in 2018. On December 4, 2017, after Levine was accused of sexually abusing four males, the Ravinia Festival severed all ties with Levine, and terminated his five-year contract to lead the Chicago Symphony there.[12]
Recordings[edit]
The Chicago Symphony has amassed an extensive discography. Recordings by the CSO have earned 62 Grammy Awards from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. These include several Classical Album of the Year awards, awards in Best Classical Performance in vocal soloist, choral, instrumental, engineering and orchestral categories.
On May 1, 1916, Frederick Stock and the orchestra recorded the Wedding March from Felix Mendelssohn's music to A Midsummer Night's Dream for Columbia Records. Stock and the CSO made numerous recordings for Columbia and the Victor Talking Machine Company/RCA Victor. The Chicago Symphony's first electrical recordings were made for Victor in December 1925, including a performance of Karl Goldmark's In Springtime overture. These early electrical recordings were made in Victor's Chicago studios; within a couple of years Victor began recording the CSO in Orchestra Hall. Stock continued recording for Columbia and RCA Victor until his death in 1942.
In 1948, three versions of Aram Khachaturian's 'Sabre Dance' reached number one in the Billboard Best-Selling Records by Classical Artists: a CSO version conducted by Artur Rodziński,[13][14] as well as a New York Philharmonic version conducted by Efrem Kurtz[15] and a version by Oscar Levant.[16] These three versions were included in the Year's Top Selling Classical Artists by Billboard in 1948.[17] The Chicago Symphony Orchestra's version became the first million-selling record by the CSO.[18]
In 1951, Rafael Kubelík made the first modern high fidelity recordings with the orchestra, in Orchestra Hall, for Mercury. Like the very first electrical recordings, these performances were made with a single microphone. Philips has reissued these performances on compact disc with the original Mercury label and liner notes.
Sir Georg Solti
In March 1954, Fritz Reiner made the first stereophonic recordings with the CSO, again in Orchestra Hall, for RCA Victor, including performances of two symphonic poems by Richard Strauss: Ein Heldenleben and Also sprach Zarathustra. Reiner and the orchestra continued to record for RCA Victor through 1963. These were mostly recorded in RCA Victor's triple-channel 'Living Stereo' process. RCA has digitally remastered the recordings and released them on CD and SACD. Jean Martinon also recorded with the CSO for RCA Victor during the 1960s, producing performances that have been reissued on CD.
Sir Georg Solti recorded with the CSO primarily for Decca Records. These Solti recordings were issued in the U.S. on the London label and include a highly acclaimed Mahler series, recorded, in part, in the historic Medinah Temple—some installments were recorded in the Krannert Center in the University of Illinois (Urbana, IL), as well as in the Sofiensaal in Vienna, Austria. Many of the recordings with Daniel Barenboim were released on Teldec.
In 2007, the Chicago Symphony formed its own recording label, CSO Resound©. After an agreement was reached with the Orchestra's musicians, arrangements were made for new recordings to be released digitally at online outlets and on compact disc.[19] The first CSO Resound CD, a recording of Haitink's rendition of Mahler's Third Symphony, was released in the spring of 2007. Releases that followed included Bruckner's Seventh Symphony, Mahler's Sixth Symphony, and Shostakovich's Fourth Symphony (Grammy winner), all conducted by Haitink; Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony led by Myung-Whun Chung; 'Traditions and Transformations: Sounds of Silk Road Chicago' with the Orchestra's Judson and Joyce Green Creative Consultant Yo-Yo Ma (Grammy winner); and recordings of Verdi's Requiem (Grammy winner) and Otello, under the direction of Muti.
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus have recorded the music for two movies: Fantasia 2000 conducted by James Levine and Lincoln (2012 film) conducted by John Williams. Selections from the Orchestra and Chorus's recording of Johann Sebastian Bach's St Matthew Passion, conducted by Sir Georg Solti, were used in the movie Casino.
History Of Boston Symphony Orchestra
Broadcasts[edit]
The Chicago Symphony first broadcast on the radio in 1925. Though often sporadic, there have been broadcasts ever since. With the 1965-1966 season, Chicago radio station WFMT began regular tape-delayed stereo broadcasts of CSO concerts, running through the 1968-1969 season. They resumed from 1976 through the 2000-2001 season before ceasing due to lack of sponsorship. In 2007, the broadcasts once again resumed with a 52-week series. The broadcasts are sponsored by BP and air on 98.7 WFMT in Chicago and the WFMT Radio Network. They consist of 39 weeks of recordings of live concerts, as well as highlights from the CSO's vast discography.[19]
The CSO appeared in a series of telecasts on WGN-TV, beginning in 1953. The early 1960s saw the videotaped telecast series Music from Chicago, conducted by Fritz Reiner and guest conductors including Arthur Fiedler, George Szell, Pierre Monteux, Sir Thomas Beecham, and Charles Munch. Many of these televised concerts, from 1953 to 1963, have since been released to DVD by VAI Distribution.
Sir Georg Solti also conducted a series of concerts with the Chicago Symphony that were recorded for the European firm Unitel and were broadcast in the 1970s on PBS. They have subsequently been reissued by Decca Video on DVD.
Civic Orchestra of Chicago[edit]
Frederick Stock founded the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the first training orchestra in the United States affiliated with a major symphony orchestra, in 1919. Its goal is to recruit pre-professional musicians and train them as high-level orchestra players. Many alumni have gone on to play for the CSO or other major orchestras. It is currently the only training orchestra sponsored by a major orchestra in North America.
The Civic Orchestra performs half a dozen orchestral concerts and a chamber music series annually in Symphony Center and in other venues throughout the Chicago area free of charge to the public.
