Orchestration

What is Orchestration?

     Orchestration is the study or practice of writing music for an orchestra or for any musical ensemble. An orchestrator have the entire orchestra in his head. He knows every single instrument, their ranges, how they blend with each other, and especially how to combine the instruments wisely so that they have the perfect balance in volume. Often, composers write a piano version or a small instrumentation of what is later going to be a full orchestra piece. They focus in the music, the art of creating it and the inspiration. Composers don't want do be thinking what blends well or if the orchestra is to loud. After the writing process is done, they start orchestrating the music. In film music they have orchestrators waiting for the composer to hand the original ideas. Studios often have several orchestrators so that the process can be fast. We have to keep in mind that in this business everything is about time.

Ennio Morricone (film composer) was asked at a seminar why he doesn't hire an orchestrator, his response was, "Did Beethoven need an orchestrator? Did Bach?"

Orchestration is a form of compositional art. One can orchestrate a piece a million different ways. Which is the right way???






    Great Orchestration Books

• Michael Praetorius (1619): Syntagma musicum volume two, De Organographia.
• Valentin Roeser (1764): Essai de l'instruction à l'usage de ceux, qui composent pour la clarinette et le cor.
• Hector Berlioz (1844): Grand traité d’instrumentation et d’orchestration modernes (Treatise on Instrumentation).
• François-Auguste Gevaert (1863): Traité general d’instrumentation.
• Charles-Marie Widor (1904) : Technique de l’orchestre moderne (Manual of Practical Instrumentation).
• Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov (1912): Основы оркестровки (Principles of Orchestration).
• Cecil Forsyth (1914): Orchestration.
• Alfredo Casella: (1950) La Tecnica dell'Orchestra Contemporanea.
• Charles Koechlin (1954–9): Traité de l'Orchestration (4 vols).
• Walter Piston (1955): Orchestration.
• Samuel Adler (1982, 1989, 2002): The Study of Orchestration
• Alfred Blatter (1997) : Instrumentation and Orchestration (Second edition).