TURNING AN OX INTO A NIGHTINGALE A COMPILATION OF THE CHOICEST COMMENTARIES ON THE CHARACTER AND THE EXPRESSIVE QUALITY OF THE INSTRUMENTS OF THE ORCHESTRA. Tus 1s THE VISION OF ATONAL PAGEANTRY: Romeo and Juliet, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, Tristan and Isolde, Othello, Emnani, Rigoletto, ot, Juan Crisostomo Ibarra and Maria Clara, Florante and Laura seem to emerge vividly portrayed as if by sortilege or by enchant- ment from the life-giving sonority of a modern symphony orchestra. ‘The azure of the sky and the Willol-the-Wisps, the rustic gay shepherd, the imps and demons, the clown and the monster, the feeling of tenderness, melancholy and dreamy brooding, a playful jest or the fury of the storm, hate and jealousy, love and adoration, calm and mystic contemplation . . - this ever exuberant variety of contrasting characters, moods, sentiments, scenes, and emotion is — all together — brought forth marvelously by the mighty expressive power of that group of artistmusicians called: The Orchestra! A lady writer, gives us an account of the following anecdote: We can get an idea of the way a violoncello was regarded in the Eighteenth Century by the compliment that Voltaire paid Duport, when the latter played for him in Geneva. Voltaire was perfectly astonished by his per- formance. When Duport laid down his bow, Voltaire said: “Monsieur, You make me believe in miracles. You know how to turn an ox into a nightingale!”? Can it be said that the violoncello is an ox? Considering its size as compared to that of the violin, Voltaire, at least, figuratively speaking, was right. But to call the violoncello an “ox”, is, certainly, NOT a com- pliment. Among several Spanish proverbs, the poor ox seems to be the most ridiculed, Take for example: “HABLO EL BUEY Y DIJO: MU!” (The ox spoke and said: Moo ...!) This is a very popular saying and 2 ESTHHR SINGLETON, The Orchestra and Ita Instruments (New York: The Symphony Society of New York, 1917) p. 61TURNING AN OX INTO A NIGHTINGALE 887 it is applied to simpletons used to be silent all the time, and then, sud- denly, they open their mouth just to utter nothing but shallow, brainless, silly words. Let us take another: This time it is applied to the person playing an instrument which is bigger but of the same type as that of the violoncello, “TOCANDO EL VIOLON!”. It refers to persons talking nonsense, talking “through their hats”, or judging matters definitely far beyond their understanding. Therefore, “playing the violon” is NOT a compliment, but decidedly, a derogatory remark, Jean Louis Duport (1749-1819) the extraordinary artist whom Vol- taire paid that compliment was the first to master and to establish more or less definitely the technique of violoncello playing. He was the first to demonstrate the possibiities of reproducing in the violoncello all the tech- nical devices used in violin playing. No wonder Voltaire was astonished and compelled to pay him the hommage he fully deserved. Among those many devices which are nowadays taken for granted in violoncello technique are: The portamento, the vibrato, the tremolo, the trill, the sordine or mute, sul ponticello, col legno, pizzicato, double, triple, quadruple stopping, natural and artificial harmonics, aside from all known varieties of bowing such as the legato and the staccato, the detache, the sautille or jumping bow and the martellato or hammered bow. Alll these devices together explain how the “ox” (the violoncello) can be turned into a “nightingale” (the violin, or the flute). But the real character and the manifold functions of the violoncello are better described by Lavignac in the following lines: “Usually it gives, reinforced by the double-bass, the bass of the harmony. ‘This is its natu- ral work, But sometimes the singing part is committed to it, when, losing its austerity, it becomes a ravishing tenor (Romeo? . . . Tristan? . . .) of pure, warm timbre, ecstatic or passionate but always distinguished and captivating, Its rapid and light utterance, the frequent passage from natural notes to harmonics imitating the alterations of chest and head notes complete its resemblance to the human voice. Moreover, the violoncello, though moving in another region and awakening other sensations, posses- ses a richness of varied tones almost as extensive as that of the violin; and its pizeicati are better and less dry than those of the violin”. Regarding888 UNITAS, VOL. XXX, NO. 4, OCTUBRE-DICIEMBRE, 1957 the team work of the violoncello in the orchestra, Berlioz said: ‘Violon™ cellos together, to the number of eight, or ten, are essentially melodious; their quality on the upper strings is one of the most expressive in the or- chestra. Nothing is more voluptuously melancholy or more suited to the utterance of tender, languishing themes than a mass of violoncellos playing in unison upon their first string. They are also excellent for airs of religious character.” From the same work we continue quoting: Shakespeare in his rollicking comedy of TWELFTH NIGHT makes the violoncello the ins- trument of a silly knight; (p. 56), Richard Strauss in his DON QUI- XOTE makes it chivalrous and pathetic; in Richard Wagner’s TRISTAN AND ISOLDE the violoncello speaks love-yearnings as never before; (p. 63), while Rossini prefers it to be a brave and romantic hero in his im- mortal WILLIAM TELL, Harold D, Smith in his booklee INSTRUMENTS OF THE OR- CHESTRA exalts the violoncello in a still higher level: “The ‘cello has all the powers of the violin, but there is more virile strength to its mel- low, sonorous tone. It has a masculine quality in contrast with the feminine brilliancy of the violin tone. It is much used to express romantic feeling, reverent worship, tender melancholy, poignant sorrow and pleading love”.