String orchestra String orchestra A string orchestra is an orchestra consisting solely of a string section made up of the bowed strings used in Western Classical music. The instruments of such an orchestra are most often the following: the violin, which is divided into first and second violin players (each usually playing different parts), the viola, the cello, and usually, but not always, the double bass. String orchestras can be of chamber orchestra size ranging from between 12 (4 first violins, 3 second violins, 2 violas, 2 cellos and 1 bass = 12) and 21 musicians (6 first violins, 5 second violins,
String Quintet (Bruckner) In a letter to the Florian priest and Regens Chori Ignaz Traumihler Bruckner reports on the completion of his string quintet) and at the same time hopes for the premiere by Josef Hellmesberger: "My quintet is ready! Hofkapellm (dialect). Hellmesberger is completely out of joint with joy, u wills perform. He's totally changed, u is huge." In fact, Hellmesberger had hesitated with the premiere. The Bruckner biographer August Göllerich notes: "As with the genius of any impression is converted into a gigantic, Bruckner seems to have taken even some authoritative words of Hellmesberger on the now completed quintet too seriously."