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Treatise on Instrumentation
 
 
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Grand Traité d’Instrumentation et d’Orchestration Modernes, abbreviated in English
English language

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
 as the Treatise on Instrumentation (sometimes Treatise on Orchestration) is a technical study of Western
Western culture

File:Clash of Civilizations map.pngWestern culture are terms which are used to refer to cultures of European origin. This terminology originated as a way of describing what was different about the Graeco-Roman culture and its descendants, in contrast to the older neighboring civilizations of the Middle East, which in many ways continued...
 musical instrument
Musical instrument

A musical instrument is an object constructed or used for the purpose of making music. In principle, anything that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument....
s, written by Hector Berlioz
Hector Berlioz

Louis Hector Berlioz was a French Romantic music composer and guitarist, best known for his compositions Symphonie fantastique and Requiem . Berlioz made great contributions to the modern orchestra with his Treatise on Instrumentation and by utilizing huge orchestral forces for his works; as a conductor, he performed several c...
. It was first published in 1844 after being serialised in many parts prior to this date, and had a chapter added by Berlioz on conducting
Conducting

Conducting is the act of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. Orchestras, choirs, concert bands and other musical ensembles often have conductors....
 in 1855. The text was later revised by Richard Strauss
Richard Strauss

Richard Georg Strauss was a German composer of the late Romantic music and early modern eras, particularly of operas, Lieder and tone poems. Strauss was also a prominent Conducting....
 in 1904 to include more modern instruments.






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Grand Traité d’Instrumentation et d’Orchestration Modernes, abbreviated in English
English language

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
 as the Treatise on Instrumentation (sometimes Treatise on Orchestration) is a technical study of Western
Western culture

File:Clash of Civilizations map.pngWestern culture are terms which are used to refer to cultures of European origin. This terminology originated as a way of describing what was different about the Graeco-Roman culture and its descendants, in contrast to the older neighboring civilizations of the Middle East, which in many ways continued...
 musical instrument
Musical instrument

A musical instrument is an object constructed or used for the purpose of making music. In principle, anything that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument....
s, written by Hector Berlioz
Hector Berlioz

Louis Hector Berlioz was a French Romantic music composer and guitarist, best known for his compositions Symphonie fantastique and Requiem . Berlioz made great contributions to the modern orchestra with his Treatise on Instrumentation and by utilizing huge orchestral forces for his works; as a conductor, he performed several c...
. It was first published in 1844 after being serialised in many parts prior to this date, and had a chapter added by Berlioz on conducting
Conducting

Conducting is the act of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. Orchestras, choirs, concert bands and other musical ensembles often have conductors....
 in 1855. The text was later revised by Richard Strauss
Richard Strauss

Richard Georg Strauss was a German composer of the late Romantic music and early modern eras, particularly of operas, Lieder and tone poems. Strauss was also a prominent Conducting....
 in 1904 to include more modern instruments. The book discusses the various technical aspects of instruments, such as chromatic range, tone quality, and limitations. An explanation of the role of particular instruments within the orchestra
Orchestra

An orchestra is an Musical ensemble, usually fairly large with string, brass, woodwind sections, and possibly a percussion section as well. The term orchestra derives from the name for the area in front of an theatre of ancient Greece reserved for the Greek chorus....
 is also provided. The book also provides orchestral excerpts from classical
Classical music

Classical music is a broad term that usually refers to mainstream music produced in, or rooted in the traditions of Western art history Religious music and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 9th century to present times....
 scores to give examples of techniques discussed. These examples are often of works by Berlioz himself, while Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Mozart showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood in Salzburg. Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty; at seventeen he was engaged as a court musician in Salzburg, but grew restless and traveled in search of a better position, always...
, Wagner
Richard Wagner

Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, Conducting, theatre director and essayist, primarily known for his operas . Unlike most other great opera composers, Wagner wrote both the scenario and libretto for his works....
, Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. He was a crucial figure in the transitional period between the Classical music era and Romantic music eras in classical music, and remains one of the most acclaimed and influential composers of all time....
, and Gluck
Christoph Willibald Gluck

Christoph Willibald Ritter von Gluck was an opera composer of the early classical period. After many years at the Habsburg court at Vienna, Gluck brought about the practical reform of opera's dramaturgical practices that many intellectuals had been campaigning for over the years....
 are also frequently cited.

Many composers studied the work closely, such as Mussorgsky
Modest Mussorgsky

Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky , one of the Russian composers known as the Five, was an innovator of Music of Russia. He strove to achieve a uniquely Russian musical identity, often in deliberate defiance of the established conventions of Western music....
, Mahler
Gustav Mahler

Gustav Mahler was a Bohemian-born Austrian composer and conducting. He was best known during his own lifetime as one of the leading orchestral and operatic conductors of the day....
, R. Strauss
Richard Strauss

Richard Georg Strauss was a German composer of the late Romantic music and early modern eras, particularly of operas, Lieder and tone poems. Strauss was also a prominent Conducting....
, and Rimsky-Korsakov
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov , also Nikolay, Nicolai, and Rimsky-Korsakoff, was a Russian composer, and a member of the group of composers known as "The Five." Noted particularly for a predilection for folk and fairy-tale subjects as well as his extraordinary skill in orchestration, his best known orchestral compositions...
.

