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).

The World's Greatest Symphony Orchestras

We will take a look at the World's top 20 Symphony Orchestras.

The panel, which was formed by music critics [Gramophone Magazine, the New Yorker, Los Angeles Times, Die Presse(Austria), Le Monde (France), Die Welt (Germany), and other major news companies] have considered the question from all angles:

               - judging concert performances as well as recording outputs, contributions to local and national communities and the ability to mantain iconic status in an increasingly competitive contemporary climate.

                                                                     - The Gramophone Magazine


Gramophone: World's Best Symphony Orchestra

A click on the orchestra label will redirect to their websites.

20  Czech Philharmonic


19 Saito Kinen Orchestra


18 Metropolitan Opera


17 Leipzig Gewandhaus


16 St. Petersburg Philharmonic


15 Russian National Orchestra


14 Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra


13 San Francisco Symphony


12 New York Philharmonic


11 Boston Symphony Orchestra


10 Dresden Staatskapelle


9 Budapest Festival Orchestra


8 Los Angeles Philharmonic


7 Cleveland Orchestra


6 Bavarian Radio Orchestra


5 Chicago Symphony Orchestra


4 London Symphony Orchestra


3 Vienna Philharmonic


2 Berlin Philharmonic


1 Royal Concertgebouw (Orchestra) 

 Luviu Prunaru
Concertmaster Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra







(Cesar) The question it self is very controversial but I think this a very accurate list. I would move a few orchestras down and some up, but the top 2 orchestras should definitely be Royal Concertgebouw and Berlin Phil. I am surprised that Chicago Symphony got number 5 (the first American Orchestra)of the list, the Cleveland Orchestra was my first guess for the first American Orchestra.




Is your favorite orchestra in the top 20 ????

Is "Classical Music" the Appropiate Term for the Genre?

 

What is Classical Music?

When asked the question, “what is classical music?”, elevator music comes to the minds of many people. Although it is grossly inaccurate to say that classical music is elevator music, the two terms are similar in one way. They are both a generic term applied to a type of music.

• Classical music encompasses many styles of music spanning over 700 years. The term is used colloquially to describe a variety of western musical styles from the ninth century to the present.

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  But, should we use "classical music" referring to the music of  Ludwing van Beethoven or Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky ?

 

*For me, classical music is just a period in time, when music evolved in certain ways from what it was in the baroque period. Some people call it concert music. I think that is a great term, maybe it could be instrumental music as well. But that will remind us the genres of new age and jazz. What do you think?

 

 

 

Periods of European art music

 
Early
Medieval       (500–1400)
Renaissance     (1400–1600)
Baroque     (1600–1760)
Common practice
Baroque     (1600–1760)
Classical     (1730–1820)
Romantic     (1815–1910)
Modern and contemporary
20th-century     (1900–2000)
Contemporary     (1975–present)
21st-century     (2000–present)

 

 

 

Main characteristics of the classical period 

1 Classical music has a lighter, clearer texture than Baroque music

2 Less complex. It is mainly homophonic- melody above chordal accompaniment 

3 Variety and contrast within a piece became more pronounced than before

4 The orchestra increased in size and range

5 The main kinds were sonata, trio,string quartet,symphony,concerto ,serenade and divertimento.

6 Melodies tended to be shorter than those of Baroque music, with clear-cut phrases and clearly marked cadences. 

 

 

 

 

Do you think the term "classical music" is appropriate for the genre?

Recommended:

Top 10 Symphonies You Should Own

http://classicalmusic.about.com/od/classicalmusic101/tp/symphonylist.htm