Sam Kemp ([log in to unmask]) wrote:

>I'm not sure how you define a "Symphony Orchestra", but isn't there a
>piccolo in the score of Handel's "Water Music" that predates Beethoven
>5 by about 50 years (?).  [107 years: 1717 vs 1824.  -Dave]

In this case, it signifies "orchestra used in a symphony".  Beethoven
himself had already used the piccolo in,for eample, the overture to Egmont.

>And aren't there trombones in Monteverdi's "Orfeo"? Although, that said,
>the opera house orchestra has always been different to the symphony
>orchestra (e.g.  had horns way before the SO did).

Not to mention the Magic Flute.

Deryk Barker
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