PhysMuse

I just finished reading (paid link) Creative Orchestration by George McKay. It was a great, informative read and I really enjoyed it.

I have seen it recommended in lots of places, and I would have to agree that it is a very informative, useful book.

There are five main sections to the book.

• The Instruments of the Orchestra
• Principles of Clarity
• Principles of Tonal Interest
• Structural Values
• Orchestral Types

The first section is self-explanatory and deals with the instruments of the orchestra, the different sections, registers, transposition ratios, and the means of generating sounds from the different classes of instruments.

The next section on Principles of Clarity describes the different types of texture such as monophonic, polyphonic, homophonic, polythematic, polyrhythmic and then moves on to combinations of the fundamental textures. It looks at textural combinations, limitation of harmony and melodic components, dynamic control and pitch distribution.

The section on Principles of tonal interest shows us contrast of timbres, instrumental motion, different types of doubling for power or blend. It is a very comprehensive chapter giving much information about mixtures of sounds and blending.

The penultimate section on Structural Values gives advice on achieving sufficient instrumental motion, vigor of design and other topics.

The final section describes different orchestral types from the Baroque orchestra, through the Classical orchestra, modern orchestras, expanded orchestras and finally on to chamber orchestras.

Overall (paid link) Creative Orchestration by George McKay gave a fantastic grounding on the topic of Orchestration and was replete with suggested exercises to carry out to experience the different aspects of orchestration being discussed. Highly recommended.