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The American Classical Orchestra attempts to recreate the sounds an audience might have heard during the 17th to 19th centuries. Historical instruments, with their softer and more transparent, but sometimes edgier tone, contribute a delicacy to gentler compositions and a pungent bite to stronger works, which is not possible with modern instruments. Instruments used by our ensemble are historic, or are copies of those that were unaltered and “original.”
In the 21st century, we have the privilege of bringing old masterpieces to life. Period instrument performance is extremely important because the recreation of the work happens just as the composer intended it to be heard. For example, within Bach’s musical genius, we can now see that he specifically designed his compositions for the nuances of Baroque instruments. Without those nuances, the music is not complete.
From the Renaissance through the early 20th-century, composers’ works were created in a time much different from ours, and that music is inextricable from its proper medium. The “imperfections” of the wooden flute, for example, become attributes when heard in an 18th-century context of other woodwinds and classical writing style.
Strings Baroque and classical string instruments had different physical characteristics from their modern counterparts. The fingerboards were laid flatter to the neck, the bridge smaller, and the strings made of natural gut. The tone of a gut string has an “envelope” which allows the other parts of a multi-voice composition to be heard. This is why music played on period instruments sounds so clear when compared to modern instruments. The disadvantages of these string instruments is that they do not project as loudly in today’s large and “loud” concert halls. Therefore, our period instruments need frequent and careful tuning. Use of all metal strings after World War I required that instruments be altered to accommodate the increased tension and one-time-tuning per concert standard. Virtually every Stradivarius in the world was altered significantly on the assumption that the meticulous craftsmanship was somehow lacking for modern needs and ears. Closer inspection of the repertoire of the time has revealed that re-tooling great string instruments has damaged not only the objects themselves, but also affected our appreciation of the music for which they were made.
David Miller, ACO Principal Violinist, playing his 1687 Mattheus Albani instrument.
Brass The horns and trumpets occupy a unique place in orchestral history in that they were added to the ensemble relatively late. They were originally used as hunting and ceremonial instruments. Because they did not have valves, the brass instruments had a limited range and flexibility. The tubing was of a smaller scale and the mouthpiece and armature required considerable skill. The role these instruments played took on a percussive function because of the nature of attack and quick decay of sound, which is very different from the sustained resonance of today’s brass instruments.
Timpani The heads of these drums were made of animal skin until the mid-20th century. The modern timpani use plastic heads and have a much brighter and faster sound, which fades slowly. Conversely, early timpani provide the full musical effect of drums in the orchestra without covering the other instruments immediately after the stroke of the mallet.
Carl Albach & John Theissen, natural trumpet
Woodwind
The woodwind family of the classical orchestra is a ‘choir’, a ‘harmony’ of like instruments designed to work and blend together. The flutes are made of wood, not metal. The oboe bore and design emphasize a certain register, such that it is featured differently in Classical period works by Beethoven or Mozart than it is heard in baroque or later works. The clarinet is warm and ‘smaller’ than a modern clarinet. The bassoons have a conical bore and larger double reed that produces a sound capable of solo passages yet blended perfectly with the cellos and basses.
All of the woodwinds have far fewer keys than modern instruments, and thus the notes of the scale must be produced by cross or forked fingerings. Certain notes are therefore covered and others are more open sounding. These colorations are what give these period instruments their beauty and individuality, as was well known and skillfully employed by the great composers. Modern instruments are incapable of such colorations and feature homogeneity of sound across the instrument.
