Katana VentraIP

Instrumentation (music)

In music, instrumentation is the particular combination of musical instruments employed in a composition, and the properties of those instruments individually. Instrumentation is sometimes used as a synonym for orchestration. This juxtaposition of the two terms was first made in 1843 by Hector Berlioz in his Grand traité d'instrumentation et d'orchestration modernes, and various attempts have since been made to differentiate them. Instrumentation is a more general term referring to an orchestrator's, composer's or arranger's selection of instruments in varying combinations, or even a choice made by the performers for a particular performance, as opposed to the narrower sense of orchestration, which is the act of scoring for orchestra a work originally written for a solo instrument or smaller group of instruments.[1]

the instrument's particular , or range of timbres;

timbre

the range of available on the instrument, as well as its dynamic range;

pitches

the constraints of playing technique, such as length of breath, possible fingerings, or the average player's stamina;

the relative difficulty of particular music on that instrument (for example, repeated notes are much easier to play on the than on the piano; while trills are relatively easy on the flute, but extremely difficult on the trombone);

violin

the availability of special effects or extended techniques, such as playing, fluttertongue, or glissando;

col legno

the conventions for the instrument.

notation

Writing for any instrument requires a composer or arranger to know the instrument's properties, such as:

Petite messe solennelle (1863): twelve singers, two pianos and harmonium;

Rossini

The Carnival of the Animals (1886): flute, clarinet, glockenspiel, xylophone, 2 violins, viola, cello, double bass and two pianos;

Saint-Saens

The Soldier's Tale (1918): cornet, trombone, clarinet, bassoon, violin, double bass and percussion;

Stravinsky

Herzgewächse, Op. 20: song for high voice accompanied by celesta, harmonium and harp; Serenade, Op. 24: clarinet, bass clarinet, mandolin, guitar, violin, viola and 'cello.

Schoenberg

Chôros No. 4 (1926): three horns and trombone;

Villa-Lobos

Fête des belles eaux (1937): six ondes Martenot; Quatuor pour la fin du temps (1941): clarinet, violin, cello and piano;

Messiaen

Kreuzspiel (1951): oboe, bass clarinet, piano and four percussionists;

Stockhausen

Imaginary Landscape No. 4 (March No. 2) (1951): 12 radios, 24 players;

Cage

Le Marteau sans maître (1955): alto flute, viola, vibraphone, xylorimba, guitar and percussion; Sur Incises (1996–98): three pianos, three harps, and three percussionists;

Boulez

De Zang van Aquarius (The Song of Aquarius, 1984): eight bass clarinets.

Goeyvaerts

Concert band

Brass section

Keyboard section

Percussion section

String section

Woodwind section

Shorthand for orchestra instrumentation

instrument classification system

Hornbostel–Sachs

Kreitner, Kenneth; Térey-Smith, Mary; ; Holoman, D. Kern; Hopkins, George W.; Griffiths, Paul A.; Conrad, Jon Alan (2001). "Instrumentation and orchestration". In Sadie, Stanley J.; Tyrrell, John (eds.). The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.20404. ISBN 1-56159-239-0.

Westrup, Jack A.

(1997). "Schubert's inflections of Classical form". In Gibbs, Christopher H. (ed.). The Cambridge companion to Schubert. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. pp. 72–98. doi:10.1017/CCOL9780521482295.006. ISBN 9781139002172.

Rosen, Charles W.

(2003). Late Beethoven: music, thought, imagination. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. ISBN 9780520243392.

Solomon, Maynard E.

Stauffer, George B. (2003). Bach, the Mass in B minor: the great Catholic Mass. Yale Music Masterworks. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.  9780300099669.

ISBN

Berlioz, Hector (1948). , Enlarged and Revised by Richard Strauss, Including Berlioz' Essay "On Conducting", translated by Theodore Front. New York: E. F. Kalmus.

Treatise on Instrumentation

Blatter, Alfred (1997). Instrumentation and Orchestration (2nd ed.). New York City, NY: Schirmer Books.  9780028645704.

ISBN

(1918). Practical Manual of Instrumentation. Boston, MA: The Boston Music Company.

Borch, Gaston

Perone, James E. (1996). Orchestration Theory: A Bibliography. Music Reference Collection. Vol. 52. Westport, CT: . ISBN 0-313-29596-4. LCCN 95-52948.

Greenwood Press

(1877). Instrumentation. London; Boston: Novello, Ewer and Co; Ditson. OCLC 1019663. (Reprint New York: Haskell House, 1969)

Prout, Ebenezer

, ed. (1986) [1944]. "Instrumentation". The New Harvard Dictionary of Music (3rd ed.). Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press. p. 397. ISBN 0-674-61525-5. LCCN 86-4780.

Randel, Don Michael

(1986) [1944]. "Instrumentation". In Randel, Don Michael (ed.). The New Harvard Dictionary of Music (3rd ed.). Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press. p. 575–577. ISBN 0-674-61525-5. LCCN 86-4780.

Rouse, Christopher