Questions tagged [orchestra]
A sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments.
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What does a conductor actually do?
Looking for the roles of the conductor during a musical performance, I mainly came across answers as the following, taken from Wikipedia:
"The primary duties of the conductor are to unify ...
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Why are orchestras tuned differently?
In 1936 American Standards Association (and the International Organization for Standardization in 1955) accepted that A would be tuned at 440 Hz (or cycles per second). Yet despite the fact that a ...
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Has there ever been an orchestra without a conductor?
I don't think I have ever seen an orchestra where there wasn't someone conducting.
Has there ever been such an example of an orchestra?
Edit: By conductor, I mean the guy swinging the baton:
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How to distinguish between different instruments in a classical orchestra?
I want to train myself into distinguishing the instruments being played simultaneously in orchestral music (primarily Wagner and Bruckner, maybe Mahler). Ideally I want to be able to say at each point ...
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Why are some instruments listed 'in F' or 'in B'?
I am looking through scores of pieces that I particularly like.
I can't understand (as this is the first time I have come across it) why here, in the manuscript, some instruments are named as ...
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How do composers get their works performed?
How do composers (professional or not) get their works performed by orchestras and soloists?
While we're at it, how and where do composers publish their music and where do orchestras/musicians/...
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How could you make a key change sound natural
I've been working on an orchestral piece for a while and I want to include a key change. For example, from Bb major into Eb major. How could one go about changing keys in a way that makes the music ...
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Why does the orchestra tune to the oboe?
Most of the time, an orchestra will tune to the oboe.
Why is that? What is the next instrument if, for some reason, there are no oboes?
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Why are conductors required at orchestra performances?
I am not a music expert and I have always wondered why orchestra performances require a conductor to play. The musicians are presumably professionals who have had much practice at this point, so why ...
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Is there any specific reason to why are the instruments placed as they are in an orchestra?
What is the reason that instruments in an orchestra are placed the way they are placed?
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How do you count many bars of silence (rests)?
Playing in a jazz band there are often 5,6 or 8 bars of silence. This is no problem as I can count them on my fingers. But how do I count larger rests, for example 52, 112 or even longer rests, as in ...
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Tuning hierarchy for orchestras
Several recent questions have been about tuning. Often an orchestra will tune to the oboe. One reason for this is that oboes are the only instruments that cannot be tuned. 1. What if the oboe was ...
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Orchestral strings disposition (numeration meaning)
It's going to be the first time I'll be trying to compose a piece to be played by an orchestra and I don't know much about orchestral strings numeration/disposition.
I just ran into this Composers ...
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Why is this conductor holding a toothpick?
I was watching a performance of Ravel's Bolero, conducted by Gergiev:
And I noticed that instead of a baton he was holding a toothpick:
Why is he holding it instead ...
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Why are time signatures not used in this score?
I was looking at this hand-written short score (to be completed by other arrangers):
The only thing that strikes me about it (maybe there should be others) is there is no written time signature. Why?
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How Common Are the Trumpet in C and Clarinet in A?
In the wind/marching/concert band world, trumpets and soprano clarinets are always in Bb. The orchestra, however, uses trumpets in Bb, C, and D, and clarinets in Bb and A. I understand that clarinets ...
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Will my orchestral compositions be disregarded if I do not hold a degree in music?
I want to get a grasp of the current state of things, and my question is quite simple.
If a person does not have a university degree in music, does he have any chance to get his orchestral works ...
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