Music directors, conductors[edit]
Music directors[edit]
Titled Conductors[edit]
Composers-in-Residence[edit]
| Assistant / Associate Conductors[edit]
Ravinia Festival[edit]
|
Honors and awards[edit]
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra was voted the best orchestra in the United States and the fifth best orchestra in the world by editors of the British classical music magazine Gramophone in November, 2008.[20] The same was said by a panel of critics polled by the classical music website bachtrack in September, 2015.[21]
Grammy Awards[edit]
Riccardo Muti
Recordings by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra have earned sixty-two Grammy Awards from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.
Riccardo Muti, music director, has won two Grammy Awards, both with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, for the recording of Verdi's Messa da Requiem on the CSO Resound label. Duain Wolfe, chorus director, has won one Grammy Award for his collaboration with the Chorus, also for Verdi's Messa da Requiem on the CSO Resound label.
Bernard Haitink, former principal conductor, has won two Grammy Awards, including one with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for the recording of Shostakovich's Fourth Symphony on the CSO Resound label.
Pierre Boulez, former conductor emeritus and principal guest conductor, won twenty-six Grammy Awards including eight with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. Boulez is the third all-time Grammy winner, behind Sir Georg Solti (thirty-one) and Quincy Jones and Alison Krauss (twenty-seven each). Boulez also received the Academy's 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award.
Sir Georg Solti, former music director and music director laureate, won thirty-one Grammy Awards—more than any other recording artist. He received seven awards in addition to his twenty-four awards with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. In addition, Sir Georg Solti and producer John Culshaw received the first NARAS Trustees’ Award in 1967 for their 'efforts, ingenuity, and artistic contributions' in connection with the first complete recording of Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen with the Vienna Philharmonic. Solti also received the Academy's 1995 Lifetime Achievement Award.
Margaret Hillis, founder and longtime director of the Chicago Symphony Chorus, won nine Grammy Awards for her collaborations with the Orchestra and Chorus.
Volunteer Groups[edit]
- African American Network
- Governing Members (established 1894)[22]
- Latino Alliance
- League of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association (formerly the Women's Association, established 1934)[23]
- Overture Council (established 2009)[24]
- Women's Board [25]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^Walsh, Michael (25 April 1983). 'Which U.S. Orchestras are Best?'. Time. Retrieved 2013-09-18.
- ^Wakin, Daniel J. (5 May 2008). 'And the Brass Ring Goes to Chicago Symphony: Riccardo Muti Says Yes'. The New York Times. Retrieved 2013-09-18.
- ^Patner, Andrew (3 February 2014). 'Chicago - Chicago : News : Politics : Things To Do : Sports'. Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on 5 February 2015. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
- ^Reich, Howard. 'CSO musicians picket in front of Orchestra Hall after announcing strike'. Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2019-03-14.
- ^Cooper, Michael (2019-03-11). 'The Chicago Symphony Goes on Strike Over Pension Plan'. The New York Times. ISSN0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-03-13.
- ^Esposito, Stefano (2019-03-12). 'Chicago Symphony Orchestra musicians announce strike as contract talks fail'. Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2019-03-13.
- ^Esposito, Stefano (2019-03-12). 'Riccardo Muti joins CSO musicians on the picket lines'. Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2019-03-13.
- ^Di Nunzio, Miriam (2019-03-12). 'Strike by CSO musicians leads to concert cancellations through March 16'. Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2019-03-13.
- ^Esposito, Stefano (2019-03-20). 'Striking CSO musicians offering free concerts'. Chicago Sun-Times.
- ^Esposito, Stefano (2019-03-22). 'Striking CSO musicians add third free concert'. Chicago Sun-Times.
- ^von Rhein, John (23 July 2015). 'James Conlon begins final tour of CSO duty at Ravinia on a high note'. Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2019-05-11.
- ^'Boston Symphony management to industry: Reflect upon reports of sexual misconduct'.
- ^'Retail Record Sales: Best-Selling Records by Classical Artists'. Billboard. 10 April 1948. p. 30.
- ^'Retail Record Sales: Best-Selling Records by Classical Artists'. Billboard. 26 June 1948. p. 27.
- ^'Retail Record Sales: Best-Selling Records by Classical Artists'. Billboard. 10 April 1948. p. 39.
- ^'Retail Record Sales: Best-Selling Records by Classical Artists'. Billboard. 15 May 1948. p. 25.
- ^'The Year's Top Selling Classical Artists Over Retail Counters'. Billboard. 1 January 1949. p. 19.
- ^Hoffman, Frank, ed. (2005). Encyclopedia of Recorded Sound, Volume 1: A-L. New York: Routledge. p. 184. ISBN978-0-203-48427-2.
- ^ ab'Chicago Symphony Orchestra Announces Major Radio and Recording Initiaves' (Press release). Chicago Symphony Orchestra. 2006-11-30. Retrieved 2013-09-18.
- ^Huizenga, Tom (21 November 2008). 'Chicago Symphony Tops U.S. Orchestras'. Morning Edition. NPR. Retrieved 2013-09-18.
- ^Pullinger, Mark (3 September 2015), Chailly and the Berliner Philharmoniker: the critics’ choice for World's Best Conductor and Orchestra, retrieved 2015-11-30
- ^'Chicago Symphony Orchestra -'. cso.org.
- ^'Chicago Symphony Orchestra -'. cso.org.
- ^'Chicago Symphony Orchestra -'. cso.org.
- ^'Chicago Symphony Orchestra -'. cso.org.
External links[edit]
Wikisource has the text of the 1905 New International Encyclopedia article Chicago Orchestra. |
- Interviews with Sir Georg Solti by Bruce Duffie, May & October, 1988
- Interview with Margaret Hillis, founder of the Chicago Symphony Chorus, by Bruce Duffie, July, 1986
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