Who sits where?
There are lots of ways for the players in an orchestra to be arranged and
whenever you see an orchestra it might be different.
The strings are the core of the orchestra. They usually sit at the front
and play most of the time. The woodwinds, the next busiest section, usually
sit behind in the middle. The brass and percussion, which are mostly
reserved for strong or dramatic effects, are arranged around the remaining
space. The stage plan shows a
common arrangement for English Classical Players.
One player of each instrument is the leading or principal player. When a
composer writes a solo - music for one player - it will be played by the
principal player of the section. More important than all of the other
principal players is the orchestra’s Leader, the name given to the principal
first violinist. The Leader is responsible for the whole string section as
well as making decisions about how to play the music which can affect the
whole orchestra.
The Conductor
There is usually a conductor standing in front of an orchestra. He plays
no instrument, makes no sound at all and makes strange gestures - not
everyone knows why!
First of all, because there is no way to write down exactly how a piece
of music should sound, the conductor is there to decide exactly what a
composer meant by what he or she wrote. If you think of a piece of music as
a picture made from sounds, then the composer provides only a rough sketch
which has to be finished by the performers. The conductor decides how to do
this. This is why two performances of the same piece may seem very
different.
The conductor also uses music - called a score - which shows what
everyone has to play whereas the orchestra players can only see the notes
they play themselves. Another part of the job for the conductor is to use
this information to help them to play everything right; to help groups which
have to play the same thing at exactly the same time or those who have to
wait a long time before they have anything to play.
All this is done using a system of hand signals and other body language
to show when and how to play - for example how loud, how fast and whether
the mood of the music should be happy or sad. |