The printed form of an orchestral composition, or one for voices and orchestra, is called a score. (German, Partitur.) In it are comprised the parts to be played by all the instruments. It is read across the page precisely as a piece of piano music is, with the important difference that while in a piano piece there are only two staves—one for the treble and one for the bass—in an orchestral score there are from sixteen to twenty-four, according to the number of the parts. The name of the instrument is printed at the beginning of its part and also the key in which it stands, if it is a transposing instrument. The customary order of the instruments from top to bottom of the page is as follows: Flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns, trumpets, trombones, tuba, tympani, and other instruments of percussion, harps, violins, violas, ’cellos, and double-basses. This order is sometimes changed for the sake of convenience. If there are voices, as in an opera or oratorio, they will be found in the older scores between the viola and ’cello parts. The more modern custom is to put them above the first violins, so that the parts of the string choir are not separated. In a concerto the solo instrument is similarly placed. The names of the instruments of the score are usually given in Italian, but sometimes in German. The following list gives the names of the instruments in English, Italian, German, and French, with the plurals where needed:

In German scores the Italian names are often used. Sometimes each instrument has a separate staff, but more frequently a pair of instruments, as two flutes, or two oboes, is written on one staff. In such cases the tails of the notes for the upper instrument are turned up and of those for the lower down. If there are two sets of tails, one up and one down, to one set of notes, it indicates that two instruments are to play the same passage. In the case of four horns, two staves are used, the upper for the first and second and the lower for the third and fourth. In old scores the reader will find many different orders of placing the instruments on the page. That which I have given is the present method.

The reader will find many directions and abbreviations in scores not used in piano music. The meaning of any of these can be ascertained by consulting a dictionary of music. One or two may be explained here. The word “divisi” written over a part in double notes (or more) means that one instrument is to play the upper line and another the lower. First violins are thus sometimes subdivided, and so are other stringed instruments. The words “A due” are used as a direction for all to play together again. The letters A, B, C, etc., often seen at the tops and bottoms of pages, are for the convenience of conductors in rehearsing.

“If you please, gentlemen, let us go back to four bars before the letter G,” or something of that kind, is a familiar remark at orchestra rehearsals.

The reader will find that in many scores space is saved by omitting from some pages the staves of those instruments which have nothing on those pages. Usually when this is done the names of the instruments which are playing are indicated by abbreviations placed just above the staves, as “Fl., Cl., Fg.,” etc. The full names of the instruments employed in any movement are given only at the beginning, and the reader of scores should note how many staves are employed. Sometimes the flutes are written on two staves, sometimes on one. The same is true of the other wind-instruments. Usually the wood-choir staves are bound together by a continuous double bar at the beginning of each page, and sometimes the horns have one double bar. The score-reader will soon become familiar with the various arrangements. One who loves orchestral music and wishes to understand how its effects are produced should study scores. Study your score first at home and try to imagine how it ought to sound. Then follow the performance with it and note what combinations of instruments produce particular effects. After a time you will find that your understanding of the orchestra has greatly increased, and you will get new enjoyment from the performance of symphonies and overtures.

The conventional seating-plan of the orchestra will help the reader to familiarize himself with the instruments. In concerts the stringed instruments are always placed at the front of the stage, with the wind-instruments behind them, in order that the tone of the strings may come out fully and without obstruction. The first violins are always on the left of the audience, and second violins on the right. Violas are usually placed immediately behind the second violins, though some conductors put them behind the first. The ’cellos are arranged usually on the side opposite the violas, and double-basses are placed at the sides or the back, according to the conductor’s idea. The wood occupies the middle of the stage, and the brass and instruments of percussion are at the rear. The diagram on the next page shows the seating plan of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Seating Plan of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Amateurs will find that they must extend their musical knowledge a little, if they desire to read orchestra scores. Persons who have studied only piano playing are nonplussed when they find themselves in the presence of transposing instruments and other clefs than those known as the treble and the bass. I have already briefly explained the peculiarity of what are called transposing instruments, but it will be well to give the reader some further help in dealing with them in reading scores. A question which I have frequently heard is, “Why don’t they make all instruments in C?” The answer to this question is that there could only be one reason for doing so, namely, to make it easy for amateurs to read scores. There are many more substantial reasons for making instruments in various keys. For instance, brass instruments produce most easily and with the finest tone and richest sonority their natural notes—those notes which are produced without any aid from valves or pistons as the notes of a cavalry bugle. If a composer in writing a brilliant march in B natural, a bright and incisive key for the strings, wishes to introduce trumpets, he can make most effective use of those in B natural. But it is not possible always to have clarinets, trumpets, and horns in every key ready for instant use, so custom and experience have induced musicians to make a judicious selection. Clarinets in A and B flat are now used far more than those in C. As Gevaert says: “The choice among the three clarinets is not always made from the simple consideration of facility; often it is guided by the character of the tone peculiar to each. The clarinet in C has a timbre brilliant almost to rudeness.” He further notes that it is therefore used by the classic composers mostly in brilliant movements in the simple diatonic scales. The clarinet in B flat or that in A may be chosen for reasons of a like nature. The reader, however, will probably be more interested in knowing how he is to read clarinet parts. If they are in C, he will have no trouble, because there will be no transposition. A clarinet in B flat playing music written in C, sounds one tone lower than that scale. Hence the key of C is used for a clarinet in B flat only when the violins are playing in B flat.

