Applied Orchestration

TOR / Teaching / Recommended External Content

An online (and PDF) orchestration textbook by Professor Alan Belkin, with audio examples.

“What is orchestration? For our purposes, orchestration follows instrumentation, where the student learns how instruments work, and what is idiomatic for each one. The common conception of orchestration as assigning timbres to lines is very inadequate. Timbre is a potent aspect of musical character. Using it effectively requires much knowledge about texture – the ways in which musical strands can be combined – and how changes of timbre affect our perception of musical form. There is in fact no area of music that is not dependant on timbre: It impinges even on the most elementary harmony exercise. The tension of an appogiatura will change drastically, depending on whether it is for voices, strings, or piano. Our definition of orchestration here will therefore be: Composing with timbres. Most of our discussion here will focus on how orchestration can be used to enhance various musical situations.”

https://alanbelkinmusic.com/site/en/index.php/orchestration/