At 3:14 PM -0400 6/21/07, Christopher Smith wrote:
Oh yeah! That's for sure! I can't tell you how many young writers
think that strings can only play mid-range whole notes, because
that's what their synth string patches sound good playing.
Or that brass can only play short stabs, in the highest octave, and
are incapable of playing lyrically (well, some players ARE like
that!)
Or that a snare drum can't get any kind of sound other than a heavy rim shot.
Well, just to overemphasize the obvious, you can't orchestrate
intelligently until you understand the instruments individually and
in combination--REALLY understand them! And you won't understand
them by playing with MIDI substitutes. Try doing what
Rimsky-Korsakov did: learn to play them all in order to be a good
inspector of bands for the Imperial Russian Navy!!!! (I'm no Rimsky,
but learned to play them all so I could follow in my father's
footsteps as a good high school band and orchestra director. That
never happened, but it's been a godsend in my arranging and
composing.) Sure, Stravinsky pushed the limits of conventional
acoustic instrument sounds, but don't forget that he studied with
Rimsky and KNEW those conventional limits cold! As Andrew kindly
pointed out, that bassoon altissimo E was possible on the bassoons of
the time, but was hardly standard usage!!
John
--
John & Susie Howell
Virginia Tech Department of Music
Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A 24061-0240
Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034
(mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED])
http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html
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