Instruments of the orchestra.

A program for elementary and junior high school pupils presented by the Wisconsin School of the Year.

Your teacher is Professor Richard C. Church, and Dr. of the University of Wisconsin Symphony Orchestra.

[Bell] Hello boys and girls.

Now I want you to take a very careful look and tell me what the name of this instrument is.

The oval.

Let's see if we can find it over here on our big picture of the orchestra conductor's score.

Well here it is right underneath the flute and just above the clarinet.

Your number last time when we talked about the clarinet I showed you the mouthpiece and the read, and I showed you how the read was fastened onto the mouthpiece with this ligature.

Well now there's another instrument that does not appear on our orchestra conductor's score that uses a single read and a mouthpiece very much like the clarinet.

Now what do you think that might be?

Well it's the saxophone.

Saxophones are very popular in dance orchestras and in bands but they're seldom used in the symphony orchestra.

Now why do you think that might be?

Well it's because most of the composers who write for the symphony orchestra don't feel the need of the particular sounds that saxophones make.

Also some of the composers who wrote symphonies, some of the great composers of the past, wrote before the saxophone was even invented.

So when we play their music of course we don't need to use the saxophone.

Well now the saxophone has a lot of things in common with the clarinet.

Here remember when we talked about the clarinet I showed you how there are holes up along here that are closed with the fingers and that there are keys which close holes by means of pads.

Well now the saxophone has holes along it too but these holes are so big that nobody would be able to cover those just with the fingers so all of these holes have keys and pads to help cover the holes.

You notice that the saxophone is curved up here too at this end and it's curved up at this end.

Well now why do you suppose the saxophone and the clarinet sound different?

Actually the mouthpiece and the read of the saxophone which you can see here and the read in the mouthpiece of the clarinet are very much the same.

Well I'll tell you why they sound different.

The saxophone is conical and the clarinet is cylindrical.

Well now I think I better explain what those two words mean don't you?

Solendrical means like a cylinder.

An example of a cylinder that everyone is familiar with is a ten can.

It's the same size at this end that it is down at this end.

Now the clarinet is really cylindrical.

If I take off this bell which doesn't make any particular difference as to the tone and if I take off the mouthpiece that you blow into you'll see that the clarinet is cylindrical about the same size at this end then it is down at this end.

So clarinet are cylindrical.

The saxophone is conical.

Now conical means like a cone.

Any of you think of a good example of a cone?

Well I can.

This ice cream cone.

I wish there was something in it right now.

As you can see the cone is small down at this end but then it's big off at this end.

Now saxophones are like that too.

They're big down at this end and then they're small off at this end.

And this accounts for the main difference in tone quality between the clarinet and the saxophone.

It's interesting to know that the clarinets are usually made of wood while saxophones are always made of metal.

Now you blow a saxophone just about the same way that you blow a clarinet.

Only you put the mouthpiece and read just a little bit farther into your mouth and you don't hold your lips quite so tight like this.

We have a very fine saxophone player here today and it's really a special guest who is going to play for us.

His name is Joseph Aaron and he's going to play the Povon by Revelle.

[Music] Thank you very much.

Mr. Aaron teaches at the Solomon Juno High School in Milwaukee and he's a member of the faculty at the University of Wisconsin Summer Music Clinic.

This clinic is held every summer on the Madison campus for students from grades 7 through grades 12.

Our piano accompanist for today is Arthur Becknell who's a member of the faculty of the University of Wisconsin and also teaches at the Summer Clinic.

Now the saxophone that Mr. Aaron played on was an alto saxophone.

There are other sizes too.

Would you like to see some of them?

Well this one is a soprano saxophone.

Isn't that sort of cute?

Some sopranos are straight and look like a clarinet.

But this one is a curved model and this saxophone here is the tenor which is bigger than the alto.

And here we have a baritone saxophone which is still bigger.

And then over here we have a really big saxophone.

What do you think of that?

Did you ever see one like that before?

This is the bass saxophone.

And of course because it's the biggest it can play lower tones than any of the other saxophones that we have here today.

Now all of these saxophones blow and finger very much the same way.

So if you learn to play one of them, why you can readily change over to one of the others without too much trouble.

Well now I'd like to come back to the instrument that we were looking at at the very beginning of the program, the oval.

When we were talking about the clarinet you saw that mouthpiece and that single read.

Well now the oval doesn't have any mouthpiece.

It has just this double read.

Two little pieces of cane are shaped together so that there's a little opening in between them and they're fastened to a tube and a cork where the read slides into the oval like that.

I think you could see how it works a little better if I showed you this drawing of the end view of a clarinet read and an oval read.

Now the artist has taken the tip of the read for his picture like this.

And here you see the single read of a clarinet and here you see two pieces of cane that are curved and shaped ready to be put together.

And here they are fastened together with this opening between them right here.

And this is where the vibration takes place when the player blows so that you hear the musical sound.

Like that.

Would you like to learn how to blow on an oval?

Well first of all you have to be sure that the read is well moistened.

And you'll sometimes see players sort of shaping it with their fingers like this to make sure that that little opening is there and that the reads are properly curved.

Then you cover your lower teeth a little bit with your lower lip and you cover your upper teeth a little bit with your upper lip and you hold in the sides of your mouth enough so the air doesn't spill out along the sides and you blow.

Well now when I blow just on the read it makes sort of a squawk doesn't it?

You'd hardly call that a very musical sound but if we put the read into the oval and blow on it well then I should be able to make more of a musical sound.

The oval fingers very much like the clarinet here you see holes and keys with pads on them to help cover the holes.

You know when you look at an instrument like this it may look very complicated but actually the more keys you have the simpler it is to play.

A long time ago before there were pads and keys on the woodwind instruments it was very difficult for a player to play all the notes from the bottom up to the top.

Well we have another special guest here today who is a very very fine oval player that I want you to hear.

It's Professor Harry Peters and he's going to play part of an oboe solo by the composer J.C. Bach.

[Music] Thank you very much.

Professor Peters also teaches at the Summer Music Clinic at the University of Wisconsin and he's professor of music at the State University of New York at Fridonia.

Well now in symphonies the obos are given some of the most beautiful melodies to play of any instrument.

There's another bigger oboe tube that I'd like to show you now that has a special name.

It's called the English Horn.

The English Horn is used by composers whenever they want the special sounds which it makes.

As you can see it's curved up here where this tube goes from the double read into the English Horn and I'd like to have you look at the very special shape down here at this end.

Would you like to hear what the English Horn sounds like?

Well I'll see if I can play a few notes for you.

[Music] Well now what have we heard and seen today?

We've talked about the English Horn which is the big brother of the oboe and we've talked about the oboe which was the second instrument in the woodwind family on our orchestra conductor score.

And we've learned that there were several different kinds of saxophones.

Well now next time we're going to talk about the bassoon and I'm going to show you a great big bassoon called a Contribussoon that has the lowest voice of any instrument in the symphony orchestra.

I'll see you then.

Goodbye!

[Music] This has been instruments of the orchestra, a program for elementary and junior high school pupils.

Your teacher is professor Richard C. Church, conductor of the University of Wisconsin Symphony Orchestra.

This has been a Wisconsin School of the Air presentation.

[Music]