The term Orchestra comes from the ancient Greeks, who called the choir orkestai , which, accompanied by zither and aulos (instrumentalists), danced in front of the altar dedicated to the God Dyonisios. In the seventeenth century the Italians created the Opera in the manner of ancient Greek tragedies and adopted the name of Orchestra to designate the group of instrumentalists who accompanied the singers. In a modern theater, the part of the auditorium reserved for musicians, situated between the stage and the audience, is called an orchestral pit or orchestra . Currently the term Orchestra is used to designate amore or less numerous group of instrumentalists and instruments, who perform a musical work, with the indications of a conductor; among which the Symphony Orchestra is the most important.
The modern Symphony Orchestra is made up of a number of performers that varies between 60, 100 or more musicians, who play a diversity of instruments which represent the last evolutionary stage of the multiple experiences that have been carried out in the previous four centuries.
The instruments of the Orchestra are divided into four sections more appropriately called Families. Said families respond to a grouping made based on the way of producing the sound.
There is the string family, which is the most important and numerous in the orchestra (60% of the instruments), made up of the violin, viola, cello, double bass, harp, guitar and piano. The Woodwind family formed by the flute, the piccolo, the oboe, the English horn, the bassoon, the contrabassoon, the clarinet, and the bass clarinet.
Le siguen la familia de Viento Metal compuesta por la trompa, la trompeta, el trombón y la tuba. Y por último, se encuentra la familia de Percusión, la cual está comprendida por instrumentos de tono definido como los timbales, el xilófono, la celesta, el carrillón y las campanas tubulares; y los de tono indefinible como el bombo, los platillos, las castañuelas, el triangulo, entre otros.
There are also other types of orchestra, such as the chamber orchestra, where the number of instruments needed is less, and it is usually made up of 25-30 people; until the 18th century this was the most common modality. Another type is the orchestras formed only by a family of instruments; for example, a string orchestra , in which only violins, violas, cellos and double basses take part.
