Musicon / Musical education / Position of the instruments in the orchestra
-Position of the instruments in the orchestra
The disposition of the instruments in our orchestras is largely a matter of individual taste and judgment in the conductor… The relative positions of the harmonious battalions, as a rule, are as shown in the diagram. In the foreground, the violins, violas, and ‘cellos; in the middle distance, the wood-winds; in the background, the brass and the battery; the double-basses flanking the whole body.
This distribution of forces is dictated by considerations of sonority, the most assertive instruments–the brass and drums–being placed farthest from the hearers, and the instruments of the viol tribe, which are the real backbone of the band and make their effect by a massing of voices in each part, having the place of honor and greatest advantage. Of course it is understood that I am speaking of a concert orchestra. In the case of theatrical or operatic bands the arrangement of the forces is dependent largely upon the exigencies of space.
Outside the strings the instruments are treated by composers as solo instruments, a single flute, oboe, clarinet, or other wind instrument sometimes doing the same work in the development of the composition as the entire body of first violins. As a rule, the wood-winds are used in pairs, the purpose of this being either to fill the harmony when what I may call the principal thought of the composition is consigned to a particular choir, or to strengthen a voice by permitting two instruments to play in unison.
From: H. Krehbiel’s, How to Listen to Music; excerpts, edited by Musicon