B.

ASSIGNMENT

Make a research about an orchestra. What are its characteristics? How many members
are there? What is the role of conductor? Who was Richard Strauss? Have a picture of a
sample orchestra.

The orchestra deprived its name from the Greek word "orcheisthai," which
means “to dance.” The orchestra is grouped and seated by its instrument. In the 1800’s the
most important part of an orchestra was now the strings and lesser the keyboard. Orchestra is
a large group of musicians who using musical instrument to perform a musical. There some
of the musical instrument that play in the orchestra such as Violin, Jazz, Trumpet, and others.
Basically orchestra will be held at the space in front of the stage in a modern theater.

An orchestra will usually have over eighty musicians on its roster, in some
cases over a hundred, but the actual number of musicians employed in a particular
performance may vary according to the work being played and the size of the venue. A
leading chamber orchestra might employ as many as fifty musicians; some are much smaller
than that. The term concert orchestra may sometimes be used (e.g., BBC Concert Orchestra;
RTÉ Concert Orchestra)—no distinction is made on size of orchestra by use of this term,
although their use is generally distinguished as for live concert. As such they are commonly
chamber orchestras. There are several types of amateur orchestras, including school
orchestras, youth orchestras and community orchestras.

Orchestras are usually led by a conductor who directs the performance with
movements of the hands and arms, often made easier for the musicians to see by use of a
conductor's baton. The conductor unifies the orchestra, sets the tempo and shapes the sound
of the ensemble. The conductor also prepares the orchestra by leading rehearsals before the
public concert, in which the conductor provides instructions to the musicians on their
interpretation of the music being performed.

Richard Strauss (1864-1949), the German composer and conductor, is known

especially for his operas and symphonic poems linked to his phenomenal mastery of the
orchestra. He was the chief exemplar of post-Wagnerian tastes and techniques. Strauss's
compositional output began in 1870 when he was just six years old and lasted until his death
nearly eighty years later. While his output of works encompasses nearly every type of
classical compositional form, Strauss achieved his greatest success with tone poems and
operas.