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164-398: The genesis of the work stems from many sources, including a conversation Brian had with Henry Wood about writing a suite that would revive the older instruments that had fallen out of use in the modern symphony orchestra, such as the oboe d'amore or basset horn . This idea was repudiated by Brian's close friend Granville Bantock , but returned when Brian turned to writing symphonies after

328-410: A Romantic music repertoire such as the symphonies of Ludwig van Beethoven and Johannes Brahms . The typical orchestra grew in size throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, reaching a peak with the large orchestras of as many as 120 players called for in the works of Richard Wagner and later Gustav Mahler . Orchestras are usually led by a conductor who directs the performance with movements of

492-519: A musical score , which contains all the instrument parts. The conductor uses the score to study the symphony before rehearsals and decide on their interpretation (e.g., tempos, articulation, phrasing, etc.), and to follow the music during rehearsals and concerts, while leading the ensemble. Orchestral musicians play from parts containing just the notated music for their instrument. A small number of symphonies also contain vocal parts (e.g., Beethoven 's Ninth Symphony ). Orchestras also perform overtures ,

656-460: A virtuoso xylophone cadenza , the theme is transformed into a climactic march which eventually throws the movement into the home key of D minor, and subsides quietly with the original statement of the music for horns followed by a harp arpeggio and a final chord of D major . At this point the choirs and soloists strike in unaccompanied with the opening stanza of the Te Deum , followed immediately by

820-491: A brick wall. In fact, a real conductor's voice." On leaving the Royal Academy of Music in 1888, Wood taught singing privately and was soon very successful, attracting "more singing pupils than I could comfortably deal with" at half a guinea an hour. He also worked as a répétiteur . According to his memoirs, he worked in that capacity for Richard D'Oyly Carte during the rehearsals for the first production of The Yeomen of

984-460: A celebrated practical joke on musicologists and critics. "I got very fed up with them , always finding fault with any arrangement or orchestrations that I made ... 'spoiling the original' etc. etc.", and so Wood passed off his own orchestration of Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor , as a transcription by a Russian composer called Paul Klenovsky. In Wood's later account, the press and the BBC "fell into

1148-481: A conductor was his 1889 appointment as musical director of a small touring opera ensemble, the Arthur Rouseby English Touring Opera. The company was not of a high standard, with an orchestra of only six players augmented by local recruits at each tour venue. Wood eventually negotiated a release from his contract, and after a brief return to teaching he secured a better appointment as conductor for

1312-413: A conductor, although early orchestras did not have one, giving this role to the concertmaster or the harpsichordist playing the continuo . Some modern orchestras also do without conductors , particularly smaller orchestras and those specializing in historically accurate (so-called "period") performances of baroque and earlier music. The most frequently performed repertoire for a symphony orchestra

1476-514: A consensus that faking may be acceptable when a part is not written well for the instrument, but faking "just because you haven't practised" the music is not acceptable. With the advent of the early music movement, smaller orchestras where players worked on execution of works in styles derived from the study of older treatises on playing became common. These include the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment ,

1640-481: A crown . In June 1883, visiting the International Fisheries Exhibition at South Kensington with his father, Wood was invited to play the organ in one of the galleries, making a good enough impression to be engaged to give recitals at the exhibition building over the next three months. At this time in his life, painting was nearly as strong an interest as music, and he studied in his spare time at

1804-474: A cruise to Morocco, missing the Proms concerts from 13 October to 8 November. In the early years of the Proms there were complaints in some musical journals that Wood was neglecting British music. In 1899, Newman unsuccessfully attempted to secure for Wood the premiere of Elgar's Enigma Variations , but in the same year Newman passed up the opportunity to introduce the music of Delius to London concertgoers. By

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1968-425: A fanfare for the enlarged orchestra for Part Two (which is supposed to be about 150-strong, besides the extra 40 or so players comprising the four extra brass orchestras). The eclecticism of Brian's music here borrows references as diverse as mediaeval fauxbourdon , Renaissance multiple polyphony on the scale of Tallis 's Spem in alium all the way through to twentieth century tone clusters, polytonality and

2132-552: A financial success, and were not repeated in later years. In January 1897, Wood took on the direction of the Queen's Hall's prestigious Saturday afternoon symphony concerts. He continually presented new works by composers of many nationalities, and was particularly known for his skill in Russian music. Sullivan wrote to him in 1898, "I have never heard a finer performance in England than that of

2296-522: A given performance may vary from seventy to over one hundred, depending on the work being played and the venue size. A chamber orchestra (sometimes a concert orchestra ) is a smaller ensemble of not more than about fifty musicians. Orchestras that specialize in the Baroque music of, for example, Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel , or Classical repertoire, such as that of Haydn and Mozart , tend to be smaller than orchestras performing

2460-409: A huge climax for the full forces. Thereafter the sixth and final movement continues with even more contrasted and episodic treatment of the text as the music seems to struggle to reach a conclusion. At the final words "non confundar in aeternum" the music violently flares up with two dissonant outbursts answered by the choirs, followed by a despairing orchestral coda, but the work is finally clinched with

2624-553: 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 chamber orchestra is usually a smaller ensemble; a major chamber orchestra might employ as many as fifty musicians, but some are much smaller. Concert orchestra is an alternative term, as in the BBC Concert Orchestra and the RTÉ Concert Orchestra . Apart from

2788-408: A large number of English pieces, Wood programmed works by composers as diverse as Bach and Stravinsky. He again conducted there in 1934. On his return to England from his first Hollywood trip, Wood found himself in the middle of a feud between the chairman of Chappell's, William Boosey, and the BBC. Boosey had conceived a passionate hostility to the broadcasting of music, fearing that it would lead to

2952-415: A live performance, could be heard by critics. As recording technologies improved over the 20th and 21st centuries, eventually small errors in a recording could be "fixed" by audio editing or overdubbing . Some older conductors and composers could remember a time when simply "getting through" the music as well as possible was the standard. Combined with the wider audience made possible by recording, this led to

3116-846: A modified member of the horn family, appears in Richard Wagner 's cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen and several other works by Strauss, Igor Stravinsky (as featured in The Rite of Spring ), Béla Bartók , and others; it also has a notably prominent role in Anton Bruckner 's Symphony No. 7 in E ;Major . Cornets appear in Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky 's ballet Swan Lake , Claude Debussy 's La Mer , and several orchestral works by Hector Berlioz . Unless these instruments are played by members "doubling" on another instrument (for example,

3280-401: A murmuring from the choir, which finally confirms the tonality of E major where the words "non confundar in aeternum" are repeated. Attempts to perform the symphony have frequently met with failure, beginning with the efforts of Hamilton Harty and Eugene Goossens in the depression -affected 1930s and enduring to the current day, usually owing to the extreme logistics of the work. The work

3444-525: A musician of culture demands." On the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, Newman, Wood and Speyer discussed whether the Proms should continue as planned. They had by this time become an established institution, and it was agreed to go ahead. However, anti-German feeling forced Speyer to leave the country and seek refuge in the US, and there was a campaign to ban all German music from concerts. Newman put out

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3608-460: A new epoch in English musical life – Edward Elgar as composer, and Henry J. Wood as conductor." Later that year, overtaxed by his enormous workload, Wood's health broke down. Even though this was during the Proms season, Cathcart insisted that Wood should have a complete break and change of scene. Leaving the leader of the orchestra, Arthur Payne, to conduct during his absence, Wood and his wife took