® The Sighing, Glowing Juliet If the violoncello is masculine and the violin is feminine, no wonder they can portray in the orchestra so fittingly: Romeo and Juliet, Tristan and Isolde or Ibarra and Maria Clara! This is fully confirmed in the following popular quotation: The violin is a universal favorite, for it can dance and mock and flirt like Columbine as well as sigh and glow like Juliet; ic is an instrument equally capable of lighthearted gaiety, empty- headed brilliance, or soulful discourse on things of mighty import. It can be the means of suggesting playful badinage, as in the first measures of the last movement of Beethoven's First Symphony, or of conveying such + SINGLETON—The same book—p. 65. + HAROLD D, SMITH: Instruments of the Orchestra, by sight, sound and story. Published Department of the Viclor Talking Machine Co., Camden, New p18TURNING AN OX INTO A NIGHTINGALE 889 grave commitments as are entrusted to it by Brahms in the second move: ment of his First Symphony.* On the other hand, a French art ctitic asserts that the violin is the king of songs, and this, we learned from Don Enrique Fernandez Arbos in his speech of reception as member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando,” in Madrid: Regarding the character of the violin and the extent of its own domains, allow me to mention the famous “page of the violins” written by Andre Suares, wherein the great French write tells us about the power and sorcery of this divine instrument, much better and more lyrically than I can do. “The violin is the king of songs. It has all its tones and an unfathomed range of expression: From joy to sorrow, from rapture to meditation, from profound gravity to an angelic nimbleness it covers up the whole gamut of sentiments, The quiet and peaceful met: riment is not less known to it as the most ardent voluptuosty; the stertor of the heart and the clear purling of the fountains, all belong to itself and it passes easily, without effort, from the languidness of a reverie to the most vivid and vigorous movement of the dance. Thus, in the vio lin visible, I always feel tempted to reckon the body divine of the sound in a cross: The song over the sacred wood of sacrifice”. Notwithstanding the poignancy of expression, easly noticeable in these Twentieth Century descriptions of the violin tonal characteristic, they seem “meek and mild” compared to the following which was written about one hundred and fifty years earlier: This new music," born out of the spiti tual tendencies of the second half of the Eighteenth Century appears si multaneously in all the cultural centers of Europe. The first steps tovatds subjective expression in instrumental music was taken by distegarding the technique of the Baroque period which juxtapose abruptly the “forte” and the “piano” without inserting between these two signs any kind of transi tion, Such a technique was replaced by an “organic dynamics”, that is, ‘ HOWARD D. McKINNEY and W. R. ANDERSON: A Cours Second Edition. (American Book Company. 1943, 1944.) pp. 400, 401, * DON ENRIQUE FERNANDEZ ARBOS, Del violin, de su teeniea, de su inlerpretacion, de su estilo y de su relacion con la evolucion de la Musica (Real Academia de Bellas Aries de San Fernando, Madrid, 1924) p. 9. * ERWIN LEUCHTER: La Sinfonia, su evolucion y su estructura, Diteecion Municipal de Cultura, Rosario, Republica Argentina, Noviembre de 1948, p, 98, Music Appreciation,89 UNITAS, VOL. Xxx, No. 4, OCTUBRE-DICIEMBRE, 1957 by inserting between “forte” and “piano” the “crescendo” and the “dimi- nuendo”; in other words: Tension and distension. The degree of perfection obtained by such a coloring is described for us by a musician of those days referring to the affective expression of the first violin soloist of the Mannheim orchestra (one of the cultural centers of the new instrumental music) in the following lines: “His forte was a thunderstorm, his crescendo a cascade, a waterfall, his diminuendo a crys- talline singing rivulet and his piano a primeval sweet breath”. All these co- loring and contrasts were dashing against one another in the reduced space of one same movement, thus, giving the instrumental music an outstand- ing dramatic character. And Now Comes Sancho Panza! In Richard Strauss’s “Don Quixote Variations” the violoncello