MUSI 018: Conducting & Orchestration (SC)

An extensive article with excellent bibliographies.

2016, 4th edition, by Samuel Adler. "Written by a renowned composer whose works have been performed by major orchestras around the world, The Study of Orchestration is the only text that explores the characteristics of orchestral instruments and shows students how a master composer approaches orchestration. The Fourth Edition invites students to experience the instruments through online audio and video recordings and now offers more coverage of writing for band."

2009, by Henry Brant. "From his childhood on, Henry Brant had undertaken a study of the existing much-admired orchestration texts (some with wide circulation). In many of them he discovered not only errors of fact, but also significant areas of omission. In consequence, many of the new works he heard at orchestral concerts were expressed in unbalanced sonorities and in timbral qualities of poor resonance. It seemed apparent to Brant that, "a set of practical guides to the actual sound of the instruments (rather than to hoped-for evocations of mystic visions) would simplify the task of conductors, instrumentalists and audiences alike." Textures and Timbres is such an effort. At age twelve (1925), Henry Brant began keeping notebooks of orchestral combinations. Over the years, he continued this practice. In the early 1940s he decided to prepare a new orchestration textbook; and its last page was not written until late 2005. Since the materials for Textures and Timbres are consistendy based on real-life experimentation, the writing necessarily occupied several decades. The process was closely interwoven with Brant's entire career, running parallel to it. He adapted the book's materials from his extensive commercial work in radio, from interactions with his orchestration classes at The Juilliard School, Columbia University and Bennington College, from his numerous orchestrations of documentary and Hollywood films, as well as from his own experimental composing and his years spent in orchestrating Charles Ives's Concord Sonata (A Concord Symphony, which was completed in 1994). Textures and Timbres is the result of a single conception that began in boyhood and continued as a lifelong pursuit: an acute interest in experimentation with orchestral combinations."

1997, by Alfred Blatter. "An accessible and complete introduction to writing and scoring music for each instrument of the orchestra. Clear explanations, vivid descriptions of various instruments, expert advice, and numerous musical examples to maximize the student's understanding of concepts being presented. A valuable resource and reference for students in their future professional endeavors, this text maximizes its usefulness beyond the classroom."

1996, by Kent Kennan and Donald Grantham. "Describes the instruments of the orchestra, supported by numerous musical examples and photos. This book contains Suggested Assignments and Suggested Listening lists following each chapter that help students master and explore subject matter. It includes chapter on writing score and parts with inclusion of material on computer notation."

1991, by Hector Berlioz. "The most influential work of its kind ever written, appraising the musical qualities and potential of over 60 commonly used stringed, wind and percussion instruments. With 150 illustrative full-score musical examples from works by Berlioz, Mozart, Beethoven, Gluck, Weber, Wagner, and others, and numerous smaller musical examples. Complete with Berlioz' chapters on the orchestra and on conducting. Translated by Theodore Front. Foreword by Richard Strauss. Glossary."

1981,by Norman Del Mar. "Before his death in 1994, Norman Del Mar was acknowledged as one of the world's foremost authorities on the orchestra. Anatomy of the Orchestra is written not only for fellow conductors, players, students, and professional musicians, but also for everyone interested in the performance of orchestral music."

1955, by Walter Piston. "Again he draws upon his own wide knowledge and experience as composer and teacher to present all phases of the subject. No practical aspect of instrumentation for the orchestra is neglected, and comprehensive treatment is given to each significant component.The author approaches orchestration from the premise that the principles can best be presented by analysis of music as it has been written.The essentials of instrument combination discussed here are those which can be observed operating in the scores of great composers from Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven down to our own day.Orchestration is notable for the clarity and logic of its organization. From a consideration of the individual instruments and their technical problems the author skillfully develops his analysis of orchestration, covering his analysis of orchestration, covering instrumentation of primary and secondary melodies, part-writing, chords, and contrapuntal techniques. Finally, he discusses typical problems in orchestration together with some examples of their solutions.Orchestration is profusely illustrated with hundreds of musical examples and with drawings of the various musical instruments that make up the modern orchestra."

1953, by Gardner Read. "The present volume is unique in that it summarizes and lists illustrations of hundreds of orchestral devices, thereby making it possible as never before for the student to survey the whole field of orchestration. It was a man-sized job, and it took Gardner Read's meticulous and persistent mind, and his composer's intimate knowledge of the orchestra and its potentialities, to carry it out successfully."

1949, by Cecil Forsyth, 2nd edition. "In this classic manual, a noted English composer describes 57 orchestral instruments (ca. 1914) tracing their origins, development, and status at the beginning of World War I. Not only are the history and evolution of each instrument fully discussed, the author also explores the techniques of each instrument, as well as players' impressions about what they must play. The result is an unparalleled insight into the inner working of an orchestra — a vivid impression of what it is like to be a violinist, clarinetist, trombonist, or other orchestral player.
While there have been numerous developments in instrumental technique on an individual basis since the book's first publication, most of what Forsyth says is still valid. Writing with wit, grace, and good sense, Forsyth created a formidably thorough, comprehensive, and informative text that has instructed and influenced generations of composers, conductors, musicians, and musicologists."

1922, by Rimsky-Korsakov. "This book, therefore, which differs from most other texts on the subject because of its tremendous wealth of musical examples and its systematic arrangement of material according to each constituent of the orchestra, will undoubtedly be of value to any music student. It is a music classic, perhaps the only book on classical orchestration written by a major composer. In it, the composer aims to provide the reader with the fundamental principles of modern orchestration from the standpoint of brilliance and imagination, and he devotes considerable space to the study of tonal resonance and orchestral combination. In his course, he demonstrates such things as how to produce a good-sounding chord of certain tone-quality, uniformly distributed; how to detach a melody from its harmonic setting; correct progression of parts; and other similar problems."