3772-522: A particular city or region. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ὀρχήστρα ( orchestra ), the name for the area in front of a stage in ancient Greek theatre reserved for the Greek chorus . In the Baroque era, the size and composition of an orchestra were not standardised. There were large differences in size, instrumentation and playing styles—and therefore in orchestral soundscapes and palettes — between

3936-624: A permanent member who is sick. A professional musician who is hired to perform for a single concert is sometimes called a "sub". Some contract musicians may be hired to replace permanent members for the period that the permanent member is on parental leave or disability leave. Historically, major professional orchestras have been mostly or entirely composed of men. The first women members hired in professional orchestras have been harpists . The Vienna Philharmonic , for example, did not accept women to permanent membership until 1997, far later than comparable orchestras (the other orchestras ranked among

4100-562: A proposed London season, Garcia recommended Wood. The season opened at the newly rebuilt Olympic Theatre in London, in October 1892, with Wood conducting the British premiere of Tchaikovsky 's Eugene Onegin . At that time the operatic conductor was not seen as an important figure, but the critics who chose to mention the conducting gave Wood good reviews. The work was not popular with the public, and

4264-524: A range of composers from Albéniz to Vivaldi . Wood worked with his wife for many concerts, and was her piano accompanist at her recitals. In 1906, at the Norwich music festival he presented Beethoven's Choral Symphony and Bach 's St Matthew Passion , with his wife among the singers. In December 1909, after a short illness, Olga Wood died. Cathcart took Wood away to take his mind off his loss. On his return, Wood resumed his professional routine, with

4428-405: A range of different employment arrangements. The most sought-after positions are permanent, tenured positions in the orchestra. Orchestras also hire musicians on contracts, ranging in length from a single concert to a full season or more. Contract performers may be hired for individual concerts when the orchestra is doing an exceptionally large late-Romantic era orchestral work, or to substitute for

4592-412: A renewed focus on particular star conductors and on a high standard of orchestral execution. The typical symphony orchestra consists of four groups of related musical instruments called the woodwinds , brass , percussion , and strings . Other instruments such as the piano, accordion , and celesta may sometimes be grouped into a fifth section such as a keyboard section or may stand alone, as may

4756-511: A series of promenade concerts at the Queen's Hall , offering a mixture of classical and popular music at low prices. The series was successful, and Wood conducted annual promenade series until his death in 1944. By the 1920s, Wood had steered the repertoire entirely to classical music. When the Queen's Hall was destroyed by bombing in 1941, the Proms moved to the Royal Albert Hall . Wood declined

4920-446: A singing teacher, agreed. As members of Wood's brass and woodwind sections were unwilling to buy new low-pitched instruments, Cathcart imported a set from Belgium and lent them to the players. After a season, the players recognised that the low pitch would be permanently adopted, and they bought the instruments from him. On 10 August 1895, the first of the Queen's Hall Promenade Concerts took place. Among those present who later recalled

5084-524: A statement declaring that German music would be played as planned: "The greatest examples of Music and Art are world possessions and unassailable even by the prejudices and passions of the hour." When Speyer left Britain, the music publishers Chappell's took on the responsibility for the Queen's Hall and its orchestra. The Proms continued throughout the war years, with fewer major new works than before, although there were nevertheless British premieres of pieces by Bartók , Stravinsky and Debussy. An historian of

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5248-434: A story by one of his players who recalled that Wood "had everything planned out and timed to the minute ... at 10 a.m. precisely his baton went down. You learned things so thoroughly with him, but in the most economical time." Another feature of Wood's conducting was his insistence on accurate tuning; before each rehearsal and concert he would check the instrument of each member of the woodwind and string sections against

5412-474: A struggle. In 1904, Wood and Newman tackled the deputy system, in which orchestral players, if offered a better-paid engagement, could send a substitute to a rehearsal or a concert. The treasurer of the Royal Philharmonic Society described it thus: "A, whom you want, signs to play at your concert. He sends B (whom you don't mind) to the first rehearsal. B, without your knowledge or consent, sends C to

5576-437: A term originally applied to the instrumental introduction to an opera. During the early Romantic era, composers such as Beethoven and Mendelssohn began to use the term to refer to independent, self-existing instrumental, programmatic works that presaged genres such as the symphonic poem , a form devised by Franz Liszt in several works that began as dramatic overtures. These were "at first undoubtedly intended to be played at

5740-458: A trend toward donors finding other social causes more compelling. While government funding is less central to American than European orchestras, cuts in such funding are still significant for American ensembles. Finally, the drastic drop in revenues from recording, related to changes in the recording industry itself, began a period of change that has yet to reach its conclusion. U.S. orchestras that have gone into Chapter 11 bankruptcy include

5904-461: A trombone player changing to euphonium or a bassoon player switching to contrabassoon for a certain passage), orchestras typically hire freelance musicians to augment their regular ensemble. The 20th century orchestra was far more flexible than its predecessors. In Beethoven's and Felix Mendelssohn 's time, the orchestra was composed of a fairly standard core of instruments, which was very rarely modified by composers. As time progressed, and as

6068-468: A tuning fork. He persisted in this practice until 1937, when the excellence of the BBC Symphony Orchestra persuaded him that it was no longer necessary. To improve ensemble , Wood experimented with the layout of the orchestra. His preferred layout was to have the first and second violins grouped together on his left, with the cellos to his right, a layout that has since become common. Between

6232-418: A turn for the better, his domestic life started to deteriorate. During the early 1930s, he and his wife gradually became estranged, and their relationship ended in bitterness, with Muriel taking most of Wood's money and, for much of the time, living abroad. She refused to divorce him. The breach between Muriel and Wood also caused his estrangement from their daughters. In 1934 he began a happy relationship with

6396-490: A variety of amateur orchestras: Orchestras play a wide range of repertoire ranging from 17th-century dance suites , 18th century divertimentos to 20th-century film scores and 21st-century symphonies. Orchestras have become synonymous with the symphony , an extended musical composition in Western classical music that typically contains multiple movements which provide contrasting keys and tempos. Symphonies are notated in

6560-466: A wealthy ear, nose and throat specialist, offered to sponsor it on two conditions: that Wood should conduct every concert, and that the pitch of the orchestral instruments should be lowered to the European standard diapason normal . Concert pitch in England was nearly a semitone higher than that used on the continent, and Cathcart regarded it as damaging for singers' voices. Wood, from his experience as

6724-436: A wide range of repertoire, including symphonies, opera and ballet overtures , concertos for solo instruments, and pit ensembles for operas, ballets, and some types of musical theatre (e.g., Gilbert and Sullivan operettas ). Amateur orchestras include youth orchestras made up of students from an elementary school, a high school, or a university, and community orchestras; typically they are made up of amateur musicians from

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6888-450: A widowed former pupil, Jessie Linton, who had sung for him frequently in the past under her professional name of Jessie Goldsack. One of Wood's players recalled, "She changed him. He had been badly dressed, awful clothes. Jessie got him a new evening suit, instead of the mouldy green one, and he flourished yellow gloves and a cigar ... he became human." As Wood was not free to remarry, she changed her name by deed poll to "Lady Jessie Wood" and

7052-481: A workhorse". In 1936, Wood was in charge of his final Sheffield festival. The choral works he conducted included the Verdi Requiem , Beethoven's Missa Solemnis , Berlioz ' Te Deum , Walton 's Belshazzar's Feast , and, in the presence of the composer, Rachmaninoff's The Bells . The following year, Wood began planning for a grand concert to mark his fiftieth year as a conductor. The Royal Albert Hall

