Customer Reviews

Orchestral Technique: A Manual for Students

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Written by Gordon Jacob, a professor of composition and orchestration at the Royal College of Music, Orchestral Technique serves to be a manual/reference book to any composer or music student that is looking to expand and enforce their knowledge of composing for orchestra quickly without having to wade through a lot of waffle. This book covers the full range of instruments used in orchestras individually, it also addresses composing for whole sections (strings/brass woodwinds etc) and also spends some time on composing for small orchestras and full orchestras and the differences between than. At the end of each chapter there are helpful exercises, there are also further suggestions for exercises in orchestration in the appendix. I found this book to be very helpful in learning more about the details of orchestration; I keep it close and refer to it all the time. Although it is not as long as other books, it was very straight to the point, and very concise and above all, easy to understand.

Written by Gordon Jacob, a professor of composition and orchestration at the Royal College of Music, Orchestral Technique serves to be a manual/reference book to any composer or music student that is looking to expand and enforce their knowledge of composing for orchestra quickly without having to wade through a lot of waffle. This book covers the full range of instruments used in orchestras individually, it also addresses composing for whole sections (strings/brass woodwinds etc) and also spends some time on composing for small orchestras and full orchestras and the differences between than. At the end of each chapter there are helpful exercises, there are also further suggestions for exercises in orchestration in the appendix. I found this book to be very helpful in learning more about the details of orchestration; I keep it close and refer to it all the time. Although it is not as long as other books, it was very straight to the point, and very concise and above all, easy to understand.

Although I'm not sure that I would suggest this to someone who is an absolute beginner, this book has a lot of practical advise of what NOT to do, from someone who apparently made these mistakes himself at one time.