GNU Collaborative International Dictionary of English

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1.       
   Orchestra (?), n. [L. orchestra, Gr. , orig., the place for the chorus of dancers, from  to dance: cf. F. orchestre.]
   1. The space in a theater between the stage and the audience; -- originally appropriated by the Greeks to the chorus and its evolutions, afterward by the Romans to persons of distinction, and by the moderns to a band of instrumental musicians.  Now commonly called orchestra pit, to distinguish it from the section of the main floor occupied by spectators.
   
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   2. The space in the main floor of a theater in which the audience sits; also, the forward spectator section of the main floor, in distinction from the parterre, which is the rear section of the main floor.
   
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   3. The place in any public hall appropriated to a band of instrumental musicians.
   
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   4. (Mus.) (a) Loosely: A band of instrumental musicians performing in a theater, concert hall, or other place of public amusement. (b) Strictly: A band suitable for the performance of symphonies, overtures, etc., as well as for the accompaniment of operas, oratorios, cantatas, masses, and the like, or of vocal and instrumental solos. (c) A band composed, for the largest part, of players of the various viol instruments, many of each kind, together with a proper complement of wind instruments of wood and brass; -- as distinguished from a military or street band of players on wind instruments, and from an assemblage of solo players for the rendering of concerted pieces, such as septets, octets, and the like.
   
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   5. (Mus.) The instruments employed by a full band, collectively; as, “an orchestra of forty stringed instruments, with proper complement of wind instruments”.
   
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