Treatise on Instrumentation (Dover Books on Music) [Hector Berlioz, Richard Strauss] on *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The most influential. Book Source: Digital Library of India Item : Hector ioned. Berlioz was one of the first composers to deal greatly with orchestration. In this treatise he talks about what the different sounds that instruments make (tone.
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Courier Corporation- Music – pages. In the overture to Oberon Weber with rare felicity makes the cellos sing in their upper register, while two clarinets in A playing in unison sound their lower notes underneath.
And lastly neither the violin, nor the viola, nor the cello, whether used solo or as a section, were suitable to express this sublime lament of a suffering shade overcome with despair; the instrument required was precisely that chosen by the composer.
Until Beethoven and Weberall composers, Mozart not excepted, have insisted either in confining it to the demeaning role of filling up, or in making it sound two or three rhythmic patterns, always the same, which are flat, ridiculous, and frequently jar with the character of the pieces where they occur.
Its sonority is not very powerful, and its timbre, totally devoid of brightness or nobility, has a propensity towards the grotesque, which must always be kept in mind when it is given a prominent part.
When it did make its appearance, there was an outcry: In my Requiem I have used the bass drum forte without cymbals and played with two sticks. Pianissimo notes from the bass drum, when combined with cymbals in an andante and struck at long intervals, have a majestic and solemn quality. The expressive qualities of its tone stand out so clearly that in those very rare cases when composers of the past have given it a prominent role the instrument has never failed to live up to expectation.
Musical and Literary Works. The composer can be sure that they will not run out of breath. Many ignorant players, devoted to noise, make a deplorable use of these octave stops. Many composers studied the work closely, such as MussorgskyMahlerR. The use made of the piano in the single example I have just mentioned is quite different. Foreword by Richard Strauss. It took seventy years to reach that point! Sound reflectors are indispensable; they are found arranged in different ways in any enclosed building.
Grand traité d’instrumentation et d’orchestration modernes, Op.10 (Berlioz, Hector)
This applies to trombones, ophicleides, double-bassoons, and in many cases to trumpets and cornets. Thus the ritornello in bedlioz trio from Robert le Diable [by Meyerbeer ], “mon fils, mon fils, ma tendresse assidue”, is well suited to the cornet.
From some points of view the former are, generally speaking, inferior to the latter. Symphonie Fantastique1st movement, bar and following; 3rd movement, bar 3 and following; overture to King Learbar 38 and following, bar and following; overture to Benvenuto Cellinibar and following; Romeo and Juliet2nd movement, bar 81 and following; overture Le Corsairebar and following]. These give to the flute all its sad character in the key of D minor where they occur frequently. Behind all these fine combinations melody was non-existent.
It serves then to complete trumpet chords, and to contribute to the orchestra groups of notes, whether diatonic or chromatic, which because of their speed would be unsuitable for trombones or horns.
Every time I have heard the organ playing together with the orchestra it seemed to me to produce a dreadful effect; it interfered with the orchestra instead of strengthening it. An imperceptible movement treatose the arm, an unsuspected emotion on the part of the player, might produce no noticeable effect when played by a single violin.
Treatise on Instrumentation – Hector Berlioz, Richard Strauss – Google Books
Assuming a composer had such resources at his disposal, in a vast hall organised for this purpose by an architect versed in acoustics and music, he would need to determine precisely before starting work the belrioz and layout of this huge orchestra, and then keep them always in mind while composing. The upper notes have a somewhat painful and belioz character, I might call it almost pitiful; these can sometimes be used in a slow melody, or in an accompanying passage, with the most striking results.
The performers of all kinds which together make up the orchestra would then seem to be the strings, tubes, boxes, flat surfaces, of wood or metal, that are like machines endowed with intelligence but actuated by a vast keyboard played by the conductor under the direction of the composer.
They can also be used to excellent effect in symphonic music, even in vigorous passages, whether played by all the string sections together, or by only one or two parts. The effect then becomes incomparably more powerful and beautiful. It was left to Weber to discover the terrifying quality of these low notes when used to sustain sinister harmonies.
Let us just say that instrumentation is at the head of the march and has reached the stage of exaggeration. The strings of the top octave have a delicate and crystalline sound of voluptuous freshness; this makes them ideal for expressing graceful, fairylike ideas, and for whispering the gentlest secrets of smiling melodies. But he has been equally successful in giving the instrument passages of a sad or desolate character. The purpose of the present work is therefore first to indicate the range of some essential parts of the mechanism of the instruments, then to proceed to the study, hitherto much bwrlioz, of the nature of the timbrethe peculiar character and expressive potential of bsrlioz of them, and finally to that of the best methods known of combining them in an appropriate manner.
InRichard Strauss was asked to update the text to include some modern instruments and included musical examples from Wagner, and in the updated Treatise with a new preface by Strauss was published insrrumentation German.
The reason for this probably lies in the development of this branch of art, and perhaps also treatlse the proliferation of critical opinions, varied doctrines, pronouncements whether reasonable or unreasonable, spoken or instrumenttation, which is elicited by even the slightest works of the most insignificant composers. When stopped sounds are not used for a specific effect then at least those which have a poor sonority and are too different from the other sounds of the horn beerlioz be avoided.
The timbre of the trombones, so incisive and domineering, is far from similar to that of the ophicleide. Composers must therefore be ttreatise careful to ask from the double-basses only what is possible and where there is no doubt that the passage can be correctly played.
It is a melancholy, dreamy and rather noble voice, with a somewhat subdued and distant tone. The result is barbaric, though admittedly not to the same degree as with the mixture stops of the organ which give to each note simultaneously the notes of the major chord, in other words the major third and perfect fifth. It should however be mentioned that M. When they were unable to think straightaway of a few notes to fill in the chords they quickly fell back on the inevitable indication col bassoand did so in such a careless way that the result was sometimes an octave doubling of the bass line which was incompatible either with the harmony, or with the melody, or with both at once.
The need for runs of this kind is extremely rare, and we confess we have not yet come across it. In a chorus of airy spirits, the composer has used two pianos for four hands.
Harold in Instrrumentation1st movement, bar 73 and following; overture to Benvenuto Cellini ; the Roman Carnival overture; the Menuet des Follets from the Instrumentatipn of Faust ]. Even then instrumdntation would be very difficult to bring together in Paris voices of any quality; at the moment the study of singing there is neither very widespread nor very advanced.
It can be seen that nerlioz this ensemble of performers choristers do not predominate.
It would erupt like a volcano. Nevertheless it is always written in tutti passages without any regard for its tonal character, because it is then submerged in the ensemble and the distinctive quality of its timbre can no longer be identified.
In this passage the contrasting sounds blend in truly wonderful fashion with the melodic sighs of the clarinet and enhance their expressiveness Example: An explanation of the role of particular instruments within the orchestra is also provided.
I therefore believe trearise in the majority of cases it is better to do without this instrument than to replace it in this way. The first coach will rehearse on their own the first sopranos, then the second, then the first and second together.
He will then select coaches for each one of the vocal and instrumental groups.
