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Roster | Click here to read about the history of the Black Hills Symphony Orchestra. The Mission of the Black Hills Symphony Orchestra shall be: To provide the finest in orchestral performance and symphonic music education for the people of the Black Hills region.  By Jack Knowles, Conductor Emeritus When you look at an orchestra on stage before a concert, you may see a group that varies in size from 40 to over 100 players. What mainly determines this number lies in the history of the development, over the past 300 years, of the musical instruments that make up the symphony orchestra today. The string section [the violin, viola, cello, and double bass] was established as the core of the orchestra about 1650. The violin family had evolved from various viols during the 1500s into the masterpieces produced by Antonio Stradivarious and his followers about 1700. During the 1700s, the woodwind section developed within the orchestra beginning with the flute. The oboes and bassoons were added during the time of Bach and Handel, and the clarinet about 1780 with Haydn and Mozart. Trumpets, originally the prerogative of rank or royalty, were brought into the orchestra along with the timpani. The French horn literally came out of the forest to join the orchestra. The hunting horn, used by the French Kings, circled the body three times and rested on the shoulder. When the horn came "indoors", it was coiled up into a shape that was easy to hold while seated. The orchestra available to Beethoven and his contemporaries in 1805 was the string section, the woodwind section (as of Mozart), valve-less French horns and trumpets, the slide trombone, timpani, snare drum, bass drum and cymbals. The invention of the piston valve in 1815 made it possible for the horns and trumpets to play all of the notes within their ranges, and also paved the way for the invention of the bass tuba. After Beethoven, the orchestra continued to grow in size until the beginning of the 20th century when it reached 100 or more with the works of Mahler and others. In 1905 the orchestra looked pretty much as it does today with the string, woodwind, and brass sections. However, today's orchestral percussion players must be prepared to utilize many new instruments, including electronic keyboards, mallet percussion, various ethnic instruments, as well as objects designed to produce various sound effects. Also, the piano is now sometimes used as part of the percussion section. The harp is as old as history, but did not really gain a place in the orchestra until the mechanical development of foot pedals in the mid-19th century. The harpsichord was used by the early composers to fill in sections of the orchestra. It was also used as a means of keeping the players together, but soon disappeared when conductors came upon the scene. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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