Hang Around the World: Music #503 - Instruments

The Wind Section

- harnessing the breath

Woodwind Instruments

2 to 4 flutes - (one doubling piccolo)
2 to 4 oboes - (one doubling English horn)
2 to 4 clarinets - (one doubling bass clarinet)
2 to 4 bassoons - (one doubling contrabassoon)

* the size of the woodwinds section can be expressed as 1-1-1-1 (chamber), 2-2-2-2 (Brahms), 3-3-3-3 and 4-4-4-4 (with doubling)

* the standard woodwind section of the modern orchestra comprises of 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, cor anglais, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, and contrabassoon
* continued to be called woodwinds though no longer made of wood
* bore: conical or cylindrical

Brass Instruments

4 to 8 French horns
2 to 6 Trumpets
2 to 6 Trombones (1 or 2 doubling Bass Trombones)
1 Tuba

Transposing Instruments

* double horn in F
* B b clarinet

Source: Wikipedia

Flute

(flute player, flutist...)

* transverse (side-blown) woodwind instruments made of metal or wood

* usually providing the top woodwind voice, the flute also has a mellow low register

* the air in a flute is set in motion by blowing across the edge of the embouchure hole

Flute Player
- Dirck de Quade van Ravesteyn
(fl.1589–1619, Southern Netherlandish)
- oil on canvas (111 × 127.5 cm) c.1600
- Kunsthistorisches Museum (Vienna)

Baroque flute

(L) Bach - Badinerie (R) Handel - 8 flute sonatas

(R) Portrait of William Wollaston (1730-1797, British MP)

- Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788, English)

- oil on canvas (128 x 100 cm) c.1759

- Colchester & Ipswich Museums (Essex)

Western concert flute

(R) The long tube of the bass flute or the alto flute is bent

so that the valves are comfortably within reach.

piccolo

The smaller piccolo can cut through the entire orchestral texture to great effect.

“The piccolo, a small flute, is the smallest woodwind instrument and thus produces the highest pitch of all the woodwinds. Its range is nearly 3 octaves and can reach higher pitches than the female voice.”