In other words, every sound which issues from a B flat clarinet is one whole tone lower than that written in the score. If you write C, the instrument sounds B flat. If you wish the instrument to sound C, you must write D. If you wish it to sound F sharp, you must write G sharp. If you wish it to sound E natural, you must write F sharp or G flat.

The composer has the choice of two methods of writing his clarinet part. He may write always without any key signature and mark all flats and sharps as accidentals, or he may use a key signature. Custom has sanctioned the latter method, which is the more rational. I have just said that every tone which issues from a B flat clarinet is a whole interval below the written character. Therefore, all music for a B flat clarinet must be written one interval higher than it is intended to sound, and this, the reader will see, simply results in transposing a B flat clarinet part into a key one tone higher than that of the composition. For a composition in C write for B flat clarinets in the key of D. For one in D write for B flat clarinets in E. For one in E flat write for B flat clarinets in F. There is another simple way of looking at this matter. Clarinets in B flat have already two flats in their open scale. If you want them to play in C, you must contradict these two flats by two sharps, and two sharps are the signature of the key of D. Hence, write in D for B flat clarinets to play in C. In reading a score all that the amateur needs to do is to remember that every note written for the B flat clarinet sounds one tone lower than written. Thus the chord of C for two flutes, two oboes, and two clarinets might be written as at A so as to sound as at B.

In the case of clarinets in A the same principles apply. The clarinet in A sounds A when C is written, and it sounds the entire scale of A when the scale of C is written. As C is one tone and a half above A, it follows that notes for the A clarinet are always written a tone and a half higher than the sounds to be produced, and the score-reader must conceive the A clarinet parts as sounding that much lower than they are written. Thus, to get C out of an A clarinet, you must write E flat, and to make an A clarinet play in unison with flutes in the key of C, you must write in E flat for the clarinet. The chord just written would have to be rewritten thus:

One of the peculiarities of orchestra scores is that music for horns and trumpets is always written without any key signature—that is, just as if it were in C major—and all the sharps and flats are put in as accidentals. This makes difficult reading at times for an amateur. In order to aid the music-lover I give herewith the written notes and the corresponding real sounds of the horn in F, which is the most frequently used. The same table will answer for the trumpet in F.

The rules of transposition given above apply to all music for transposing instruments. A tuba in E flat, for instance, is one which sounds E flat when the composer writes C. Persons accustomed to sight-reading with a “movable Do” have very little trouble in the study of orchestra scores, and I earnestly advise all who wish to read scores to study sight-reading.

Next comes the matter of clefs. As I have stated, it is customary to write the viola part on the alto clef. When a bassoon or a ’cello runs up so high that it is inconvenient to employ the bass clef, the tenor clef is used, and if it goes still higher, the treble clef may be introduced. These various clefs are troublesome to the amateur because he is familiar only with the treble and bass clefs. The treble clef is known also as the G clef; because the character

is placed upon the second line to indicate that the treble G is there located. A clef sign simply fixes the place of some note, and the others are located accordingly. The bass clef is also called the F clef, because the character

is placed so as to indicate that F is on the fourth line. Now in the alto and tenor clefs the character

is used, and its purpose is to locate the note C. In the alto clef it is on the third line, where B is in the treble clef. In the tenor clef it is on the fourth line, where D is in the treble clef. The question which will arise in the amateur’s mind is this: Which C is it that is thus located? The answer is simple and easily remembered. It is best expressed by the following illustration:

Here are two scales, one alto and one tenor, with the real sounds.

It will be seen from these illustrations that the C located by the clef sign in the alto on the third line and the tenor clef on the fourth line is the one situated on the first leger line below the staff in the treble clef. Having this fact in mind, the lover of orchestral music can learn, with a little practice, to read viola parts and ’cello or bassoon passages which run up into the tenor clef. The following illustration shows a ’cello passage with the middle measure written on the tenor clef, and also the same passage written wholly on the bass clef:

In some scores the music-lover will find the three trombone parts written on three clefs, alto, tenor, and bass, while in others they are written on the bass clef only. I have already noted that bass clarinet parts are written sometimes on the treble and sometimes on the bass clef. The former is always used by French composers, and the latter nearly always by Germans.