Chamber Orchestra

Attended the Chamber Orchestra by BSM on Saturday after my class. It featured Reinmar Seidler, a Cellist along with the BSM Chamber Orchestra. There was also a Junior Orchestra of the School which started the program. There were also some unaccompanied pieces by the Cellist. I cannot appreciate much as I'm still a novice in Classical Music. But I enjoyed the evening, even though I was sitting alone.

However, there were a few unwanted moments, when the power system had some problems and one piece had to to be stopped in between and was started again. The lights got switched off for a few seconds and thud noises from the speaker when the power went off and on. I didn't expect these things, but anyway the music was good and I hope the Chamber Orchestra wont get such embarrassing moments again.

I've learnt some new terms used in Classical Music - The Orchestras, The Conductor, The Concert Master etc. There was a program sheet once I entered the Auditorium. It had a list of all the music that they were to play. The Conductor was informing the audience about the music briefly before the music starts. Also the Cellist told a bit about his instrument, how different it is from the normal Cellos etc. People are clapping only once the complete piece ends :) Unlike the usual Rock Concerts where the audience never stops shouting!

Coming back to the Orchestra Terms - a duet is performed by 2, trio represented by 3 quartet by 4 ....Normally more than 4 would be known as an ensemble. Chamber Orchestra is an ensemble with about 30 or so musicians. A Philharmonic is bigger and a Symphony Orchestra is even bigger consisting more than 100 or so.

A Conductor is the one who gives directions, cues, tempo etc to the players. The baton in his hand will be used to give the beat too - like 3/4, 4/4 etc. There are different baton directions that he follows to denote the beat. The following Wiki link gives the different notations. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conducting

The Concert Master is like a leader in the 1st Violin section in the orchestra. This Chamber Orchestra had 2 Violin Sections and the Concert Master is seated first. Any solo Violin piece is played by him.

So these are some of the Orchestra related terminology that I came to know from my teacher and the internet. Will be posting more as I come across any. Also came to know that not many Orchestral pieces are written with Guitar as the main solo instrument. Sad to know that but anyway Guitar had mostly been a solo instrument. There might be a Guitar Concert in this month (by my teacher). I'm looking forward to that.