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Other editions - View allCommon terms and phrasesaccent accompaniments Allegro alto trombone Andante arpeggios bass trombone bassoon beat Beethoven's brass instruments bugle character chords chorus chorus-singers chromatic intervals chromatic scale clarinet closed sounds compass composer concertina contrary cornet cornet a pistons corno inglese cymbals different keys difficult double double-basses effect employed execution extreme finger fourth G clef give Gluck harmony harp hautboy high notes indicate instru Iphigenia in Tauride kettle-drums key-board less long drum low notes low sounds lower major melodium melody ment moreover movement nevertheless now-a-days octave open strings opera ophicleide orchestra orchestral conductor organ passages pedal performers phrase pianoforte piccolo flute piece pizzicato played players produce quality of tone rapid Real harmonics real sounds render rhythm scale score second sopranos semitone soft solo sonorousness soprano stringed instruments Symphony tenor trombone third tr tr transposing instruments tremolo trumpets unison vibration violas violins violoncellos voice wind instruments write written Popular passagesPage 127 - ... this majestic instrument, to reduce it to this secondary condition. Moreover, it should be felt that its smooth, equal, and uniform sonorousness never entirely melts into the variously characterized sounds of the orchestra, and that there seems to exist between these two musical powers a secret antipathy. The organ and the orchestra are both kings ; or rather one is emperor, the other pope; their mission is not the same, their interests are too vast, and too diverse, to be confounded together. Page 233 - ... and penetrating in the higher part and full and rich in the lower part of their compass. The Saxophones are six in number, the high, the soprano, the alto, the tenor, the baritone and the bass; they are played with a single reed and a clarinet mouthpiece, Saxotromba. Page 1 - Histories make men wise, poets witty, the mathematics subtile, natural philosophy deep, moral grave, logic and rhetoric able to contend. " Abeunt studia in mores." * Nay, there is no stond | or impediment in the wit but may be wrought out by fit studies, like as diseases of the body may have appropriate exercises. Page 146 - The quality of tone of the trumpet," says Berlioz, "is noble and brilliant; it comports with warlike ideas, with cries of fury and of vengeance, as with songs of triumph; it lends itself to the expression of all energetic, lofty, and grand sentiments, and to the majority of tragic accents. Page 254 - If, in theatres where they perform scores of immense length, it be very difficult to endure the fatigue of remaining on foot the whole evening, it is none the less true that the orchestral conductor, when seated, loses a portion of his power and cannot give free course to his animation, if he possess any. Then, should he conduct reading from a full score or from a first violin part (leader's copy), as is customary in some theatres? It is evident that he should have before him a full score. Conducting... Page 255 - ... than those of the sopranos and contraltos, may come forth freely and be neither stifled nor intercepted. When the presence of the chorus-singers in front of the orchestra is not necessary, the conductor will take care to send them away; since this large number of human bodies injures the sonority of the instruments. A symphony, performed by an orchestra thus more or less stifled, loses much of its effect. There are yet other precautions, relative especially to the orchestra, which the conductor... Page 245 - ... be observed, that conducting a symphony, an overture, or any other composition whose movements remain continuous, vary little, and contain few nice gradations, is child's play in comparison with conducting an opera, or like work, where there are recitatives, airs, and numerous orchestral designs preceded by pauses of irregular length. The example of Beethoven, which I have just cited, leads me at once to say that if the direction of an orchestra... Page 246 - ... time? And in how many ways might he not be deceived? The different degrees of slowness that might be assigned to the performance of such a largo are very numerous; the individual feeling of the orchestral conductor must then become the sole authority; and, after all, it is the author's feeling, not his, which is in question. Composers therefore ought not to neglect placing metronome indications in their works; and orchestral conductors are bound to study them closely. The neglect of this study... Page 245 - Except in listening to great works already known and esteemed, intelligent hearers can hardly distinguish the true culprit, and allot to him his due share of blame; but the number of these is still so limited that their judgment has little weight; and the bad conductor — in presence of the public who would pitilessly hiss a vocal accident of a good singer — reigns, with all the calm of a bad conscience, in his baseness and inefficiency. Fortunately, I here attack an exception; for the malevolent... Page 257 - ... necessary to practise the instruments of percussion alone; and lastly, the harps, if they be numerous. The studies in combination are then far more profitable, and more rapid; and there is then good hope of attaining fidelity of interpretation, now, alas, but too rare. The performances obtained by the old method of study are merely approaches to achievement; beneath which so very many masterpieces have succumbed. The superintending conductor, after the butchering of a master, none the less serenely... Bibliographic information
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