7216-400: Is Western classical music or opera. However, orchestras are used sometimes in popular music (e.g., to accompany a rock or pop band in a concert), extensively in film music , and increasingly often in video game music . Orchestras are also used in the symphonic metal genre. The term "orchestra" can also be applied to a jazz ensemble, for example in the performance of big-band music. In

7380-417: Is called for in a string section, the section leader invariably plays that part. The section leader (or principal) of a string section is also responsible for determining the bowings, often based on the bowings set out by the concertmaster. In some cases, the principal of a string section may use a slightly different bowing than the concertmaster, to accommodate the requirements of playing their instrument (e.g.,

7544-423: Is certain that he became its accompanist and was greatly influenced by Garcia. Wood also accompanied the opera class, taught by Garcia's son Gustave . Wood's ambition at the time was to become a teacher of singing, and he gave singing lessons throughout his life. He attended the classes of as many singing teachers as he could, although by his own account, "I possess a terrible voice. Garcia said it would go through

7708-551: Is exclusively orchestral; part two requires the full ensemble, with choral parts set to the words of the Latin religious hymn , the Te Deum . The three movements in Part One play for about forty minutes uninterrupted, and set the stage for the choir -dominated Part Two, which is over an hour in duration and contains a huge range of styles of music, daringly welded together in an attempt to solve

7872-458: Is not of the very finest quality. I like to win by two bars, if possible; but sometimes have to be content with a bar and a half. It is good fun, and I enjoy it as much as they. Among Wood's other works was his Purcell Suite , incorporating themes from Purcell 's stage works and string sonatas, which Wood performed at an orchestral festival in Zurich in 1921, and orchestral transcriptions of works by

8036-588: The "Eroica" Symphony arrives to provide not only some harmonic flexibility but also the effect of "choral" brass in the Trio movement. Piccolo , contrabassoon , and trombones add to the triumphal finale of his Symphony No. 5 . A piccolo and a pair of trombones help deliver the effect of storm and sunshine in the Sixth , also known as the Pastoral Symphony . The Ninth asks for a second pair of horns, for reasons similar to

8200-562: The Berlin and New York Philharmonic Orchestras, but he regarded the Boston orchestra as the finest in the world. Nonetheless, as he told Boult, "it was hard to refuse, but I felt it was a patriotic duty to remain in my own country, at the present moment." After the war, the Proms continued much as before. The second halves of concerts still featured piano-accompanied songs rather than serious classical music. Chappell's, having taken over sponsorship of

8364-617: The Carl Rosa Opera Company in 1891. For that company he conducted Carmen , The Bohemian Girl , The Daughter of the Regiment , Maritana , and Il trovatore . This appointment was followed by a similar engagement with a company set up by former Carl Rosa singers. When Signor Lago, formerly impresario of the Imperial Opera Company of St. Petersburg, was looking for a second conductor to work with Luigi Arditi for

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8528-623: The London Classical Players under the direction of Sir Roger Norrington and the Academy of Ancient Music under Christopher Hogwood , among others. In the United States, the late 20th century saw a crisis of funding and support for orchestras. The size and cost of a symphony orchestra, compared to the size of the base of supporters, became an issue that struck at the core of the institution. Few orchestras could fill auditoriums, and

8692-473: The London Symphony Orchestra . Wood bore no grudge and attended their first concert, although it was 12 years before he agreed to conduct the orchestra. Wood had great sympathy for rank-and-file orchestral players and strove for improvements in their pay. He sought to raise their status and was the first British conductor to insist that the orchestra should stand to acknowledge applause along with

8856-1035: The Philadelphia Orchestra (April 2011), and the Louisville Orchestra (December 2010); orchestras that have gone into Chapter 7 bankruptcy and have ceased operations include the Northwest Chamber Orchestra in 2006, the Honolulu Orchestra in March ;2011, the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra in April 2011, and the Syracuse Symphony in June ;2011. The Festival of Orchestras in Orlando, Florida, ceased operations at

9020-515: The Slade School of Fine Art . He remained a life-long amateur painter. After taking private lessons from the musicologist Ebenezer Prout , Wood entered the Royal Academy of Music at the age of seventeen, studying harmony and composition with Prout, organ with Charles Steggall , and piano with Walter Macfarren . It is not clear whether he was a member of Manuel Garcia 's singing class, but it

9184-477: The bassline ), played an important role; the second is a typical classical period orchestra (e.g., early Beethoven along with Mozart and Haydn ), which used a smaller group of performers than a Romantic music orchestra and a fairly standardized instrumentation; the third is typical of an early/mid-Romantic era (e.g., Schubert , Berlioz , Schumann , Brahms ); the fourth is a late-Romantic/early 20th-century orchestra (e.g., Wagner , Mahler , Stravinsky ), to

9348-420: The coda . The second movement begins with a stately and solemn march, almost as for a funeral cortege, which builds to a grim and powerful conclusion. The third movement starts with an ostinato in the style of Bruckner that gives way to a recurring idea based on the opening leaping figure of the first movement, initially stated on horns. After various developments culminating in a bizarre polytonal passage with

9512-440: The concert harp and electric and electronic instruments. The orchestra, depending on the size, contains almost all of the standard instruments in each group. In the history of the orchestra, its instrumentation has been expanded over time, often agreed to have been standardized by the classical period and Ludwig van Beethoven 's influence on the classical model. In the 20th and 21st century, new repertory demands expanded

9676-464: The piano , harpsichord , pipe organ , and celesta may sometimes appear in a fifth keyboard section or may stand alone as soloist instruments, as may the concert harp and, for performances of some modern compositions, electronic instruments , and guitars . A full-size Western orchestra may sometimes be called a symphony orchestra or philharmonic orchestra (from Greek phil- , "loving", and "harmony"). The number of musicians employed in

9840-426: The "Eroica" (four horns has since become standard); Beethoven's use of piccolo, contrabassoon, trombones, and untuned percussion—plus chorus and vocal soloists—in his finale, are his earliest suggestion that the timbral boundaries of the symphony might be expanded. For several decades after his death, symphonic instrumentation was faithful to Beethoven's well-established model, with few exceptions. The invention of

10004-410: The "finale problem" which Brian had set himself. It is written for an extremely large symphony orchestra , four additional brass orchestras, four vocal soloists, four adult choirs, and children's choir. The work begins with a brilliant flourish given by the full orchestra (which in Part One number approximately one hundred players). The first movement appears to feature two extremely contrasted ideas in

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10168-464: The "great unmentionable [topics] of orchestral playing" is " faking ", the process by which an orchestral musician gives the false "... impression of playing every note as written", typically for a very challenging passage that is very high or very fast, while not actually playing the notes that are in the printed music part. An article in The Strad states that all orchestral musicians, even those in

10332-606: The 19th century is generally attributed to the forces called for by Beethoven after Haydn and Mozart. Beethoven's instrumentation almost always included paired flutes , oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns and trumpets. The exceptions are his Symphony No. 4 , Violin Concerto , and Piano Concerto No. 4 , which each specify a single flute. Beethoven carefully calculated the expansion of this particular timbral "palette" in Symphonies 3, 5, 6, and 9 for an innovative effect. The third horn in

