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