Hi, alas I have not used these forums for a long time now, but I need to know anything people can tell me about how orchestral instruments have developed in the 20th-century. For example: How are the instruments used by people like Elgar and Vaughan Williams different now then they were in their time?
I only need/want to know about orchestral instruments please.

Thanks

Aw, no reply for five days.

I'll have a go for clarinet. Trouble is, the clarinet had its major revolution in the mid 1800s, and the clarinet of 1900 isn't a whole lot different to the clarinet of 2010. You've got basically two types of keywork systems (Boehm, and Oehler, the latter of which is generally exclusive to Germany and Austria), but both systems were finalised in the 1800s.

Plastic clarinets are more commonplace now compared to 1900, but wooden instruments are still the choice of most professionals. One other thing that happens quite often now compared to then is the use of 'period' instruments for classical/early romantic works, as opposed to modern instruments.

And, sadly, that is about it. Hope there's a bit more to write about other instruments...

The main difference in the strings is the move from gut strings to metal, all but violin E-strings wound so as to give more density with a minimal increase in stiffness. String weights have increased somewhat, so that tension has to be higher and the sound can be somewhat louder.

I can think of two structural changes, neither of them universal: a few 'cellists use a bent spike, invented by Paul Tortelier, that allows the angle of the instrument to be nearer horizontal; some double basses have an extended finger board and a longer fourth string tuned to E when stopped at the same length as the others and C when the stop is lifted. The lengths for C#, D and Eb may be produced by a set of levers or by fingering on the extension. The lower notes, otherwise available on five-string basses, are desirable in many Classical works, essential in some of the Mahler symphonies.

In 1900, in this country most flutes were wooden; nowadays metal is more popular.

Biggest changes have occurred in brass instruments. By 1900, the alto trombone (shorter than the tenor and based on D or Eb) was no longer in use, but the G bass trombone, with handle to extend the players reach for the longer slide, was universal; a trombone with three valves instead of a slide (very similar to a bass trumpet) was used in Italy, but British trombones had no valves. The trombone section of the standard symphony orchestra now has two tenors with one valve worked by the left thumb, lowering the series of open notes by a perfect fourth; the bore is larger, with the effect that the sound is richer and can be louder before a rasp occurs. The bass trombone is of even larger bore, but is based in Bb, so that the slide is the same length as that of a tenor, and no handle is necessary. To provide the lower notes of a bass trombone part, this instrument also has at least one thumb operated valve (also known as a trigger or a plug), but more usually two. The U.S. has always been the main source of these instruments. The alto trombone has reappeared, being favoured by some players for Classical and early Romantic music (Mozart and Schumann, possibly Beethoven) where it is specified, and especially if the part is high enough to be a strain on the tenor.

In France and Britain, the 1900 orchestral horn was end crooked with three piston valves (the Perinet design). Crooks of different lengths were possible, but few players would have had a complete set: the common lengths gave F and Eb. High Bb was perhaps the next most common, to give security on a high part. In Germany, where brass instruments have rotary valves, the first double horns were being invented: these have a thumb valve which provides choice of two routes through the central part of the wind way, the length with all valves in their free position giving the F harmonic series and depression of the thumb lever shortening the instrument to give Bb. The two routes are organised so that the change in length provided by the finger-operated valves is appropriate to the basic length. By about 1935, well-developed German double horns (the famous Alexander 103) were being exported to the UK, and by 1960 most professional players and many amateurs were using them. I bought my first double horn (by the Italian firm Cazzani) in 1956. The other main change in the horn is the availability of instruments (initially American) with a larger bore to compete with the louder American trombones.

The trumpet used in symphony orchestras has changed less obviously than the trombones and horns, though all brass instruments have been improved in acoustic design with the aid of computers and in uniformity and reliability by better production engineering, stimulated by Japanese competition (especially Yamaha). The most obvious change to the upper brass has occurred in the cornet (yes, it is an orchestral instrument: see the larger French orchestral scores from Berlioz to Dukas), on which levers to adjust the length of the first and third valve slides for accurate tuning have become much more common in the last 50 years.

I had already thought much the same about the oboe. The current keywork was developed mainly by the Triebert family in the 1800s and not a lot has happened in the 20th century with the exception of "covered" rather than "open" tone holes which these days is the norm. Some tiny changes have appeared on some oboes - 3rd octave key (or a fully automatic octave system with only 1 octave key), left hand C#, bottom A - but these are by no means universal.

There is a "Viennese" oboe which retains keywork much like the older "classical" oboe (so again nothing has been done to it in the 20th century) but this is a very localised instrument and might actually be losing ground to the "French" oboe even in the Vienna Phil.

There were some experiments in the early 20th century with alternative keywork such as Boehm or sax fingering but these didn't catch on.

Note that contemporary music specialist, Christopher Redgate, http://www.christopherredgate.co.uk/index.php is currently doing some work in conjunction with Howarths on developments to the oboe to suit some of the demands of 21st century music.

Other than that, the bore and wall thickness of some oboes has been changed to give a bigger, richer sound and there has been some experimentation with materials such as Greenline (a wood/resin mix used by Buffet) and a clear "Altuglass" oboe by Marigaux.

If you want to find out more, you could try to get hold of these from your library:
"The Oboe and the Bassoon" - Gunther Joppig
"The Oboe" - Philip Bate
"The Oboe" - Geoffrey Burgess and Bruce Haynes

ooooo! What are they cooking up???
I'm quite taken with Chris Redgate... he's pretty good with Pasculli too!

I think it centres around modified keywork
http://www.christopherredgate.co.uk/21st-Century-Oboe.php

Hmm, Pasculli - not sure. It's certainly flamboyant and a bit of fun but (paraphrasing Hansjorg Schellenberger speaking to a student in a masterclass after he played "La Favorita") "it's not worth spending a lot of time on".

What about new instruments invented in the 20th century? That is, apart from electronic versions of existing instruments.

I thought the sax might qualify but found out it was already around by the mid 19th century....

Heckelphone and Piccolo Heckelphone, 1904; Theremin and Ondes Martenot, both 1928; Trautonium, 1929; Hammond organ, 1934; Moog synthesizer, early 1950s.

Not only invented but used in orchestral music, e.g. a beautiful solo in Bizet's incidental music to the play, "L'Arlesienne".

You are a veritable mine of knowledge! You inspired me to do a bit more research - I had never come across the Trautonium! The Theremin strikes me as something straight out of Isaac Asimov...

As an oboist I should have remembered the heckelphone. I don't know why but I always think of it as an 19th century instrument.

I had forgotten the sax in Bizet! And if anyone else (sax players excepted - I am sure they know better) think that the sax only appears in the compositions of rather obviously jazz-friendly classical composers such as Gershwin, have a listen again to Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances and Richard Strauss's Sinfonia Domestica. The first time I saw the Rachmaninoff performed I thought there was some mistake when I saw a sax in the orchestra... I still need some "sax education"!

It always (like the Ondes Martenot) struck me as a bit of a blind alley.

Well!! Go to the back of the class (with me actually).

Britten's Sinfonia da Reqiuem, definitely in some Ravel, Shostakovich and Stravinsky. I think Vaughan Williams sneaked it in somewhere too.

As I mentioned earlier, in the 1930s there was an attempt to produce sax fingering oboes (as a sop to doublers I suppose) and even an oboe with a single reed mouthpiece

Your smiley says it all!!!!!!
An oboe without a double reed???
I think I'd prefer to wait for whatever Chris Redgate and Howarth are cooking up!