Instrumentation Vs Orchestration....?

Natan wrote:

The question implies that I am evidently a composer and you are not. There is little to read anywhere.

Hmm... the answer implies that you have evidently made it up...

A "thorny" issue; I have always heard these terms used with the most disparate meanings, and I think this is due to the fact that they have been used with different meanings over time.

I have a need to understand whether one is trying to trace the history of terminology (and how it has been used over time) or "simply" trying to assign unique labels.

I would start from the practical side and try to list what can happen to a work regardless of definitions; everyone has already spoken of macro-categories that may more or less coincide with the stages in the life of a work:

Creation (single)

Re-elaboration, which can involve different types of intervention on the composition: from organic changes to modifying significant parts of it, etc.

The terms circulating most frequently are: Orchestration, Re-orchestration, Arrangement, Transcription, Instrumentation.

I will also open a parenthesis on Concertation, which perhaps can be inserted in an interesting way into the discussion.

Having said this, it would be nice to enrich the list... because it would be the sum of what is usually done; after the assignment of "labels," it is not guaranteed that it will always be the same for all historical periods.

I am adding another variable: language. I wouldn't want translations to have had their say... that being said, someone mentioned some treatises. These are some examples:

The Technique of orchestration by Kent Wheeler Kennan

Il pensiero orchestrale di Leibowitz

Orchestration by Piston

The study of orchestration by Adler

All texts that a good composer should know... the contents should be more or less well-known.

For completeness, I am also sharing these, some of which have already been mentioned:

• Hector Berlioz (1844): Grand traité d'instrumentation et d'orchestration modernes.

• François-Auguste Gevaert (1863): Traité general d'instrumentation.

• Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov (1912): Основы оркестровки (Principles of Orchestration)

• Cecil Forsyth (1914): Orchestration.

• Alfredo Casella and Virgilio Mortari (1948): La tecnica dell'orchestra contemporanea

I am submitting to you a piece of writing for which I do not know the source, because it was passed to me back when they were at my precise request; I am rereading it after many years (therefore with different eyes), what do you think?...

Orchestration, Instrumentation, Transcription and Arrangement.

Orchestration is the study or practice of writing music for the individual instruments of an orchestra or the adaptation for orchestra of music written for another instrument or musical group. Only in the course of music history has it established itself as a compositional art in its own right.

There are two types of adaptations: transcription, which follows the original piece very closely, and arrangement, which tends to significantly change certain aspects of the original piece. In practice, however, the two terms are used incorrectly as synonyms.

Arrangement is a term used in light music. Transcription is its equivalent in classical music. However, sometimes, Ravel's Orchestration in Pictures at an Exhibition departs from mere transcription and adds coloristic effects, but this can no longer be defined as arrangement.

Orchestration concerns only the transcription of music for an orchestral ensemble, while instrumentation concerns the adaptation for any other type of musical ensemble. In the study of orchestration, contrary to practice, the term instrumentation can also refer to considerations regarding the individual characteristics of an instrument rather than the art of combining certain instruments together.

In commercial music, especially in film scores and soundtracks, professional orchestrators are often used for reasons of speed and also opportunity, as orchestration is a practice that requires qualities that not all composers necessarily possess.

The film music orchestrator often works on short pieces written by various authors. Broadway orchestrators often work on pieces written for the piano or on a score that provides the outline of the composition.

It should be noted that the word 'Elaboration' is never mentioned.

But it continues with

In the musical environment, transcription means selecting the main melody—that is, all the parts of a piece (for orchestra or solo instrument) and transcribing it, precisely, for a different ensemble.

Some striking examples of this are, for instance: Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition by Maurice Ravel, or the transcription of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker ballet and the first suite of Grieg's Peer Gynt by the contemporary composer Luca Fialdini, the piano transcription of Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumblebee and Stravinsky's Rite of Spring arranged by Sergei Rachmaninoff, etc...

In music, arrangement is the work of instrumental and structural organization of a given composition (which may consist of a simple theme accompanied by a sequence of chords, or an already arranged piece), so that it sounds according to the desired musical form.

The arrangement process generally starts with the choice of the musical genre in which one wants to arrange the piece. The process can include:

• reharmonization, should the starting chord sequence not correspond to the target musical style;

• the development of a complex structure (intro and intro loops, number of choruses or verses or refrains, solo loops, instrumental sections, endings, etc.)

• the choice of instruments to be used.

If the musical adaptation does not provide for the addition or subtraction of new musical material compared to the starting form, it will be more correct to speak of transcription.

A satisfactory arrangement must:

• ensure that instruments do not overlap in a certain frequency range that is too narrow;

• be sufficiently "transparent" so that every musical phrase is sufficiently intelligible;

• ensure that not all instruments play for the entire range of the piece.

An existing musical piece can be re-recorded with an arrangement different from the original, changing—often drastically—instruments, tempo, bpm, and key. The final result is a song that contains, compared to the starting piece, the same lyrics and familiar melodic lines, but fundamentally sounds like something new. Two striking examples can be Joe Cocker's version of With a Little Help from My Friends (original version by the Beatles) and Toto's version of Sunshine of Your Love (original version by Cream).

Sometimes it is the same artist/band (or their arranger) who rearranges, even slightly, a song for the purpose of presenting it in a live setting. This can happen either to make it more lively...

piece, both because the original arrangement is now out of fashion.

Even some remixes, particularly in dance music, can be considered rearrangements.

Uhm.. anyone who wants to, go and look at the programs for the new three-year Composition courses in all Italian Conservatories and you will find Instrumentation and Orchestration as separate subjects, or at most paired together. Of the two: either they have different meanings or everyone who draws up the programs is deficient. Evidently, to write for instruments, orchestra included, one must first know them.

Besides, I wouldn't be so sure about not taking any more exams; competitions could come out, right?

Frank wrote:

For completeness, I am also sharing these, some of which have already been mentioned:

• Hector Berlioz (1844): Grand traité d'instrumentation et d'orchestration modernes.

• François-Auguste Gevaert (1863): Traité general d'instrumentation.

• Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov (1912): Основы ркестровки (Principles of Orchestration)

• Cecil Forsyth (1914): Orchestration.

• Alfredo Casella and Virgilio Mortari (1948): La tecnica dell'orchestra contemporanea

I would also add this title, which I have already posted in the Analysis section. It has been and is useful to me also for writing new effects (it contains all instruments, including electronics, and sending pieces abroad)

I am providing the link to the section

http://www.pianoconcerto.it/forum/index.php?/topic/1543-testi-di-analisi-formale/page__hl__semiology#entry12575

I also add that, just yesterday I saw it in the window at Ricordi/Feltrinelli.

Bye