My Favorites and Not So Favorites

Thanks!

About the Walter Piston book: He has hundreds of excerpts from scores, but without enough information to find them and listen to them. For example, a piece of score from Mahler 9 would be much more helpful if Piston had noted the movement and whether the quote was halfway through, towards the end, etc. It would take years to chase down all those examples without more information. I'm sure Rimsky-Korsakov would get the point of the example just by reading it, but the book is targeted at learners, not experts. All that said, I learned a lot from the book.

There is also a brand new book by the Belgian composer Piet Swerts (Grand Prix in the Queen Elisabeth Composition Competition): Instrumental thinking (A Preliminary Study On Orchestration) 🙂.

Is there any book that u'd recommend too for beginner (beginner in orchestra) in English or auf Deutsch?

Thanks for the reviews. I was hesitant about the first book. Thanks for showing some of the pages. I’m definitely getting that book. I’m glad it has demonstrations and not just walls of text talking without showing. That is the selling point for me and more.

Just a general observation about language but it was interesting, what you said about the outdated writing style in Piston's book. I can't speak for other languages but English has become a lot less stiff, "fussy" and uptight since the 1950s. I guess it's nearly 80 years ago now and things just move on. I wonder how things will be in another 70-80 years.

Thank you! That Korsakov book is exactly what I needed.

Thanks so much for your fantastic videos

Curious to know if you’ve ever looked into SCORING FOR FILMS by Earle Hagen. Also THE ART OF WRITING MUSIC by John Cacavas. Both authors were film composers. Both wrote for television as well. Thoughts?

I studied orchestration YEARS ago, using Adler 2nd edition. Recently, I decided to refresh my skills and picked up Sevsay's Cambridge Guide to Orchestration, which is fantastic and has a huge section of exercises that help (re)develop skills. Check it out.

wait, nobody said we have to read...

I have walter pistons book on orchestration and counterpoint I also have that one korsakov. When I decided to compose an opera or ring cycle like Richard Wagner Ring of the Nibelung and I wanted to orchestrate my piece I got confused over the instruments sharps and flats except for strings if for instance in c major never mind the minor keys,but you are right read more scores thank you for your input

Besides Adler and the Essential Dictionary pocket books my favorite book is Ertugrul Sevsay’s "Handbuch der Instrumentationspraxis". I think the English version is called 'The Cambridge Guide to Orchestration'.

Only thing I feel like is super difficult with books about music is that, for me at least, hearing the examples is more helpful than the description. Like sure you can describe that tremolo is the act of modulating an instrument's volume in quick succession, but I still wouldn't have a clear sound or feel from it even tho I'd know what it is

I'm a Korean and I let you know that almost Korean music colleges use the orchestration book of S.Adler. That book is kind of a "Standard", I think.

Hi Anne, Thank you for your recommendations on the books, that really helps. You mentioned "Score Study", Is there any books that you can recommend that I should get for doing that?

Instead of editing my first posting, I am sending another. As a teacher, I use Adler as the main source material, I use other books as supplementary material. I am sure that you've already come across the book by Ertuğrul Sevsay, a Turkish composer living and teaching in Europe for a long time. For those who don't know about, the book is called "The Cambridge Guide to Orchestration by Sevsay, Ertugrul". For the details and extreme details regarding orchestration, it's a valuable book and one (with experience) can easily tell that it reflects at least 30-35 years of experience. Therefore, I strongly recommend it. Also available in Turkish...

Dear Anne-Kathrin ☘️ Yes, Adler is used WORLDWIDE as you already pointed out in your video. Of course there are other spectacular orchestration books available as we all know as composers but Adler is widely preferred (especially for beginners and intermediate level students) because of two main reasons: 1. It has a workbook. 2. Priceless audio examples. Also, needless to say that it's a very meticulously organized book and the writer is Adler! Greetings from Türkiye 🇹🇷🙂

You mentioned reading sheet music at the end..... reading (cheating)secret... learn the where the main G note is on the Trebble clef, the main C is on the C clef and the main F is on the bass clef.... oh yeah they are also called the G, C and F clef's for a reason! (yes, yes there are more clef's but the others are just variations of the other clefs and rarely used). After that, it's all intervals! Know the notes, yes! To play the notes, know the intervals!....and that coming from a dude that is still really bad at it LOL

My first and only purchase was "The study of Orchestration" along with the workbook.... actually, I accidentally purchased the workbook first, thinking I had found some really great deal (LOL). I love strings and the second and third chapters were so enlightening. After hearing about "Principles of Orchestration", I need to get that... I think learning the instruments, how they work and what they can do is really important but as a DAW/MIDI composer, I want that final part to tie it all together.... there goes another $20-$30! [bonus comment: I could be wrong, but I think the name is pronounced "sea'-sill" (like window "sill")]

26 seconds in I had to comment: ...your makeup? - whew... the eyes and cheeks - the purity of a wood elf - {cue light elvish fantasy music} - you're hiding your pointed ears under that bandana, right?

