Orchestra

Company of instrumental musicians ployed in theater, opera, or symphonic concerts, distinguished from bands. Most of the players use instruments of the viol family, of which four varieties are employed, viz., violins, violas, violoncellos, and double-ba es. These are all used in numbers, and form a choir called the Strings. A second choir is composed of the wind instruments of wood, viz., flutes, oboes, clarionets, and ba oons, with their related forms, the piccolo flute, English horn, corno di ba et to, ba clarionet, and contra-ba oon, collectively called the Woodwinds; a third choir are the bra es, viz., cornets or trumpets, horns, trombones, and tubas, with their variations. Finally, there are the instruments of percu ion, ordinarily limited to a pair of kettle drums. Practically the range of the orchestra is coextensive with that of the pianoforte. The wood-winds are generally represented in pairs, though the number of each is sometimes doubled for the purpose of maintaining a balance with the strings, which normally make up three-fourths of an orchestra.