and the viola paint character as neatly as it is possible for music to do; and if we do not recive a definite idea of their appearance, the music conveys to us certain impressions of Don Quixote and his unimaginative squire. With great poetic judgment Strauss selected the violoncello (“Don Qui- xote”) and the viola (“Sancho Panza”) as the most suitable instruments to convey these impressions, (Singleton, p. 63) Hector Berlioz in his Harold Symphony describing Byron’s wander- ings of Childe Harold in Italy, the viola impersonates Childe Harold. The fist movement of this symphony is practically a viola concerto. So, it was specially writen for and performed by the great violinist Niccolo Pa- ganini, Richard Wagner was not contented to make the viola just a wan- deret, In bis opera “Tannhauser” he showed that the viola can be wild, playful and fiery. For Carl Maria von Weber it can be fantastic and for Felix Mendeshon Bartholdy, fairylike. Berlioz —as a writer, — loved to contrast it with the violin: “In like degree, as the violin is biting, inci- sive and mastedul, the viola is humble, wan, sad and morose, but its range of sentiment runs from sad reverie to agonized pathos.” Lavignac has described the vila very aprly when he writes: “The viola isa philosopher, sad and helpful; always ready to come to the aid of others, but reluctant to call attention to himself”. The tone quality of the viola has been called cold, mournful and dull; it is somewhat penetrating and tasal in genera, it lacks the emotional warmth of the violin. ‘The tones ofTURNING AN OX INTO A NIGHTINGALE sol the two lower strings are gloomy and melancholy, the upper two are more tender and romantic.’ The Gambols of a Playful Elephant Tt was Beethoven who first gave real prominence to the contrabass, or double-bass as he was influenced by having at his command the services of Dragonetti, a very famous contra-bassist of his time. In the Scherzo of his “C Minor” (Fifth) Symphony he succeeds in extracting a bit of musical humour from these unwieldly instruments by having them begin a fugal Passage then stop, and begin again, as if in repeated efforts to master it This is the passage to which Berlioz refers as “the gambols of a playful elephant.”* Verdi considered the contrabass a dark, morbid personality, patticulae. ly fitted for tragedy. He calls upon the contrabass to describe Othello’s entrance into Desdemona’s chamber to murder her. Here the double-bass darkly and wickedly mutters all that is in Othello’s savage heart and tells us just what he means to do. But pethaps the most striking treatment of the double-bass is in Wagner’s DIE MEISTERSINGER. “In this score,” Charles Villiers Standford thinks, “you find the most economical and pet: fectly proportionate use of that dangerous ogue-elephant, the double-bas.” The heavy notes of the contrabass ate “for the good of the communi- ty”. They help make a fine, firm background for the melodies and hat- monies of the more delicate instruments ...... clumsy old growler, sedate, solemn, often severe, occasionally savage, and, at his best moments, gloomy and vague. It must be remembered, however, that cettain technical devices com- monly used in violin playing, in the viola or in the violoncello are not so effective in the contrabass. Double stopping, for example, unless itis done on open strings will sound muddy. Harmonics are recommended only on open strings also, otherwise they are “very poor”. The mute, or “sordine” must be used sparingly. On the other hand, pizzicato and tremolo, ate highly advisable, they are most effective, "HAROLD D. SMITH (the same booklet), * HAROLD D, SMITH (the same booklet). * SINGLETON—the same book.mn LOS SELLOS DE LA UNIVERSIDAD DE STO. TOMAS... The Imps of the Orchestra Berlioz calls for two piccolos in his score for “The Damnation of Faust”, and in the “Minuet of the Will-o”-the-Wisps” (Menuet des Follets) these shrill instruments are used in a brilliant manner which justifies the title, “Imps of the Orchestra,” often given them. The piccolo takes its name from the Italian Piccolo Flauto, meaning litle flute, Practically it is a half flute, and so it sounds an octave higher but the fingering and the embouchure (the blowing technique) are exactly the same as that of the flute. Its tone is shrill and piercing, and far above the range of the human voice. This imparts a kind of supernatural element to its tone quality, so that some composers have used it to produce special demonize effects. The imp or the demon, the flash of lightning, the dart- ing flame, the piccolo is the whistling wind of the orchestra and to it, is entrusted diabolic sneer, bachanalian strain and to add brilliancy to martial effects and grotesque dances. The ethereal, suave, transparent, timbre of the flute, with its placidity and its poetic charm, produces an auditive sensation similar to the visual impression of the color blue, a fine blue, pure and luminous as the azure of the sky. (Lavignae, quoted by Singleton.) The remarkable agility and “speaking” powers of