Not only is this video very informative, but the engagement from our community has also been quite eye-opening. This is part of the reason why I love meeting and engaging with other creatives. Always something to learn. Cheers to all!!

I bought Sounds and Scores a long time ago and it helped me a lot. All the examples in the book came with audio on a number of singles. In fact the song Dreamsville was cut up in different sections, but the whole song was there.

I bought ´´The Study of Orchestration´´. I love that book!!

thanks for the recommendation, maybe do composition techniques books next as I am trying to find some good ones atm

Are you familiar with Peter L. Alexander's "Professional Orchestration" based somewhat on Rimsky-Korsakov's Principles of Orchestration but updated for film? Peter worked with Mancini and later established an online teaching site based in Richmond, VA before passing on a few years ago. I believe his widow is still maintaining the site and selling his multiple books and related learning materials.

Cool! Thanks for sharing. I already own Study of Orchestration. I’ll check out the others. On a similar subject, do you have any online course you’d recommend on film scoring? Thanks

Richard Strauss sounds great, both his music and how a native speaker pronounces his name

Hi there, really love your videos, and share them with my minor kids, until I noticed you saying ‘shit’ and ‘shits’ in 2 videos. Am wondering if you could use others words instead of profanities. Thank you.

You're so cool, always getting directly to the centre of things.

In the USA here, 20 years ago in college I bought Adler 2nd Edition, and I still use it to this day. I bought R-K's "Principles" about 5 years later.

looking at these books like wow it must be so cool to read books on orchestration for college. Wish I studied music in college

Music aside (which is great anyways) you do beautiful and always different make up.

Absolutely fabulous! I mean simply so, because I hadn't seen such a review/comparison before now. Very helpful. Thanks

whoa! love the look!!! u remind me of angel olsen here. <3 <3 <3

Hey, from Australia - love your channel. At the Sydney Con composition course, we had Piston, which I love and I still refer students to to this day. Also, I too like some of your other readers, love Arranged by Nelson Riddle as I've had to do more and more over the years. Thanks so much for the other suggestions - I also will be putting them on my reading list. Big hugs from "downunder".

Fantastic video! Thank you for being so down to earth and completely honest. It feels like I’m meeting you and you’re genuinely telling me about your experiences with each book. Which is SO helpful for a conservatory student like me. Thank you

Hi Anne,
ich selbst spiele Klavier und möchte mich nur als Hobby in die Orchestration mit Cubase einarbeiten. Ich hab das Buch the study of Orchestration 3 edition gebraucht im Internet finden können. Gehört da eine CD dazu, denn eine solche kann ich nicht finden ?
Hättest du noch Ratschläge für mich wie man sich in das Thema einarbeitet ?
Viele Grüsse Christian

Are there also books in german you could recommend? :)

(my english is ok but for this complex topic and terms not good enough :D )

Orchestration - A Practical Handbook by Joseph Wagner. Affordable, logical, simply explained and all in all a good solid addition to your library.

Great video, thanks Anne! You mentioning the Mancini book reminded me of "The Complete Arranger" by Sammy Nestico. It's much more on the jazz/big band side more so than the traditional orchestration like Adler or Piston. But if someone is interested more in the jazzy, Mancini side, it could be a cool one to check out.

One of my favorite yt channels for composition for films and tv. Love your content. thanks for making this video on orchestration books.

As primarily a composer, frankly I don't give a damn about the instruments. So I gravitated more towards books like Korsakov after getting done with Adler. Add to that books like Creative Orchestration (good for textures), Henry Brant, and tons of books on jazz arranging (Nestico, Sebesky, the Berklee set, etc). And ultimately, actual scores and band charts, full and reduced.

Your read on Piston definitely gave me a chuckle. All these years after being introduced to the Professor's books, I still cannot get behind his approach to conveying information.

Would be great to do a similar video about composition books - what in your experience helped you the most along the way

My Korsakov is my definitive read, but thank you for exploring other texts. I will be very keen to read your favorites.

I don't know if others have this problem, but the classical music at the background makes it almost impossible for me to focus in the words