Music is a study in balance: balancing voices, balancing
colours, balancing ideas and balancing musicians. If “four” is the Magic Number
of voices (and players) where this great balance is achieved, then why do we
have quintets, octets and nonets?
Like I wrote a few chapters back when discussing the organ
and how it somehow fulfills our deep-rooted need of achieving bigger, greater
sounds, we don’t have to search long to get our answer. For whatever reason we
want more: more voices, more colours,
more ideas and – yes – more performers.
As I tried to plan out this first set of chapters, you can
see that we are working our way up to music for full orchestra. There is a
difference in scale but also a difference in organization and structure when it
comes the sort of music a given compliment of players performs. There is
“method” behind why I chose to treat “small chamber groups” (2, 3 and 4) and
“large chamber groups” separately, as they are indeed “transitional” in many
ways. It’s not quite “chamber music” (though it very well can be) and not quite
“orchestral music” (though in other cases it appears that it’s a “scaled down”
version).
The Quintet Conundrum
They say “there is no ‘I’ in TEAM” but in most team sports, we do have a dominant team member. In American Football, it’s the quarterback, some will argue it’s the goalkeeper in ice hockey, for example.
The most common quintet configuration adds an instrument to
a string quartet. For example, there are many piano quintets – Schubert’s
Trout quintet is an excellent example
of that. Mozart, Brahms and Carl Maria
von Weber write clarinet quintets; Boccherini
wrote some string quintets that add a second cello to the string quartet.
These configurations provide an interesting opportunity –
one instrument (piano, clarinet or cello in the above cases) “partnering with”
a string quartet, in the same way a violin partners with a piano in a duo
sonata.
Thus, we have the “quintet conundrum”: some quintets are more
“democratic” than others. In some cases, one instrument dominates the others,
while in others all five instruments play an “equal role” in the piece, where there isn’t an instrument that stands out.
Chamber Vs. Orchestra
Let’s suppose you have ten instrumentalists performing music
together. How is that different from an orchestra?
I don’t think there is a “hard and fast” rule that says an orchestra has to
have a minimum or maximum number of players…
An orchestra is “organized” a certain way – it has sections: strings, woodwinds, brass and
percussion instruments. Inside these sections, some instruments can be
represented once, twice, even eight or ten times. An orchestra “scales up” by
adding multiple similar instruments but has this idea of “sections”.
There’s nothing “democratic” about an orchestra if you ask
me – the potential for anarchy when you have tens of players is undeniable and
without a strong “singular vision”, the composer’s intent may not get justice.
Thus we have a conductor.
There is, however, a difference between a small orchestra
and a gaggle of, say, eight or ten musicians performing music and it has a lot
to do with the idea of “democracy at play”. It may be most simply explained as "no conductor required"...
I think you have to look at “large chamber combinations” as
a group of individual players rather than as a “single team” playing as a
group. Many of the examples I retained to illustrate this – and in particular
groups that aren’t scaled-up string quartets, tend to provide opportunities for
specific players to shine, taking their turn.
There are, however, some pieces like Mendelssohn’s Octet or Schönberg’s Verklarte Nacht which give more the
impression of being really scaled-down orchestral music. In fact, it’s not
uncommon to hear those pieces played by string orchestra – a not-too-subtle
segue into our next section.
Orchestral Vs Ensemble Repertoire
In French, the word “ensemble” literally means “together”,
though in music an ensemble is one of those things that is synonymous with
orchestra – in fact, we tend to use ensemble to denote a group of musicians that don’t quite constitute an orchestra.
Rather than explore “ensemble repertoire” as something
unique and distinct, I’d rather explore it in opposition to orchestral
repertoire. When we did our ABC montages, I provided two examples of
“transcriptions” of works intended for full orchestra that were “adapted” for
wind band. If you have the opportunity to hear the same works in their original
form – like say the overture to Wagner’s Rienzi – you’ll find that not much
gets lost in the translation, and there’s good reason for that.
From a tonal perspective, a transcription can look at
passages assigned to certain stringed instruments – like the violin – and
“assign them” to an instrument that falls roughly in the same tonal range –
like a clarinet or a flute. The result stays generally true to the original work,
as orchestral music doesn’t really rely much on “virtuoso colours” like bowing
technique. In cases where virtuoso colours are important, the passages can be
assigned to instruments where a fac
simile technique – or a replacement technique – gets the nod.
Wind band repertoire also addresses a “practical problem” –
the outdoor gazebo-style concert. In venues that don’t provide natural (or
man-made) amplification, wind instruments provide the level of volume
naturally. And let’s not get started with marching bands (there’s a “classic”
Woody Allen skit of him as child playing the cello in a marching band, moving
his chair after every note…). Wind band music is therefore rich with military
music and outdoor festive music.
At the other end of the spectrum is the string orchestra,
anywhere between 13 string players to the “101 string” players of the
aptly-named ensemble. Their repertoire often looks at chamber music and “scales
it up” for the purpose. A quartet maps easily to sections of the string
orchestra, delegating more isolated passages to first chairs. With the addition
of a harpsichord and bass to provide the “basso continuo”, string orchestras
are well-suited for most of the baroque orchestral repertoire.
Exploring the large chamber repertoire - Some Listener Guides
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