Concert Band Vs Symphonic Orchestra Essay

At one point in their career, most music students are met with a rather difficult choice: whether to join concert band or a symphonic orchestra. While both are ensembles with a conductor that play music arranged into different parts together, there are several important differences to take note of when deciding which one fits each musician perfectly.

First of all, not every instrument is represented in every ensemble. A concert band, often called symphonic wind band, consists, as the name suggests, predominantly of wind instruments. Woodwinds like flutes, piccolos, oboes, clarinets, bass-clarinets, bassoons and contrabassoons as well as brass instruments like trumpets, french horns, trombones, euphoniums or baritones and tubas are joined by saxophones, percussion …show more content…
In a wind band, the flutes, piccolos, clarinets, oboes and bassoons sit in the front rows, while the brass and percussion instruments sit in the back and on the sides. The added string section in a symphonic orchestra is seated in the front, the woodwinds sit in two rows behind them, with the french horns on the left and the rest of the brass section on the right. The percussion section, whose size changes depending on the piece that is played, is distributed behind the wind instruments. Additional instruments like the harp or the piano are usually seated on the left , while a choir is standing or sitting either behind or in front of the orchestra.

Another important difference to note is the repertoire and sound colour of a concert band compared to that of a symphonic orchestra. While both might essentially be capable of playing the same pieces, a symphonic orchestra has a wider range of sound due to the added element of the string section. Many of the well known composers of the classical era rarely composed for ensembles without strings, which makes it difficult to arrange certain pieces for a concert band without loss of