Salon orchestra

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Jenö Fescay Salon Orchestra, “Tales from the Vienna Woods” (Johann Strauss), approx. 1927

A salon orchestra (also Salon Chapel ) is a smaller instrumental ensemble , which especially for the performance of popular music comes from the period between 1880 and 1950 are used. There was a need for this type of orchestra in the bourgeois salon and ballroom of the 19th century. Music that was heard on the side also had to be played live. The repertoire of these orchestras is called salon music .

Salon orchestras still give concerts today mostly as part of celebrations, tea dances and smaller theater events such as revues . There are also spa orchestras in this line-up that play at the spa concert .

repertoire

Today, well-known and popular works from operas and operettas , character pieces , film melodies and popular hits , mostly from the 1920s to 1950s, form the basis of the repertoire. Especially at that time there were also original compositions. Original works were often arranged for a particular salon orchestra - for example, Arnold Schönberg , Alban Berg and Anton von Webern arranged waltzes by Johann Strauss Sohn for salon ensembles. There were also numerous music publishers who offered standardized editions for variable line-ups.

occupation

The line- up of a salon orchestra is variable, both in the number of musicians (around 5 to 15) and in the type of instruments. The core of most ensembles is the piano and a string section. Woodwind instruments , brass instruments , guitar , drums and earlier also harmonium often complete the line-up. These combinations are sometimes called “Parisian” (with cornet ), “Viennese” (with flute), “Berliner” (with clarinet and trombone ), but this is not handled uniformly.

Larger salon orchestras can have up to three saxophones . The largest line-ups tend towards either the symphony orchestra or the big band . The smallest salon orchestra is a piano trio . There is seldom a conductor who does not play along. The first violin usually leads and has a director's voice in which the insertions of other instruments are recorded. The piano often also has a managerial voice. A special feature of the salon orchestra is the violin obligatory instead of a second violin.

It was often assumed that a musician would play several instruments in the salon orchestra. Between the world wars, for example, the combination of violin and saxophone or cello and trombone (in the tradition of military bands) was common, which is rarely found today. Some musicians still master the combination of flute and reed instrument . Today there is mainly a combination of melody instrument or singing with piano or keyboard , and the usual variant instruments such as clarinet instead of saxophone or viola instead of violin are sometimes required.

Kurt Weill, for example, used an alien sounding salon orchestra for the musical accompaniment of the Threepenny Opera .

See also

literature

Web links

Wiktionary: Orchestra  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations