Instrumentation
The orchestra includes piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, cor anglais, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, contrabassoon, two alto saxophones, tenor saxophone, four horns, two trumpets, flugelhorn, three trombones, tuba, timpani, side drum, tenor drum, bass drum, cymbals, triangle, large gong, tam-tam, deep bells, glockenspiel, xylophone, celesta, two harps, and strings.
Vaughan Williams's program note accompanying the premiere performance remarked thus:
The usual symphony orchestra is used with the addition of three saxophones and flugelhorn. This beautiful and neglected instrument is not usually allowed in the select circles of the orchestra and has been banished to the brass band, where it is allowed to indulge in the art of vibrato. While in the orchestra it is obliged to play with a pure and unwavering tone. The saxophones, also, are not expected, except possibly in one place in the scherzo, to behave like demented cats, but are allowed to be their own romantic selves. Otherwise the orchestra is normal, and is, the composer hopes, sound in wind and strings.
Very early on in the first movement the three saxophones play a chorale-like passage in chordal harmony, perhaps to emphasize that this will not be the sort of dance band music which the saxophone produces in the scherzo of the Sixth Symphony.
Read more about this topic: Symphony No. 9 (Vaughan Williams)