Customer Reviews

Orchestral Music

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4 star:		(2)
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Daniels has gone out of his way to create a comprehensive account of a massive and constantly expanding repertoire. This book, however is NOT intended to give program notes or an overview of the pieces. Rather, it's a barebones account of the basic information one would need to know in order to program or perform a piece. An example entry:

Rimsky-Korsakov, Nikolai Russian Easter overture, op. 36 (Grand Paque russe) *3 2 2 2--4 2 3 1--tmp+4--hp--str Belaieff Kalmus

While this is superb information to know as a conductor trying to develop a program, it will not be able to teach you anything about the piece.

The book is comprehensive and impressive. Buy it, keep it on your shelf.

Any conductor needing information about the enormous repretoire available for orchestra must have this reference book. Many, many works are detailed in these pages - organized by composer, instrumentation, title. Also, handy index of composers by nationality and birthday/death anniversaries. If you wonder how many horns are needed to perform some symphony, or wonder if a work can be played without hiring extra percussionists, or just want ideas for future concerts, this book is a priceless resource. I think about how lucky I am to have come across this tome of information each time I open its pages - undoubtedly you will as well.

This is a great book and a must have for all orchestral conductors. It lists instrumentation, timings, publishers, and other very important information for programming. It includes not only standard repertoire, but works by living composers as well. There is no other book like this I know of.

I have used this edition and previous ones in my graduate-level course on orchestra literature. I spend part of the course teaching my students how best to use the book (from my course perspective) as future orchestra conductors, music directors, and those who may have input in choosing repertoire for an orchestra season. Each edition has improved over the last, and I look forward to the next one. There's nothing else quite like it in this genre and I have appreciated the hard work that makes such a resource possible.

It's going to be hard to get used to using this very different-looking edition of a standard reference work for music librarians. That said, the new edition is an improvement in every way. Notation especially is much clearer. Errata have been corrected. Format is improved, and there's additional information. In my opinion, it's well worth buying this new edition, despite the price tag.

Orchestral Music a Handbook compiled by David Daniels is an outstanding resource for any serious conductor. While it does omit some important items in the repertoire for chorus and orchestra, it is none the less an extremely valuable tool for basic information to assist with programing.

This book is a necessity for any conductor, orchestra librarian, or artistic director as it is an invaluable resource. It is significantly more comprehensive than the previous edition but nonetheless is a work in progress, missing many great, but obscure composers. The inclusion of the various appendixes with catagorization by duration, composer nationality, etc. are extremely useful. All being said, it is an essential part of any serious musician's library and will serve you well.

The fourth edition of Daniels' handbook is a must for anyone involved in selecting repertoire for the symphony orchestra. The appendices are extremely helpful, the precise instrumentation for percussion and auxilary instruments is valuable, and the listing of nationality, birth/death dates and places for the composers is useful. This handbook is truly a time-saving and informative reference work.

Orchestral Music is literally a voluminous work. Mr. Daniels is to be commended for the scope of his work. Anyone aspiring to be an orchestral conductor needs this book. In my almost 40 years of conducting, I have never seen another book like it. I highly recommend it.

Daniels' long-standing reference guide to the standard and not-so-standard orchestral repertoire is an indispensable book for the library of any conductor, music librarian and symphony orchestra administrator charged with programming concerts. Instrumentations are clearly rendered; ancillary comments pertaining to diverse versions of the works at hand are offered where there might be cause for debate or confusion; also listed are various publishing firms from whom material can be obtained. In addition to the obvious practicle considerations, the book can also serve as an aid in constructing programs for the conductor with sufficient overview of the repertoire, as merely browsing through the pages often generates ideas for programs which would otherwise require much more time.