Numbers
The size of a string section may be expressed with a formula of the type (for example) 10-10-8-10-6, designating the number of first violins, second violins, violas, cellos, and basses. The numbers can vary widely; thus in a large orchestra they might be 14-14-12-12-10; the band orchestra in Darius Milhaud's La création du monde is 1-1-0-1-1. Mozart's masses and offertories written for the Salzburg cathedral routinely dispensed with violas, as did his dances. Leonard Bernstein also left out the violas in his West Side Story. Famous works without violins include the Second Serenade of Brahms and Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms, as well as Andrew Lloyd Webber's Requiem and Philip Glass's opera Akhnaten.
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Famous quotes containing the word numbers:
“The forward Youth that would appear
Must now forsake his Muses dear,
Nor in the Shadows sing
His Numbers languishing.”
—Andrew Marvell (1621–1678)
“One murder makes a villain, millions a hero. Numbers sanctify, my good fellow.”
—Charlie Chaplin (1889–1977)
“Green grow the rushes-O
What is your one-O?”
—Unknown. Carol of the Numbers (l. 2–3)