Artsedge: The Kitchen Sink

Hundreds of years ago, the world was introduced to the orchestra. It was love at first sound. Everyone was captivated by the never-before-heard sounds of some 20 to 100 musicians playing together. Before the orchestra, classical music was for groups of three (trios) or four (quartets)—tops! The invention of this much bigger musical group meant bigger musical possibilities, and the world’s imagination went wild. Composers all across Europe were inspired to try their hand at creating symphonies for the orchestra and pushing classical music to new limits. Next stop: Austria!