the flute as describ- ed by Harold D. Smith, bring it into constant use as a melodic instrument. Its often given the melody in unison with the violins. The lower register is somewhat woody and hollow, its sonorous tone being due to a scarcity of the overtones heard in the higher register. Its middle register is full and mellow, and is well suited to beautiful lyric and elegiac passages. Its upper register is more brillant and birdlike, well suited to light, delicate pasages. The effects of tendemess and melancholy are also within the powers of the flute, especially in the minor key. Beethoven used the flute to represent the nightingale’s notes in the Andante of his “Pastoral (Sixth) Symphony”. Mendelssohn in the Scherzo of his “Midsummer Night's Dream” gave the flutes a tripping melody which adds much to the grace and charm of this fairy music. Bizet, in his opera “Carmen” and Grieg in his “Peer Gynt” Suite entrusted the flute with a melancholy and exquisite pastoral melody, but it remained for De- bussy to make the flute announce the languorous reverie which is the theme of his “The Afternoon of a Faun”,TURNING AN OX INTO A NIGHTINGALE 893, The Shepherdess and the Shepherd The Oboe is a double-reed instrument which is used as the Ic sop tano of the woodwind family. The English Horn — which is not English nor a horn,—is the masculine Oboe and takes usually the alto voice of this group. Both belong to the old type of reed instruments which was called “Chalumeau” from the Latin “calamus’ —a reed, ‘The Oboe is the Pastoral instrument of the orchestra, hence itis considered the shepherdess and the English Horn as the shepherd. Tt is customary that the whole orchestra is tuned from the Oboe, so it is also often called: The Tuning Pipe of the Orchestra. Its tone is thin and nasal, very piercing in its forte passages but in its piano (soft) sections is capable of the most exquisite refinement. Berlioz emphases its pastoral character full of tendemess or timidity, candor, artless grace, soft joy or the grief of a fragile being. The Oboe is used to imitate the call of the quail and to depict rustic gaiety in Beethoven's “Pastoral Symphony,” to sing a rather melancholy me- lody to Bizet’s “Carmen”; to supply an oriental melody and oriental at mosphere in Saint-Sains’ “Samson et Dalila” and RimskyKoisakow's “Scheherazade” and even to imitate the crowing of the cock in “Danse Macabre” by Saint-Saens. The English Horn is better named in French: Cor Anglais. Anglais— is a corruption of the word anglé meaning bent, for in olden times this instrument was bent at an obtuse angle in the middle of the tube, “The rich tone quality of the English Horn is well suited to dreamy melancholy themes. It has all the reediness and tender expressiveness of the Oboe} while it is sometimes used to express the joys of pastoral life, there is al ways a suggestion of sadness and loneliness in its voice”. No wonder, Lavignac called it: “Oboe de luto” — an Oboe in mourning! Singleton believes the immediate ancestor of the English Horn was the Hunting Horn known as “Oboe di Caccia”. In the very popular over. ture “William Tell” by Rossini, the call of the Swiss herdboy is heard upon the Alpine Horn, and was originally written for the old “Oboe di Cacca”, When this instrument became obsolete, the part was taken by the Cor Ang. lais—the English Horn. “By far the most notable use of this versatile instrument — writes Hae rold Smith, — is in the ‘Largo’ from Dvorak’s great symphony ‘From the Sie894 UNITAS, VOL. XXX, NO. 4, OCTUBRE-DICIEMBRE, 1957 New World’, The sad, regretful melody sung on the upper register of the English Hom is thought to have been founded upon an old negro slave air, although there are some who claim this melody was suggested by an American Indian theme”. The premiere of that immortal “Symphony in D minor” by Cesar Franck was a fiasco? It was then ridiculed by the musicians and the public, including the director of the conservatory who shouted: “This is tno symphony. Who ever heard of a symphony with an English Horn?” Nowadays, as a matter of course, it is universally consecrated as a master- piece in spite of the English Horn or most likely because of the English Hom. No wonder Vincent D’Indy described it as “the magestic, plastic, and perfectly beautiful symphony”.”” The King of the Woodwind Instruments The Clarinet is a single-reed instrument made of a cylindrical pipe of ebony or cocus, two feet in length, and ending in a narrow bell. For convenience it is made in sections, The mouthpiece is chisel-saped, flattened to support a piece of cane, or reed, fastened to it by two metal bands. Lavignac considered the Clarinet the richest in varied timbres of all the wind instruments. It possesses not less than four registers, perfectly defined: The “chalumeau” which contains the deepest notes and recalls the old rustic instrument of that name: “calamus”; the medium, warm and expressive; the high, brilliant and energetic; and the very high, biting and strident. All these registers, thanks to the progress of manufacture, ate able to melt into one another in the happiest manner possible and furnish a perfectly homogeneous scale. Almost as agile as the flute, as tender as — and more passionate than — the Oboe, the Clarinet is infinite- ly more energetic and richer in color’ ‘The Clarinet is the dramatic soprano of the Woodwind section. The Tenor Clarinet is better known as “Basset Horn”, while the Bass Clarinet DAVID BWEN: Musie for the Millions, Arco Publishing Company. 