10496-406: The 2000s, all tenured members of a professional orchestra normally audition for positions in the ensemble. Performers typically play one or more solo pieces of the auditionee's choice, such as a movement of a concerto, a solo Bach movement, and a variety of excerpts from the orchestral literature that are advertised in the audition poster (so the auditionees can prepare). The excerpts are typically

10660-438: The British public. Throughout the early part of the century, Wood was influential in changing the habits of concertgoers. Until then it had been customary for audiences at symphony or choral concerts to applaud after each movement or section. Wood discouraged this, sometime by gesture and sometimes by specific request printed in programmes. For this he was much praised in the musical and national press. In addition to his work at

10824-675: The Classical era, as composers increasingly sought out financial support from the general public, orchestra concerts were increasingly held in public concert halls , where music lovers could buy tickets to hear the orchestra. Aristocratic patronage of orchestras continued during the Classical era, but this went on alongside public concerts. In the 20th and 21st century, orchestras found a new patron: governments. Many orchestras in North America and Europe receive part of their funding from national, regional level governments (e.g., state governments in

10988-584: The Compliment (1890). Wood recalled that his first professional appearance as a conductor was at a choral concert in December 1887. Ad hoc engagements of this kind were commonplace for organists, but they brought little prestige such as was given to British conductor-composers such as Sullivan, Charles Villiers Stanford and Alexander Mackenzie , or the rising generation of German star conductors led by Hans Richter and Arthur Nikisch . His first sustained work as

11152-536: The Gothic Symphony , a documentary film about the 2010 Brisbane performance Henry Wood Sir Henry Joseph Wood CH (3 March 1869 – 19 August 1944) was an English conductor best known for his association with London's annual series of promenade concerts , known as the Proms . He conducted them for nearly half a century, introducing hundreds of new works to British audiences. After his death,

11316-612: The Guard at the Savoy Theatre in 1888. His biographer Arthur Jacobs doubts this and discounts exchanges Wood purported to have had with Sir Arthur Sullivan about the score. Jacobs describes Wood's memoirs as "vivacious in style but factually unreliable". It is certain, however, that Wood was répétiteur at Carte's Royal English Opera House for Sullivan's grand opera Ivanhoe in late 1890 and early 1891, and for André Messager 's La Basoche in 1891–92. He also worked for Carte at

11480-462: The Prom season. The BBC chose Wood for important collaborations with Bartók and Paul Hindemith , and for the first British performance of Mahler's vast Symphony No. 8 . But Jacobs notes that, in the general concert repertory, Wood now had to compete against well-known foreign conductors such as Bruno Walter , Willem Mengelberg , and Arturo Toscanini , "in comparison with whom he was increasingly seen as

11644-512: The Proms ", the lively concert marking the end of each season. It remained so under his successors, though often rearranged, notably by Sir Malcolm Sargent . A highlight of the Fantasia is the hornpipe ("Jack's the Lad"); Wood said of it: They stamp their feet in time to the hornpipe – that is until I whip up the orchestra to a fierce accelerando which leaves behind all those whose stamping technique

11808-416: The Proms and spent £35,000 keeping the Queen's Hall going during the war, wished to promote songs published by the company. The management of Chappell's were also less enthusiastic than Wood and Newman about promoting new orchestral works, most of which were not profitable. In 1921, Wood was awarded the gold medal of the Royal Philharmonic Society, the first English conductor to receive the honour. By now he

11972-573: The Proms, Ateş Orga, wrote, "Concerts often had to be re-timed to coincide with the 'All Clear' between air raids. Falling bombs, shrapnel, anti-aircraft fire and the droning of Zeppelins were ever threatening. But [Wood] kept things on the go and in the end had a very real part to play in boosting morale." Towards the end of the war, Wood received an offer by which he was seriously tempted: the Boston Symphony Orchestra invited him to become its musical director. He had been guest conductor of

12136-470: The Queen's Hall to close. The last Prom given at the Queen's Hall was on 7 September 1940. In May 1941, the hall was destroyed by bombs. It was immediately agreed that the 1941 season of Proms should be held at the Albert Hall. It was twice the size of the Queen's Hall, with poor acoustics, but a six-week series was judged a success, and the Albert Hall remained the home of the Proms. Wood, aged seventy-two,

12300-755: The Queen's Hall, Wood conducted at the Sheffield, Norwich, Birmingham, Wolverhampton , and Westmorland festivals, and at orchestral concerts in Cardiff , Manchester, Liverpool , Leicester and Hull . His programming was summarised in The Manchester Guardian , which listed the number of each composer's works played in the 1911 Proms season; the top ten were: Wagner (121); Beethoven (34); Tchaikovsky (30); Mozart (28); Dvořák (16); Weber (16); J.S. Bach (14); Brahms (14); Elgar (14); and Liszt (13). The 1912 and 1913 Prom seasons are singled out by Cox as among

12464-517: The Romantic period saw changes in accepted modification with composers such as Berlioz and Mahler; some composers used multiple harps and sound effect such as the wind machine . During the 20th century, the modern orchestra was generally standardized with the modern instrumentation listed below. Nevertheless, by the mid- to late 20th century, with the development of contemporary classical music , instrumentation could practically be hand-picked by

12628-457: The Savoy as assistant to François Cellier on The Nautch Girl in 1891. Wood remained devoted to Sullivan's music and later insisted on programming his concert works when they were out of fashion in musical circles. During this period, he had several compositions of his own performed, including an oratorio , St. Dorothea (1889), a light opera, Daisy (1890), and a one-act comic opera, Returning

12792-551: The Tchaikovsky symphony under your direction last Wednesday". Seventy-five years later, Sir Adrian Boult ranked Wood as one of the two greatest Tchaikovsky conductors in his long experience. Wood also successfully challenged the widespread belief that Englishmen were not capable of conducting Wagner. When Wood and the Queen's Hall Orchestra performed at Windsor Castle in November 1898, Queen Victoria chose Tchaikovsky and Wagner for

12956-472: The U.S.) or city governments. These government subsidies make up part of orchestra revenue, along with ticket sales, charitable donations (if the orchestra is registered as a charity) and other fundraising activities. With the invention of successive technologies, including sound recording , radio broadcasting , television broadcasting and Internet-based streaming and downloading of concert videos, orchestras have been able to find new revenue sources. One of

13120-763: The VPO now uses completely screened blind auditions . In 2013, an article in Mother Jones stated that while "[m]any prestigious orchestras have significant female membership — women outnumber men in the New York Philharmonic 's violin section — and several renowned ensembles, including the National Symphony Orchestra , the Detroit Symphony , and the Minnesota Symphony, are led by women violinists",

13284-410: The case of the first violins, an assistant concertmaster, who often plays a tutti part in addition to replacing the principal in their absence. A section string player plays in unison with the rest of the section, except in the case of divided ( divisi ) parts, where upper and lower parts in the music are often assigned to "outside" (nearer the audience) and "inside" seated players. Where a solo part

13448-517: The chief conductorships of the New York Philharmonic and Boston Symphony Orchestras, believing it his duty to serve music in the United Kingdom. In addition to the Proms, he conducted concerts and festivals throughout the country and also trained the student orchestra at the Royal Academy of Music. He had an enormous influence on the musical life of Britain over his long career: he and Newman greatly improved access to classical music, and Wood raised

13612-416: The classical era, the orchestra became more standardized with a small to medium-sized string section and a core wind section consisting of pairs of oboes, flutes, bassoons and horns, sometimes supplemented by percussion and pairs of clarinets and trumpets. The so-called "standard complement" of doubled winds and brass in the orchestra pioneered in the late 18th century and consolidated during the first half of

