MHL 535 Chapter Notes -Andrea Gabrieli, Viol, Double Bass
21 Nov 2014
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The orchestra in the modern sense of the word did not exist before the 17th cent. Previous instrumental ensemble music was chamber music, except for occasional ceremonies when as many instruments as were available would be massed together. Until well into the 17th cent. there was little thought of specifying what instrument should play a part; any available instrument with the proper range was used. The first known example of orchestration occurs in giovanni gabrieli"s (see under. Monteverdi"s orfeo (1607), one of the first operas, demands a large and varied group of instruments all, in fact, that were available to him through his patron. During the 17th cent. the violin family displaced the viols, except the double-bass viol, as the principal strings of the orchestra. Woodwinds appeared in the earliest orchestras, though infrequently and subordinate to the strings usually two oboes and a bassoon, with flutes sometimes replacing the oboes.
