The orchestra and its instruments . n, because he had not suffi-cient rank to come there! In Venice matters were different. The public wasnot only allowed to attend, but the director of theopera-house would even permit gondoliers to sit inthe boxes when the owners were absent. Conse-quently, the Venetians were very well educated inartistic music. Many beautiful works were giventhere. And the Venetian Orchestras were of the verybest. Mr. Goldschmidt, who examined the scores of112 of these old operas in the Library of St. Marks,found that the main support of the Orchestra wasthe clavecin, which
The orchestra and its instruments . n, because he had not suffi-cient rank to come there! In Venice matters were different. The public wasnot only allowed to attend, but the director of theopera-house would even permit gondoliers to sit inthe boxes when the owners were absent. Conse-quently, the Venetians were very well educated inartistic music. Many beautiful works were giventhere. And the Venetian Orchestras were of the verybest. Mr. Goldschmidt, who examined the scores of112 of these old operas in the Library of St. Marks,found that the main support of the Orchestra wasthe clavecin, which usually accompanied the singers;that the violins were in general charge of the ritour-nelles and the entractes; that the trumpets played inthe overtures and marches and often with the voices;that the cornets, trombones and bassoons were usedfor fantastic effects; that horns, drums, and otherinstruments of percussion were used; and that fluteswere not as popular as they were in France. Can we not see in these old Venetian Orchestras. THE ORCHESTRA 151 of three hundred years ago some ideas graduallyapproaching towards our own? Let us turn to Vienna, which was the great centreof the Central Empire. One work will suffice to showthat there was splendid music in that brilliant 1666 Antonio Cesti, one of the members of thePapal Choir in Rome and then maestro di capella forthe Emperor Ferdinand III, in Vienna, wrote for theEmperors wedding festivities an opera called 77 Pornodoro. It was described as a dramatic festa. Thetheatre seated 5000 persons. The Orchestra was sepa-arated from the last row of chairs by a wide space andthe conductor, who was the composer of the work, satat the cembalo, with his thirty musicians around Orchestra consisted of six violins; twelve altoviolas; tenor; bass; contrabass; two flutes; trum-pets; two cornets; three trombones; a bassoon; anda little organ. The strings seem to have played most of the ac-companiments to the voices; the flute
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectmusicalinstruments
