Showing papers on "Symphony published in 1995"

The More, the Better? A Four-Nation Study of the Inclusion of Women in Symphony Orchestras

Abstract: T7his article explores what happens when members of one identity group enter an elite institution that historically has been dominated by another. Specifically, we examine associations between the gender composition of professional symphony orchestras and several outcome measures - players' reports about orchestral functioning, the quality of members' relationships, and their own motivation and satisfaction. Analyses draw on quantitative, qualitative, and historical data collected for a comparative study of 78 symphony orchestras in four nations: the U.S., the United Kingdom, the former East Germany, and the former West Germany. Outcome measures decline as women's representation increases until the proportion of women approaches 50%. Then, the dowvnward trend flattens or reverses for many variables. The dynamics of gender integration are found to dffer (1) at low versus moderate levels offemale representation, and (2) as a function of national context. What happens as members of one identity group become an increasing presence in an organization or institution that has long been dominated by another that is, when the history of identity group exclusivity is being altered? This question can be -asked of blacks entering traditionally white organizations, and vice versa. It can be asked of Palestinians entering traditionally Israeli organizations, and vice versa. And it can be asked of women entering traditionally men's organizations, and vice versa.

The practice of performance : studies in musical interpretation

Abstract: Preface Part I Fundamentals: 1 What do we perform? Roy Howat 2 Expression in performance: generativity, perception and semiosis Eric Clarke 3 Musical motion and performance: theoretical and empirical perspectives Patrick Shove and Bruno H Repp 4 Deliberate practice and elite musical performance Ralf Th Krampe and K Anders Ericsson Part II Structure and Meaning in Performance: 5 The conductor and the theorist: Furtwangler, Schenker and the first movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony Nicholas Cook 6 A curious moment in Schumann's Fourth Symphony: structure as the fusion of affect and intuition David Epstein 7 Beginning-ending ambiguity: consequences of performance choices Janet M Levy 8 Strategies of irony in Prokofiev's Violin Sonata in F minor Op 80 Ronald Woodley Part III Performance and Process: 9 Performance and analysis: interaction and interpretation Joel Lester 10 Analysis and the act of performance William Rothstein 11 The pianist as critic Edward T Cone 12 Playing in time: rhythm, metre and tempo in Brahms's Fantasien Op 116 John Rink Index

A simultaneous model of nonprofit symphony orchestra behavior.

Abstract: In this paper, we test a six equation simultaneous model of nonprofit symphony orchestra behavior. The model is based on Hansmann's theory of nonprofit behavior in the performing arts. The results show that the most prestigious of the orchestras practise a pricing policy that encourages patrons to make a tax deductible contribution. In this manner, they achieve a pattern of price discrimination that, instead of increasing revenues, reduces revenues. Following conditions suggested by Hansmann, we are also able to draw conclusions about the objectives of nonprofit symphony orchestras.

Music theory and the exploration of the past

Abstract: Introduction Christopher Hatch and David W. Bernstein 1 Music Theory and Its Histories Thomas Christensen 2 The Earliest Phases of Measured Polyphony Ernest H. Sanders 3 Modal Strategies in Okeghem's Missa Cuiusvis Toni Leeman L. Perkins 4 Finding the Soggetto in Willaert's Free Imitative Counterpoint: A Step in Modal Analysis Benito V. Rivera 5 Mode and Counterpoint Peter N. Schubert 6 The Cavalier Ercole Bottrigari and His Brickbats: Prolegomena to the Defense of Don Nicola Vicentino against Messer Gandolfo Sigonio Maria Rika Maniates 7 Theory as Polemic: Mutio Effrem's Censure . . . sopra il sesto libro de madrigali de Marco da Galiano Edmond Strainchamps 8 The Place of Aesthetics in Theoretical Treatises on Music Edward A. Lippman 9 Chromaticism in Classical Music James M. Baker 10 Momigny's Type de la Musique and a Treatise in the Making Ian Bent 11 Normality and Disruption in Beethoven's Bagatelle Op. 119, No. 8 Christopher Hatch 12 Coda as Culmination: The First Movement of the "Eroica" Symphony Robert P. Morgan 13 Symmetry and Symmetrical Inversion in Turn-of-the-Century Theory and Practice David W. Bernstein 14 Schoenberg and Goethe: Organicism and Analysis Severine Neff 15 The Contrapuntal Combination: Schoenberg's Old Hat P. Murray Dineen 16 The "New Education" and Music Theory, 1900-1925 Lee A. Rothfarb 17 Harmony as a Determinant of Structure in Webern's Variations for Orchestra Graham H. Phipps 18 "The Fantasy Can Be Critically Examined": Composition and Theory in the Thought of Stefan Wolpe Austin Clarkson 19 The Traditions Revisited: Stravinsky's Requiem Canticles as Russian Music Richard Taruskin

Reading the Invisible Constitution: Judicial Review in Hungary

Abstract: Imagine a music critic who has to review an orchestra performing a symphony. Not only is the music unknown to readers of the criticism, but the symphony is unfinished; not in the sense of Schubert's or Mahler's unfinished symphonies, but where the score is still under composition and the composer is the orchestra itself. The critic must describe both the musical score and the performance, and he knows that he is biased, a major vice in the case of the critic. His bias is internally contradictory. He is proud because there is finally an orchestra worthy of international interest in his provincial concert hall, but at the same time, he has been waiting to listen to its music for so long that the dissonances he notices make him desperate and he is too easily tempted to believe that a false note is intended to betray the sacred idea of music. There was no rule of law in Eastern Europe under communism. Communism did not respect human rights and advocated a unitary or monolithic concept of power. The first reaction to the fall of communism was a total rejection of communist structures. In 1989 there was complete agreement that human rights should be protected unconditionally, although there was ignorance about the technical means of achieving this. Communism was perhaps dead but, like Merlin's laughter, it continued to be heard across the swamp. Communist ideas, patterns of behaviour and institutions still pervade constitutional developments although the extent of the communist presence varies from country to country. Western models of the rule of law were applied out of context; checks and balances and separation of powers were often rudimentary, or misunderstood, or both. Courts and judges often lacked the self-esteem necessary for judicial independence. The new Constitutional Courts must be seen in this context. As in so many post-dictatorial systems in Continental Europe, East Europeans could not trust an autocratic and often politically compromised judiciary trained under communism, to safeguard constitutional liberties. In post-war Germany, too, mistrust of the courts played an important part in the acceptance of the Kelsenian model

Late Idyll: The Second Symphony of Johannes Brahms

Abstract: Genesis and Historical Place: Contemporaries, Documents, Commentaries Analysis: Theme, First Movement, Melancholy, The Middle Movements, Second Movement, Third Movement, Fourth Movement In Conclusion: Idyll, Melancholy, and Monumental Form, Idyll, Strategies, Brahms's Second Again Bibliography Index of Names and Musical Works.

Drawing Inferences from Symphonic Programs: Musical Attributes versus Listener Attributions

Abstract: In classical music listening, program announcements both on radio and in concerts will usually introduce the performance of a symphony with the same minimal articles of information, such as the composer, the order of composition, the key, and the name, if any. But how much can a listener infer about the musical attributes of the work from these basic facts? Examination of 99 symphonies by 13 symphonists between Beethoven and Shostakovich showed that such rudimentary programmatic data can predict several subjective and objective features, including aesthetic significance, listener accessibility, repertoire popularity, melodic originality, originality variation, and playing time. Discussion follows about what these empirical relationships may imply about how composers create their symphonies and how appreciators perceive those musical products.

The Germanic Symphony of the Nineteenth Century: Genre, Form, Instrumentation, Expression

Abstract: A systematic overview of all Germanic symphonies published in the years 1800–1914 reveals many trends and shifts, some not previously recognized by Carl Dahlhaus and others. Publications declined consistently until the 1850s (19 symphonies in 1850–59), then rose consistently to a peak in the 1880s (52 works) and then declined again. Over 85% are in four movements, and certain keys remained in favor (C, c, D, d, E‐flat, B‐flat). A distinction must be made between true “program” or "malende” symphonies and “characteristic” symphonies. The latter are more closely allied to the traditional, even deeply conservative “absolute” symphony deriving from the mainstream eighteenth‐century “festive/brilliant” symphony. Also related to the latter are the “monumental/sublime” symphonies, but these remained few after Beethoven, recovering a bit (later in the century) under the hands of Brahms, Bruckner, and Mahler.

Beethoven: The Ninth Symphony

Abstract: This comprehensive guide to the Ninth Symphony offers insight into more than just the composition and structure of Beethoven's monumental work. It explores the controversial realm of period instruments and performance techniques, and challenges old assumptions about the sound and meaning of the music. Levy surveys and distils the latest research on the Ninth Symphony - material inaccessible to most general readers - and sets forth the elements that give this composition its pre-eminence as a symphony and the artistic choices that make it a monument of Western music. Levy begins in the present with the recent performances and interpretations on the Ninth. He then moves back in time to Beethoven's day to chart the progress that led the composer to produce, over a ten year period, the finished manuscript in 1824. The heart of the book is a clear, concise examination of the music itself. Through musical examples and analytical charts, Levy illuminates the inner workings of the Ninth for scholars and devotees alike. He shows how the Ninth cast its long shadow on the 19th century, and explains why this work continues to move and inspire audiences today.

The symbolic construction of organizational identities and community in a regional symphony

Abstract: This study is an ethnographic analysis of the organizational discourse that constitutes the cultural world of a regional symphony. The study provides a cultural rendering of the Symphony in the form of a spoken system of symbols that is voiced and understood by organizational members. Specifically, this study organizes the communicative activities of the Symphony around the formulation of three cultural categories (i.e., the symbolic construction of “the musicians,” the “board of directors,” and the “administration"), each expressing a particular identity and relationship to other categories. The cluster of terms that characterize each category are seen both as cultural symbols of solidarity and division.

Shostakovich's tenth symphony and the musical expression of cognitively complex emotions

Abstract: In his influential book, Vom Musikalisch-Schinen, Eduard Hanslick argued that it is impossible to represent the emotions in music because music cannot represent the "conceptions" or cognitive content which help to define the emotions. "The feeling of hope cannot be separated from the representation of a future happy state which we compare with the present; ... Love cannot be thought without the representation of a beloved person, without desire and striving after felicity, glorification and possession of a particular object."' Yet music cannot represent these ideas or objects; all it can do is to represent the "dynamic" aspects of emotional life. Hanslick's words have echoed down the years, influencing both philosophers of music and music theorists and critics. Among philosophers, Susanne Langer repeats almost verbatim Hanslick's strictures on emotional expression in music, claiming that music can represent only the dynamic aspects of emotional life, its patterns of motion and rest, tension and relaxation. On her view, music "reveals the rationale of feelings, the rhythm and pattern of their rise and decline and intertwining, to our minds ..."2 Unlike Langer, Peter Kivy believes that music can express particular emotions. In The Corded Shell he argues that some musical phrases mimic human gestures which are expressive of a particular state of human feeling, and other musical features are expressive of particular feelings by virtue of some conventional association. Music can sound like a person loudly lamenting or joyfully jumping; or it can sound sad just because music in a low register and the minor key conventionally signifies sadness.3 Significantly, however, virtually all the musical examples of expressive music which Kivy cites are confined to a very limited set of feelings, mostly joy, sadness, and restlessness. The vast majority are also accompanied by words, which, of course, help to establish expressiveness. In a more recent book on music, Music Alone, which deals with "pure" or "absolute" music, Kivy continues to maintain that music can express particular emotions, but he echoes Hanslick in arguing that the emotions which music can express are only those which need not be directed toward any kind of object. Music can be sad or joyful or restless without being sad, joyful, or restless about anything in particular.4 This requirement would seem to rule out the possibility that music can express cognitively complex emotions. Like Hanslick, Kivy seems to think that it simply cannot be done. Tendencies in twentieth-century music and music theory have helped to establish the notion that music cannot express complex human emotions. In the second quarter of the century, for example, Igor Stravinsky was at the forefront of a reaction against romantic music and musical aesthetics, claiming that "music is, by its very nature, essentially powerless to express anything at all,"5 while cultivating a more reticent neoclassical style. Somewhat later, the serialists and advocates of aleatoric music began to experiment with mathematical procedures that increased the temptation to think of music in the medieval way, as belonging with arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy in the quadrivium. More recently, the dominant theoretical systems, including Schenkerian theory and set theory, have tended to concentrate on what they take to be music's internal relationships, emphasizing rigidly recursive structural hierarchies and quasi-mathematical manipulations and terminology, respectively. In the last decade, however, a number of

"Let Freedom Ring!": Free Jazz and African-American Politics

Abstract: nO n August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King stood before 250,000 black and white Americans and proclaimed, "Let freedom ring!" urging citizens to "transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood" (Words 97). In his writings, King called for the creation of a "redemptive community" in which "mutual regard" and equality would replace racial hierarchy and distrust. In this community, argued King, cohesiveness would not hamper, but instead would enhance, individuality. Three years earlier such a community had been represented in aesthetic form by eight musicians in a recording studio. If the result was not a "symphony" per se, these musicians nevertheless pioneered a style of music called "free jazz" that musically expressed some of the ideas about freedom that were becoming prominent in the struggles of African-Americans for justice. This essay argues that "free jazz" represented political freedom in two ways: negatively, by rejecting musical rules and conventions that restricted individual expression and discarding traditional hierarchical roles within the small group; and positively, by musically cre-

The Symphony: A Listener's Guide

Abstract: From the agile beauty of Mozart's 'Jupiter' and the fierce power of Beethoven's Fifth to the celebration of heroism in Shostakovich's 'Leningrad,' the symphony has long held a prime place in the Western musical pantheon. Now, in The Symphony, renowned teacher and critic Michael Steinberg offers music lovers a monumental guide to this most celebrated of musical forms, with perceptive commentaries on some 118 works by 36 major composers. Tracing the ways in which composers have dealt with the extraordinary musical challenges that have engaged them throughout the centuries, Steinberg takes us through the revolutions of expression, sound, and form that have shaped the symphony's remarkable history.

Beethoven: The Pastoral Symphony

Abstract: Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony is in many ways his most startlingly original. It has a programmatic content, it is in five movements, and its mood is quite different from the usual barnstorming image of the composer. Why did he want to compose such a work? Why did it take him five years to realize his vision? What was he hoping to communicate? How did he achieve it? Finally, how was the work received? David Wyn Jones addresses all these vital questions in a fascinating account of this popular work and the context in which it was written.

Noise Exposure of Symphony Orchestra Musicians

Abstract: Personal noise exposures of classical musicians in the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Centennial Concert Hall, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, were conducted to determine compliance with provincial standards. In Manitoba, a hearing conservation program is required where the equivalent sound exposure level (Lex 8-hour) exceeds 80 dB A-weighted sound pressure level [dB(A)]. In excess of 85 and 90 dB(A), standards require hearing protection and engineering or work practice controls. Approximately 10 percent of the musicians wore conventional or custom-molded earplugs. Dosimetry readings were taken in the rehearsal room, main stage, and orchestra pit during rehearsals and dress rehearsals. Quest model M-8B and Larson Davis model 700 dosimeters were used and the Canadian Standards Association procedure was applied. The mean Lex 8-hour for the rehearsal room surveys were 88 and 90 dB(A), for the pit were 85 and 86 dB(A), and for the main stage were 82, 84, and 88 dB(A). Instantaneous peak exposures were reco...

Vienna : the years of challenge (1897-1904)

Abstract: Gustav Mahler was one of the supremely gifted musicians of his generation. His contemporaries came to know him as a composer of startling originality whose greatest successes with the public never failed to provoke controversy among the critics. As a conductor, his relentless pursuit of perfection was sometimes viewed as tyrannical by the singers and musicians who came under his baton. Professor Henry-Louis de La Grange has devoted over thirty years of painstaking resarch to this study of Mahler's life and works. His biography, ultimately to be completed in four volumes, is drawn from a vast archive of documents, autographs, and pictures, assembled by La Grange at the Bibliotheque Musicale Gustav Mahler, Paris. This second volume covers the years 1897-1904, when the focus shifts to Vienna. It opens with Mahler's triumphant debut as director of the Vienna Court Opera, and follows with the revolution he wrought there in standards of performance and, with the Secession painter Alfred Roller, in scenic representation. An account is also given of Mahler's story and brief engagement as conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic Concerts, following Richter's resignation in 1989. La Grange depicts the brilliant society of pre-war Vienna, then the centre of the intellectual and artistic world; the extraordinary range of artists among whom Mahler lived and worked included the composers Dvorak, Gustave Charpentier, Richard Strauss, Zemlinsky, and Schoenberg and his two disciples, Berg and Webern; the painters architects and decorators of the Secession with Klmit at their head; the writers Hauptmann, Dehmel, Hofmannsthal, and Schnitzler. There he also met Alma Schindler, 'the most beautiful woman in Vienna', and La Grange tells the story of their engagement and marriage in 1902 and the early years of their tempestuous relationship. As his fame spread throughout Europe, Mahler travelled with his music to Germany, Russia, Holland, Poland, and Belguim, meeting many other leading musicians of his day, including Pfitzner, Mengelberg, Diepenbrock, Oskar Fried, and many others. During this period Mahler wrote some of his best-loved works, including the fourth and Fifth Symphonies, and the three orchestral song-cyles and collections - the Wunderhorn -, Ruckert-, and Kindertotenlieder. For each of these works La Grange provides full notes and analytical descriptions. Scrupulously researched, richly documented, this is a study worthy of the extraordinary artistic achievement of Gustav Mahler's Vienna years.

Beethoven, Pastoral symphony

Abstract: 1.The concert of 22 December 1808 2. Background 3. Genesis and reception 4. Design and orchestration 5. Technique and image 6. 'Mehr Malerei als Empfindung'.

The Galitzin Quartets of Beethoven: Opp. 127, 132, 130

Abstract: This is an analysis of the first three of Beethoven's late quartets, Opera 127, 132 and 130, commissioned by Prince Nikolai Galitzin. All five late quartets, usually considered as a group, were written in the same period as the "Missa solemnis" and the Ninth Symphony. Chua believes that, of the five quartets, the three studies here trace a process of disintegration, whereas the last two, Opera 131 and 135, reintegrate the language that Beethoven himself had destabilized. Through analyses that unearth peculiar features characteristic of the surface and of the deeper structures of the music, Chua interprets the "Galitzin" quartets as radical critiques of both music and society, a view first proposed by Theodore Adorno. From this perspective, the quartets necessarily undo the act of analysis as well, forcing the analytical traditions associated with Schenker and Schoenberg to break up into an eclectic mixture of techniques. Analysis itself thus becomes problematic and has to move in a dialectical and paradoxical fashion in order to trace Beethoven's logic of disintegration. The result is a new way of reading these works that not only reflects the preoccupations of the German Romantics of that time and the poststructuralists of today, but also opens a discussion of cultural, political and philosophical issues.

The Classical Mandolin

Abstract: Although the mandolin is now regarded as a marginal instrument in the classical world, a century ago it was one of the most widely played musical instruments in Europe and North America. Regularly used in operas and symphonies, and forming the basis of plucked instrument orchestras, the mandolin could also be heard in recitals at major concert halls. The Classical Mandolin traces the rise of the modern Neapolitan mandolin, examines the lives and worlds of leading specialist composers (such as Raffaele Calace and Carlo Munier), and looks at its use by mainstream composers from Verdi and Mahler to Schoenberg and Boulez. The mandolin's enduring popularity in folk music is also discussed. The book looks finally at present-day orchestras and soloists, examines aspects of technique, and offers guidance on contacting specialist organisations worldwide.

Mendelssohn‟s „Scottish‟ Symphony and the Music of German Memory

Abstract: It is easy for today's listeners to overlook the significance that the "Scottish" Symphony held for the Leipzig audience at its premiere. Mendelssohn's earlier "Italian" and "Reformation" Symphonies remained unpublished-to say nothing of the twelve string symphonies of his youth-and none of these works became widely known in Germany before Mendelssohn's death. By the time of the "Scottish" Symphony's premiere in 1842, Mendelssohn's only published instrumental piece to bear the name symphony was the youthful First Symphony in C Minor, composed in 1824. In light of the posthumous success enjoyed by a number of these works, the opening sentences of Robert Schumann's remarks on the A-Minor

Haydn in England 1791-1795

Abstract: Brought to England by the great impresario J. P. Salomon, Joseph Haydn (who had just left the service of the Esterhazy Court) rapidly became one of the best-known figures in London's musical life in the 1790s. This book - a detailed biographical and musicological account of this short but still prolific period of Haydn's mature years - summarizes all the known facts about the composer and his activities during this time. The first part - a chronicle of events, musical and social - is based on contemporary documents (including concert announcements, newspaper reports and reviews, correspondence and the composer's own notebooks); the second is a detailed discussion and analysis of the works composed in England, ranging from the last twelve symphonies, through chamber music to settings of English poetry and other intimate or occasional pieces (among them the fascinating canon written at the time of Haydn's visit to Oxford to receive an honorary doctorate). All the works discussed which are not readily available in published scores are illustrated with musical examples; in addition, the plates include the important portraits of Haydn by Hoppner, Hardy and Dance, together with those of many of the composers, performers, patrons and friends (among them the previously unpublished portrait of Salomon by Hardy) with whom Haydn was associated whilst in England.

A Simultaneous Model of Nonprofit Symphony

Abstract: In this paper, we test a six equation simultaneous model of nonprofit symphony orchestra behavior. The model is based on Hansmann's theory of nonprofit behavior in the performing arts. The results show that the most prestigious of the orchestras practise a pricing policy that encourages patrons to make a tax deductible contribution. In this manner, they achieve a pattern of price discrimination that, instead of increasing revenues, reduces revenues. Following conditions suggested by Hansmann, we are also able to draw conclusions about the objectives of nonprofit symphony orchestras.

A guide to the symphony

Abstract: A 'readable reference book' for anyone who listens to classical music, at concerts, on disc and - especially - on the radio. Every major symphonist, from Haydn to the present, is covered in detail; and though the writing is vigorous and penetrating, the analysis never presupposes any specialist tecnical knowledge. There are around 120 musical examples, while an appendix by Robert Lyton, regular critic of The Gramophone for 30 years, lists over 500 recommended recordings. Among the contributors, each a specialist in his own field, are H C Robbins Landon, well known for his regular TV appearances and many books on Mozart and Haydn; David Brown, the world's leading authority on Tchaikovsky and 19th century Russian music; Richard Osborne, well-known presenter of BBC's Saturday Review , biographer of Rossini and acclaimed writer on Beethoven; and Robert Layton, the book's editor, who is Britain's top authority on Scandinavian music. This book is intended for students and scholars of music; anyone who listens to classical music.

Emergence, divergence, convergence: Three models of symphony orchestras at the crossroads

Abstract: (1995). Emergence, divergence, convergence: Three models of symphony orchestras at the crossroads. The European Journal of Cultural Policy: Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 117-139.

Musical Sympathies: The Experience of Expressive Music

Abstract: "A piece of music which I love," said Mendelssohn, "expresses thoughts to me which are not too imprecise to be framed in words, but too precise. So I find that attempts to express such thoughts in words may have some point to them, but they are also unsatisfying."' This remark has been much quoted. The "thoughts" in question have most often been taken to be emotions or other affective states, rather than ideas, say, or propositions of some sort; and this seems reasonable given the linguistic incapacity of music, and given the widespread intuition that music is in some way uniquely-and valuably-bound up with the passions. What has most attracted attention, of course, is Mendelssohn's insistence upon the precision of musical expression. This insistence ties into a deeply held sense, which many of us have, that every piece of truly expressive music is either expressive of something which is common to no other piece of music, or else is expressive of whatever it is expressive of in its own distinctive way. The marciafunebre from the "Eroica" Symphony, for instance, is expressive of an affective state which is quite unlike that of which the funeral march from Chopin's Piano Sonata No. 2 is expressive; and neither affective state seems similar to the state conveyed by "Siegfried's Funeral March" in Gbtterddmmerung. Each of these works is clearly expressive of some sort of funereal sentiment. But when asked what are the differences among those sentiments, most of us will be at a loss for words-or at least at a loss for words which we feel are the right ones. When someone asked Schumann what a piece of music was expressive of, he sat back down at the piano and played the piece again, saying, "That!" Schumann must have agreed with Mendelssohn. Music can be, in an important sense, too precise for words; and that, I think, is an intuition or a truth about music which any adequate account of musical expressiveness must be able to accommodate.

Acoustics of Woodwind Instruments

Abstract: The woodwinds include both reed and nonreed instruments, and the only common element between them is the use of keyed tone holes for changing pitch. At one time, they were all made of wood, but that has long changed. Today, various metals are used, as are certain plastics. But out of this diversity comes a surprising blend of sound, and a fine woodwind section is the prize asset of a modern symphony orchestra.