Berlioz's Orchestration Treatise
Subtitle: A Translation and Commentary (Cambridge Musical Texts and Monographs)
Contributors: Hugh Macdonald (Editor)
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: September 2, 2002
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 428
ISBN-13: 9780521239530
Subjects: Composition & orchestration; Romantic music (c 1830 to c 1900); Instrumentation and orchestration; Instruction & Study - Composition; Music/Songbooks; Music; Orchestra; Instruction & Study - Conducting; Music / History & Criticism; History & Criticism - General; Conducting; Instrumentation and orchestrat
First sentence: The four strings of the violin are normally tuned in fifths, with the fourth string tuned to g, the third to d', the second to a' and the first to e".
Description: "Berlioz's orchestration treatise is a classic textbook which has been used as a guide to orchestration and as a source book for the understanding both of Berlioz's music and of orchestral practice in the nineteenth century. This is the first new English translation of Berlioz's complete text since 1856, and it is accompanied throughout by Hugh Macdonald's extensive and authoritative commentary on the instruments of Berlioz's time and on his own orchestral practice, as revealed in his scores. It also includes extracts from Berlioz's writings on instruments in his Memoirs and in his many articles for the Parisian press." "The Treatise has been highly valued both for its technical information about instruments and for its poetic and visionary approach to the art of instrumentation. It includes a chapter on the orchestra itself, seen as a giant independent instrument, and on the art of conducting, one of the first documents of its kind. Berlioz was not only one of the great orchestrators of the nineteenth century, he was also the author with the clearest understanding of the art."--Jacket.