Title: Instrumentation | music | Britannica
Headings: Instrumentation
Instrumentation
music
Types of instrumentation
String techniques
Wind techniques
Muting

Content: two harps, first and second violins, violas, violoncellos, double basses. 4. Percussion: four timpani (played by one player), several other instruments (shared by a group of players). The orchestra has arrived at this complement through centuries of evolution; the present size is needed to perform music from the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic, periods, as well as the varied repertoires that followed. The various sections, with the exception of percussion, divide themselves in somewhat the same manner as a choir. The woodwinds, for example, divide into flutes (sopranos), oboes (altos), clarinets (tenors), and bassoons (basses), although this distinction must be greatly qualified. Instrumental range is larger than vocal range, and the clarinets of an orchestra may play higher than the flutes in a woodwind passage. The standard instrumental groups of Western chamber music include the string quartet (two violins, viola, and violoncello), the woodwind quintet (flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, and bassoon), the combinations employed in sonatas (one wind or stringed instrument with piano), and the brass quintet (frequently two trumpets, horn, trombone, and tuba).