13776-498: The common complement of a 2010-era modern orchestra (e.g., Adams , Barber , Aaron Copland , Glass , Penderecki ). Among the instrument groups and within each group of instruments, there is a generally accepted hierarchy. Every instrumental group (or section) has a principal who is generally responsible for leading the group and playing orchestral solos. The violins are divided into two groups, first violin and second violin, with

13940-406: The composer (e.g., to add electric instruments such as electric guitar, electronic instruments such as synthesizers, ondes martenot , or trautonium , as well as other non-Western instruments, or other instruments not traditionally used in orchestras including the: bandoneon , free bass accordion , harmonica , jews harp , mandola and water percussion. With this history in mind,

14104-487: The concerts were officially renamed in his honour as the "Henry Wood Promenade Concerts", although they continued to be generally referred to as "the Proms". Born in modest circumstances to parents who encouraged his musical talent, Wood started his career as an organist. During his studies at the Royal Academy of Music , he came under the influence of the voice teacher Manuel García and became his accompanist. After similar work for Richard D'Oyly Carte 's opera companies on

14268-434: The concerts, and encouraged him and Wood to continue with their project of improving the public's taste. At the beginning of 1902, Wood accepted the conductorship of that year's Sheffield triennial festival. He continued to be associated with that festival until 1936, changing its emphasis from choral to orchestral pieces. A German critic, reviewing the festival for a Berlin publication, wrote, "Two personalities now represent

14432-413: The conductor and the panel to compare the best candidates. Performers may be asked to sight read orchestral music. The final stage of the audition process in some orchestras is a test week , in which the performer plays with the orchestra for a week or two, which allows the conductor and principal players to see if the individual can function well in an actual rehearsal and performance setting. There are

14596-662: The conductor of the theatre orchestra, as he elaborated in his influential work On Conducting . This brought about a revolution in orchestral composition and set the style for orchestral performance for the next eighty years. Wagner's theories re-examined the importance of tempo , dynamics , bowing of string instruments and the role of principals in the orchestra. At the beginning of the 20th century, symphony orchestras were larger, better funded, and better trained than previously; consequently, composers could compose larger and more ambitious works. The works of Gustav Mahler were particularly innovative; in his later symphonies, such as

14760-428: The conductor. He introduced women into the Queen's Hall Orchestra in 1913. He said, "I do not like ladies playing the trombone or double bass, but they can play the violin, and they do." By 1918 Wood had 14 women in his orchestra. Wood conducted his own compositions and arrangements from time to time. He gave his Fantasia on Welsh Melodies and Fantasia on Scottish Melodies on successive nights in 1909. He composed

14924-443: The core orchestral complement, various other instruments are called for occasionally. These include the flugelhorn and cornet . Saxophones and classical guitars, for example, appear in some 19th- through 21st-century scores. While appearing only as featured solo instruments in some works, for example Maurice Ravel 's orchestration of Modest Mussorgsky 's Pictures at an Exhibition and Sergei Rachmaninoff 's Symphonic Dances ,

15088-429: The critics. The promenade concerts flourished through the 1890s, but in 1902 Newman, who had been investing unwisely in theatrical presentations, found himself unable to bear the financial responsibility for the Queen's Hall Orchestra and was declared bankrupt. The concerts were rescued by the musical benefactor Sir Edgar Speyer , a banker of German origin. Speyer put up the necessary funds, retained Newman as manager of

15252-436: The double bass, brass, and percussion sections of major orchestras "... are still predominantly male." A 2014 BBC article stated that the "... introduction of 'blind' auditions, where a prospective instrumentalist performs behind a screen so that the judging panel can exercise no gender or racial prejudice, has seen the gender balance of traditionally male-dominated symphony orchestras gradually shift." There are also

15416-400: The double-bass section). Principals of a string section will also lead entrances for their section, typically by lifting the bow before the entrance, to ensure the section plays together. Tutti wind and brass players generally play a unique but non-solo part. Section percussionists play parts assigned to them by the principal percussionist. In modern times, the musicians are usually directed by

15580-428: The end of March 2011. One source of financial difficulties that received notice and criticism was high salaries for music directors of US orchestras, which led several high-profile conductors to take pay cuts in recent years. Music administrators such as Michael Tilson Thomas and Esa-Pekka Salonen argued that new music, new means of presenting it, and a renewed relationship with the community could revitalize

15744-460: The end of live concerts. He attempted to prevent anyone who wished to perform at the Queen's Hall from broadcasting for the BBC. This affected many of the artists whom Wood and Newman needed for the Proms. The matter was unresolved when Newman died in 1926. Shortly afterwards, Boosey announced that Chappell's would no longer support concerts at the Queen's Hall. The prospect that the Proms might not be able to continue caused widespread dismay, and there

15908-511: The end of the First World War . The Gothic element refers to the vision of the Gothic age (from about 1150 to 1500) as representing a huge (almost unlimited) expansion in humanity's artistic and intellectual development, but particularly manifest in the architecture of the great European cathedrals. The scale of the choral finale, which took several years to write, appears to be an attempt to evoke

16072-414: The end of the first decade of the new century, however, Wood's reputation in conducting British music was in no doubt; he gave the world, British or London premieres of more than a hundred British works between 1900 and 1910. Meanwhile, he introduced his audiences to many European composers. In the 1903 season, he programmed symphonies by Bruckner ( No. 7 ), Sibelius ( No. 1 ), and Mahler ( No. 1 ). In

16236-510: The exception of a season at the Opera Comique in 1896, Wood's subsequent conducting career was in the concert hall. In 1894, Wood went to the Wagner festival at Bayreuth where he met the conductor Felix Mottl , who subsequently appointed him as his assistant and chorus master for a series of Wagner concerts at the newly built Queen's Hall in London. The manager of the hall, Robert Newman ,

16400-526: The exception that, after Olga's death, he rarely performed as piano accompanist for anyone else; his skill in that art was greatly missed by the critics. In June 1911, he married his secretary, Muriel Ellen Greatrex (1882–1967), with whom he had two daughters. In the same year he accepted a knighthood , and declined the conductorship of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in succession to Mahler, as he felt it his duty to devote himself to

16564-424: The fifth movement involves only the choirs in a fearsomely chromatic un-accompanied polyphonic passage, after which the soprano soloist gently sings a wordless vocalise "like an indefinite intonation". A fanfare for eight trumpets and a lengthy orchestral passage then introduces each of the four separate brass orchestras paired with one of the four corresponding choirs. A second orchestral development then culminates in

16728-463: The finest of this part of Wood's career. Among those conducting their own works or hearing Wood conduct them were Strauss, Debussy , Reger , Scriabin , and Rachmaninoff . Schoenberg 's Five Pieces for Orchestra also received its first performance (the composer not being present); during rehearsals, Wood urged his players, "Stick to it, gentlemen! This is nothing to what you'll have to play in 25 years' time". The critic Ernest Newman wrote after

16892-510: The first and second season of promenade concerts, Wood did his last work in the opera house, conducting Stanford's new opera Shamus O'Brien at the Opera Comique. It ran from March until July 1896, leaving Wood enough time to prepare the second Queen's Hall season, which began at the end of August. The season was so successful that Newman followed it with a winter season of Saturday night promenade concerts, but despite being popular they were not

