Many volumes have been written concerning the varying excellence of instruments of the string family, but it does not seem to have been recognized that both woodwind and brass instruments vary greatly in quality of tone, accuracy of intonation, ease of blowing, and perfection of mechanism—all of which depend upon the skill of the makers. Moreover, each individual instrument, be it flute, oboe, bassoon, horn, trombone, or what not, has its own faults and its merits.
Of the wind instruments it has often been said that the slide trombone excels all others in accuracy of intonation, and in this respect is unique in being the equal of the stringed instruments. This statement must not be taken too literally. An artist possessing a fine instrument—be it woodwind or brass with valves—can play perfectly in tune by delicate regulation of lip tension and manner of blowing. Thus all good instruments are susceptible of being played in tune if the player is skilled and his ear is perfect.
In giving the range of the different instruments, it has not been possible to indicate a precise upper limit. The trend of modern orchestration is to extend the upward range of all instruments. This is no doubt due to constantly increasing efficiency on the part of orchestral players. Nevertheless, the skillful orchestrator refrains from imposing needless difficulties on his performers. Simple, idiomatic scoring is likely to yield more beautiful results because the player is free to concern himself with shading and phrasing and is not distracted by uncomfortably high notes or inconveniently devised passages.
It is worthy of note that no absolute novelties in orchestral instruments have been invented for several hundred years. Combinations of previously existing types have been devised, such as the Saxophone. There have also been many improvements in mechanism, such as the Boehm flute; valves have been added to horns and trumpets—greatly to their advantage, but despite the inventive genius which has been directed toward the subject of orchestral instruments, no essentially new form of tone-producing device has been evolved. Perhaps the reason for this is not far to seek. The instruments of the orchestra of even Mozart's day afford such a variety of colors that may be exploited separately or in infinite combination, that, under the hands of a master of orchestration, the wealth is so great as to leave practically nothing to be desired.
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