480 Lexington Avenue, New York. Copyright 1949, 1043, ALBERTO LAVIGNAC: La Bducacion Musical, version espaiiola de Felipe Pedrell. Quinta edicion corresida y adicionada por el Padre Luis Villalba, Barcelona, Gustavo Gili Euitor, MCMXXI.TURNING AN OX INTO A NIGHTINGALE 895, possesses a powerful and reedy voice that it can serve as the pedal tone of the grand organ for the whole orchestra, The Clown and the Monster The Bassoon and the Contrabassoon are both double-eed instruments supplying the bass voice for the Woodwind family, ‘The sombre and weird tone of the Bassoon can readily be made “grotesque” so much so that the Bassoon is commonly referred to as the “clown” of the Orchestra, While the Contrabassoon is capable of emiting geuff, nasal tones much akin to grunts and snores was masterly used by Mautice Ravel to portay the character of “the Beast” in the “Conversations of Beauty and the Beast” the part IV of “Ma Mere L'Oye”—Mother Goose. ‘Therefore, if the Bassoon is the “clown” of the Orchestra, the Contrabassoon is the “monster”. The lowest tones of the Bassoon according to Lavignac, ate solemn and pontifical like an organ pedal. ‘The medium register has a sweet sonority of some richness but litle strength, and its high register has the most expression but it is painful, distressed and dejected, In regard to its name: The English “Bassoon” and the French “Bas son” refers to its pitch —as the bass for all Woodwind Instruments, The German “Fagott” and the Italian “Fagotto” refer to its shape—it re- sembles a bundle of sticks, or fagots! The Contrabassoon or Double Bassoon is an octave below the Bassoon, It doubles the bass of the Bassoon in the same way as the Contrabass dou- ble the bass notes of the Violoncello. This instrument was used in the orchestra in Handel’s time. Haydn calls for it in “The Creation”; Brahms, in his “C minor Symphony”; Mendelssohn, in his “Hebrides” Overture; and Beethoven uses it in the “Fifth” and the “Ninth” Symphonies. The Fall of Jericho ‘The Trumpet is the soprano of the Brass Wind family. Its origin can be traced in those primitive instruments fashioned by man from the horns and tusks of animals, or from hollow conch shells. ‘The Ram’s hors Trumpet, or Shofar, was used in ancient Hebrew time to summon the con- gregation, a custom which is still observed in modern synagogues, where the Shofar is sounded on the Jewish New Year.896 UNITAS, VOL. XxX, NO. 4, OCTUBRE-DICIEMBRE, 1957 This interesting item gathered from Harold D. Smith’s booklet al- ready mentioned before, brings to mind versicles that vividly desctibes the fall of Jericho in Joshua, Chapter 6: “And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of ram's hors; and the seventh day ye shall com- pass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets.” And another verscle tells us: “So the people shouted when the priests blew with the trumpets: and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city”. ‘The modern Trumpet is a narrow, cylindrical tube made of brass coil- ed in rectangular shape with a cupped mouthpiece at one end and a bell at the other, The tone of the Trumpet —says the same writer, —is essentially noble and triumphant and its open tones are especially effective in flourishes and fanfares. Lavignac calls it “a stately and heraldic instrument” and Ber- lioe says: “The quality of the Trumpet tone is noble and brilliant. It suits with warlike ideas, with cries of fury and vengeance, as with songs of triumph, Ie lends itself to the expression of all energetic and lofty and grand sentiments and tragic accents, It may even figure in a jocund piece, provided the joy assumes a character of pomp and grandeur”. By way of an example let us remember the very familiar call to arms sounded by the Trumpet in that very popular overture to “William Tell” by Rossini. ‘The Cornet is a valve instrument like the Trumpet, but its tone is not so brilliant nor heroic, The tube is slightly conical, and not cylindrical as that of the Trumpet. The Conch of Charon The Hom is of all orchestra instruments —writes Singleton, — the cone which Gluck wrote least well for, We must however, quote as a stroke of genius those three notes of the Horn imitating the Conch of Charon in the air of Alceste, “Charon now calls thee”. The French Horn which is commonly called simply the “horn” is the alto voice in the Brass family. In tone quality — we quote from Harold Smith, — the born lies midway besween woodwind and brass, so it blends equally well with either. It also sounds well by contrast with the strings. Its voice is even, full and mellow.TURNING AN OX INTO A NIGHTINGALE 897 Berlioz seems to confirm the same ideas in the following lines: “The Hom is a noble and melancholy instrument. It blends easily with the general harmony; and the composer — even the least skillful — may, if he choose, either make it play an important part, or a useful or subordinate one,” Te is generally conceded that Carl Maria von Weber is the one composct who mastered and used the best qualities of the Horn, especially in his opera “Der Freischutz” — The Free Hunter. Religious Mystical Atmosphere Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in his famous opera “The Magic Flute” used the Trombones to produce a religious mystical atmosphere. In the modern symphony orchestra, the Valve Trombone is practically obsolete, the Slide Trombone being now the favorite. It is so called, because one tube slides—in and out of the other tube, This action shortens o lengthens the tube thereby highering or lowering the pitch, Berlioz — writes Singleton, — made a great use of this instrument and he said: The Trombone is the true chief of that race epic instruments, It Possesses in an eminent degree, both nobleness and grandeur. It has all the deep and powerful accents of high musical poetry from the religious ac- cent, calm and imposing, to the wild clamors of the orgy. The composer can make it chant like a choir of priests, threaten, lament, ring a funeral knell, raise a hymn of glory, break forth into frantic cries, or sound a dread flourish to awaken the dead, or to doom the living, As a general rule, when three Trombones are used in the orchestra, the third is a Bass Trombone, Its tone is powerful with all the attributes of awe and majesty and is impressive and somewhat orgamlike in sustain ed passages. The Voice of the Dragon The Bass Tuba—or just the Tuba, for short,—is with the Bass Trombone the bass voice of the Brass Choir. This huge instrument, as described by Esther Singleton, with the enormous bell standing upzght, with valves and horizontal mouthpiece and great coils of shining tubes, is over three feet long! It has the deepest notes in the entire orchestra, Wagner uses it to describe the deep, datk caverns under the Rhine and to898 UNITAS, VOL. XXX, NO, 4, OCTUBRE-DICIEMBRE, 1957 suggest the first heavy roll of the waves in Das Rheingold; and it is the instrument on which the dragon, Fafner, speaks in Siegfried. It is heavy and ponderous like Fafner’s own heavy coils; and it is dark and deep and mysterious, just as we imagine a dragon’s voice might sound in the forest, where his mutterings and threatenings are understood. Bang and Whimper! Musical instruments sounded by shaking or beating belong to the “Percussion” family and it is also often called “the battery”. This com- prises the Kettle-Drums or Tympani, the Side Drum or Snare Drum, the Bass Drum, the Tambourine, —or Pandereta in Spanish, — the Castar nets, the Cymbals, the Triangle, the Tam-Tam or Gong, the Xylophone, the Chimes or Bells, the Celesta, and the Glockenspiel, amongst the most important. Percussion instruments are naturally in charge of roaring the noisiest sound imaginable —the bang, — although they can produce with great powerful effect, not exactly the whimper, but the softest and most ethereal tone, The Tympani is a big copper bowl, or basin across which a piece of parchment — calf skin—is tightly stretched to make the “head.” They usually come in pairs, although three or more can be used in the orchestra. By means of screws, which nowadays are controlled by a pedal, the Tympani ot Kettle Drums ate tuned to their respective definite pitches. The large one to G, the dominant, and the small one to C, the tonic. ‘The third drum is tune to F, the subdominant. The tone of the Tympani is full and resonant, but it can esaily be vatied by using different kind of drumsticks. The soft-headed sticks with sponge tips are used for velvet tone while the wooden sticks will give great brilliance and more volume. Drumsticks covered with hard felt are used for thythmical staccato passages, brittle sounds, great fortissimos and vol- tumes of sounds, The Marching Drums No parade, no procession, no military review can be complete without the Bass Drum, the Snare Drum and the Cymbals. The sound of thunder in an approaching storm is better produced by the Bass Drum, The Drum-TURNING AN OX INTO A NIGHTINGALE 899 stick is heavy with a large head made of felt or lamb's wool forming a soft, round knob, but the tone can be either very soft or very powerful The Snare Drum is also called the Small Drum, Side Drum, Tenor Drum or Military Drum. The upper side of this drum is called the “batter head” and the lower side, the “snate head”. Because of this, the tone is bright and vibrant but with a rattling, crackling effect. In Spanish is call: ed: “Tambor” or “Caja Viva”. Special effects with special names in playing this instrument are: “Long Roll”, ot, “Daddy-Mammy”, the “flam”, and the “drag”. The Cymbals consist of two circular plates of brass slightly hollow in