ORATORY 



Oratory, CONGREGATION OF THE. 

 Roman Catholic congregation of 

 priests, founded at Florence in 

 1556 by S. Philip Neri, popularly 

 known as the Oratorians (q.v.). 



Orbit. Bony socket which con- 

 tains the eye (q.v.). 



Orbit. In astronomy, the path 

 of a heavenly body. The orbits of . 

 planets or satellites round their 

 primaries are ellipses, save for 

 perturbations due to the effect of 

 other heavenly bodies; the orbits 

 of comets are ellipses, parabolas, 

 or hyperbolas. See Nodes. 



Orcagna. Name sometimes 

 given to the Italian sculptor 

 Andrea di Cione (q.v.). 



Orchard. Plot of land devoted 

 to the cultivation of fruit trees, 

 especially standard apples, pears, 

 cherries, and plums, cultivated in 

 turf. The best situation for an or- 

 chard is one which slopes gently 

 S. or S.W., and is sheltered from 

 N- and N.E. gales. Shelter may 

 be afforded by the establishment 

 of a screen of walnuts, chestnuts, 

 and other nuts, followed by an 

 inside ring of the hardier cooking 

 apples, and so on down the slope. 

 The best soil for the cultivation of 

 fruit is a deep, rich, moist loam 

 resting upon a subsoil of chalk or 

 gravel. A heavy clay subsoil at the 

 roots of fruit trees retains the 

 moisture in a stagnant form, and is 

 liable to introduce canker and other 

 diseases. The trees should be 

 planted 25-30 ft. apart every way, 

 in quincunx style, i.e. in straight 

 lines, but so that no tree is exactly 

 opposite its neighbour in the next 

 row. Sheep and poultry turned 

 into an orchard provide valuable 

 manure, but cattle must be kept 

 out, as they cause great damage, 

 especially in newly established 

 orchards. See Fruit-farming. 



Orchard House. General name 

 given to glass-houses, usually of 

 the lean-to or three-quarter span 

 variety, devoted to the culture of 

 fruit. The varieties of fruit most 

 suitable for orchard-house culture 

 are apples, apricots, cherries, figs, 

 grapes, peaches (including nectar- 

 ines), pears, and plums. Orchard 

 houses may at all times be used, 

 between seasons, for catch crops 

 of salads and other similar surface- 

 rooting subjects. See Fruit Farm- 

 ing ; Greenhouse. 



Orchardson, Sm WILLIAM 

 QUILLEE (1835-1910). British 

 painter. Born in Edinburgh, March 

 27, 1835, he studied at the 

 Trustees' Academy, and settled in 

 London in 1862. He became 

 A.R.A. in 1868, R.A. in 1877, and 

 was knighted in 1907. He painted 

 historical genre with a definite 

 aesthetic motive; but the oft- 

 repeated brown tone of his pictures 



5864 



later developed into a mannerism. 

 As a portraitist he steadily in- 

 creased his reputation up to the 

 year o f his 

 death, which 

 took place at 

 Wes tgate-on- 

 Sea, April 13, 

 1910, the Lord 

 Blyth, his last 

 portrait, being 

 one of his finest 

 works. See 

 Art ; consult 

 also The 

 of Orchard- 

 son, W. Arm- 

 strong, 1895. 

 Orchestra. 



EIHOU Fry 

 Musical term. 



Originally it meant only the plat- 

 form or staging to accommodate 

 the band and chorus, and other 

 performers. This use of the word 

 comes from the Greek theatre, 

 where the orchestra was the place 

 for music and dancing (Gr. orcheis- 

 thai, to dance) between the 

 audience and the proscenium. 

 Later the word was applied to the 

 orchestral band, both players and 

 instruments. 



Orchestral Band. Group of 

 instruments, including strings, 

 wood-wind, brass, and percussion, 

 commonly called the orchestra. 

 The earliest attempts at forming 

 such a band as we now know by 

 this name were made about 1600, 

 in which year, at Rome, Cavaliere's 

 oratorio, The Representation of the 

 Soul and the Body, had an orches- 

 tra consisting of a double lyre or viol 

 di gamba, a harpsichord, a double 

 guitar or bass lute, and two flutes. 



