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Melodrama :: Melodrama (n.) Formerly, a kind of drama having a musical accompaniment to intensify the effect of certain scenes. Now, a drama abounding in romantic sentiment and agonizing situations, with a musical accompaniment only in parts which are especially thrilling or pathetic. In opera, a passage in which the orchestra plays a somewhat descriptive accompaniment, while the actor speaks; as, the melodrama in the gravedigging scene of Beethoven's Fidelio..

Conistra :: Conistra (n.) Originally, a part of the palestra, or gymnasium among the Greeks; either the place where sand was stored for use in sprinkling the wrestlers, or the wrestling ground itself. Hence, a part of the orchestra of the Greek theater..

Oboe :: Oboe (n.) One of the higher wind instruments in the modern orchestra, yet of great antiquity, having a penetrating pastoral quality of tone, somewhat like the clarinet in form, but more slender, and sounded by means of a double reed; a hautboy..

Pit :: Pit (n.) Formerly, that part of a theater, on the floor of the house, below the level of the stage and behind the orchestra; now, in England, commonly the part behind the stalls; in the United States, the parquet; also, the occupants of such a part of a theater..

Drum :: Drum (n.) An instrument of percussion, consisting either of a hollow cylinder, over each end of which is stretched a piece of skin or vellum, to be beaten with a stick; or of a metallic hemisphere (kettledrum) with a single piece of skin to be so beaten; the common instrument for marking time in martial music; one of the pair of tympani in an orchestra, or cavalry band..

Ripieno :: Ripieno (a.) Filling up; supplementary; supernumerary; -- a term applied to those instruments which only swell the mass or tutti of an orchestra, but are not obbligato..

Overture :: Overture () A composition, for a full orchestra, designed as an introduction to an oratorio, opera, or ballet, or as an independent piece; -- called in the latter case a concert overture..

Saxhorn :: Saxhorn (n.) A name given to a numerous family of brass wind instruments with valves, invented by Antoine Joseph Adolphe Sax (known as Adolphe Sax), of Belgium and Paris, and much used in military bands and in orchestras..

Trumpet :: Trumpet (n.) A wind instrument of great antiquity, much used in war and military exercises, and of great value in the orchestra. In consists of a long metallic tube, curved (once or twice) into a convenient shape, and ending in a bell. Its scale in the lower octaves is limited to the first natural harmonics; but there are modern trumpets capable, by means of valves or pistons, of producing every tone within their compass, although at the expense of the true ringing quality of tone..

Cornet :: Cornet (n.) A brass instrument, with cupped mouthpiece, and furnished with valves or pistons, now used in bands, and, in place of the trumpet, in orchestras. See Cornet-a-piston..

Ophicleide :: Ophicleide (n.) A large brass wind instrument, formerly used in the orchestra and in military bands, having a loud tone, deep pitch, and a compass of three octaves; -- now generally supplanted by bass and contrabass tubas..

Transcription :: Transcription (n.) An arrangement of a composition for some other instrument or voice than that for which it was originally written, as the translating of a song, a vocal or instrumental quartet, or even an orchestral work, into a piece for the piano; an adaptation; an arrangement; -- a name applied by modern composers for the piano to a more or less fanciful and ornate reproduction on their own instrument of a song or other piece not originally intended for it; as, Liszt's transcriptions of son

Concerto :: Concerto (n.) A composition (usually in symphonic form with three movements) in which one instrument (or two or three) stands out in bold relief against the orchestra, or accompaniment, so as to display its qualities or the performer's skill..

String :: String (n.) The cord of a musical instrument, as of a piano, harp, or violin; specifically (pl.), the stringed instruments of an orchestra, in distinction from the wind instruments; as, the strings took up the theme..

Conductor :: Conductor (n.) The leader or director of an orchestra or chorus.

Orchestra :: Orchestra (n.) A band composed, for the largest part, of players of the various viol instruments, many of each kind, together with a proper complement of wind instruments of wood and brass; -- as distinguished from a military or street band of players on wind instruments, and from an assemblage of solo players for the rendering of concerted pieces, such as septets, octets, and the like..

Symphony :: Symphony (n.) An elaborate instrumental composition for a full orchestra, consisting usually, like the sonata, of three or four contrasted yet inwardly related movements, as the allegro, the adagio, the minuet and trio, or scherzo, and the finale in quick time. The term has recently been applied to large orchestral works in freer form, with arguments or programmes to explain their meaning, such as the symphonic poems of Liszt. The term was formerly applied to any composition for an orchestra, as

Instrumentation :: Instrumentation (n.) The arrangement of a musical composition for performance by a number of different instruments; orchestration; instrumental composition; composition for an orchestra or military band.

Orchestra :: Orchestra (n.) Loosely: A band of instrumental musicians performing in a theater, concert hall, or other place of public amusement..

Orchestra :: Orchestra (n.) The instruments employed by a full band, collectively; as, an orchestra of forty stringed instruments, with proper complement of wind instruments..

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