Product Description

Designed primarily as a text for beginning orchestration courses, but includes material for advanced study and may serve as a reference. As in the earlier editions, the emphasis is on the practical fundamentals of orchestration. The Sixth Edition has been expanded and revised to reflect new developments in instruments and orchestral practice, and a new listening compact disc has been added that contains selected examples of orchestration.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #78230 in Books
• Published on: 2002-05-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 414 pages

From the Publisher
As the leading text in the field since 1952, this text unites, as its three most important features, accuracy, utility and clarity demonstrated through both effective examples and commentary. As in the earlier editions, the emphasis is on the practical fundamentals of orchestration. The Fifth Edition has been expanded and revised to reflect new developments in instruments and orchestral practice.

From the Back Cover

This masterful textbook emphasizes the fundamentals of orchestration. Following a brief introduction to the orchestra, the authors discuss the instruments individually. then by section, and finally in the full orchestral context. Suitable for beginning orchestration courses, the book also contains more advanced material.

Features of this highly acclaimed text include:

• Up-to-date information on instruments
• Examples from scores of various periods and styles
• Lists of suggested assignments, music suitable for scoring assignments, and music for suggested listening
• Short chapters on scoring for school orchestra and oat nonorchestral instrumental groups, including band and wind ensemble
• A workbook (available separately) containing carefully selected music for scoring assignments

New to this Sixth Edition are:

• Inclusion of a CD containing selected examples
• Several new examples from scores

About the Author

KENT KENNAN is Professor Emeritus of Music at the University of Texas at Austin, where he taught for many years. After completing his musical studies at the Eastman School of Music, he received the Prix de Rome in music. His compositions have been performed by many major orchestras, and a number have been published and recorded. He is the author of COUNTERPOINT, Fourth Edition (Prentice Hall, Inc. 1999).

DONALD GRANTHAM, D.M.A. in composition from the University of Southern California, is Professor of Music at the University of Texas at Austin. He is a winner of the Prix Lili Boulanger and the recipient of a Citation in Music from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His works have been performed by many orchestras including Cleveland, Atlanta, Dallas, and the American Composers Orchestra.

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Customer Reviews

Excellent beginner's textbook and overall reference
(6th Ed.) Although I've played classical piano for a long time, I'm a beginner in this aspect of music. This book provides a fantastic, detailed survey of the entire symphony orchestra for those who don't know an English horn from an oboe; however, it seems like it's one of those handy books you will refer back to for a very long time:

- basic introduction to various configurations of orchestras
- all the instruments individually described & photographed
- idiosyncracies, limits, abilities of each instrument
- the realistic note ranges of each instrument
- scoring for sections (strings, woodwinds, brass, percussion)
- excerpts from real scores demonstrate techniques
- some important aspects of color/blend/orch.texture
- arranging for school orchestras, smaller groups
- contains small suggested assignments and listening refs.

Personally, I am using it as a reference for working with a sampler-based orchestra, to give me better insight towards creating more realistic arrangements and mockups.

A wonderful text for study and reference with a very useful CD
We used the second edition of this book when I was an undergraduate studying music theory. I loved that book and have always had it on my shelf as a reference for correct transpositions, ranges, and all the little things one needs to know to write correctly for an instrument. When I read through this edition I was simply blown away. You know how you can get attached to an older edition and not want to give it up because the improvements don't overcome the familiarity? Well, the sixth edition clearly obsoletes my trusty old friend.

The book still has the same general format in considering each family of instruments together and has all the good information of the previous editions. However, there is more information, better photographs, improved explanations, well chosen examples, great suggested readings, listenings, and assignments. And the included CD has over 90 short examples of the sounds any orchestrator needs to have in his or her mind when putting pen to paper (or pointing a mouse to the staff on a computer). The first few dozen are different versions of the same two measures of the Bach chorale designated in the book so the student can compare a variety of ways to set that four part chorale for various families of instruments (strings, woodwinds, brass, and in various combinations). Then several dozen orchestral chords of various combinations are provided. Every example is designated in the book and explicitly identified on the CD.

The appendices are also quite useful and contain ready references on ranges and specialized considerations. I especially appreciate the addition of vocal ranges since it is quite common to use voices with orchestras.

This is a terrific text for students, for teachers because the information is so well presented, and for reference after school. Heck, if all you do is read orchestral scores while listening to music, this book can be most helpful in helping you understand the instruments you are hearing and their transpositions.

Most wonderfully done.

Good basic text, but needs some updating
I have taught Orchestration/Instrumentation three times using this book, and find it has its strengths and weaknesses. The practical information about each instrument--such as ranges, typical scorings, and excerpts--are helpful, and I think Kennan really focuses on what an arranger/orchestrator *needs* to know. I also like some of the accompanying examples/excercises in the workbook, which can save preparation time. On the negative side, there are numerous typos in the workbook that still haven't been changed through multiple editions, the photos are quite dated, saxophone is included in a chapter called "Infrequently Used Instruments" (perhaps in the orchestra, but not in band music, the subject of some discussion in the book), and some of the discussions are confusing for students (string harmonics, to take one example). While the CD is helpful for hearing subtle differences in orchestration, the orchestra is out of tune in several places and the sound quality is somewhat poor.

Overall, I think Kennan's book is good for the beginning orchestration student, with lots of practical information and exercises, but I wish that some of its more problematic aspects could be changed or updated.