EXPLORING THE ORCHESTRAMr. Thomas K-4 Music

Directions Today you will be taking a virtual tour of the instruments used

in the orchestra.

To do this you will click on the words that are highlighted in orange. Once you have completed a section the orange words will turn blue.

You can return to the home or main page simply by left clicking on the orange house icon.

After you complete a page simply click the word next to move to the next section.

Vocabulary

Reed Brass Bow Pizzicato Percussion Orchestra Conductor

Here are some words that you should watch for as you take your virtual tour. Look for them while you move along they will be highlighted like this.

Let’s Explore the Orchestra

Instrument SoundsStrings

Woodwinds Brass

Percussion

Conductor

The Strings

Quick Facts The instruments of the

string family look very similar.

They are made of wood with steel, nylon, or gut strings.

They can be played with a bow or plucked with the fingers.

They are the largest section in the modern orchestra.

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Violin Viola Cello Bass Harp

Bow

The String Family

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Strings/ A Closer Look When playing a

stringed instrument the bow is drawn back and forth over the strings causing them to vibrate.

The strings can also be plucked with the fingers. This technique is called pizzicato.

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Violin

The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. 

It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the family of string instruments, which also includes the viola, cello and double-bass.

The violin is sometimes informally called a fiddle. 

Someone who plays the violin is called a violinist or a fiddler. 

The modern European violin evolved from various bowed stringed instruments from the Middle East and the Byzantine Empire.

The earliest stringed instruments were mostly plucked (e.g. the Greek lyre).  

Bowed instruments may have originated in the equestrian cultures of Central Asia.

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Viola The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin.

A full-size viola's body is between 1 inch and 4 inches longer than the body of a full-size violin. 

A person who plays the viola is called a violist or a viola player. 

The technique required for playing a viola has certain differences compared with that of a violin, partly because of its larger size: the notes are spread out farther along the fingerboard and often require different fingerings.

In early orchestral music, the viola part was frequently limited to filling in harmonies and little melodic material was assigned to it.

Mozart liberated the viola when he wrote his six string quintets, some of which are considered to be among his greatest works.

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Cello

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• The cello has been described as the closest sounding instrument to the male human voice.• It is the second-largest bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra.• The cellos are a critical part of orchestral music. All symphonic works involve the cello section.• Often, the cello section plays the melody for a brief period, before returning to the harmony.• The cello is typically made from wood, although other materials such as carbon fiber or aluminum may be used. A traditional cello has a spruce top, with maple for the back, sides, and neck.

Double Bass

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• The double bass is also called the string bass, upright bass, bass fiddle, bass violin, doghouse bass, contrabass, bass viol, stand-up bass, bull fiddle or simply bass.• A person who plays this instrument is called a bassist, double bassist, double bass player, contrabassist, contrabass player, or bass player. • The bass the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument of the violin family in the modern symphony orchestra.• The double bass stands around 180 cm (six feet) from scroll to endpin.• Double bassists either stand or sit to play the instrument.• Like many other string instruments, the double bass is played either with a bow (arco) or by plucking the strings (pizzicato).

Harp

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• The harp is tall, about six feet in height. • The harp has 47 strings of varying lengths, which are tuned to the notes of the white keys of the piano. • There are usually one or two harps in an orchestra• You play the harp sitting down with your legs on either side. The neck of the harp leans on your right shoulder. • Each string sounds a different note (they come in different colors to help you tell one from another) and you play them by plucking the strings with your fingertips and thumb.

The Woodwinds

Quick Facts The woodwinds use wind or

breath to produce sound. Not all wood winds are made

of wood. Some of the wood wind

instruments use a reed or double reed to make sound.

Some woodwinds don’t use a reed but air moving over a hole produces the sound.

The Woodwind Family

Bassoon

Clarinet

Saxophone

Oboe

English HornFlute

Woodwinds / A Closer Look Woodwind

instruments require the player to blow or push air across either a hole or a reed.

Reeds are typically made of wood and are attached to a mouthpiece.

