String Section - Numbers

Numbers

The size of a string section may be expressed with a formula of the type (for example) 10-10-8-10-6, designating the number of first violins, second violins, violas, cellos, and basses. The numbers can vary widely; thus in a large orchestra they might be 14-14-12-12-10; the band orchestra in Darius Milhaud's La création du monde is 1-1-0-1-1. Mozart's masses and offertories written for the Salzburg cathedral routinely dispensed with violas, as did his dances. Leonard Bernstein also left out the violas in his West Side Story. Famous works without violins include the Second Serenade of Brahms and Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms, as well as Andrew Lloyd Webber's Requiem and Philip Glass's opera Akhnaten.

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Famous quotes containing the word numbers:

    The principle of majority rule is the mildest form in which the force of numbers can be exercised. It is a pacific substitute for civil war in which the opposing armies are counted and the victory is awarded to the larger before any blood is shed. Except in the sacred tests of democracy and in the incantations of the orators, we hardly take the trouble to pretend that the rule of the majority is not at bottom a rule of force.
    Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)

    He bundles every forkful in its place,
    And tags and numbers it for future reference,
    So he can find and easily dislodge it
    In the unloading. Silas does that well.
    He takes it out in bunches like birds’ nests.
    Robert Frost (1874–1963)

    Out of the darkness where Philomela sat,
    Her fairy numbers issued. What then ailed me?
    My ears are called capacious but they failed me,
    Her classics registered a little flat!
    I rose, and venomously spat.
    John Crowe Ransom (1888–1974)