what role did the snare drum play in the orchestra.?

Answer 1

Historically, the symphony (from the Latin sym = same and phone = sound, hence 'same-sound') was a choir of different members of the violin family.

The earliest orchestras, from the Baroque 15 and 1600s, were made up of whatever instruments the composer wanted (one of Bach's Brandenburg Concertos doesn't even have any violins!).

In the classicist style of the 1700s, the improved violins and cellos (thanks, Stradavarius and Amati and Guanari etc.) became the backbone of the symphony orchestra. Earliest symphonies would have nothing but violins, a continuo (piano or harpsichord), and rarely a couple of other instruments--flutes, oboes, etc.--for coloration.

Operatic orchestras, on the other hand, continued more in the Baroque tradition, using a wide range of instruments--though the violin family became the backbone of the operatic orchestra as well.

The variety of instruments in the symphony orchestra increased slowly through the 1700s. The first to expand it significantly was Mozart, which might be expected from a composer whose greatest success was in popular opera; his most notable addition was the clarinet. Beethoven pretty much blew the field wide open, including for the first time trombones, bass drum, and cymbals.

But we're not going to find the snare drum in the symphony until the Romantic style of the 1800s. Usually it winds up mimicking a march, as in Hector Berlioz' Symphonie Fantastique's "March to the Gallows" or in Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture. Otherwise it makes a pretty nice noise-maker when a fortissimo is desired.

Maybe the most famously infectious snare-drum part for a symphony orchestra would be in Ravel's Bolero.

That's what role the snare drum played (past tense) in the symphony, digested down to a few paragraphs to fit Yahoo! answers. It might make a terrific master's thesis for a music historian--

Answer 2

You mean DOES the snare drum play?

It's a percussion instrument. Therefore it will be with all the other drums - the cymbals, timpani, bass drum etc. - and the Piano! Yes, pianos are percussion instruments.

OK try to listen to any Strauss waltz/march/polka without a snare - or Bolero by Ravel or just about any symphony or or or or....

A good drummer is worth his weight in gold!