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Orchestration
by Cecil Forsyth
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Dover Publications (1982-10-01)
ISBN: 0486243834
EAN: 9780486243832
Dewy Decimal #: 785.0284
Paperback: 576 pages
Edition: New edition
SKU: 080205007
Condition: Used: Acceptable
Comments: This copy is in better than acceptable condition. I listed it as same because of the cover. No visible markings, highlights, underlining, tears to text. Tight spine. No Dust Jacket. Soft Cover has about 1/4 inch slit on spine edge. Fold on bottom/top, front/back soft cover. Lots of shelf/edge wear. Overall, apart from cover one can get a lot of usage from this copy, at an affordable price. (L5-17)
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
Probably best general book on the subject. Thorough discussion of 57 instruments, technical aspects of writing for each, much else.
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Customer Reviews
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Dated, but full of knowledge.
Rating  (5)
Date: 2006-11-24
The book is old, however, the information is great. Lots of references to common instruments, as well as more obscure instruments. (You never know when you will be writing for a serpent!) Definatley a great buy for the money.
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A tour of the instruments...but how to combine them?
Rating  (3)
Date: 2006-06-21
5 out of 6 customers found this reveiw helpful
This book is organized as a tour of the many instruments that comprise an orchestra, together with description about how each instrument sounds, and how it might be used. Its primary focus is the instruments, not their arrangement.
My interest was more the latter. I am an amateur, novice composer of short works, working to arrange and orchestrate my own music. I want to understand better when oboes are best used over strings, how strings sections "against" each other are sculpted, when interplay between brass instruments is most appealing, etc.
I respect this man, but his book is not for me.
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Excellent book, slightly misleading title...
Rating (5)
Date: 2006-01-02
3 out of 3 customers found this reveiw helpful
This book is superb, very indepth. I bought it, however, thinking it was going to discuss topics such as instrumental combinations, balance of tone, and other concepts more typically associated with 'orchestration'. It turns out, it deals more with the various characteristics and capabilities of each instrument in the orchestra...EXCELLENTLY! Though it could've been titled 'Instrumentation', it is an essential, valuable book. This may not be the definitive 'orchestration' book your looking for, but buy it anyway - you'll be glad you did!
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Historical interest
Rating (3)
Date: 2005-11-24
5 out of 5 customers found this reveiw helpful
While Forsythe offers a great deal of depth and detail, much of it I found superfluous unless you are a musicologist, and I am a musicologist. But now my primary interest is orchestrating. The author includes too much historical background on the various instruments, such as the evolution of the horn, which you only need to know if you are analyzing Hadyn symphonies. If you are orchestrating a new symphony, you need to know current instrumental capabilities and practices, and the Forsythe book is now nearly 100 years old. Most of his information remains valid, but how will you know what isn't?
I read this and a few other classics (Berlioz/Strauss, Rimsky, Piston) -- all of which are worthwhile -- before getting some coaching from a composition professor, who recognized that I needed a newer text. He recommended Adler or Kennan. So I bought the fourth edition of Kennan's orchestration book, a good place to start. Continue later with Forsythe and the others once you've acquired the up-to-date basics.
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Delightful as it is useful
Rating (5)
Date: 2003-02-19
Like most Dover books, this British text is a reprint of a highly esteemed publication that went out of print for reasons having more to do with capitalism than science. Published between the world wars, it is obviously has no information on the way cool toys of the last few decades, but it is as thorough and practical a treatment as can be found in any language for most of the instruments (other than percussion oddities) in the European musical tradition, and certainly compares favorably with most of the standard textbooks peddled by needy American college professors. In addition, Forsyth can be droll, as for example when he reports that Berlioz observes "ominously" that the best notes on the little known Russian bassoon are said to be D and E-flat.
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