The Strings
Gli archi
The body of the orchestra — bowed and plucked, homogeneous in colour, capable of every gradation of weight from a hush to a roar.
The Woodwinds
I legni
The orchestra’s soloists. A small choir of distinct voices, each with its own grain — flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, and their cousins.
The Brass
Gli ottoni
The orchestra’s ceremonial weight. Lipped tubes that can announce, sing, or, when asked, drown the rest of the band entirely.
The Percussion
Le percussioni
The orchestra’s articulators. Pitched and unpitched, struck and shaken — the section that punctuates the sentence.
The Sections
Le sezioni dell’orchestra.
The orchestra speaks through four voices. Each is a complete instrument in itself, with its own layout, its own habits of blending and dividing, its own long history. To write well for the orchestra is, before anything else, to write well for one section at a time.