17056-434: The first season were Schubert's Great C Major , Mendelssohn 's Italian and Schumann 's Fourth . The concertos included Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto and Schumann's Piano Concerto . During the season Wood presented 23 novelties, including the London premieres of pieces by Richard Strauss , Tchaikovsky, Glazunov , Massenet and Rimsky-Korsakov . Newman and Wood soon felt able to devote every Monday night of

17220-434: The first systematic treatise on using instrumental sound as an expressive element of music. The next major expansion of symphonic practice came from Richard Wagner 's Bayreuth orchestra, founded to accompany his musical dramas. Wagner's works for the stage were scored with unprecedented scope and complexity: indeed, his score to Das Rheingold calls for six harps . Thus, Wagner envisioned an ever-more-demanding role for

17384-414: The first violin section – commonly called the concertmaster – also plays an important role in leading the musicians. In the Baroque music era (1600–1750), orchestras were often led by the concertmaster, or by a chord-playing musician performing the basso continuo parts on a harpsichord or pipe organ , a tradition that some 20th-century and 21st-century early music ensembles continue. Orchestras play

17548-510: The full range of orchestral sounds and timbres during the performance of orthodox Western classical music. The terms symphony orchestra and philharmonic orchestra may be used to distinguish different ensembles from the same locality, such as the London Symphony Orchestra and the London Philharmonic Orchestra . A symphony or philharmonic orchestra will usually have over eighty musicians on its roster, in some cases over

17712-439: The hands and arms, often made easier for the musicians to see by using a short wooden rod known as 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. The leader of

17876-543: The head of a programme". In the 1850s the concert overture began to be supplanted by the symphonic poem. Orchestras also play with instrumental soloists in concertos. During concertos, the orchestra plays an accompaniment role to the soloist (e.g., a solo violinist or pianist) and, at times, introduces musical themes or interludes while the soloist is not playing. Orchestras also play during operas, ballets, some musical theatre works and some choral works (both sacred works such as Masses and secular works). In operas and ballets,

18040-553: The instrumentation of the orchestra, resulting in a flexible use of the classical-model instruments and newly developed electric and electronic instruments in various combinations. In the mid 20th century, several attempts were made in Germany and the United States to confine the instrumentation of the symphonic orchestra exclusively to groups of one instrument. In this configuration, the symphonic orchestra consisted entirely of free-reed chromatic accordions which were modified to recreate

18204-526: The mammoth Symphony No. 8 , Mahler pushes the furthest boundaries of orchestral size, employing large forces. By the late Romantic era, orchestras could support the most enormous forms of symphonic expression, with huge string and brass sections and an expanded range of percussion instruments. With the recording era beginning, the standards of performance were pushed to a new level, because a recorded symphony could be listened to closely and even minor errors in intonation or ensemble, which might not be noticeable in

18368-485: The more expensive concerts presented by the Philharmonic Society and others. Newman aimed to do the same: "I am going to run nightly concerts and train the public by easy stages. Popular at first, gradually raising the standard until I have created a public for classical and modern music." Newman's determination to make the promenade concerts attractive to everyone led him to permit smoking during concerts, which

18532-445: The most technically challenging parts and solos from the orchestral literature. Orchestral auditions are typically held in front of a panel that includes the conductor, the concertmaster , the principal player of the section for which the auditionee is applying, and possibly other principal players. The most promising candidates from the first round of auditions are invited to return for a second or third round of auditions, which allows

18696-406: The new Promenades had begun. The rest of the programme comprised, in the words of an historian of the Proms, David Cox, "for the most part ... blatant trivialities." Within days, however, Wood was shifting the balance from light music to mainstream classical works, with Schubert 's Unfinished Symphony and further excerpts from Wagner operas. Among the other symphonies Wood conducted during

18860-521: The opening was the singer Agnes Nicholls : Just before 8 o'clock I saw Henry Wood take up his position behind the curtain at the end of the platform – watch in hand. Punctually, on the stroke of eight, he walked quickly to the rostrum, buttonhole and all, and began the National Anthem ;... A few moments for the audience to settle down, then the Rienzi Overture, and the first concert of

19024-436: The orchestra accompanies the singers and dancers, respectively, and plays overtures and interludes where the melodies played by the orchestra take centre stage. In the Baroque era, orchestras performed in a range of venues, including at the fine houses of aristocrats, in opera halls and in churches. Some wealthy aristocrats had an orchestra in residence at their estate, to entertain them and their guests with performances. During

19188-509: The orchestra can be analysed in five eras: the Baroque era , the Classical era , early/mid- Romantic music era, late-Romantic era and combined Modern/Postmodern eras . The first is a Baroque orchestra (i.e., J.S. Bach , Handel , Vivaldi ), which generally had a smaller number of performers, and in which one or more chord-playing instruments, the basso continuo group (e.g., harpsichord or pipe organ and assorted bass instruments to perform

19352-464: The orchestra gathered [on 28 February 1997] in an extraordinary meeting on the eve of their departure and agreed to admit a woman, Anna Lelkes, as harpist." As of 2013, the orchestra has six female members; one of them, violinist Albena Danailova, became one of the orchestra's concertmasters in 2008, the first woman to hold that position in that orchestra. In 2012, women made up 6% of the orchestra's membership. VPO president Clemens Hellsberg said

19516-644: The orchestra's press secretary wrote that "compensating for the expected leaves of absence" of maternity leave would be a problem. In 1997, the Vienna Philharmonic was "facing protests during a [US] tour" by the National Organization for Women and the International Alliance for Women in Music . Finally, "after being held up to increasing ridicule even in socially conservative Austria, members of

19680-473: The orchestra, moved to Bristol. The BBC withdrew not only the players, but financial support from the Proms. Wood determined that the 1940 season would nevertheless go ahead. The Royal Philharmonic Society and a private entrepreneur, Keith Douglas, agreed to back an eight-week season, and the London Symphony Orchestra was engaged. The season was curtailed after four weeks, when intense bombing forced

19844-448: The orchestral parts and marked them all with minutely detailed instructions to the players; secondly he developed a clear and expressive conducting technique. An orchestral cellist wrote that "if you watched him, you couldn't come in wrong." The violist Bernard Shore wrote, "You may be reading at sight in public, but you can't possibly go wrong with that stick in front of you". Thirty-five years after Wood's death, André Previn recounted

20008-578: The orchestral trumpets and the doubling to 2nd contrabass trombone). Woodwinds Brass Percussion Keyboards Strings Woodwinds Brass Percussion Keyboards Offstage Voices Strings The off-stage brass and timpani are organised into four "Brass Orchestras", each consisting of 2 trumpets, 2 horns, 2 tenor trombones, 2 tubas and 3 timpani (one player) The symphony consists of six movements , organised into two parts with each part containing three movements, marked as follows: Part one

20172-411: The performance: "It is not often that an English audience hisses the music it does not like, but a good third of the people at Queen's Hall last Tuesday permitted themselves that luxury after the performance of the five orchestral pieces of Schoenberg. Another third of the audience was only not hissing because it was laughing, and the remaining third seemed too puzzled either to laugh or to hiss; so that on

20336-446: The piston and rotary valve by Heinrich Stölzel and Friedrich Blühmel , both Silesians , in 1815, was the first in a series of innovations which impacted the orchestra, including the development of modern keywork for the flute by Theobald Boehm and the innovations of Adolphe Sax in the woodwinds, notably the invention of the saxophone. These advances would lead Hector Berlioz to write a landmark book on instrumentation , which were

