Page 207 - ESSENTIAL LISTENING TO MUSIC

Technology has sometimes profoundly affected the history of music. Think, for instance, of the invention of the electrically amplified guitar, which made possible the sounds of rock virtuosos such as Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton. Think, too, of the more recent MP3 and M4A file, the smart phone, YouTube, Pandora, and Spotify. These have made music instantly audible via digital streaming anywhere around the world. As a result, Western music—pop and classical—dominates the radio waves and computer streams globally. Just as the digital revolution has altered our contemporary musical landscape, the technological advancements that led to the modern symphony orchestra transformed nineteenth-century music.
The Romantic Orchestra
In many ways the symphony orchestra that we hear today was a product of the nineteenth-century Industrial Revolution. Around 1830, some existing orches- tral instruments received mechanical enhancements. The wood of the flute, for example, was replaced by silver, and the instrument was supplied with a new fingering mechanism that added to its agility and made it easier to play in tune. Similarly, the trumpet and French horn (Figure 12.1) were provided with valves that improved technical facility and accuracy of pitch in all keys. The French horn in particular became an object of special affection during the Romantic period. Its rich, dark tone and its traditional association with the hunt of the forest—and by extension, all of nature—made it the Romantic instrument par excellence. Even the traditional violin was altered, its fingerboard length- ened and the animal gut strings replaced with those of metal wire. This
gave the instrument a brighter, more penetrating sound. Entirely new instruments were added to the Romantic or-
chestra as well. Beethoven expanded its range both high
and low. In his famous Symphony No. 5 (1808; see Chapter
10), he called for a piccolo (a high flute), trombones, and a
contrabassoon (a bassbassoon)—the first time any of these had been
heard in a symphony. In 1830, Hector Berlioz went even further, requiring
an early form of the tuba, a low-pitched oboe, a cornet, and four harps in his Symphonie fantastique.
Greater Size, Greater Volume
Berlioz, a composer who personified the Romantic spirit, had a typically gran- diose notion of what the ideal symphony orchestra should contain. The fact that he was caricatured conducting vast orchestras including cannons tells us what the public’s impression of his vision must have been (see chapter-opening image). He wanted no fewer than 467 performers, including 120 violins, 40 vio- las, 45 cellos, 35 double basses, and 30 harps! Such a gigantic instrumental force was never actually assembled, but Berlioz’s utopian vision indicates the direc- tion in which Romantic composers were headed. By the second half of the nine- teenth century, orchestras with nearly a hundred players were not uncommon.
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Figure 12.1
A modern French horn with valves, as invented in France
in the 1820s. Before then the instrument was known in the English speaking world simply as the “horn,” and, after this French innovation, as the “French horn.” The valves allow the performer to engage different lengths of tubing instantly and thereby play a fully chromatic scale.
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