The great pipe organs are marvels for variety of tonal coloring. The pipe organ manual has more “stops” to pull and more gadgets to work than the dash of an airplane or the control room of a submarine.
But the orchestra excels even the pipe organ in the variety of beauty of its tonal coloring and in the amazing wealth of its musical effects. The orchestra conductor can “pull stops” on the orchestra that are the envy of the organist and the despair of the organ builder.
In the lower regions he can call out the ominous thunder of the tympani, the sonorous boom of the tuba, the Plutonic mumble of the bassoon, the dark, muffled zoom of the string bass, or the sepulchral moaning of the bass clarinet.
To carry the melody or tell the story of the composition, the conductor can call upon the versatile virtuoso violin, the coloratura-soprano flute, the lyric-soprano oboe, the dramatic-soprano clarinet or the martial trumpet and piccolo.
For middle voices he can choose the tenor trombone or viola, the English horn or alto [...]

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