Instruments discussed

Strings:
  • Violin
    Violin

    The violin is a Bow string instrument with four strings usually tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest and highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which also includes the viola and cello....
  • Viola
    Viola

    The viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.The casual observer may mistake the viola for the violin because of their similarity in size, closeness in pitch range , and nearly identical playing position....
  • Viola d'amore
    Viola d'amore

    The viola d'amore is a 7- or 6-string instrument musical instrument with sympathetic strings used chiefly in the Baroque music. It is played under the chin in the same manner as the violin....
  • Viola da gamba
    Viol

    The viol is any one of a family of bow , fretted, stringed instruments musical instruments developed in the 1400s and used primarily in the Renaissance music and Baroque music periods....
  • Violoncello
    Cello

    The violoncello is a bowed string instrument. A person who plays a cello is called a cellist. The cello is used as a solo instrument, in chamber music, and as a member of the string section of an orchestra....
  • Double bass
    Double bass

    The double bass or contrabass is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow string instrument used in the modern orchestra. It is a standard member of the string section of the orchestra and smaller string musical ensembles in European classical music....


Plucked strings:
  • Harp
    Harp

    The 'harp' is a stringed instrument which has the plane of its strings positioned perpendicular to the Sounding board. It is also considered to be a percussion instrument....
  • Guitar
    Guitar

    The guitar is a musical instrument with ancient roots that is used in a wide variety of musical styles. It typically has six Strings , but Tenor guitar, Seven-string guitar, Eight-string guitar, Ten-string guitar, Eleven-string guitar, Twelve-string guitar, Thirteen-string guitar and doubleneck guitar string guitars also exist....
  • Mandolin
    Mandolin

    A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It is descended from the Mandora, a soprano member of the lute family. It has a body with a teardrop-shaped soundboard, or one which is essentially oval in shape, with a soundhole, or soundholes, of varying shapes which are open and are not decorated with an intricately carved grille lik...


Keyboards:
  • Pianoforte
  • Organ
    Organ (music)

    The organ is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard played either Manual or Pedal clavier. The organ is one of the oldest musical instruments in the European classical music....


Wind instruments:
  • Oboe
    Oboe

    The oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. In English prior to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois", "hoboy", or "French hoboy"....
  • Oboe d'amore
    Oboe d'amore

    The oboe d'amore , less commonly oboe d'amour, is a double reed woodwind musical instrument in the oboe family. Slightly larger than the oboe, it has a less assertive and more tranquil and serene tone, and is considered the mezzo-soprano or alto of the oboe family....
  • English horn
    Cor anglais

    The cor anglais, or English horn, is a Double reed woodwind Musical instrument in the oboe family.The cor anglais is a transposing instrument pitched in F, a perfect fifth lower than the oboe , and is consequently approximately one-third longer....
  • Bassoon
    Bassoon

    The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that typically plays music written in the Bass and tenor registers, and occasionally higher....
  • Tenoroon
    Tenoroon

    The tenor bassoon or, "tenoroon," is a member of the bassoon family of double reed woodwind instruments. This group also includes the more widely-known bassoon and contrabassoon, along with a smaller version of the tenor bassoon, the octave bassoon....
     (Bassoon Quinte)
  • Clarinet
    Clarinet

    The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The name derives from adding the suffix -et meaning little to the Italian word clarino meaning a particular type of trumpet, as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet....
    s (including Alto and Bass clarinets)
  • Basset-horn
    Basset-horn

    The basset horn is a musical instrument, a member of the clarinet family....
  • Flute (alto flute)
  • Piccolo
    Piccolo

    The piccolo is a small flute. The piccolo has the same fingerings as its larger component, the flute, but the sound it produces is an octave higher than written....
  • Serpent
    Serpent (instrument)

    A serpent is a bass wind instrument, descended from the cornett, and a distant ancestor of the tuba, with a mouthpiece like a brass instrument but side holes like a woodwind instrument....
  • Russian Bassoon


Brass instruments:
  • French horn
    Horn (instrument)

    The horn is a brass instrument consisting of about of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. It is descended from the natural horn and is informally known as the French horn....
  • Valve horn
  • Trumpet
    Trumpet

    The trumpet is a musical instrument with the highest Register in the brass instrument family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BC....
  • Cornet
    Cornet

    Not to be confused with coronetThe cornet is a brass instrument very similar to the trumpet, distinguished by its conical Bore , compact shape, and mellower tone quality....
  • Trombone
    Trombone

    The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass instrument family. Like all brass instruments, it is a lip-reed aerophone: sound is produced when the player?s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate....
    s
  • Tuba
    Tuba

    The tuba is the largest and lowest pitched brass instrument. Sound is produced by vibrating or "buzzing" the lips into a large cupped Mouthpiece ....
    s (bass tuba)
  • Bugle
    Bugle (instrument)

