Fallen by the Wayside?
- Neglected Instruments
by Arthur Butterworth
The large modern orchestra
and the wind band have long become standardised
or almost so. Minor variations in wind
band instrumentation occur from time
to time and from one country to another,
whereas the symphony orchestra is virtually
of the same complement the world over:
three flutes (including piccolo) two
oboes and cor anglais, two clarinets
and bass clarinet, two bassoons and
contra-bassoon; four horns, three trumpets,
three trombones and tuba, one timpanist,
three or four percussion, one harp,
and a varying number of strings. To
this basic establishment are often added
fairly regular extras: a second harp,
fourth trumpet, more percussion, celesta
and other keyboard players for the piano
or organ. Sometimes of course extra
wood-wind are added, maybe an E-flat
clarinet, a fourth bassoon, tenor tuba,
and various saxophones, perhaps rather
more infrequently the alto flute, or,
to add colour to the strings, maybe
a mandolin or guitar. But other instruments
that might once have claimed to be looked
upon as basic to the orchestra have
almost disappeared. Yet others seem
never to have established a foothold.
As in all other evolutionary
processes some instruments that once
were fundamental to an ensemble became
obsolete for one reason or another:
the theorbo or lute, the various baroque
instruments familiar in Bach and so
on. The mid nineteenth century saw the
development of many variants in wind
instruments while the basic string ensemble
of violins, violas, cellos and double
basses has remained steadfast because
they have never been found to be capable
of improvement. It was probably the
dramatic requirements of opera and theatrical
music in general that inspired the search
for new and ever more expressive wind
instruments, and later still the development
of more exotic and more colourful percussion.
This situation has often been commented
on in books on musical history. One
of the questions rarely if ever asked
might have enquired why some of the
otherwise apparently useful additions
to the wind armoury have not generally
caught on.
Of course in the more
sophisticated orchestral circles (even
amateur as well as professional) it
is not now unusual to find that rare
instruments can be found when the need
or occasion expressly demands it. Despite
this it is puzzling to know why composers
have almost totally ignored some instruments
that could appear to be very useful
regular constituents of the standard
orchestra.
The sarrusophone is
a case in point. This impressive bass
wind instrument, (often confused with
the sousaphone) is often superior to
the contra-bassoon; It appeared in French
scores towards the end of the nineteenth
century and Bax writes for it in the
First Symphony instead of the more usual
contra-bassoon. Its tone - because it
is essentially made of metal instead
of wood - can be more powerful and penetrating
than that of the contra-bassoon. It
is, however, a regular member of the
Band of the Garde Républicaine
in Paris.
The standard flute
family is generally regarded as comprising
flute and piccolo, but on occasion the
alto flute is called for - but why does
this expressive instrument not figure
more widely? It has often been erroneously
termed "bass" flute - Holst
and Britten even make this mistake of
nomenclature - but there is another
true bass flute, an octave lower than
the standard flute in C. Recorders,
once the mainstay of the baroque orchestra
have a more appropriate tone colour.
The oboe family too
has its other members that once were
familiar: the oboe d’amore, so beloved
of Bach and the true bass oboe, which
is perhaps not quite so unfamiliar in
its guise - although not quite the same
instrument - the heckelphone.
In the sphere of brass
perhaps the situation is slightly different
as it has become customary to employ
a variety of sizes of trumpets and tubas,
whilst the trombone has developed a
bigger voice - which perhaps it did
not altogether need anyway - and the
horns have evolved a whole variety of
so-called "improved" models.
Yet, on the other hand, with both horns
and trumpets there has been a re-awakened
interest in the ‘natural’ instruments
- no valves or other mechanisation -
and this writer, himself primarily a
trumpeter, has recently taken up the
hand-horn. It is however, a matter of
regret that in the present-day orchestra
the cornet tends to have been replaced
by the all-too-ubiquitous B-flat trumpet,
so that the splendid antiphonal effects
between two trumpets and two cornets
in such as Tchaikovsky, Berlioz and
Elgar and in many other French works
have been lost. The Germans have never
liked the cornet, and it never appears
in German scores; it has always been
regarded as too plebeian a relation
of the truly aristocratic and noble
trumpet. The cornet is looked upon as
only fit for ballet, light opera. (does
this include Berlioz?) and popular brass
band music; never to be considered worthy
of symphonic employment.
It could be argued
that economics as much as music itself,
play a part in the way in which instruments
are utilised: the cost of the rare instrument
in the first place, the use of that
instrument if the chances of performance
are restricted, and whether an orchestral
management would consider it worthwhile
or no, whether it is worthwhile of composers
to write for it or worthwhile to employ
a regular specialist player on a rare
instrument.
Arthur Butterworth
