Keyboard section

Members

• Piano: although infrequent in standard symphonic repertoire, many larger-scale works call for this instrument, and often have very important roles to play. These include Ottorino Respighi's Pines of Rome, Igor Stravinsky's Petrushka, Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story, most of Bohuslav Martinů's orchestral compositions, and many of Sergei Prokofiev and Dmitri Shostakovich's symphonies. It is more frequently found in 20th- and 21st-century pieces, such as Aaron Copland's "Hoedown" and Stravinsky's Symphony in Three Movements.
• Pipe organ or harpsichord, Edward Elgar's Enigma Variations, and Gustav Holst's suite, The Planets.
• Celesta
• Keyboard glockenspiel
• Ondes Martenot, an early electronic musical instrument invented in 1928 that creates eerie wavering notes. It is not a keyboard instrument but it is still usually placed in the keyboard section. Notable examples of its orchestral use include Olivier Messiaen's Turangalîla-Symphonie and Trois Petites Liturgies de la Présence Divine, as well as his opera Saint-François d'Assise, which requires three of the instruments.
• Synthesizer

  Less common members

• Electronic organs, such as the Hammond and Lowrey organs
• Fender Rhodes
• Harmonium
• Regal
• Accordion