"To orchestrate is to create, and this cannot be taught," wrote Nikolay
Rimsky-Korsakov, the great Russian composer whose genius for brilliant,
highly colored orchestration is unsurpassed. But invention, in all art,
is closely allied to technique, and technique can be taught. This book,
therefore, which differs from most other texts on the subject because of
its tremendous wealth of musical examples and its systematic arrangement
of material according to each constituent of the orchestra, will
undoubtedly be of value to any music student. It is a music classic,
perhaps the only book on classical orchestration written by a major
composer.
In it, the composer aims to provide the reader with the fundamental
principles of modern orchestration from the standpoint of brilliance and
imagination, and he devotes considerable space to the study of tonal
resonance and orchestral combination. In his course, he demonstrates
such things as how to produce a good-sounding chord of certain
tone-quality, uniformly distributed; how to detach a melody from its
harmonic setting; correct progression of parts; and other similar
problems.
The first chapter is a general review of orchestral groups, with an
instrument-by-instrument breakdown and material on such technical
questions as fingering, range, emission of sound, etc. There follows two
chapters on melody and harmony in strings, winds, brasses, and combined
groups. Chapter IV, Composition of the Orchestra, covers different ways
of orchestrating the same music; effects that can be achieved with full
tutti; tutti in winds, tutti pizzicato, soli in the strings, etc.;
chords; progressions; and so on. The last two chapters deal with opera
and include discussion of solo and choral accompaniment, instruments on
stage or in the wings, technical terms, soloists (range, register,
vocalization, vowels, etc.), voices in combination, and choral
singing.
Immediately following this text are some 330 pages of musical examples
drawn from "Sheherazade," the "Antar Symphony," "Capriccio Espagnol,"
"Sadko," "Ivan the Terrible," "Le Coq d'Or," "Mlada," "The Tsar's
Bride," and others of Rimsky-Korsakov's works. These excerpts are all
referred to in the text itself, where they illustrate, far better than
words, particular points of theory and actual musical practice. They are
largely responsible for making this book the very special (and very
useful) publication it is.
This single-volume edition also includes a brief preface by the editor
and extracts from Rimsky-Korsakov's 1891 draft and final versions of his
own preface, as well as an appendixed chart of single tutti chords in
the composer's works.