the center. ‘They are held in each hand by leather loops, and played by striking their edges together in an up-and-down sliding movement, The metallic clash is very useful in crescendo passages and bachanalian scenes Bachanalian Instruments ‘Two percussion instruments are most often associated with typical Span- ish dances: The Tambourine, or Pandereta, and the Castanets, or Casta Buelas. But Richard Wagner derived a colorful effect by introducing the Tambourine in his opera “Tannhauser”, in the “Bachanale” of the Venus- berg scene; and, Saint-Saens has introduced the Castanets in the “Bacha- nale” of his opera “Samson and Dalila”. The Tambourine is known among the French as “Tambour de Bas- que” and in Spanish is “Pandero” or “Pandereta”, It consists of a hoop of wood over which a head of parchment is stretched. Light metal discs, or jingles, (cascabeles, sonajas,) are fastened loosely on wires inserted in holes cut in the hoop, so that when the Tambourine is shaken, a light, ting- ling sound is produced. This instrument is also very much used by the Tralians in their “Tarantella” and the Gypsies in their “Czardas”, The Castanets are two hollow wooden shells, fastened together with a cord, and played by being clacked together by the thumb and fingers of each hand. In nearly all Spanish music they maintain a characteristic thythm and Bizet had made frequent use of the Castanets in his famous opera “Carmen”. The word “Castafiuelas” is derived from “castaiio” meaning chesnut. When the two hollow wooden shells ate joined together they assume the shape or figure of a chestnut.900 UNITAS, VOL. 200%, NO. 4, OCTUBRE-DICIEMBRE, 1957 The Dancing Skeleton Camille Saint-Saens in his symphonic poem “Danse Macabre” master- ly assigned the Xylophone to portray the rattling of bones of the skeletons as they dance over the stones of the graveyard on “All Hallow‘en”. It consists in a series of slabs of wood graduated in size, fastened to two “guides” or supports also of wood. The Xylophone is played by two wooden beaters which the performer holds in each hand. The “Marimba” which is typically Mexican is practically a modernized Xylophone. To each slab corresponds a tube also made of wood and closed in its lower end, thus reinforcing and prolonging the sonority of this instrument. Not only two but four— two pairs— of wooden beaters can now be used, and this enables the instrument to produce a complete 4-part harmony. If the Xylophone is said to be originated from the Tartars and Rus sians with a Greek name: Xylon, wood, and Phone, sound, the Gong or Tam-Tam is decidedly of Chinese origin. And if we have to enumerate the nationalities of each instrument we can conclude that a “United Nations Organization” will be the easiest thing to establish in an orchestra! The Gong or Tam-Tam is a large disc of hammered metal and when it is rub- bed by a soft drumstick a deep metallic roar is produced, suggesting tragic fate, It is also often associated with Oriental religious ceremonies. For out own church ceremonies, that is, to produce the proper effect of the large cathedral bells, the orchestra counts with the “Chimes”. It consists of shyny nickel-plated tubular bells suspended from a metal frame and struck with a hammer, The tone is brilliant but solemn or festive as demanded by the musical passage. Tn contrast with these metal pipes of shiny brass we have one of thé smallest instruments of the whole orchestra: The Triangle. It is a steel rod bent in the form of an equilateral triangle with one of the angles open. It is suspended on a cord and played by striking it with another rod of the same material but short and straight;producing a sharp, incisive, tinkling tone, The tremolo is obtained by a quick “‘to-and-fro” movement of the short rod between the two sides of the angle. The “tinkle” of this some- what evasive instcument, —says Harold D. Smith, —is clearly defined in “Moraima” by Espinosa, “Turkish March” by Mozart, and in the ballet music from Act II of the opera “Aida” by Verdi.TURNING AN OX INTO A NIGHTINGALE 901 On the other hand, if “a divinely beautiful tone” is desired among the percussion instruments, the orchestra, always as resourceful, will give us the Celesta. Relatively a modern instrument, the Celesta was invented by Auguste Mustel, of Paris, in 1886. In appearance it resembles a small portable organ or harmonium having a short keyboard —around four oc: taves only,—and one pedal. The soft, heavenly bell-tones—hence the name “Celesta”,— are produced by a piano action attached to hammers, These hammers strike the small metal plates suspended over accurately tuned wooden resonating boxes. Tchaikovsky was the first composer t0 discover and to introduce this instrument for the sake of color in his “dance of the “Sugar Plum Fairy” of that universal favorite “Nutcracker Suite” And precisely, “The Orchestra in a Nutcracker Shell” is nothing moze than a special arrangement of Tchaikovsky's “Nutcracker Suite”, It was recently written and conducted by Robert Russel Bennett and played by the world famous NBC Symphony Orchestra as a practical demonstration of the RCA Victor New Orthophonic High Fidelity Sound. Here all the instruments of the modern symphony orchestra, individually and collective- ly, are given the best tonal perspective and the most appropriate background, Here the listener is given the opportunity to grasp easily the real tonal char- acter of every instrument. Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad Wolf? There are several other masterpieces which bring into prominence the same subject matter, that is, to show the individual and the collective func- tions of orchestral instruments, but one of them, and perhaps, the most popular is the Symphonic Tale for Children entitled: “Peter and the Wolf” (Op. 67) by Sergei Prokofiev. It introduces a narrator, — explains Sloinimsky, as quoted by David Ewen,—telling the story of the Red Pioneer, Peter, who over the objection of a grouchy grandfather, sets forth on the adventure of conquering the Russian equivalent of the Big Bad Wolf. Peter (the Strings) is aided by a bird (the Flute) a cat (the Cla- rinet), and a duck (the English Horn), but while using them as allies, he has to be on the lookout for the cat, who has designs on the bitd, The duck eventually falls victim to the wolf (the Horns), but remains alive in the wolf's belly, while the wolf is being triumphantly cated off to the zoo. The instrumental leitmotive for the grandfather is played by the902 UNITAS, VOL. XXX, NO. 4, OCTUBRE-DICIEMBRE, 1957 Bassoon, while that of the shooting of the hunters is given to the Timpany and the Bass Drum. Synthesis of Two Worlds A most distinguished writer and art critic, Camille Mauclair finds in the orchestra the synthesis of two worlds: The world sensuous or physical, and the world moral or spiritual. In the following paragraphs, he explains this synthesis.” The only occasion that still permits me to find in modern life a spec- tacle of the middle ages, is given to me by the orchestra when I consider its small, obscure multitude, its corporate, isolate gathering. Here we find ourselves in the presence of a human group which is seen through a veil of sonotity which it weaves between the stage and the audience. Meticulous, silent, attentive, and afar, one sees them working in the same way as the tapestry makers, they seem not to see the beautiful designs they themselves ate weaving in the other side. Only we of the audience see the sprouting and unfolding of the flowers and the imaginary landscapes; they, can only see the materials, their tools and the canvass. Between them and ourselves, the conductor is interposed, the only one who knows the secret, and by wielding the batoon, seems to outline in a sketchy way the profiles of this sonorous magic. Thus, these men hide themselves in creating a painting with divinely transparent images. What do we know about them? Nothing or almost nothing. ‘They ate priests, and their names, for us, do not matter at all, They are all to- gether and they are all captives of the vertigo that they will impose upon ts, From the very moment that they have gathered themselves, they cons- titute an evidence of a superior humanity, because they posses as we possess love, terror, hate, ecstasy, caress, madness, defeat and victory, but they can, and they must express them in a prayer as it were, as a public examina- tion of the human conscience, and we of the audience have entrusted them to do all these things for us. Therefore, in this group of men, erected or set as an example, is found something like a compendium of the world sensuous and the world moral, CAMILLE MAUOLAIR: La Religion de la Musica—Version espafiola de Jose Maria Borras (Cuarta edicion. Bsrcelone, Octubre de 1945, Bdiclones Ave, Barcelona) p. 14,TURNING AN OX INTO A NIGHTINGALE 903 Embodiment of Metaphysical Energies By way of conclusion to this compilation of choicest commentaries on the orchestra, we believe that it will be most fitting to add some more of Mauclair’s further elucubrations: In that little obscure multitude—he af- firms, — resides an immense force, embodiment of latent metaphysical ener- gies that is never resigned to die, and not being believed through word it has to turn into sonotity in order to start over again the new conquest of souls. The orchestra is the mirror of the universe. Where to go to find the life-giving spirit? Where, if not here? Fortunately, it is agreed, that music is a pleasure, and for some persons, a neurosis; otherwise, if everyone would understand it as the “last prayer”, one might fear the revenge of everyday life. But protected by snobishness, misunderstanding and the hope for spasms more refined than those of physical love, it can still gives us, even in the midst of this fully atheistic modernism, the mystic spectacle of Middle Age exaltations with its monks, its hallucinates, its rituals and also with its great saints, from Saint Augustin who in this religion is called Beethoven, up to Saint Francis of Assisi whom we call: Cesar Franck, Dr. Antonio J. Mousa