Later in the same year, at 

 Florence, Peri's opera, Eurydice, 

 had an accompaniment of a harpsi- 

 chord, a large guitar, a great lyre or 

 viol di gamba, and a large lute ; 

 three flutes were also used in one 

 pastoral scene. Monteverde's 

 opera, Orfeo, at Mantua, in 1608, 

 snowed a great advance, for the 

 orchestra contained two harpsi- 

 chords, two bass viols, ten tenor 

 viols, one double harp, two small 

 French violins, then new, two 

 large guitars, two " organs of 

 wood," two viole di gamba, four 

 trombones, one regal, two cor- 

 netti, one little octave flute, one 

 clarion, and three muted trumpets. 

 Notwithstanding the great display 

 made on this and similar occasions, 

 the real art of instrumentation long 

 remained in an infantile condition. 

 The sense of orchestral colour was 

 not yet developed among music- 

 ians, and it required a full century 

 to organize a permanent basis. 



Successive stages have been as 

 follows : (1) the period of Purcell, 

 Bach, and Handel (1660-1750), 

 strings in two, three, or four parts 



i ORCHID 



reinforced by hautboys and bas- 

 soons, together with a background 

 of harpsichord or organ tone, and 

 occasional use of obbligato wind 

 parts ; (2) the period of Haydn 

 Mozart, and Beethoven (1750- 

 1827), when the strings were per- 

 manently established as the found- 

 ation of four-part harmony, with 

 wood-wind, horns, trumpets, tim- 

 pani, and trombones (somewhat 

 rarely) for brilliancy and colouring ; 

 (3) the modern period since Beet- 

 hoven's death, when there has been 

 a gradual piling up of all avaiLible 

 effects. The instruments named in 

 the article Full Score sufficed for 

 the greatest needs of the composers 

 down to about 1850. Since then 

 the numbers of these instruments 

 have been increased, and cor ang- 

 lais, saxophones, tenor tubas, and 

 various other sound producers have 

 been added. See the articles In- 

 strumentation and Orchestra in The 

 Oxford History of Music, ed. W. H. 

 Hadow, 1901 ; and in The Diction- 

 ary of Music, G. Grove, 1904-10. 



Orchestration OR INSTRUMEN- 

 TATION. In music, the art of plan- 

 ning music for the orchestra, 

 allotting to each instrument its 

 most suitable duties in view of 

 both its tone and its technique. 

 See Full Score ; Instrumentation ; 

 Orchestral Band ; consult also A 

 Treatise on Modern Instrumenta- 

 tion, H. Berlioz, Eng. trans. M. C. 

 Clarke, new ed. 1904. 



Orchha OR URCHHA. Native 

 state and town in Bundelkhand, 

 Central India. The state lies be- 

 tween the Jamm and Dhasan 

 rivers between Jhansi and Chhatar- 

 pur. Its area is 2,080 sq. m. Pop. 

 330,000. The town, the former 

 capital of the state, is situated on 

 the Betwa. An imposing fortress 

 is connected with the town by a 

 wooden bridge. Pop. 4,000. 



Orchid (Orchidaceae). Extensive 

 natural order of herbs, growing in 

 the ground or on trees (epiphytes). 

 The terrestrial species have bunches 

 of fleshy roots or tubers ; the 

 epiphytes often have the lower 

 part of the stem much thickened 

 (pseudo-bulb). The flowers are 

 either solitary, or form spikes, 

 sprays, or clusters. They are irre- 

 gular, and consist of three coloured 

 sepals and three petals, of which 

 the two laterals are alike, but the 

 third (labellum or lip) is usually 

 larger, and the base often ends in 

 a hollow spur. There is a single 

 stamen, united with the style to 

 form the column. The pollen 

 forms pear-shaped masses (pol- 

 linia) whose stalk (caudicle) ter- 

 minates in a sticky gland. The 

 minute, spindle-shaped seeds are 

 contained in a three-valved cap- 

 sule. They are natives of all parts 



