By the end of the nineteenth century, or early in the twentieth, every self-respecting city in Europe or North America expected to have an orchestra of its own, playing regularly in a purpose-built concert hall or civic hall. Some, like the Vienna Philharmonic, the Dresden State Symphony or the Leipzig Gewandhaus, continued long traditions (Dresden can claim continuity from the time of Heinrich Schütz’s, 1585–1672); others were the proud creations of new industrial cities, such as the Cleveland Orchestra or the Hallé Orchestra (Manchester), and some were organized by concert societies (as in Paris). As radio developed, many radio stations in larger cities set up their own orchestras, and opera houses employed their own. In the middle of the century, many chamber orchestras, of between 15 and 30 players, came into existence – partly in reaction to the overblown Romantic orchestra, partly on economic grounds, partly because they seemed more suitable for pre-Romantic music anyway; and in the late twentieth century, orchestras of period instruments were established to play earlier music in a style and producing a sound closer to that envisaged by the composer.

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