Curiously, the history of the modern orchestra dates back to Ancient Egypt. The first orchestras were made up of small groups of musicians that gathered for festivals, holidays or funerals. During the time of the Roman Empire, the government suppressed the musicians and informal ensembles were banned, but they reappeared after its collapse. It was not until the 11th century that families of instruments started to appear with differences in tones and octaves. True modern orchestras started in the late 16th century when composers began writing music for instrumental groups. In the 15th and 16th centuries in Italy, the households of nobles invited musicians to provide music for dancing and the court. However, with the emergence of opera in the early 17th century, music was increasingly written for groups of players in combination, which is the origin of orchestral playing. In Paris in 1626, King Louis XIII had an orchestra consisting of 24 violins. Later in the century, the English King Charles II decided that he would emulate the French monarch and so he, too, called for a string orchestra. Gradually, other instruments were added.Clarinets came into the orchestra at the end of the 18th century and trombones at the beginning of the 19th century. Orchestras were still relatively small, though. It was the German composer, Richard Wagner (see below), who opted to expand the musical potential by adding numerous instruments. For The Ring of the Nibelung (1848 - 1874), for example, he requested an exact number of players: 16 first violins, 16 second violins, 12 violas, 12 cellos, 8 double basses, 3 flutes and piccolo, 3 oboes and cor anglais, 3 clarinets and bass clarinet, 3 bassoons, 3 trumpets and bass trumpet, 3 tenor trombones and a double bass trombone, 8 horns with 4 of them playing a specially designed tuba, a bass tuba, percussion, and 6 harps.
If you'd like to explore the instruments of an orchestra, click here. If you'd like to discover who sits where in the orchestra, click here.
Source:
Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orchestra
Image: Mozart leading the Orchestra by Brooke Saddler.
