The Symphony

What is a symphony?

A symphony is a collective of musicians performing a diverse array of instruments together. (All the instruments originate from Europe.)

Varieties of Symphonies:

1. Symphony/Philharmonic Orchestra - an extensive assembly comprising approximately 100 musicians, featuring Western musical instruments. Typically, classical music is performed.
2. Chamber Orchestra Originating from the French word "chambre," meaning room, a chamber orchestra, also known as a concert orchestra, is a smaller ensemble with no more than about 50 musicians, contrasting a full (symphony) orchestra. Chamber music can consist of any combination of instruments from two to approximately eight or nine. Each musician plays a distinct part ("one to a part"), unlike an orchestra where, for instance, multiple violins play the same notes.

Sections of an Orchestra

The standard orchestra is divided into four instrument groups (instrument families):

1. Strings
2. Woodwinds
3. Brass
4. Percussion

Categorization of Musical Instruments

The Sachs-Hornbostel System

The Sachs-Hornbostel system, also known as the H-S System, provides a classification framework for acoustic musical instruments. Originating in 1914, this system was developed by two European musicologists, Curt Sachs (1881–1959) and Erich Moritz von Hornbostel (1877–1935). Sachs, a respected German musicologist specializing in the history of musical instruments, collaborated with Hornbostel, an Austrian musicologist with expertise in non-European music history. Together, they created a comprehensive method for categorizing instruments based on the way they produce sound and the vibrations they generate.

While the Western orchestral system traditionally classifies instruments into categories such as brass, percussion, strings, and woodwinds, the Sachs-Hornbostel system extends its scope to encompass non-Western instruments as well. The S-H system classifies musical instruments into five primary categories:

1. Idiophones
2. Membranophones
3. Chordophones
4. Aerophones
5. Electrophones

Idiophones

Idiophones are musical instruments that produce sound using vibrating solid materials such as stone, wood, and metal. Idiophones are distinguished by the method used to induce vibration: • Impact: A pair of similar instruments struck together or against each other, such as cymbals and castanets. • Friction: Instruments that generate sound through rubbing, such as musical glasses where the musician moistens their fingers and rubs them on the rim of the glasses. • Percussion: Musical instruments that create sound by striking or using a striker, such as xylophones, triangles, gongs, and steel pans. • Plucked: Also known as linguaphones, instruments that require plucking to produce sound, such as the Jew's harp where the player plucks the "tongue" of the instrument. • Scraped: Instruments that produce sound through scraping, such as cog rattles and washboards. • Shaken: Instruments that generate sound by shaking, such as maracas. • Stamping: Instruments that produce sound when stamped on a hard surface, like the shoes used by tap dancers or Irish clogs. • Stamped: When sound is produced by the material itself being stamped on.

Membranophones

Membranophones are musical instruments that employ vibrating stretched membranes or skins to generate sound. Membranophones are categorized based on the shape of the instrument. All types of drums are considered membranophones, including the bass drum, snare drum, cutter drum, fuller

drum, djembe drum, and timpani (kettle drum).

Chordophones

Chordophones are musical instruments that produce sound through the vibration of stretched strings. When a string vibrates, it sets off resonation in the instrument, resulting in a rich and amplified sound. Chordophones can be further classified based on the technique used to play the strings. Instruments such as the double bass, violin, and viola are played by bowing the strings. On the other hand, instruments like the banjo, guitar, harp, mandolin, and ukulele are played by plucking the strings. There are also chordophones that are struck to create sound, such as the piano, dulcimer, and clavichord.

Aerophones

Aerophones are musical instruments that produce sound through the vibration of a column of air. • Brass: These instruments, primarily made of metal, particularly brass, generate sound when a player's lips vibrate on the mouthpiece. The passage of air through the player's lips interacts with the instrument's air column, resulting in sound. Examples include the trombone, trumpet, and tuba. • Woodwinds: Initially crafted from wood, modern woodwind instruments incorporate various materials. Reed instruments like the saxophone and clarinet feature a thin piece of material placed on the mouthpiece. When air is blown into it, the airflow causes the reed to vibrate. Double-reed instruments like the bassoon and oboe have thicker material on the mouthpiece. In flutes and similar woodwinds, the player directs air across the edge of a mouthpiece to create sound.

Electrophones

Electrophones are musical instruments that generate sound electronically or produce their initial sound traditionally and then amplify it electronically. Examples of electronically produced sound include electronic organs, theremins, and synthesizers. Traditional instruments that are electronically amplified include electric guitars and electric pianos.

Instruments commonly found in a symphony orchestra: • Strings: violin, viola, cello, double bass, harp • Woodwinds: flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, piccolo, English horn (cor anglais) • Brass: trumpet, trombone, French horn, euphonium, tuba • Percussion: timpani, xylophone, vibraphone, bass drum, cymbals, snare drum, triangle, chimes, piano

Other Instruments:

• Strings: acoustic guitar, bass guitar, rhythm guitar, mandolin, cuatro, sitar, banjo • Woodwinds: recorder, saxophone • Brass: • Percussion: maracas (shac-shac), Hi-hat, steel pan, tambourine, celesta, castanets, vibraphone, marimba, tubular bells, bongo drums, tabla, gong, African drums (cutter, fuller, djembe drum), claves (toc-toc), wood block.

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