As composers, equipment makers, and musicians experimented with concepts, materials, and different combinations of instruments, they became more generally aware of the unique effects of combining disparate instruments and the voice. As civilization was said to have begun when men learned to march in step, music deepened in effect and meaning when group performance was discovered--first with the voice, then using instruments.

 

Ensembles brought more than simply harmony--which could be produced by a number of keyboard instruments as well as by groups of performers. As business and government organizations spread across the globe in the same period as the orchestral model was in its development stages--they required more personnel to establish redundant decision processes because communications were poor and travel and transport required extended periods. This was not a factor in the development of the orchestra.

 

 

Increased size in musical organizations was driven not just by increased variety in musical effects but by tonal beauty and breadth. If one competent violinist could produce all of the desired notes, the sound of twelve such individuals playing the same part in unison could stir the soul--as well as match the volume and impact of brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments that individually produce more sound. It was discovered that performing music in such groups was a collective gift to be exploited and developed. In symphonic music, the whole was clearly greater than the sum of its parts. Scores of individuals performing their respective parts with the same interpretation, with parallel phrasings, and with a unified vision created an experience that stimulated further integration and synthesis of the symphonic model.

 

Among musicians, there was considerable resistance to this overall trend toward uniting concepts, tools, and techniques in favor of group rather than individual performance. An example of this mentioned earlier was in the introduction of mechanical valves for brass instruments in the early 19th century. Valveless 'natural' brass instruments produced a clear, unobstructed tone that was favored by players of the time--who did not like the sound quality of the valved instruments--in spite of the obvious benefits. The modern valved instruments did not universally replace open brass instruments until the early twentieth century. By that time, even the purist open horn repertoire was played with the 'new' valved instruments.

 

If it did take such instrumentalists many years to at last make needed compromises--at least they eventually chose to fully reconcile themselves with the whole. This was only one of the many compromises that brought the symphony to its current state. The result is a sense of organizational union and a standard of performance that is a shining example to other kinds of organizations.

 

In music, this phenomenon is termed a sense of 'ensemble.' Groups of musicians that achieve this state are capable of jointly creating an end product in perfect balance by means of very different individual actions. In a sense, the result is a sense of personal fulfillment by being a participant in something bigger than one's self. As stated by Leonard Hindell, bassoonist in the New York Philharmonic Orchestra,

     

  And I want to say something about being in an orchestra that is the opposite of personal recognition. I mean the feeling of being involved in something so much greater than ourselves. I get a kick out of playing chamber music, a little solo now and then, but the bassoon pieces I play can't compare with a Brahms or a Mahler symphony. To be part of a performance of, say, Beethoven 9 is to get out of yourself and experience something really great. If you don't play in an orchestra you miss that wealth. Some of our finest wind players won't venture out as soloists because they feel their solo repertoire just doesn't measure up to the orchestral repertoire. A Telemann sonata, or the Schumann Romances are fine, beautiful, but they just are not a Beethoven or a Mahler symphony. I play Saint-Saens or Hindemith on the bassoon, it's important to me and I feel good, but I play a Mahler symphony and I feel something greater.