As regards the mastery of technical details, the opera orchestra was decidedly important, since accompaniments and detached movements inserted in the dramatic action gave room for great variety of effect and expression. The finer opera-writers realized this, but there were evident dangers and drawbacks also. In the opera as then conceived the instrumental forces were quite subsidiary to the vocal. It was easy to fall into merely conventional ways of supplying instrumental backgrounds and accessories, embodying nothing original or forceful. Furthermore, for the opera the orchestral instruments were necessarily much used in large masses, with many players to a part, a condition somewhat hostile to delicacy of treatment. Operatic music, then, told less for the minute internal improvement of instrumentation than for its massive popularity.
In the small or chamber group, on the other hand, there was as a rule but one player to a part, the total effect required that each player and each instrument should be above the average, and individuality of detail was far more indispensable. Hence chamber music, though not influential upon the broad outlines of scoring, constantly stimulated attention to its fine inner texture.
The make-up of the operatic orchestra now became practically what it is
to-day, with the important exception of the clarinets and their relatives
(see sec. 147). But the quality of some of the instruments was somewhat
different, especially that of the oboes and of the brass, the former being
more masculine and the latter more dominated by the true trumpet tone.
The balance of qualities was generally very different, since throughout the
early 18th century, and to some extent afterward, the wood-wind was very
strong in proportion to the strings. In particular, oboes and bassoons
were multiplied, somewhat as clarinets are now in a military band. The
full or tutti effects were therefore very different in timbre from those now
heard. But skillful writers, like Handel, made much of contrasts in successive
movements between groups of instruments, variously selected.
Furthermore, many passages were written for only the slender resources
of the string-quartet or of the chamber band, each part without ripieni and
often one of them in the rôle of a solo. Bach was fond of working out
varied patterns of this kind with ingenuity and nervous vigor. It is also
to be remembered that the harpsichord or the organ was still essential to
the orchestra, filling in many passages alone and coöperating in the tuttis.
The conductor almost invariably led from this central instrument.
For chamber music many slightly different schemes were used, selected usually from violins, 'cellos, flutes, oboes, bassoons, horns and trumpets, generally not more than two of any one sort. The frequent absence of the viola or tenor violin is somewhat notable.
