Ensembles List -- Instrument List Flashcards
A large ensemble
Definition: A large ensemble made up of wind, string, percussion, and brass instruments arranged to perform classical music
Instruments: Violin, viola, bass, oboe, trumpet and percussion instruments
Symphony Orchestra
A large ensemble
Definition: A large assembly of brass, woodwind and percussion players who perform in a concert hall; plays more recent music than an orchestra; It has about 40 - 80 musicians, and the woodwind section is thought to be the primary component of its ensembles.
Parts: Woodwinds - Piccolo, flute, oboe, English horn, bassoon, clarinet, saxophone, Brasswinds - trumpet, cornet, Flugelhorn, French horn, trombone, euphonium, tuba, Percussion (non-pitched) - bass drum, snare drum, cymbals, triangle, tambourine, wood block, bongos, claves, gong, tam-tam, (pitched percussion) - timpani, glockenspiel, xylophone, marimba, vibraphone, chimes
Concert Band/Wind Ensemble
A large ensemble
A kind of musical ensemble correlated with playing jazz music which became prominent in the Swing Era from the early 1930s to the end of the 1940s; Usually consists of about 12 - 25 musicians and has trumpets, trombones, saxophones, and a percussion section
Jazz “Big Band”
A large ensemble
A grouping of like instruments creating a performance ensemble; ordinarily a mix of trumpets, horns, trombones, tubas, and euphoniums; can be any size with a minimum being six performers
Brass Choir
A large ensemble
Definition: A group singing without instrumental accompaniment
Parts: Soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, and base
A Cappella Choir (men’s and women’s voice parts)
Small ensemble; An arrangement for five instruments: two trumpets, a horn, a trombone, and tuba or bass trombone
Brass Quintet
Small ensemble; A musical composition usually in a few movements and ordinarily made up of five instruments: flute, oboe, clarinet, French horn, and bassoon
Woodwind Quintet
Small ensemble; A musical ensemble consisting of four string instruments: two violins, a viola, and a cello
String Quartet
Small ensemble; An arrangement for the piano and two other instruments, most commonly the violin and cello
Piano Trio
Section: Strings
a bass instrument of the violin family, held upright on the floor between the legs of the seated player
Cello
Section: Strings
the largest and lowest-pitched of the stringed instruments that is tuned in fourths
Double Bass
Section: Strings
a musical instrument, roughly triangular in shape, consisting of a frame supporting a graduated series of parallel strings, played by plucking with the fingers
Harp
Section: Strings
an instrument of the violin family, larger than the violin and tuned a fifth lower
Viola
Section: Strings
a stringed musical instrument of treble pitch, played with a horsehair bow
Violin
a brass instrument with a coiled tube, valves, and a wide bell, developed from the simple hunting horn in the 17th century
French Horn
a large brass wind instrument with straight tubing in three sections, ending in a bell over the player’s left shoulder, different fundamental notes being made using a forward-pointing extendable slide
Trombone
a brass musical instrument with a flared bell and a bright, penetrating tone
Trumpet
a large brass wind instrument of bass pitch, with three to six valves and a broad bell typically facing upward
Tuba
Section: Percussion
a large, two-headed drum that has a low booming sound
Bass Drum
Section: Percussion
small concave pieces of wood, ivory, or plastic, joined in pairs by a cord and clicked together by the fingers as a rhythmic accompaniment to Spanish dancing
Castanets
Section: Percussion
set of stationary bells tuned in a musical series, traditionally in a diatonic sequence (seven-note scale) plus a few accidentals (sharps and flats)
Chimes
percussion instrument consisting of a circular flat or concave metal plate that is struck with a drumstick or is used in pairs struck glancingly together
Cymbals
a musical percussion instrument having a set of tuned metal pieces mounted in a frame and struck with small hammers
Glockenspiel
Section: Percussion
a metal disk with a turned rim, giving a resonant note when struck
Gong
Section: Percussion
a musical instrument with a serrated surface that gives a rasping sound when scraped with a stick, originally made from an elongated gourd and used in Latin American music
Guiro
Section: Percussion
a small drum in the form of a short cylinder with a membrane at each end, the upper one being struck with hard sticks and the lower one fitted with snares
Snare Drum
a percussion instrument resembling a shallow drum with small metal disks in slots around the edge, played by being shaken or hit with the hand
Tambourine
Section: Percussion
kettledrums, especially when played by one musician in an orchestra
Timpani
a percussion instrument consisting of a steel rod bent into a triangle with one corner left open; It is suspended by a gut or nylon loop and struck with a steel rod
Triangle
Section: Percussion
a musical instrument played by striking a row of wooden bars of graduated length with one or more small wooden or plastic mallets
Xylophone
Section: Woodwinds
a large clarinet whose range is an octave below the B-flat clarinet
Bass Clarinet
Section: Woodwinds
a bass instrument of the oboe family with a double reed
Bassoon
a woodwind instrument with a single-reed mouthpiece, a cylindrical tube with a flared end, and holes stopped by keys
Clarinet
Section: Woodwinds
a bassoon that is larger and longer than the normal type and sounds an octave lower in pitch
Contrabassoon
a double-reed woodwind instrument resembling the oboe in design but having a longer tube and a range a fifth lower than that of the oboe
English Horn
Section: Woodwinds
a wind instrument made from a tube with holes along it that are stopped by the fingers or keys, held vertically or horizontally so that the player’s breath strikes a narrow edge
Flute
a woodwind instrument with a double-reed mouthpiece, a slender tubular body, and holes stopped by keys
Oboe
Section: Woodwinds
a small flute sounding an octave higher than the ordinary one
Piccolo
Section: Woodwinds
a member of a family of metal wind instruments with a single-reed mouthpiece, used especially in jazz and dance music
Saxophone
a keyboard instrument with horizontal strings which run perpendicular to the keyboard in a long tapering case, and are plucked by points of quill, leather, or plastic operated by depressing the keys
Harpsichord
Section: Keyboards
a wind instrument consisting of one or more scale-like rows of individual pipes of graded size which are made to sound by air under pressure directed from a wind-raising device and admitted to the pipes by means of valves operated from a keyboard
Organ
a keyboard musical instrument having wire strings that sound when struck by felt-covered hammers operated from a keyboard; contains 88 keys and has a compass of seven full octaves plus a few keys
Piano
