Best Orchestration Text book?

[bnlsrv]

Thanks to all of you for your input and advice. What a helpful forum this is! :) Alan Belkin referred to some orchestration books by Rimsky, etc. I need to get one. What is everyones preference?
Have a good New Year, and thanks for all the help. It will be so nice to get what I'm hearing in my head on paper and into GPO!

Regarding the sound card on a previous post - I decided on the Sound Blaster Audigy 4 (most bang for the buck) For what it's worth, I'll give you my unbiased opinion about it when I get it in a few days, though my tastes may not be as discriminating as all of yours. Now I need a good set of speakers for my limited space. Thinking 2.1 format, with digital inputs.

[EverlastingMan]

I don't know if there is a "best," but I own three and I've learned something from all of them.

I have Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's "Principles of Orchestration" - an excellent work, made all the more useful if you own a fair amount of his music on CD (since so many of the examples in the book are from his own music).

Cecil Forsyth's "Orchestration" is quite comprehensive if somewhat dated (but that can really be said for all of these books - the ideas certainly aren't new but they are still worth learning). Forsyth also had a sense of humor that comes through in his writing.

And finally I own Walter Piston's "Orchestration" which should (IMHO) be in everyone's library. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I think I go back to it for reference more than the others.

- Jonathan

[ZeroZero]

I would strongly recommend that you get Samuel Adler's 'The Study of Orchestration'. It's a fine work, very thorough, and most of the score fragment examples can be auditioned by using his 6 CD set of real orchestral fragments. In this CD set (which costs a bit) there are also video clips of bowings and other instrument articulations - 'in the flesh' so to speak. If this was not enough, also there is a workbook available. All items purchasable seperately.
If even this is not enough, and most importantly, expect to hear some news on this forum soon -(ish) there is a little pot of ideas boiling..but you know what Zero says... nothing

- yet.

Zero

[bnlsrv]

[QUOTE=ZeroZero]I would strongly recommend that you get Samuel Adler's 'The Study of Orchestration'. It's a fine work, very thorough, and most of the score fragment examples can be auditioned by using his 6 CD set of real orchestral fragments.
Thank you for the advice. I will start looking on the internet for the mentioned books / packages.

Awesome forum for a newbie like me! :)

[gugliel]

Everlastingman, above, named my three top orchestration books, and in just the right order. The others imo are much less valuable.

[rwayland]

I don't know if there is a "best," but I own three and I've learned something from all of them.

I have Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's "Principles of Orchestration" - an excellent work, made all the more useful if you own a fair amount of his music on CD (since so many of the examples in the book are from his own music).

Cecil Forsyth's "Orchestration" is quite comprehensive if somewhat dated (but that can really be said for all of these books - the ideas certainly aren't new but they are still worth learning). Forsyth also had a sense of humor that comes through in his writing.

And finally I own Walter Piston's "Orchestration" which should (IMHO) be in everyone's library. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I think I go back to it for reference more than the others.

- Jonathan


That's the ones! Forsythe is very good on strings, does a grand job of explaining what stops are possible, what types of passages are unplayable and why, far better than the others, each of which have their own virtues. Where he is outdated is such things as the double french horn. Piston covers this well. For strings, I rely heavily on Forsythe, and won't write any more for strings until I have studied this thoroughly and freqently.

These three books seem to be the most widely appreciated and used. They are all within easy reach for me when I am working music.

Richard

[danpowers]

Kent Kennan's book is often overlooked, which is a pity. Also Andrew Stiller's "Handbook of Instrumentation," which is hard to find but worth the search.

[Mosquito]

Has anyone read Paul Gilreath's The guide to MIDI Orchestration (http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/MidiOrchBook/).
Sounds like it's very good, at 700 pages, and includes both GPO and EWQLSO.
But $70 is a quite a lot for a book though. :(

[ZeroZero]

Yes I've got Gilreath its excellent in its way but not a work on orchestration as such - well worth a look.

[Mosquito]

Yes I've got Gilreath its excellent in its way but not a work on orchestration as such - well worth a look.

Please explain further. What is it then?

[ZeroZero]

"What is it then?" Mosquito.

Sorry, haven't got the hang of this <QUOTE> thing.

Here's a link to his site: http://www.musicworks-atlanta.com/Guide-to-MIDI-Orchestration-Introduction.html.

Its the best place to go for details.

My opinion - it was a real help framing in my head all the numerous issues with daw orchestration. The stuff on VST's has a shelf life unavoidably. A good MIDI/Orchestra 'all rounder' text.

[Mosquito]

"What is it then?" Mosquito.

Sorry, haven't got the hang of this <QUOTE> thing.

Here's a link to his site: http://www.musicworks-atlanta.com/Guide-to-MIDI-Orchestration-Introduction.html.

Its the best place to go for details.

My opinion - it was a real help framing in my head all the numerous issues with daw orchestration. The stuff on VST's has a shelf life unavoidably. A good MIDI/Orchestra 'all rounder' text.

Just press the "quote" button on top.
:p
Yes, I've been to that site. Just thought I'd like a review. Thanks.

[galvedro]

Just press the "quote" button on top.
:p
Yes, I've been to that site. Just thought I'd like a review. Thanks.
I own the third revision of the book. It's quite complete for people who are making orchestra mockups. It passes through a few orchestration tips, but not as consistently as any other orchestration book mentioned above (Alder, Korsakov, Forsyth and Piston's). It is assumed that you know how to write for an orchestra.

It covers sequencing techniques for every section, and underlines common mistakes that people usually make. It also has a couple of chapters dealing with existing libraries and fx plugins, more in the descriptive side. I don't find them very useful, IMO are more suitable for a technical magazine or online reviews than for a book, but anyway, there they are.

Overall I find it a very good book. If you're an experienced "mockuper" you will not find anything new. If you are starting with the orchestra thing, but know what MIDI is, and how a to work with your DAW, then this book ESSENTIAL for you.

Just my oppinion :)

Anton

[Gerald Berg]

Andrew Stiller's Handbook of Orchestration
is very good too.
Generally, you can't have too many orchestration books -- they make good bedtime reading.

A gem I gleaned from Rimsky's is that the orchestra is divided into 5 groups.

I'll leave you to find the fifth column.

Jerry

[Mosquito]

I own the third revision of the book. It's quite complete for people who are making orchestra mockups. It passes through a few orchestration tips, but not as consistently as any other orchestration book mentioned above (Alder, Korsakov, Forsyth and Piston's). It is assumed that you know how to write for an orchestra.

It covers sequencing techniques for every section, and underlines common mistakes that people usually make. It also has a couple of chapters dealing with existing libraries and fx plugins, more in the descriptive side. I don't find them very useful, IMO are more suitable for a technical magazine or online reviews than for a book, but anyway, there they are.

Overall I find it a very good book. If you're an experienced "mockuper" you will not find anything new. If you are starting with the orchestra thing, but know what MIDI is, and how a to work with your DAW, then this book ESSENTIAL for you.

Just my oppinion :)

Anton

Sounds good to me. I know very little about orchestration, but know MIDI and everything DAW related like the back of my hand.

[openhands]

I got the William Russo's Composing Music a year back and for a beginner like me it's been a good read. It contains a lot of exercises, so everything taught in the book can be put to practise immediately and it starts out with really the very basics and progresses in a more or less logic way to the more complicated stuff.

[Garritan]

bnlsrv,

Not sure if there is a "best" orchestration text book. It is best to read all the major classic orchestration texts if you want to learn about orchestration. In doing so, you'll probably find your favorite (and learn an awful lot about orchestration too!).

Gary Garritan