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 constraints of playing technique, such as length of breath, possible fingerings, or the average player's stamina;
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:
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
Fête des belles eaux (1937): six ondes Martenot; Quatuor pour la fin du temps (1941): clarinet, violin, cello and piano;
Messiaen
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
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
, 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.