Woodwind section

The woodwind section, which consists of woodwind instruments, is one of the main sections of an orchestra or concert band. Woodwind sections contain instruments given Hornbostel-Sachs classifications of 421 (edge-blown aerophones, commonly known as flutes) and 422 (reed aerophones), but exclude 423 (brass instruments).

The woodwind section of the late 19th-century symphony orchestra (for instance, in compositions by Wagner, Brahms, Bruckner, Tchaikovsky, and Richard Strauss) typically includes: flutes (sometimes with one doubling piccolo), oboes (sometimes with one doubling cor anglais), clarinets (sometimes with one doubling bass clarinet and/or another doubling E-flat clarinet), bassoons (sometimes with one doubling contrabassoon). The section might also on occasion be supplemented with saxophones. In the early part of the 20th century the woodwinds (as well as other sections) were often considerably expanded. For example, Mahler in his Symphony No. 8 (1910) employs 2 piccolos, 4 flutes, 4 oboes, cor anglais, 2 E-flat clarinets, 3 B-flat clarinets, bass clarinet, 4 bassoons, and contrabassoon. After World War I, the number of instruments was often reduced, approaching the size of a chamber orchestra, with individual instrument combinations differing for each composition. The change can be illustrated by comparing two works by Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring (1911–1913) with a large woodwinds section similar to the above and his Histoire du soldat (1918), which only utilizes one clarinet and one bassoon.

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