The orchestra and orchestral music — Reading Companion

A Guide for the Amateur, Not the Professional

Henderson explicitly states his intended audience: music lovers, not musicians or students. He contrasts his work with other books on the orchestra, which he says are written for professionals. This orientation shapes the entire volume. The author avoids technical jargon and instead provides descriptive passages that allow a reader to identify an instrument's tone when heard in performance. For example, he discusses the strings, wood-wind, brass, and percussion in separate chapters, each with illustrative quotations. The book also includes a chapter on the orchestral score, explaining how to read it without assuming prior knowledge.

Unanimity, Flexibility, and Light and Shade

In the excerpt on orchestral performance, Henderson emphasizes three qualities: unanimity, flexibility, and light and shade. He argues that unanimity goes beyond keeping time; it includes accent and rhythm, and he warns that without it, a composition becomes a mere color-scheme, like a kaleidoscope view. Flexibility, he says, prevents an orchestra from sounding “stiff” or “triangular,” a term he borrows from H.M.S. Pinafore. Light and shade involve gradations of force and tempo, from a pianissimo like a summer breeze to a fortissimo like a thunderstorm. These qualities, he insists, require a permanent orchestra under a competent conductor.

Historical Scope from Peri to Strauss

The book's historical sections trace the orchestra from Peri to Handel, then from Haydn to Wagner, and separately the growth of orchestral music from Bach to Haydn and from Beethoven to Richard Strauss. Henderson claims that no other book available to him contains such historical matter. The excerpts do not reveal detailed analysis, but the structure suggests a narrative of increasing complexity and expressiveness. The inclusion of Richard Strauss, a contemporary composer at the time of writing, indicates that Henderson aimed to bring the story up to date for his 1899 readers.

Readers should approach this book as a period piece that reflects late-nineteenth-century views on orchestral music. Henderson's emphasis on permanency and military accuracy in orchestral playing may seem dated, but his core concern—helping listeners hear with greater understanding—remains relevant. The book is best used alongside recordings of the works he cites, such as Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, to test his descriptions against actual performances.

There was an evening, long ago, when I sat with Henderson’s book and finally heard the oboe’s voice separate itself from the whole. It felt like a small, private unlocking. Years later, I found that same patient clarity waiting in The Pianolist: A Guide for Pianola Players — Reading Notes, a quiet hand showing me how to listen to a mechanism’s soul. Strange, how two old guides can hold the same tender secret.