ARRANGEMENT OF INSTRUMENTS IN A FULL SCORE
IT HAS LONG BEEN the practice of composers to write the string parts almost invariably at the foot of the score, for, since the time when the violin family superseded the viols, these instruments have been rightly regarded as the foundation tone of the whole orchestra, to which all else is subservient and purely incidental, however importantly so. It is only natural, therefore, to find the more delicate wood-wind instruments at the top of the score, ranged downwards more or less in order of their pitch--the piccolo is the exception--and resting on their own foundation of bassoons and, less frequently, of double- bassoon. Since the wood-wind are entrusted with so much music of the solo kind, such, for example, as a flute, oboe, or clarinet melody against a string accompaniment, it seems but poetic justice that composers should have accorded this group an outstanding position in the score. Besides which, this arrangement enables the conductor better to see at a glance where often the main melodic interest in the music lies. For the same reason the horns, though not so high- pitched as the trumpets, are usually placed at the head of the brass group. Wagner, however, was a notable exception in this respect, preferring to sandwich the horns between clarinets and bassoons because of their accommodating tone-quality. This quality, which, briefly, we can call "round and mellow," permits this instrument to blend as successfully with the wood-wind as with the other members of the brass; in fact with slightly more success, for this very roundness of tone does not always match the open martial ring of trumpets and trombones, yet, in the hands of a skilful orchestrator, can never be said to conflict with the quality of either clarinet or
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