Instrumentation and orchestration
- Kenneth Kreitner,
- Mary Térey-Smith,
- Jack Westrup,
- D. Kern Holoman,
- G.W. Hopkins,
- Paul Griffiths
- and Jon Alan Conrad
Extract
The art of combining the sounds of a complex of instruments (an orchestra or other ensemble) to form a satisfactory blend and balance. The term ‘orchestration’ is often used to denote the craft of writing idiomatically for these instruments. ‘To orchestrate’ has also come to mean to score for orchestra a work written for a solo instrument or small ensemble. There have been many attempts to differentiate the terms ‘orchestration’ and ‘instrumentation’ since Berlioz juxtaposed the two in the title of his Grand traité d’instrumentation et d’orchestration modernes (Paris, 1843); in this context the two terms should be considered as inseparable aspects of a single musical concept. Instrumentation by itself is a more general term, denoting the selection of instruments for a musical composition, either as part of the composer’s art or by the performers for a particular performance.
See Orchestra; see also Arrangement. For a discussion of rock band instrumentation, ...
