BIBFRAME Work

Title

The complexities of early instrumentation

Type

  • Text
  • Monograph

Contribution

Subject

  • Instrumentation and orchestration--History (LCSH)
  • ML

Language

Illustrative Content

Classification

  • DDC: 781.374
  • LCC: ML455 .J47 2015 (Assigner: dlc) (Status: uba)

Content

Supplementary content

Summary

When a professional orchestra today plays an eighteenth-century work with parts for wind and brass instruments, nothing seems amiss. Yet writers in the eighteenth century and beyond indicate that many notes in these scores could not be played in tune by these instruments; certain notes could be produced only with difficulty or not at all. The present work concentrates on the time period least explored in modern writings - the years before Hector Berlioz's "Grand traité d'instrumentation et d'orchestration modernes" (1843) - and traces the development of instrumentation instruction for composers from its beginnings in the late eighteenth century, after the era of J. S. Bach and G. F. Handel. An introductory chapter includes background information on subjects related to the discussion: intonation, tuning, key action, the lack of a standard pitch level, and the difficulty of reed making. While earlier manuals supply little but the range of instruments, Valentin Roeser's "Essai d'instruction à l'usage de ceux qui composent pour la clarinette et le cor" (1764) offers composers concrete assistance in writing for the clarinet and horn. Louis-Joseph Francoeur's "Diapason général de tous les instrumens à vent" (1772) provides the same for all the winds and brass, as does Othon Vandenbroeck's "Traité général de tous les instrumens à vent à l'usage des compositeurs" (c.1793). This book is not a history of instrumentation per se, but an account of technological progress and ever-increasing knowledge.

Authorized Access Point

Jerold, Beverly, 1938-. The complexities of early instrumentation

Admin Metadata

  • Date: 2026-09-11T20:11:55.794472+00:00
  • Agent: cbc
  • Status: c
  • Derived from: 19164558

Admin Metadata

  • Date: 2026-09-11
  • Cataloger id: Unknown
  • Description level: http://id.loc.gov/ontologies/bibframe-2-6-0/
  • Description language: eng
  • Description authentication: pcc

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