Bassoon

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•The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that typically plays music written in the bass and tenor clefs.•The modern symphony orchestra typically calls for two bassoons, often with a third playing the contrabassoon.•The bassoon is held diagonally in front of the player, but unlike the flute, oboe and clarinet, it cannot be supported by the player's hands alone.•The complicated fingering and the problem of reeds make the bassoon more difficult to learn than some of the other woodwind instruments.

•Prices range from $8,000 up to $25,000 for a good-quality instrument.

English Horn

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• The English horn is an orchestral woodwind instrument.

• It is essentially a large oboe pitched a fifth below the ordinary oboe.

• It has a bulbous bell and a bent metal crook at the top end on which the double reed is placed. • The name first appeared in Vienna about 1760.

Clarinet

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•The clarinet is a type of woodwind instrument that has a single-reed mouthpiece.•A person who plays the clarinet is called a clarinetist or clarinettist.•Clarinet bodies have been made from a variety of materials including wood, plastic, hard rubber, metal, resin, and ivory.•The instrument uses a single reed made from the cane of Arundo donax, a type of grass. Reeds may also be manufactured from synthetic materials. 

Saxophone

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• Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet.• The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846.• The saxophone consists of an mostly conical tube of thin brass, sometimes plated with silver, gold, or nickel, flared at the tip to form a bell.• At intervals along the tube are between 20 and 23 tone holes of varying size.• The saxophone mouthpiece is larger than that of the clarinet. 

Oboe

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•The oboe is a soprano-ranged, double reed musical instrument•It is made from a wooden tube roughly 60 cm long.•It has metal keys along a conical bore ending in a flared bell.•With an oboe, sound is produced by blowing into the reed and vibrating a column of air. •The distinctive oboe tone is versatile, and has been described as "bright".•In comparison to other modern woodwind instruments, the oboe has a clear and penetrating voice.• The oboe first appeared in the mid-17th century.

Flute

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• The western concert flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening.• A musician who plays the flute can be referred to as a flute player, a flautist, a flutist, or, less commonly, a fluter.• Aside from the voice, flutes are the earliest known musical instruments. • Some have been dated as many as 43000 years ago.• The flute has circular tone holes, larger than the finger holes.• Beginner's flutes are normally made of nickel, silver or brass that is silver plated.• Some professional flutes can be made from solid silver, gold, or even sometimes platinum.

Brass

Quick Facts Brass instruments are

usually made of metal. Brass instruments are

basically long tubes wrapped in different shapes.

Players use their lips to produce sound.

Brass instruments are loud and their sound carries well.

Brass instruments have spit valves!

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The Brass Family

TrumpetTrombone

French Horn

Tuba

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Brass / A Closer Look

Slides, valves, crooks, or keys are used to change length of tubing of brass instruments this is how different notes are achieved.

The Player forces air through a conical mouthpiece while vibrating the lips.

Trumpet

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Trombone

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French Horn

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Tuba

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Percussion

Quick Facts The Percussion family has

the greatest variety of different instruments.

Percussion instruments make sound when the are banged, shaken, hit, or tapped.

The percussion section is usually located at the back of the orchestra.

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The Percussion Family

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Percussion / A Closer Look

Percussion instruments are too numerous to list.

The ConductorQuick Facts The conductor is the boss. The conductor helps all the

musicians keep time and play together.

He or she tells the musicians when to play.

The conductor controls the dynamics by telling musicians how loud or soft to play.

The conductors wand is called a baton [buh-tawn]

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Standards and ObjectivesStandard 6.0 Listening and AnalyzingStudents will listen to, analyze and describe music.

The student will...

6.2 Identify and classify, visually and aurally, orchestral instruments individually and/or by family.

6.2 Classify, visually or aurally, given instruments into their orchestral families.

6.3 Select appropriate vocabulary from a word bank to describe a musical selection.

Today we will be taking a virtual field trip that will teach us to identify the many different instruments of the orchestra both by sight and by sound. We will also learn how to classify them into families.