After Mozart introduced the clarinet into the Orchestra, it rapidly became a favorite solo-instrument. At the beginning of the Nineteenth Century Germany had two splendid clarinet-players,—Hermstedt of Sondershausen, for whom Spohr composed, and Baermann of Munich, with whom Weber gave concerts, as we have seen,[72] and wrote special music. Weber learned much from the latter about the resources of this instrument; and Weber is the composer, _par excellence_, of the clarinet. Next to the clarinet, Weber loved the horns. He made them most poetic. With Beethoven four horns and three trombones had been exceptional. With Weber this number became the rule. Weber was also fond of subdividing the violins. “As an interpreter of nature Weber’s position in the dramatic world is like that of Beethoven in the Symphony. Nobody has ever depicted with the same truth as he a sultry moonlight night the stillness broken only by the nightingale’s trill and the solemn murmur of the trees, as in Agathe’s grand _scene_ in _Der Freischütz_; or a gruesome night scene in the gloomy forest ravine such as that in the Finale of the 2d Act. With this descriptive faculty went hand in hand consummate skill in orchestration. There is something original and intoxicating in the sound he brings out of the Orchestra, a complete simplicity combined with perfect novelty. He was able, as it were, to _transport himself into the soul of the instruments_ and make them talk to us like human beings, each in its own language, each speaking when it alone has power to lay bare the very heart of the action. “The phrase ‘local coloring’ in music may be defined as that which conjures up before our minds the associations connected with certain scenes, races and epochs. In the _Freischütz_ the prevailing color was derived from the life of the German foresters and huntsmen; in _Preciosa_ we have the charm of the south in lovely Spain, then the type of all that was romantic, with the picturesque life of the roving gipsy. _Euryanthe_ takes us back to the Middle Ages and the palmy days of French chivalry which reappear to some extent in _Oberon_ mingled with scenes from Oriental life and from fairyland. Weber’s melody, the chords of his harmony, the figures employed, the effects of color so totally unexpected—all combine to waft us with mysterious power into an unknown land.”[73] Schubert’s gift to the Orchestra was his _novel way of writing for the trombones and for his use of the woodwind_. He gave a conversational treatment of oboe, flute and clarinet. This does not mean to say that he did not also write beautifully for the strings.