I worked on some items for the Florida West Coat Symphony at work and the saleswoman for the account gave me two free tickets to see the opening performance last night. We went a little early to get some of the "special" $5 martinis and sit on the patio with the nice view of the bay. They had an accordianist playing--(actually quite enjoyable). Dad had a martini but I opted for a cosmopolitan. The performance was really excellent as the Conductor Leif Bjaland was really charismatic and contemporized all of the pieces with humorous descriptions of the movements  and history of each composer and work. It was and Italian themed revue featuring Vivaldis' "Autumn", from the seasons, Verdis' "Aida", Rossinis' "Overture to William Tell" (Hi-ho Silver!) and the only work I didn't know was Respighis' "The Pines of Rome". Watching the symphony took me back as I studied music for two years in college and played in Orchestra as well as Symphonic Band, and Jazz Band. I had forgotten the order of the assemblage since it has been so long since I was involved in music. My employer and his entire family was there also and he and his son have a "gig" for their band -"My Friend Scott" today at the Chili cook-off downtown. Pretty hip dudes.

Skip news-I had him in the swimming pool with me today and showed him the steps to get out....he can just  barely do it with a little help.

The typical symphony orchestra consists of four proportionate groups of similar musical instruments, generally appearing in the musical score in the following order (with proportions indicated):

• Woodwinds: piccolo, 2 flutes*, 2 oboes*, English horn, 2 clarinets*, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons*, contrabassoon
• Brass: 2* to 8 French horns*, 2* to 5 trumpets*, 2 to 3 trombones, 1 to 2 bass trombones, tuba
• Percussion: timpani*, snare drum, bass drum, cymbals, triangle, wood block, tambourine, marimba, xylophone, glockenspiel, etc.
• Strings: harp(s), 16 to 30 violins*, 8 to 12 violas*, 8 to 12 violoncellos*, and 5 to 8 double basses*.

Instruments marked with an asterisk are considered the "core" symphonic instruments, and only in rarest of cases are not called for in most symphonic literature. Other instruments listed above are considered auxiliary instruments and are less frequently required, but still referred to as standard. Late 19th century symphonic works calling for all the auxiliary instruments, as well as an augmented number of strings, usually include the phrase "for large orchestra" in their full titles.

 

 I took the shot below in the evening and did not use any effects---I probably moved a bit-this is the untouched original just sampled down in size.