20500-419: The pre-concert tuning and handles musical aspects of orchestra management, such as determining the bowings for the violins or the entire string section. The concertmaster usually sits to the conductor's left, closest to the audience. There is also a principal second violin, a principal viola, a principal cello, and a principal bass. The principal trombone is considered the leader of the low brass section, while

20664-536: The previously-unnumbered Sinfonia Tragica of 1948 as the new No. 6. A photographically reduced study score of the Cranz edition was published by United Music Publishers in 1976, though with little effort to correct the copious errors, and still bearing the incorrect No. 2. The orchestral forces for this symphony are commonly thought to be the largest employed in the symphonic repertoire. In practice, some small reductions can be made without discernible loss (e.g. cutting two of

20828-528: The principal trumpet is generally considered the leader of the entire brass section. While the oboe often provides the tuning note for the orchestra (due to a 300-year-old convention), there is generally no designated principal of the woodwind section (though in woodwind ensembles, the flute is often the presumptive leader). Instead, each principal confers with the others as equals in the case of musical differences of opinion. Most sections also have an assistant principal (or co-principal or associate principal), or in

20992-407: The programme. Wood, who modelled his appearance on Nikisch, took it as a compliment that the queen said to him, "Tell me, Mr Wood, are you quite English?" In 1898, Wood married one of his singing pupils, Olga Michailoff, a divorcée a few months his senior. Jacobs describes it as "a marriage of perfect professional and private harmony". As a singer, with Wood as her accompanist, she won praise from

21156-559: The same year, he accepted the conductorship of the amateur Hull Philharmonic Orchestra, travelling three times a year until 1939 to rehearse and conduct its concerts. In 1925, Wood was invited to conduct four concerts for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl . Such was their success, both artistic and financial, that Wood was invited back, and conducted again the following year. In addition to

21320-399: The same year, he introduced several of Richard Strauss's tone poems to London, and in 1905 he gave Strauss's Symphonia Domestica . This prompted the composer to write, "I cannot leave London without an expression of admiration for the splendid Orchestra which Henry Wood's master hand has created in such a short time." Creating the orchestra admired by Strauss had not been achieved without

21484-587: The saxophone is included in other works, such as Ravel's Boléro , Sergei Prokofiev 's Romeo and Juliet Suites 1 and 2 , Vaughan Williams ' Symphonies No. 6 and No. 9 , and William Walton 's Belshazzar's Feast , and many other works as a member of the orchestral ensemble. The euphonium is featured in a few late Romantic and 20th century works , usually playing parts marked "tenor tuba", including Gustav Holst 's The Planets , and Richard Strauss 's Ein Heldenleben . The Wagner tuba ,

21648-548: The scale and detail of this architecture in sound; Brian had to paste blank pages of score together to be able to write the work on gigantic sheets with 54 staves to the page. Brian also seems to have identified with the character of Faust , particularly in attempting to write such affirmative music in the post-war atmosphere when many composers had turned from pre-war giganticism, and the finale bears an apposite quote from Goethe's Faust Part Two Act V, which translates as, "The man who ever strives may earn redemption." Brian dedicated

21812-423: The season principally to Wagner and every Friday night to Beethoven, a pattern that endured for decades. The income from the concerts did not permit generous rehearsal time. Wood had nine hours to rehearse all the music for each week's six concerts. To gain the best results on so little rehearsal, Wood developed two facets of his conducting that remained his trademark throughout his career. First, he bought sets of

21976-486: The season was cut short when Lago absconded, leaving the company unpaid. Before that debacle, Wood had also conducted performances of Maritana and rehearsed Oberon and Der Freischütz . After the collapse of the Olympic opera season, Wood returned once more to his singing tuition. In 1894 he contributed to a song in the operetta The Lady Slavey and also conducted performances during its three month London run. With

22140-428: The second half were by Schubert, Quilter and Parry rather than ballads from Chappell's. For Wood, the greatest benefit was that the BBC gave him twice as much rehearsal time as he had previously enjoyed. He now had a daily rehearsal and extra rehearsals as needed. He was also allowed extra players when large scores called for them, instead of having to rescore the work for the forces available. In 1929, Wood played

22304-400: The second rehearsal. Not being able to play at the concert, C sends D, whom you would have paid five shillings to stay away." After a rehearsal in which Wood was faced with a sea of entirely unfamiliar faces in his own orchestra, Newman came on the platform to announce: "Gentlemen, in future there will be no deputies; good morning." Forty players resigned en bloc and formed their own orchestra:

22468-413: The second violins playing in lower registers than the first violins, playing an accompaniment part, or harmonizing the melody played by the first violins. The principal first violin is called the concertmaster (or orchestra "leader" in the U.K.) and is not only considered the leader of the string section, but the second-in-command of the entire orchestra, behind only the conductor. The concertmaster leads

22632-532: The standard of orchestral playing and nurtured the taste of the public, presenting a vast repertoire of music spanning four centuries. Wood was born in Oxford Street , London, on 3 March 1869, the only child of Henry Joseph Wood and his wife Martha, née Morris. Wood senior had started in his family's pawnbroking business, but by the time of his son's birth he was trading as a jeweller, optician and engineering modeller, much sought-after for his model engines. It

22796-552: The start of that year's season, he collapsed and was ordered to have a month in bed. Despite wartime vicissitudes, the 1943 season sold nearly 250,000 tickets, with an average audience of about 4,000 – many more than could have fitted into the Queen's Hall. Orchestra An orchestra ( / ˈ ɔːr k ɪ s t r ə / ; OR -ki-strə ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: Other instruments such as

22960-399: The style of sonata form , one a vigorous leaping figure in D minor , the other a suave melody first stated on solo violin in the remote key of D-flat major , though the working out of the music involves a process of ongoing development within the exposition, and avoids the expected re-capitulation by reversing the order of musical events, with the return of the first idea effectively starting

23124-626: The three London orchestras: the London Symphony, London Philharmonic and BBC Symphony Orchestras. The concert raised £9,000 for Wood's chosen charity, providing health care for musicians. In the same year, Wood published his autobiography, My Life of Music . In September 1939, the Second World War broke out and the BBC immediately put into effect its contingency plans to move much of its broadcasting away from London to places thought less susceptible to bombing. Its musical activities, including

23288-411: The time-honored season-subscription system became increasingly anachronistic, as more and more listeners would buy tickets on an ad-hoc basis for individual events. Orchestral endowments and — more centrally to the daily operation of American orchestras — orchestral donors have seen investment portfolios shrink, or produce lower yields, reducing the ability of donors to contribute; further, there has been

23452-406: The top orchestras, occasionally fake certain passages. One reason that musicians fake is because there are not enough rehearsals. Another factor is the extreme challenges in 20th century and 21st century contemporary pieces; some professionals said "faking" was "necessary in anything from ten to almost ninety per cent of some modern works". Professional players who were interviewed were of

23616-422: The trap and said the scoring was wonderful, Klenovsky had the real flare [ sic ] for true colour etc. – and performance after performance was given and asked for ." Wood kept the secret for five years before revealing the truth. The press treated the deception as a great joke; The Times entered into the spirit of it with a jocular tribute to the lamented Klenovsky. As Wood's working life took

23780-411: The use of percussion and brass in a Varèse -like outburst of extreme dissonance . The text is treated episodically with sections for full orchestra and choir frequently alternating with unaccompanied passages for the choir alone. The fourth movement moves away from tonalities centered around D and establishes E as a new tonal centre, which is strenuously challenged in the following movements. The start of

