MY GOLD-PILL GUIDE FOR DECISIONS IN ORCHESTRATION

          Instrumentation and orchestral recipes from snake-oil teachers are not enough. The composer today has a chaotic amount of possibilities at his disposal. But which one is the best for him?! These are my most valuable principles based in my own artistic praxis and might help:

• • See the orchestra as an equalizer.

• • See the instruments as beings with their own personalities, exactly like characters of a play

• • Learn to be intuitive and sensitive as if you were working as a painter picking colors

• • Learn to be strategic as an organist with only few registers. How would he do?

• • Consider the symbolism and idiom of orchestral music

• • Consider the relevance and function of the form section

• • Check for unity and balance between the core palette and the variation palette

• • Consider the scenic aspect of a concert performance on the stage

• • Consider the body, the fun and pleasure of the musicians, and also their interaction while playing hearing each other

• • Consider the laws of auditory perception

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Let’s learn how all this work studying scores and doing orchestration exercises!