Orchestra, instrumental ensemble of varying size and composition. Although applied to various ensembles found in Western and non-Western music, orchestra in an unqualified sense usually refers to the typical Western music ensemble of bowed stringed instruments complemented by wind and percussion instruments that, in the string section at least, has more than one player per part. The word stems from the Greek orchēstra, the circular part of the ancient Greek theatre in front of the proscenium in which the dancers and instrumentalists performed.
