On Sunday, September 16, 2018 at 7:48:00 PM UTC-7,
.@gmail.com wrote:
On Tuesday, December 26, 2017 at 3:49:06 PM UTC-10, Randy Lane wrote:
I might add Rimsky K.
Didn't he write a book on orchestration?:
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/33900/33900-h/33900-h.htm
According to this:
- The instrumentation of his own work, though, is universally praised – including by Rimsky, who never let modesty interfere with self-appraisal. Jean Martinon and the London Symphony play the Capriccio Espagnole (RCA LP cover)In his Principles of
Orchestration treatise, Rimsky emphasized the importance of orchestration as "part of the very soul of the work – a work is thought out in terms of the orchestra, certain tone colors being inseparable from it in the mind of the creator and native to it
from the hour of its birth." He took great offense at critics who praised his Capriccio Espagnole as magnificently orchestrated, insisting instead that it was a brilliant composition for orchestra: "The change of timbres, felicitous choice of melodic
designs and figuration patterns, exactly suiting each kind of instrument, brief virtuoso cadenzas, the rhythm of the percussion instruments, etc., constitute the very essence of the composition and not its garb." Indeed, Rimsky came to view and disparage
other composers from that perspective. Thus, despite his great admiration for Beethoven's "countless leonine leaps of imagination," Rimsky felt that "his technique remains much inferior to his titanic conception." He regarded Haydn as the father of
modern orchestration and dismissed all predecessors as "too old fashioned to be a valuable guide." He even turned on his compatriots: "Deficient technique is the regrettable specialty of the Russian school." Igor Stravinsky, one of his last students,
recalled that Rimsky taught form and orchestration together, as integral parts of a single course of study.
Others came to praise Rimsky's work as a practical textbook of orchestral technique. Rachmaninoff viewed his handling of instrumental sound painting in meteorological terms: "When there is a snowstorm, the flakes seem to dance and drift. When the sun
is high, all instruments shine with an almost fiery glow. When there is water, the waves ripple and splash audibly throughout the orchestra … ; the sound is cool and glassy when he describes a calm winter night with glittering starlit sky." In
Scheherazade, with its varied evocations of human activity amid nature, Rimsky exploited the full scope of his skill with extraordinary balances and textures, providing frequent solos and varying the number of players of a particular instrument. While
Rimsky is considered an exemplar of Russian style, his greatest influence transcended the national music he strove to advance – his imaginative, transparent sonorities were a primary component of the French impressionist sound and can be heard
throughout much of the twentieth century, including Stravinsky's variegated career, ranging from his early ballets through his neoclassical period and beyond.
http://www.classicalnotes.net/classics2/rimsky.html
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)