Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #344565 in Books
• Published on: 1955-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 487 pages

Customer Reviews

This is the one (but also buy the Forsyth)
Wow! A reviewer below really hit the nail on the head. All I can do besides expressing my appreciation (thank you!) is to concur and amplify. I have on my shelf orchestration books by Kent Kennan, Cecil Forsyth, Rimsky-Korsakov, Hector Berlioz (revised by Richard Strauss), and Walter Piston. I have read Rene Leibowitz's and also read or skimmed through various others. The Walter Piston text is the last I acquired, and I really wish I'd bought it long ago. It makes clear what the others do not, what I had to learn by trial and error. It's writing is more plodding than Piston's "Counterpoint" and his "Harmony" (I mean Piston's "Harmony", not Mark Devoto's "Harmony"), but no more plodding than any other orchestration text except Cecil Forsyth's. The solution is to buy both the Piston and the Forsyth.

Second best orchestration book available
The best book on this subject, the one that I actually sometimes refer to when composing, is Kennan's. Piston's book, however, should definitely be carefully studied by anyone wanting to master the art of classical orchestration. Piston goes deeper into each instrument than Kennan does, establishing a root level of knowledge on top of which Kennan can then serve as a handy daily reference. Piston relies heavily on examples from the core classical repertoire (well into the early 20th century but not beyond), so access to a good CD library will go a long way in bringing this book to life.

The Bible of orchestration basics
This is it, the reference work you should have bought back in college when you first studied orchestration. It's comprehensive and comprehensible, thoroughly elaborating on the strengths and weaknesses (in all registers) of the standard orchestral palette. A bit lacking in imagination and inventiveness -- but, hey, it's a reference work...