Online Course: GARRITAN INTERACTIVE PRINCIPLES OF ORCHESTRATION by Rimsky-Korsakov

[Garritan]

What do you think of this format for the course:

EDIT: Deleted since some browsers caused all the examples to play at once resulting in a cacophony and causing seizures.

We'll try to correct it.

[Rhap2]

Gary:

OUTSTANDING

Jack

[snorlax]

Gary,

EGAD, he said, mimicing a viola player trying (and failing) to remember the names of the strings, this is amazing!!!!! I don't log in for a day or so & look what I miss!!

Count me in if you wish as a beta learner AND I can contribute some knowledge of at least one instrument sometimes used in orchestras after R-K's time, and I am probably one of a half-dozen people here who knows what instrument Ravel REALLY had in mind for Bydlo in Pictures at an Exhibition and who knows which "tuba" parts were really ophecleide parts. (or who knows what an ophecleide is.

PS: NEXT STEP=GARY LINDSAY'S JAZZ ARRANGING TEXT

Jim

[KeithW]

Gary:

OUTSTANDING

Jack

DITTO! For those of us late-forties-who-should-have-gotten-a-music-degree-while-still-college-age types, this is utterly fantastic. And, while you're at it, maybe you can get Tom to convince Gary Lindsay to do a JABB version of his textbook.

The format is great, too.

Keith Walls

[ALynn]

As amazing as this is, and as wonderful a tool it will be for many people, I can't help but fulfill my civic duty as a horn player and thus point out that the R-K Principles are somewhat outdated in many respects, especially in regards to brass technique.

As much as I enjoy listening to R-K's music, he never was very fond of the horn for whatever reason and often neglected it entirely. Must have been some sub-par hornists in Russia in his heyday.

Perhaps a disclaimer could be issued: "Warning: G. Mahler and R. Strauss would disagree with much of Nikolai's opinions on this instrument."

Kidding aside, I vote for the thumbnails to open in a new window. My browser is wanting to play all of the examples on the page at the same time in the newest version you posted with the embeded scores. It's like "An American (namely Charles Ives) in St. Petersburg" on PC...

[valhalx]

OK, so I came here with the intention of seeing what's new then doing a Google for music theory. What do I find? Gary's putting the Rimsky-Korsakov text online in an interactive format. Fantastic! Gary, one more brilliant idea like this and someone will have to give you an honorary degree in genius. I just hope all of the future posts in the Listening Room don't take on a Rimsky-Korsakov flavor, LOL. I think the format with the large score (as opposed to thumbnails) is much preferable.
Bill

[etLux]

What do you think of this format for the course(?)

<NITPICKING>

I would suggest staying with the Georgia font (rather than sans serif) for the GPO Exercise sections, at full text size. These I find very difficult to read, as is; yet these are the sections readers will need to examine in detail and with the greatest ease, I think.

In the forum page presentation, text also runs out of page [divisional layer clipping] on the right in some places (at least on my 1024-pixel-wide screen). Presumably, in a regular web page designed for this, that would not be a problem.

However, it does bring up the general issue of page and screen width in web presentation; a subject of much study amongst designers. The general concensus is that overly wide text presentations become difficult to read for most people. At this text sizing -- which is, in general, nicely readable -- most designers would probably agree that a tabled width of 740 pixels would be a maximum, as it more readily approximates page layout as practiced in physical text (books).

Font choices may also need a little investigation. While Georgia font -- excellent for readability -- is fairly standard now on Windows machines; I believe that may not be present on Apple platforms. (Perhaps one of our Apple users can confirm that.). The TimesRoman font, the secondary choice in the face tagging, has a narrower vertical aspect and would not be so easily read.

Also, for some reason -- I believe this may be an artifact of the inflexiblility of the forum's PHP-based tag -- when I re-enter the page, *all* of the examples start running at once. Now, as an Ives lover, for me that's just heavenly; however, it might be somewhat distracting for others to absorb all of them simultaneously. Perhaps Sean can shut off the autostart in the .swf's -- possibly the cause, though I'm not quite sure on that.

</NITPICKING>

Other than my nit-picking, though -- the format is, on the overall, looking great!

My best,

David
www.DavidSosnowski.com
.

[Garritan]

Thanks David for picking those nits that needed picking.

Your suggestion of font is a good one. In my browser everything is in the same pane and doesn't run to the right. I think that different browsers and different screen resolutions may make text appear off the screen. You may be right about this being a result of the forum's PHP-based tag. Autoplay is not activated on my browser but for some reason with some browsers it is causing quite a cacophony. I'll delete the latest example until we work out these nits. Appreciate the comments.

Gary

<NITPICKING>

I would suggest staying with the Georgia font (rather than sans serif) for the GPO Exercise sections, at full text size. These I find very difficult to read, as is; yet these are the sections readers will need to examine in detail and with the greatest ease, I think.

In the forum page presentation, text also runs out of page [divisional layer clipping] on the right in some places (at least on my 1024-pixel-wide screen). Presumably, in a regular web page designed for this, that would not be a problem.

However, it does bring up the general issue of page and screen width in web presentation; a subject of much study amongst designers. The general concensus is that overly wide text presentations become difficult to read for most people. At this text sizing -- which is, in general, nicely readable -- most designers would probably agree that a tabled width of 740 pixels would be a maximum, as it more readily approximates page layout as practiced in physical text (books).

Font choices may also need a little investigation. While Georgia font -- excellent for readability -- is fairly standard now on Windows machines; I believe that may not be present on Apple platforms. (Perhaps one of our Apple users can confirm that.). The TimesRoman font, the secondary choice in the face tagging, has a narrower vertical aspect and would not be so easily read.

Also, for some reason -- I believe this may be an artifact of the inflexiblility of the forum's PHP-based tag -- when I re-enter the page, *all* of the examples start running at once. Now, as an Ives lover, for me that's just heavenly; however, it might be somewhat distracting for others to absorb all of them simultaneously. Perhaps Sean can shut off the autostart in the .swf's -- possibly the cause, though I'm not quite sure on that.

</NITPICKING>

Other than my nit-picking, though -- the format is, on the overall, looking great!

My best,

David
www.DavidSosnowski.com
.

[giwro_jon]

Gary, this is a GREAT idea!

I know I'm echoing others when I say it, but it is true.

I'm not sure what help you might need, but if you find that you need any, don't hesitate to ask.

I can certainly render short little examples like this for you in Finale if you need it...

*****

This may go beyond the scope of RK, but when GPOrgan comes out I'd be happy to write you a basic primer on organ tone and composing for the organ, complete with musical examples....

*****

I can see it now... GICOM - Garritan Internet Conservatory of Music

You rock, dude!

[SeanHannifin]

Perhaps Sean can shut off the autostart in the .swf's -- possibly the cause, though I'm not quite sure on that.

Hmmm... that's strange... the files themselves are actually set to do the exact opposite, i.e. be paused on start. However, this may affected by the browser and the fact that here they were being embedded in the forum.

In the pop-up window examples, a seperate HTML file was opened which contained playback information as well:

<embed src="No1.swf" play="false"

Perhaps some browsers can understand the Flash file's pause command, while other browsers need to get that instruction from the HTML tag itself. For this reason, perhaps pop-up windows will be the only solution when the lessons are posted on this forum. If the lesson is on a separate webpage, one can simply include the necessary HTML tags.