Monteverde was the first to see that a preponderance of strings is necessary to ensure a proper balance of tone. With the per fected models of the Cremona violins at his disposal, a quartet of strings was established and all other stringed instruments not played with the bow were ejected from the orchestra, with the ex ception of the harp. Under the influence of Monteverde and his successors, Cavalli and Cesti, the orchestra won for itself a separate existence with music and laws of its own. As instruments were improved, new ones introduced, and old ones abandoned in strumentation became a new and favourite study in Italy and in Germany, and musicians began to find out the capabilities of the various families of instruments and their individual value.
At first the orchestra was an aristocratic luxury, performing privately at the courts of the princes and nobles of Italy; but in the 17th century performances were given in theatres, and Ger many eagerly followed. Dresden, Munich and Hamburg succes sively built opera houses, while in England opera flourished under Purcell, and in France under Lully, who, with the collaboration of Moliere, also greatly raised the status of the entertainments known as ballets, interspersed with instrumental and vocal music.
The revival of the drama seems to have exhausted the enthu siasm of Italy for instrumental music and the field of action was shifted to Germany, where the perfecting of the orchestra was continued. Most German princes had at the beginning of the 18th century good private orchestras or Kapelle, and they always endeavoured to secure the services of the best available instru mentalists. Kaiser, Telemann, Graun, Mattheson and Handel con tributed greatly to the development of German opera and of the orchestra in Hamburg during the first quarter of the century. Bach, Gluck and Mozart, the reformers of opera; Haydn, the father of the modern orchestra and the first to treat it inde pendently as a power opposed to the solo and chorus, by scoring for the instruments in well-defined groups; Beethoven, who in dividualized the instruments, writing solo passages for them; Weber, who brought the horn and clarinet into prominence ; Schu bert, who inaugurated the conversations between members of the wood wind—all left their mark on the orchestra, leading the way up to Wagner, Strauss and their successors.