The concept of the balalaika orchestra was adopted wholeheartedly by the Soviet government as something distinctively proletarian ( that is, from the working classes ) and was also deemed progressive.

In the very first Dada publication, Hugo Ball describes a " balalaika orchestra playing delightful folk-songs.

During the 19th century, Count Uvarov led a campaign of nationalist revival which initiated the first professional orchestra with traditional instruments, beginning with Vasily Andreyev, who used the balalaika in an orchestra late in the century.

As a child and young adult, he participated in the balalaika orchestra at St. Nicholas's Russian Orthodox Church in Philadelphia under the tutelage of Paul Kauriga of the Kovriga Balalaika Orchestra.

With På Väg, ( On the way ) recorded with a balalaika orchestra, Hoola Bandoola became one of the best-selling groups in Sweden.

It can also be tuned to E-A-D, like its cousin, the domra, to make it easier for those trained on the domra to play the instrument, and still have a balalaika sound.

The bass balalaika and contrabass balalaika rest on the ground, on a wooden or metal pin that is drilled into one of its corners.

In the nineteenth century, the balalaika evolved into a triangular instrument with a neck that was substantially shorter than that of its Asian counterparts.

This idea, while whimsical, is quite difficult to fathom when one is confronted with the fact that at various times in Russian history, the playing of the balalaika was banned because of its use by the skomorokhi, who were generally highly irritating to both church and state.

An important part of balalaika technique is the use of the left thumb to fret notes on the lower string, particularly on the prima, where it is used to form chords.

While touring Europe with La MaMa, Cuomo landed a recording contract with CBS France, left the troupe in 1971 and settled in Paris with several members of the original Misty Mountain Mormos — Sandy Spencer ( cellist ) and Tobia Taylor ( balalaika ).

Gretchaninov wrote five symphonies, the first premiered by Rimsky-Korsakov ; four string quartets, the first two of which won important prizes, two piano trios, sonatas for violin, cello, clarinet, piano and balalaika, several operas, song cycle Les Fleurs du Mal, op.

The balalaika family of instruments includes instruments of various sizes, from the highest-pitched to the lowest, the prima balalaika, secunda balalaika, alto balalaika, bass balalaika, and contrabass balalaika.

Early representations of the balalaika show it with anywhere from two to six strings, which resembles certain Central Asian instruments.

Popular musical instruments include the dachick-panderr ( a kind of balalaika ), kekhat ponder ( accordion, generally played by girls ), mirz ponder ( a three-stringed violin ), zurna ( a type of oboe ), tambourine, and drums.

The traditional music of Ingushetia employs such musical instruments as the zurna ( similar to a clarinet ), dekhch-pandr ( similar to a balalaika ), kekhat pondur ( accordion, played mostly by girls ), violin ( with three strings ), drums and tambourine.

The album has a mirrored picture of a donkey playing the balalaika on the front cover.

Being similar to the Russian balalaika, the difference lies in the casing: the pondur is rather long, is made of one solid block of wood and has a soft, rustling voice.

These Russian-style tunes are generally in a minor key, and often accompanied by accordion, or by guitar imitating the sound of the balalaika.

Wolownik, having established balalaika societies and groups in Atlanta, Maine, and Pennsylvania, was well known in the balalaika community in the United States and abroad for his simple yet deep arrangements of tunes for small balalaika ensembles.

The balalaika (, ) is a Russian folk stringed musical instrument with a characteristic triangular body and three strings.

The prima balalaika is played with the fingers, the secunda and alto either with the fingers or a plectrum, depending on the music being played, and the bass and contrabass ( equipped with extension legs that rest on the floor ) are played with leather plectrums.

The earliest mention of the term balalaika dates back to an AD 1688 Russian document.

Sometimes the balalaika is tuned " guitar style " by folk musicians to G-B-D ( mimicking the three highest strings of the Russian guitar ), whereby it is easier to play for Russian guitar players, although classically trained balalaika purists avoid this tuning.

A popular notion is that the three sides and the strings of the balalaika represent the Holy Trinity.

He states that a balalaika was made by peasants out of a pumpkin.

If you quarter a pumpkin, you are left with a balalaika shape.

