Comparison and Contrast of Orchestras and Marching Bands

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Peyton Bennett Ms. Romine English III Dual Enrollment 28 October 2013 Marching Band & Orchestra Music can be expressed in many different forms, two of which, marching band and orchestra, are highly differentiated by the means of how they are portrayed to the audience. There are subtle differences and there are differences that are more obvious to the viewer and listener. For instance, marching bands are physically adept to their performance. The bands move across the football field in a manner that is suited to keep the music flowing as if they were sitting down and playing, just as the orchestras do, in order to keep a solid effect on the audience. A marching band’s music is typically more fast paced and exciting to hear and see, compared to the orchestra’s more monumental and strident sounds. An orchestra’s music is often used in movie soundtracks because of the wide variety of sounds they can produce. A large part of the reason that orchestra has such a wide range in a stylistic sense is because it has a larger variety of instruments. Whereas marching band only has percussion, brass, and woodwinds. Orchestra’s added string sections add more flavor to the equation, being able to generate effects and sounds like plucking and even sometimes singing. Viola’s add a soft tone to the piece, and the cellos thicken up the sound with heavy moving bass lines. Marching band also contains a bass element used to maintain balance, the low brass section. Most of the same brass instruments are used in orchestra, but there are a few different versions of the low brass instruments used to make marching across the field easier. Such as the contra and the sousaphone, both of which are used in place of a regular tuba. There is also the mellophone, which replaces the horn (also known as the French horn). The euphonium is used to replace the smaller version of a tuba, a

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