23944-626: The various European regions. The Baroque orchestra ranged from smaller orchestras (or ensembles) with one player per part, to larger-scale orchestras with many players per part. Examples of the smaller variety were Bach's orchestras, for example in Koethen, where he had access to an ensemble of up to 18 players. Examples of large-scale Baroque orchestras would include Corelli's orchestra in Rome which ranged between 35 and 80 players for day-to-day performances, being enlarged to 150 players for special occasions. In

24108-452: The whole it does not look as if Schoenberg has so far made many friends in London." However, when Wood invited Schoenberg himself to conduct the work's second British performance, on 17 January 1914, the composer was so delighted with the result, more appreciatively received than had been the premiere, that he congratulated Wood and the orchestra warmly: "I must say it was the first time since Gustav Mahler that I heard such music played again as

24272-523: The work for which he is most celebrated, Fantasia on British Sea Songs , for a concert in 1905, celebrating the centenary of the Battle of Trafalgar . It caught the public fancy immediately, with its mixture of sea-shanties, together with Handel 's "See the Conquering Hero Comes" and Arne 's "Rule, Britannia!" He played it at the Proms more than 40 times, and it became a fixture at the " Last Night of

24436-454: The work to Richard Strauss , who in a letter of acknowledgement described it as " grossartig " (magnificent). The work (more specifically the first three orchestral movements) was submitted in 1928 as an entry for the 1928 International Columbia Graphophone Competition in memory of Schubert and won second prize in the 'English Zone' of that contest; in the final international judging in Vienna it

24600-424: The works of Arthur Sullivan and others, Wood became the conductor of a small operatic touring company. He was soon engaged by the larger Carl Rosa Opera Company . One notable event in his operatic career was conducting the British premiere of Tchaikovsky 's Eugene Onegin in 1892. From the mid-1890s until his death, Wood focused on concert conducting. He was engaged by the impresario Robert Newman to conduct

24764-470: The world's top five by Gramophone in 2008). The last major orchestra to appoint a woman to a permanent position was the Berlin Philharmonic . In February 1996, the Vienna Philharmonic's principal flute, Dieter Flury , told Westdeutscher Rundfunk that accepting women would be "gambling with the emotional unity ( emotionelle Geschlossenheit ) that this organism currently has". In April 1996,

24928-419: Was Malcolm Sargent , who appeared at the Proms as a composer-conductor in 1921 and 1922. Wood encouraged him to abandon thoughts of a career as a pianist and to concentrate on conducting. Wood further showed his interest in the future of music by taking on the conductorship of the student orchestra at the Royal Academy of Music in 1923, rehearsing it twice a week, whenever possible, for the next twenty years. In

25092-408: Was a general welcome for the BBC's announcement that it would take over the running of the Proms, and would also run a winter series of symphony concerts at the Queen's Hall. The BBC regime brought immediate benefits. The use of the second half of concerts to promote Chappell's songs ceased, to be replaced by music chosen for its own excellence: on the first night under the BBC's control, the songs in

25256-481: Was a musical household: Wood senior was an amateur cellist and sang as principal tenor in the choir of St Sepulchre-without-Newgate , known as "the musicians' church". His wife played the piano and sang songs from her native Wales. They encouraged their son's interest in music, buying him a Broadwood piano, on which his mother gave him lessons. The young Wood also learned to play the violin and viola. Wood received little religious inspiration at St Sepulchre, but

25420-582: Was beginning to find his position as Britain's leading conductor under challenge from rising younger rivals. Thomas Beecham had been an increasingly influential figure since about 1910. He and Wood did not like one another, and each avoided mention of the other in his memoirs. Adrian Boult, who, at Wood's recommendation, took over some of his responsibilities at Birmingham in 1923, always admired and respected Wood. Other younger conductors included men who had been members of Wood's orchestra, including Basil Cameron and Eugene Goossens . Another protégé of Wood

25584-531: Was chosen as the venue, having a far larger capacity than the Queen's Hall. The concert was given on 5 October 1938. Rachmaninoff played the solo part in his Second Piano Concerto , and Vaughan Williams , at Wood's request, composed a short choral work for the occasion: the Serenade to Music for orchestra and 16 soloists. The other composers represented in the programme were Sullivan, Beethoven, Bach, Bax , Wagner, Handel and Elgar. The orchestra comprised players from

25748-464: Was deeply stirred by the playing of the resident organist, George Cooper , who allowed him into the organ loft and gave him his first lessons on the instrument. Cooper died when Wood was seven, and the boy took further lessons from Cooper's successor, Edwin M. Lott, for whom Wood had much less regard. At the age of ten, through the influence of one of his uncles, Wood made his first paid appearance as an organist at St Mary Aldermanbury , being paid half

25912-536: Was eventually premiered in 1961, and has been followed by a mere handful of performances, often by partly or wholly amateur forces; the 1978 performance for example was an ad hoc amateur orchestra specially assembled for the occasion, in Brian's home county of Staffordshire . The first professional performance in 1966 was enthusiastically received by the audience in the Royal Albert Hall when the composer himself, aged 90,

26076-439: Was generally assumed by the public to be Wood's wife. In his memoirs, Wood mentioned neither his second marriage nor his subsequent relationship. In his later years, Wood came to be identified with the Proms rather than with the year-round concert season. Boult was appointed director of music at the BBC in 1930. In that capacity he strove to ensure that Wood was invited to conduct a fitting number of BBC symphony concerts outside

26240-401: Was in attendance to take a bow at the work's conclusion; this performance was also broadcast live by the BBC. The alto Shirley Minty sang in the 1966 and 1980 performances, and appears to be the only person who has played a prominent role in more than one performance of the work. The Havergal Brian Society has a number of essays and further detail on the symphony. Trailer for The Curse of

26404-474: Was not formally prohibited at the Proms until 1971. Refreshments were available in all parts of the hall throughout the concerts, not only during intervals. Prices were considerably lower than those customarily charged for classical concerts: the promenade (the standing area) was one shilling, the balcony two shillings, and the grand circle (reserved seats) three and five shillings. Newman needed to find financial backing for his first season. Dr George Cathcart,

26568-559: Was one of a number of works – others were by Czesław Marek , Franz Schmidt and Charles Haubiel – that lost out to the Sixth Symphony of Kurt Atterberg . It was however published in 1932 by the Leipzig-based Cranz & Co. (in an edition beset with printing errors) as "Symphony No. 2" — the number it bore until Brian renumbered his early symphonies in 1967, eliminating the long-defunct A Fantastic Symphony of 1907 and inserting

26732-424: Was persuaded to have an associate conductor to relieve him of some of the burden. Basil Cameron undertook the task and remained a Prom conductor until his retirement, aged eighty, in 1964. The BBC brought its symphony orchestra back to London and resumed its backing of the Proms in 1942; Boult joined Cameron as Wood's associate conductor during that season. In early 1943, Wood's health deteriorated, and two days after

26896-464: Was proposing to run a ten-week season of promenade concerts and, impressed by Wood, invited him to conduct. There had been such concerts in London since 1838, under conductors from Louis Antoine Jullien to Arthur Sullivan. Sullivan's concerts in the 1870s had been particularly successful, because he offered his audiences something more than the usual light music. He introduced major classical works, such as Beethoven symphonies, normally restricted to

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