Page 61 - ESSENTIAL LISTENING TO MUSIC

Figure 3.10
Pianist Lang Lang
The piano (Figure 3.10) was invented in Italy around 1700, in part to overcome the sound-producing limitations of the harpsichord. The strings of a piano are not plucked; they are hit by soft hammers. A lever mechanism makes it possible for the player to regulate how hard each string is struck. Touch lightly and a soft sound results; bang hard and you hear a loud one. Thus, the original piano was called the pianoforte, the “soft-loud.” During the lifetime of Mozart (1756–1791), the piano replaced the harpsichord as the favorite domestic musical instrument. By the nineteenth century, every aspiring household had to have a piano, whether as an instrument for real musical enjoyment or as a symbol of affluence.
The Symphony Orchestra
The modern Western symphony orchestra is one of the largest and certainly the most colorful of all musical ensembles. When at full strength, the symphony or- chestra can include upward of one hundred performers and nearly thirty different instruments, from the high, piping piccolo down to the rumbling contrabassoon. (The New York Philharmonic Orchestra currently has 106 musicians under union contract with a base salary of $146,000 in 2016.) A typical seating plan for an or- chestra is given in Figure 3.11. To achieve the best balance of sound, strings are placed toward the front, and the more powerful brasses and percussion at the back.
When the orchestra first originated in the seventeenth century, it had no separate conductor. The group was small enough for the players to play on their own, usually following the lead of the principal violinist. But around the time of Beethoven (1770–1827), when the orchestra was already two hundred years old and had expanded to include some sixty players, it became necessary to have someone stand before it and direct. Indeed, the conductor functions something like a musical traffic cop: he or she makes sure that the cellos don’t overshadow the violins and that the French horns yield to the clarinet at the proper moment so the melody can be heard. The conductor reads from an orchestral score (a composite of all the parts) and must be able to immediately pick out any incorrectly played pitches and rhythms. To do this, he or she must have an excellent musical ear.
watch...avideo demonstration of the pipe organ.
watch...avideo demonstration of the harpsichord.
watch...avideo demonstration of the piano. watch...avideoofallthe orchestral instruments, in Benjamin Britten’s Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra.
listen to . . . a podcast about identifying instruments, online.
DO . . . Listening Exercise 3.1, Hearing the Instruments of the Orchestra: Identifying a Single Instrument, online.
DO . . . Listening Exercise 3.2, Hearing the Instruments of the Orchestra: Identifying Two Instruments, online.
DO . . . Listening Exercise 3.3, Hearing the Instruments of the Orchestra: Identifying Three Instruments, online.
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