Modern Orchestration And Instrumentation PDF Download

An excerpt from the INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ON INSTRUMENTATION. Instrumentation consists of the art of combining the instruments in such a way that they will assist and enrich the melody, besides lending strength, volume, and tonal coloring to the harmony. It furthermore brings about a clear and systematic grouping of the various instruments, with particular attention that the different tonal-colors are most effectively contrasted and blended, in order that a composition will be transmitted to the ear in an equally clear, concise, and pleasing manner. This art requires great skill and experience, and even greater taste, on the part of the composer; it is a science, the methods of which are well-known and teachable, but which, above all, is principally dependent upon the imaginative powers of the writer. The score of an instrumental composition offers endless variety and diversity; its contents may present themselves alternately in a terrible, tremendously-strong, soft, playful, clumsy and light, brilliant or dull, dramatic or romantic, impulsive or quiet, sad or frivolous way, exactly according to the idea the composer wishes to express. Every instrument possesses its particular tonal-color, peculiar to itself; sometimes more than one coloring can be obtained, according to the different registers employed. If the instruments are grouped in different ways an endless variety of combinations can be obtained; but to begin with, it is highly necessary and of greatest importance to study the tonal-range and the different registers of every instrument in order to know exactly what will sound good or bad, whether this or that passage can be executed upon an instrument, in short, we must understand to write in such an appropriate manner, that the beautiful and particular characteristics of every individual instrument will appear to best advantage....