    The bugle is one of the simplest brass instruments, having no valves or other pitch-altering devices. All pitch control is done by varying the player's embouchure, since the bugle has no other mechanism for controlling pitch....
  • Key bugle
  • Valve bugle
  • Ophicleide
    Ophicleide

    The ophicleide is a family of conical bore, brass keyed bugle s....
     (Bass, Alto, Double-Bass)
  • Bombardon


Voices: (Soprano
Soprano

A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four part chorale style harmony the soprano takes the highest part which usually encompasses the melody....
, Alto
Alto

Alto is a musical term, derived from the Latin word altus, meaning "high", that has several possible interpretations.When designating instruments, "alto" frequently refers to a member of an instrumental family that has the second highest range, below that of the treble or soprano....
, Tenor
Tenor

The tenor is a type of male voice type and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between the C one octave below middle C to the A above in choral music, and up to high C in solo work....
, Bass etc.)

Percussion:
  • Timpani
    Timpani

    Timpani are musical instruments in the percussion instrument family. A type of drum, they consist of a skin called a drumhead stretched over a large bowl traditionally made of copper, and more recently, constructed of more lightweight fiberglass....
     (Kettle drums)
  • Bells
    Bell (instrument)

    A bell is a simple sound-making device. The bell is a percussion instrument and an idiophone. Its form is usually an open-ended hollow drum which resonates upon being struck....
  • Glockenspiel
    Glockenspiel

    File:Glockenspiel-malletech.jpgFile:GlockenspielSousaphone.jpgThe glockenspiel is a musical instrument in the percussion instrument family....
  • Glass harmonica
    Glass harmonica

    The glass harmonica, also known as the glass armonica, hydrocrystalophone, or simply armonica , is a type of musical instrument that uses a series of glass bowls or goblets graduated in size to produce musical pitch s by means of friction ....
  • Ancient cymbals
    Crotales

    Crotales , sometimes called antique cymbals, are percussion instruments consisting of small, Tuned percussion bronze or brass disks. Each is about 4 inches in diameter with a flat top surface and a nipple on the base....
  • Bass drum
    Bass drum

    A bass drum is a large drum that produces a note of low definite or indefinite pitch . There are three general classifications of bass drums: the concert bass drum, the kick' drum, and the pitched bass drum....
  • Gong
    Gong

    A gong is an East Asia and South East Asian musical instrument that takes the form of a flat metal disc which is hit with a mallet.Gongs are broadly of three types....
  • Tambourine
    Tambourine

    The tambourine or Marine is a musical instrument of the Percussion instrument family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zils"....
  • side drum
    Snare drum

    The snare drum is a drum with strands of snares made of curled metal wire, metal cable, plastic cable, or catgut cords stretched across the a drumhead, typically the bottom....
  • Tenor drum
    Tenor drum

    A tenor drum is a cylindrical drum that is higher pitched than a bass drum.In a symphony orchestra's percussion section, a tenor drum is a low-pitched variant of the snare drum, although sometimes without snares and played with soft mallets or hard sticks....
  • Triangle
    Triangle (instrument)

    The triangle is an idiophone type of musical instrument in the Percussion instrument family. It is a bar of metal, usually steel in modern instruments, bent into a triangle shape....
  • Crescent


New instruments:
  • Saxophone
    Saxophone

    The saxophone is a conical-Bore transposing instrument musical instrument considered a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and are played with a Single-reed instrument mouthpiece similar to the clarinet....
    s
  • Saxhorn
    Saxhorn

    The saxhorn is a valved brass instrument with a tapered bore and deep cup-shaped mouthpiece . The sound has a characteristic mellow quality, and blends well with other brass....
  • Saxotromba
    Saxotromba

    The saxotromba is a valved brass instrument invented by the Belgian instrument-maker Adolphe Sax around 1844. It was designed for the mounted bands of the French military, probably as a substitute for the horn ....
    s
  • Saxtuba
    Saxtuba

    The saxtuba is an obsolete valved Brass instrument conceived by the Belgian instrument-maker Adolphe Sax around 1845. The design of the instrument was inspired by the ancient Roman cornu and Roman tuba....
    s
  • Concertina
    Concertina

    A concertina is a Free-reed instrument musical instrument, like the various accordions and the harmonica. It has a bellows and buttons typically on both ends of it....
  • Melodium organ
  • Octobass
    Octobass

    The octobass is an extremely large bowed string instrument constructed about 1850 in Paris by the French luthier Jean Baptiste Vuillaume . It has three strings and is essentially a larger version of the double bass ....
  • Piano
    Piano

    The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard instrument. Widely used in Western music for solo performance, ensemble use, chamber music, and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to musical composition and rehearsal....
    s and Melodiums with prolonged sounds


Other topics discussed

The orchestra - an overview of how the orchestra functions as a whole, and its development throughout history.

On conducting - a brief discussion of conducting practices in Europe during Berlioz's day. It should be noted that Berlioz was also known as a great conductor in his time, in addition to a composer.

External links