(n.) 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.
(n.) The place in any public hall appropriated to a band of
instrumental musicians.
(n.) Loosely: A band of instrumental musicians performing in
a theater, concert hall, or other place of public amusement.
(n.) 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.
(n.) 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.
(n.) The instruments employed by a full band, collectively;
as, an orchestra of forty stringed instruments, with proper complement
of wind instruments.
