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The Birth of the Orchestra: History of an Institution, 1650-1815

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The authors Mssrs. Spitzer & Zaslaw have been exhaustive in their research on the "Birth of The Orchestra." Even if you have studied musicology at the college level, there are many points and issues in this voluminous tome that you probably didn't cover in class as I soon found out in reading just the first few chapters. It is a history of development of the "orchestra" and the many personages and events that lead to what we are the most familiar with today. The term "Orchestra" in fact originally simply meant the assigned space where any group of musicians sat and performed. It was more a term of logistics than instrumentation. Another interesting fact is that the orchestral groupings of the late 17th and early 18th Centuries were not necessarily one of demure proportions as one might assume. Arcangelo Corelli for example had on many occasions put together instrumental groups numbering anywhere from only 9 up to almost 80 musicians depending upon the performance requirements. He also had no listing in his personnel for keyboard players meaning that he probably didn't use harpsichord/organ continuo for most of his performances.
There are many more such otherwise little known facts about how orchestral music was actually performed.
I'm still reading this book and continue to discover so much information that I would consider this single book an education in itself as far as the development of orchestral music is concerned. Do not miss owning this title!