Beginners' Guide to Period Style
Period Ensemble Layout
Traditional Orchestra Layout
Period vs. Chamber Orchestra
Period vs. Traditional Orchestra
Listen and Compare
Authentic vs. Modern Instruments
Orchestra Layout

Period Ensemble*
Strings:
4 First Violins to the left + 4 Second Violins to the right
2Violas, 2 Cellos, 2 Basses
Woodwinds:
2 Flutes, 2 Oboes, 2 Bassoons
Brass:
2 Horns, 2 Trumpets
Timpani

Director at the Harpsichord, or Premier Violin
Total number of players: 15 - 30


Traditional Orchestra*
Strings:
20 First Violins + 20 Second Violins to the left
2 Violas, 2 Cellos, 2 Double Basses
Woodwinds:
2 Flutes, 2 Oboes, 2 Bassoons
Brass:
2 Horns, 2 Trumpets
Timpani

Conductor on the podium
Total number of players: ~60

These figures represent most typical layout and other conformations are also possible.

Period vs. Chamber Orchestra

Period ensemble can be assembled with modern instruments or authentic (period) instruments. The former is also called "period aware" style. By using such as Baroque bowing technique and gut strings on modern violins, it can reproduce amazingly authentic sounds. Most notable in this category is Kölner Kammerorcheste and Les Violons Du Roy. The latter downright period ensemble becomes very prosperous in last couple of decades. The very the first one established for this category is the Concentus Musicus Wien under Nikolaus Harnoncourt, who followed an idea of the German composer Paul Hindemith in the early 60s. Other more recent examples include Tafelmusik, Academy of Ancient Music, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and Australian Brandenburg Orchestra.

Chamber orchestra is another type of small size orchestra. Using modern instruments with modern playing technique, it can be easily distinguished from the period ensemble by its highly romanticized manner of interpretation of Baroque music as well as the completely different sonority of brass instruments. The size of the chamber orchestra is somewhere between the period ensemble and the traditional orchestra. Paillard Chamber Orchestra, Academy of St. Martin in the Field, and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra are the representatives for this category.

Period vs. Traditional Orchestra
Period

Advantages:
O Authentic instruments produce a sound closer to what Baroque period composers had in their mind for their works.
O Compact layout results in more delicate and clear sound obtained from smaller number of players assigned for each part.

Disadvantages:
x Authentic instruments are more difficult to play and could produce thin and abrasive sound if not in a skilled hand.
x Small number of players for each part demands individual player to be near soloist quality.

Traditional

Advantages:
O Modern instruments are more powerful and easier to play owing to the various changes made to the instruments since Baroque era.

Disadvantages:
x The sound of modern instruments is NOT what Baroque composers envisioned for their works.
x Certain effects in composition, such as dialogue between two violin groups, are lost due to the spatial configuration of large violin forces.
x Individual instrument tends to get buried among the others.

Listen and Compare
Now let your ears to be the judge.

The following sample clips are taken from the beginning of the fourth movement (Allegro) from Christmas Concerto by Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713). The difference in tempi is very obvious so as the difference in pitches (Contemporary pitch A=440Hz; Baroque pitch A=415Hz or a semitone below).

Period ensemble on authentic instruments
Traditional orchestra
Authentic vs. Modern Instruments

Strings
One points that has to be clarified beforehand is the definition of authentic and modern instruments. Because no one has been successful thus far to surpass or match the quality of Stradivarius, most of the so-called modern instruments used by the world class orchestras were actually built no later than the mid 18th century. These instruments have been modified to accommodate ever changing music styles and current modern instruments are legacies from the bygone Romantic era. On the other hand, an authentic instrument could be dated from the Baroque time, or it could be a faithful reproduction of the genuine antique.
One will find the most interesting comparison between the modern cello and its Baroque ancestor in the liner note for "Simply Baroque" by Yo-Yo Ma and Ton Koopman (Sony Classical SK 60680). The following is the list of later alterations made to Ma's Stradevari in the last 300 years:

Addition of end-pin
The end-pin transmit some sound to the floor and amplifies it. Devoid of this device, Baroque cello has to be hold between the players legs where it produces more delicate sonority.

Narrowing of the neck
The neck of Baroque cello is broader and four strings are further apart.

Thinner and more arched bridge
The bridge for the strings are thicker and more flat in Baroque cello, so that strings lay more on a single plane. It is more convenient for multiple stops (playing more than one strings at a time) but also increase the risk of hitting the wrong string. Thicker bridge also acts like a mute.

Change from gut strings to wire strings
They produce more delicate sound when played with a less tensioned Baroque bow (see below) and a Baroque bowing technique.

Bow and Bowing Technique
In the modern bow, the curve of the bowstick is concave rather than convex, thus putting the horsehair under considerable pressure (necessary for modern bowing technique). The Baroque bow stick is either straight or (as on a hunting bow) bent outward from the horsehair, which was under comparatively low tension. As for the bowing technique, Baroque bow is held with the thumb placed under the bow strings to adjust its tension. A tighter tension in the bow is used for single string, single melodic line, while a relaxing the tension permits playing on two or more strings simultaneously for multiple stops.

Natural Trumpets
Valved trumpet was an invention around 1815. Before that, there was only a natural trumpet which had a fixed length playing tube. On a natural (valveless) trumpet the possible notes (i.e., the harmonic series) include (c' = middle C):
For notes outside the natural scale, "overblowing" technique must be employed to produce the overtone series of it's fundamental pitch. The 2nd harmonic is not producible; the 7th is badly out of tune with the musical scale; the 11th, 13th, and 14th, also out of tune, can with skill be sounded as F or F sharp and A or G sharp, respectively. Modern valve trumpets generally use notes 2-12 of this series but pitched an octave lower; depression of the valves lengthens the tubing and allows the production of the intervening notes of the chromatic (12-note) scale. Introduction of valve system, however, adversely affects the purity of tone and for this very reason, natural trumpet is more preferable in Baroque music.
send your mail to:
http://oakweb.ca/harmony/baroque/period.html