In the 1880s, Vasily Vasilievich Andreyev, who was then a professional violinist in the music salons of St Petersburg, developed what became the standardized balalaika, with the assistance of violin maker V. Ivanov.

Then there was a bad delay in getting Mort Lindsey's 30-piece orchestra wedged into its chairs.

The orchestra was obviously on its mettle and it played most responsively.

A string section can be utilized on its own ( this is referred to as a string orchestra ) or in conjunction with any of the other instrumental sections.

The movement was so powerful that even the renowned Red Army Choir, which initially used a normal symphonic orchestra, changed its instrumentation, replacing violins, violas, and violoncellos with orchestral balalaikas and domras.

While still tightly linked to the court culture and absolutism, with its formality and emphasis on order and hierarchy, the new style was also a cleaner style — one that favored clearer divisions between parts, brighter contrasts and colors, and simplicity rather than complexity, and the typical orchestra size increased.

However, it would be incorrect to assume that Verdi underestimated the expressive power of the orchestra or failed to use it to its full capacity where necessary.

They sang, had a band / orchestra, composed songs, and gave much attention to its cultivation.

It is a kind of symphony played by an orchestra of both electric and natural instruments and frozen into its idealized form by means of a multichannel tape recorder.

* Trilogie van de Laatste Dag ( 1996 – 97 ) ( each of its three sections may be performed separately: ( i ) The Last Day ( texts by Lucebert, folksong A Woman and Her Lass ) for boy soprano, 4 male voices, orchestra ; ( ii ) TAO ( texts by Laozi, Kotaro Takamura ) for 4 female voices, piano voice, koto, small orchestra winds, 2 horns, harp, piano (+ celesta ), 2 percussion, minimum 14 strings ; ( iii ) Dancing on the Bones ( text by the composer ) for children's chorus, orchestra, 1997 )

A symphony orchestra will usually have over eighty musicians on its roster, in some cases over a hundred, but the actual number of musicians employed in a particular performance may vary according to the work being played and the size of the venue.

In the history of the orchestra, its instrumentation has been expanded over time, often agreed to have been standardized by the classical period and Beethoven's influence on the classical model.

The 20th century orchestra was far more flexible than its predecessors.

The modern orchestra has its historical roots in Ancient Egypt.

The unusual aspect of the orchestra was that, believing that in the ideal Marxist state all people are equal, its members felt that there was no need to be led by the dictatorial baton of a conductor ; instead they were led by a committee.

The orchestra survived for ten years before Stalin's cultural politics effectively forced it into disbandment by draining away its funding.

Ted could make a plane and its six ' pianos ' ( machine guns ) play like a symphony orchestra ," Pesky says.

In particular, it has many music programs, including its Marching 97, the Wind Ensemble and the Philharmonic orchestra.

By the time he was twenty, Mozart was able to write concerto ritornelli that gave the orchestra admirable opportunity for asserting its character in an exposition with some five or six sharply contrasted themes, before the soloist enters to elaborate on the material.

In some cases, they also brought about a new approach to the role of the soloist and its relation to the orchestra.

His creations include such masterpieces as Sergei Prokofiev's Symphony-Concerto, Dmitri Shostakovich's two cello concertos, Benjamin Britten's Cello-Symphony ( which emphasizes, as its title suggests, the equal importance of soloist and orchestra ), Henri Dutilleux ' Tout un monde lointain, Witold Lutosławski's cello concerto, Dmitri Kabalevsky's two cello concertos, Aram Khachaturian's Concerto-Rhapsody, Arvo Pärt's Pro et Contra, Alfred Schnittke, André Jolivet and Krzysztof Penderecki second cello concertos, Sofia Gubaidulina's Canticles of the Sun, Luciano Berio's Ritorno degli Snovidenia, Leonard Bernstein's Three Meditations, James MacMillan's cello concerto and Olivier Messiaen's Concert à quatre ( a quadruple concerto for cello, piano, oboe, flute and orchestra ).

This is due partly to its great efficiency in terms of sound – it covers or imitates most sections of a symphony orchestra, including the percussion which is improvised by all players on the bodies of their instruments – and the strong expressive identity it permits each individual musician.