Instrumentation

[yonyz]

Hi,

I'm looking for a good book that would help me learn instrumentation, ie knowing how different instruments sound
and are being used and knowing how to combine them when composing music.

Or perhaps what I'm looking for is a book about composing?

Also, if I learn composing, would I also know more about composing for orchestra (orchestration)?

I would like to compose music for film, but I know nothing about instruments, maybe just a little about synthesizers.



Thanks in advance.

[Chester Desmond]

Here is an excellent place to start (although it's not a book, but based on one!)

http://www.northernsounds.com/forum/for ... y.php?f=77

[jancivil]

Also, if I learn composing, would I also know more about composing for orchestra (orchestration)?

You might want to look at both at the same time. You won't necessarily understand so much about instrumentation from learning to compose for piano, for instance... but you want to look at voicings compositionally at the same time as looking at an orchestral manifestation of.

[yonyz]

"voicings compositionally"?

Chester, I was about to start reading GARRITAN INTERACTIVE PRINCIPLES OF ORCHESTRATION, but in the first lesson,
this is what written:

"Instrumentation is only briefly touched upon as Rimsky-Korsakov assumed the reader already has a basic knowledge of the instruments of the orchestra. This topic is well covered in many books and many online resources. It is important to have this knowledge and if there are enough people who want to delve into instrumentation we could possibly go into more depth or cover the material in another course."

I should learn instrumentation first, before delving into orchestration.

What do you think?
Should I start with instrumentation first?

If so, what book may help me?

[jancivil]

"voicings compositionally"?

Yes. Is there a problem? You might want to look at voicings - this is a musical term which you may have no familiarity with, if so, you can look it up - during the manufacture of a composition while experimenting with how your idea (should you have one) manifests in air molecules using instruments, or what-have-you.

[jancivil]

Also, in many places there is a freely available resource called The Public Library. Check it out!

[Chester Desmond]

I should learn instrumentation first, before delving into orchestration.

What do you think?
Should I start with instrumentation first?

I am pretty much a total beginner with any kind of "official" knowledge of classical music. I found that a thorough knowledge of "instrumentation" was unnecessary to know in terms of getting something from this course.
The statement you quoted could almost be reiterated as "if you don't know what a violin or flute is, this will be way over your head". The audiovisual nature of the course takes a bit of the "threat" from this statement.
He briefly touches on each instrument as to what it is and what it's usual role is in the orchestra. In the course itself he talks alot about blending different instruments to achieve (or avoid) certain results.
Just reading this book on its own would be almost useless if you didn't have some idea of how each instrument sounds and how the printed portions of score would sound, but due to the interactive nature of this online course the audio examples and dynamic score help immensely in understanding what he is talking about.
I personally found the course to be very informative and think it will be an excellent reference for future compositions (assuming I eveer get around to it) and even as an amateur I never felt totally lost or confused while going through it.

[yonyz]

OK, after reading what Wikipedia has to say about voicings, I understand that voicing is taking a chord and changing one of it's notes.
Is that somewhat correct?

That's something I do a lot with orchestra instruments.

[jancivil]

Yes, that's a start.

Voicings, is really giving weight to this or that strand in an overall sonorous texture, in a larger sense. parts of chords is where you'd start, or in an electronic setting, one might work with the mix, 'oscillator 1' vs. 'oscillator 2 &/or 3', is voicing the patch.

There are people who might enjoy orchestration in the abstract, like you want to become an arranger or something, but you mentioned a desire to compose... I wouldn't separate the two activities.

I'd start with a very small array of instruments, even if you are approaching it virtually-speaking, and go from there.

[yonyz]

Is there a difference between arranging and composing?

When I try to compose an orchestra, I use one instrument and try to build a melody with it.
Usually I do get a melody that I really like, even if it's very simple, but I have no idea what to do with the other instruments of the orchestra.

Is it common to play a main melody that is built with more than one main instrument?
Like actually playing the different notes of the melody not with the same instrument all along?

[jancivil]

Well, in the vernacular of the music business, there is a task sometimes for a person to 'arrange', basically orchestrate, something someone else has composed, so there can be a division of labor, in that regard. Many composers have been arrangers for a living, commercially. (It's akin to 'producing', in some ways I suppose.)

There are techniques where you'd build a melody for, say, an exchange between instruments. There is a really old (pre-baroque, we're talking 15th, 16th c., earlier even) technique called 'hocketing', for instance, where the melodic line is split up among the instruments (including displaced octaves) so as to be as fragmented as possible.

A man called Maurice Ravel wrote a thing called Bolero, a great, long line, which gradually passes from (instrumental) section to section, which is an excellent study in orchestration.

If you can play piano, it would be instructive to take, eg., Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition (for solo piano) and compare it with Ravel's version for orchestra.

Or, taking a Bach suite for cello and arranging it for guitar, can be seen as an act of orchestration, really.

[yonyz]

Okay, I understand. I prefer composing, instead of using someone else's compositions.

Should I learn instrumentation before composition?

[Sascha Franck]

Okay, I understand. I prefer composing, instead of using someone else's compositions.

Should I learn instrumentation before composition?

No. At least not IMO.

A good idea might perhaps be to learn about some traditional 4-voice arranging (and voice leading), such as for a string quartet (I think it's often refered to as "choral arrangment" or so - sorry for the lack of the proper term). The good thing here is that you can play almost anything on a piano yourself (it's just 4 voices after all) and that most things translate pretty well once you use individual instruments for the voices inside (such as the mentioned string quartet, but horns should as well be fine).
There must be several books about this very subject, unfortunately I can't tell you any titles as I only learned this briefly when studying at the music university.

[yonyz]

I read about String quartet at Wikipedia, and the writer shows the form:

"The main form for the string quartet was set out by Haydn:

* 1st movement: Sonata Form, Allegro, in the tonic key;
* 2nd movement: Slow, in the subdominant key;
* 3rd movement: Minuet and Trio, in the tonic key;
* 4th movement: Sonata-Rondo form, in the tonic key."

I've read about Tonic and such terms, but I still don't understand it.

What is a tonic key?
After knowing the tonic key, how can I find the subdominant?
What is Minuet and Trio, and Sonata-Rondo?

Thank you very much for your help so far.

[mcdoma2000]

AUTO-ADMIN: Non-MP3, WAV, OGG, SoundCloud, YouTube, Vimeo, Twitter and Facebook links in this post have been protected automatically. Once the member reaches 5 posts the links will function as normal.

This site, the http://ngfl.northumberland.gov.uk/music ... ntents.htm (http://ngfl.northumberland.gov.uk/music/orchestra/contents.htm) might be a free way of learning a bit about the instruments of the orchestra...

Mark McDowell